BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra OC AGP issues

[Laron]

I did a search before posting, found something similiar but not exactly the same.

Before i try all the things in that post, I am just wondering if anyone has any ideas about this problem.

CPU : Athlon 4000+ 64
MB : Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939
PSU : ThermalTech 480 ( never go over 210 or so though)
VIDEO : BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra OC AGP
RAM : 2GB Corsair Twinx DDR PC4400 550mhz
HD : Western Digital SATA 74G 10Krpm running OS, swap file and all apps and games on two partitions + two older hard drives for storage.

OS : Windows XP Pro, new install done about three weeks before i installed the card, was very fast and stable during that 3 week period.
Direct X : 9.1c? latest one...

I have overclocked nothing, but note that the video card and ram come as overclocked which could be an issue??. Before I installed the BFG, I was running on an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro. Everything was fine and stable for those three weeks since installed XP on the new drive.

I installed the BFG. I had lots of problems getting the drivers installed. Even with the latest versions. I would restart and restart and it wouldn't let me change resolution settings and it wouldn't list the monitor and card in display properties... Eventually, the fix seemed to be to change the two power supply cables so they were not coming from the same line. (like the manual instructs..doh)

These current problems happen which ever driver I use, the one from the BFG CD, the current latest driver from nvidia and the modified driver from the Battlefield 2 demo.

*-After turning the computer on and sitting on the desktop for a few minutes, after opening a few apps, the system freezes... seconds... screen turns off... more seconds.. restart required

*-Same situation as above... but instead of the screen turning off, a blue screen comes up saying theres a problem with the nvid4 device/thing... i didn't note the exact error message but it means the video card or driver. restart required

*-When playing Battlefield 2 demo and also Doom 3, from time to time the screen freezes, the sound loops for a number of seconds and then it comes back. no restart required

*-Same situation as above, however I get a complete freeze and I have to restart.. also it's possible in this situation that i get the first problems mentionioned, but i can't remember as it was a while ago.

I emailed BFG Tech, they sent a generic email back about checking settings in the BIOS... I only found one of the settings in the BIOS even though there were a lot of things that needed to be checked. So that didn't help at all. The card has a lifetime warranty but I have a feeling it might not be the card thats the problem.

Any help would be much appreciated , such as links to other information about this problem.. or stuff to try, etc.

And sorry if I mist a post with this issue already.

I am not ready for another fresh install of XP. And I don't have another computer to test the card in at this time. I spent a bit of money on this sytem and would love to get it working right!

 

[dmcowen674]

PSU : ThermalTech 480 ( never go over 210 or so though)
RAM : 2GB Corsair Twinx DDR PC4400 550mhz

Interesting 1st post.

Sounds like a Memory timing problem and not related to the Video card.

Try one 1 gig memory stick at conservative settings and see how it does.

 

[Laron]

Theres 4x 512 in there, I took two 512's out. I didn't change any settings on the ram as I never have.

So, tried it with 1GB, problem is still there.

Perhaps I should take the gig out and put the others ones back in and test them?

The system was stable before I put the card in, I don't see how the RAM could be effecting things.

The exact name n the blue screen is 'nv4_displ' caused the problem.

To me it seems like the card is overheating. Or theres a power issue but this is a new card and I expect it to run fine. I can't see how there could be a power problem since theres so much not being used on the PSU.

 

[Laron]

I'm going to try a format when I get around to it... I just set up the system not long and was dreading doing it again so soon!

 

[Ike0069]

The BFG 6800 line has had alot of problems with this exact issue.
Monarch has pulled its stock because of it.
So I'm guessing it's your VC and you need to RMA it.

 

[Laron]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
So I'm guessing it's your VC and you need to RMA it.

Can you or someone else explain VC and RMA.

 

[GothBloth]

There is an incompatiblity between the Nforce 3 chipset and Geforce 6800 series videocard. I have a brand name PSU TTGI Superflower 550W 30A 12v rail
I have to dedicated power leads for the video card and also did a fresh install of Windows XP.
I have a BFG 6800 Ultra and it ran fine on my old system that had nforce 2 chipset. Upgraded to a Athlon 64 3500+ with a Gigabyte k8ns ultra mobo.
I started to experience the same lockups in WoW and farcry were the game would play a while then freeze for about 10 secs with the sound card causing a stuttering sound. I have done alot of research on the issue have found out it's and incompatibilty between the the geforce 6800 series cards and the Nforce 3 chipset. if you disable Fastwrites in the Bios it will greatly reduce the occurrence of the lockups but they will still occur just at the rate of 1 an hour. The best fix for this problem is to either throw away your Nforce 3 motherboard and replace it with a motherboard with a VIA chipset, or sell your geforce 6 series card and replace it with an ATI video card.

forum thread on people with the 6800 and Nforce 3 combo having the same problem and the problem isn't going to be fixed it has been around for over an year and Nvidia hasn't been able to fix it

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=32759

 

[Agamar]

I was able to disable fast writes in my bios, and that fixed my lockups for good. I haven't had a single game crash since then. I ran that way for 4 months. I recently reformatted and reloaded XP, and still, no problems. All I really play since the reload is Warhammer 40k though. Before I played Doom 3, Half Life 2, and a few other titles.