BSOD after PNY geforce 6800 ultra install

[aceofsnett]

Ok, so I recently installed a pny geforce 6800 ultra in my computer (Athlon 2 ghz+, Asus A7n8x mobo, 512 mb ddr, 60 gb harddrive, antec 500 watt power supply). Now whenever I play HL2, or anything else, I get a BSOD with the message 'Kernel Stack fault' or some such thing after a short period of time. I am familiar with the Infinite loop problems with these cards, but this does not seem to be that error. I tried disabling all the recommended settings in the bios, soft clocking the card back to 300 mhz, setting the fan to always on, etc. No other pci cards are present in my computer. I should also mention this is a fresh installation of xp sp2, and prior to the pny install, my msi geforce 4 ti-4800 worked perfectly, so obviously this issue is related to the card. Someone please offer a suggestion - I am leaning toward either my unaccelerated onboard sound as the culprit, or perhaps low voltage for the card. I ALSO should add that the card idles @ 65-67 degrees celsius at all times, even with multiple fans blowing directly on it.

 

[CALIKUSH]

What drivers are you using? And have you tried rearranging your power rails?

 

[n7]

I would try alternate drivers, since nVidia seems to be taking the lead in driver bugginess

Nah, seriously, see if the older or some newer leaked ones work better.

 

[Justin343563611]

yeah i kept getting bsods with my 6600gt on 66.93 drivers, after i got the latest whql set though , all my problems went away.

 

[aceofsnett]

Well, I am using the latest detonator drivers, but I'm leaning more toward a hardware problem here, as my BSOD sometimes occurs during normal windows use (not gaming) with a disk.sys error. And after that, the harddrive cannot be found. Could this be a lack of power?

 

[Actaeon]

I'm positive a 500W Antec is more than sufficient for your system. I am using an Antec TruePower 430W with a system similar to yours. A 2.2ghz Barton, NF7-S, 1gb ram, 160GB HDD, 25GB HDD, and a 6800 Ultra, and my system is very stable.

Wether or not the card/HDD receives enough power is a completely different story, but your 500W Antec is more than capable for almost any system.

However, I will mention that 65-67C Idle is very hot for idling. I idle around 48-52C, and while gaming, it jumps to the low 70s. This was all done with the fan speed controled at a fixed rate of 50%, lowest the software lets me go. Although I am on a modded bios which lowers idle voltage, on the stock bios, it was between 50-53C. Heck, my old BFG 6800GT idled at 60C, and it had the supposedly crappy twin fan copper cooler. The 6800 Ultra reference heatsink is actually pretty good.

 

[daveybrat]

Stack fault errors and disk.sys errors don't sound video card related to me. I think it's coincidence that you are having these errors with that new card.

sounds more like your hard drive is going bad to me. Check it with the manufacturer's diagnostics to see.

Also make sure the video card is connected to the power supply on it's own power cord, not sharing with the hard drive or other devices.

 

[aceofsnett]

Well I soft clocked the card all the way down to 200 mhz, which didn't seem to help, although the idle temp (and performance) did drop significantly. I will add that although the card idles very hot, it doesn't rise more than 5 degrees under full load, including HL2 and during the complete test in the demo version of a prominent performance testing program. So I guess I'll be sticking my multimeter on the lead I'm using for the video card to make sure its got full power, and than verifying I stuck it on its own lead. If so, and It still crashes, I will be replacing my harddrive. Thank you all for your help.

 

[Stangs55]

i have a pny 6800 ultra as well and i've just come to accept BSOD as a part of my gaming...

note to self: never buy pny again

 

[nebuchanezzar]

Do you have SP2? There is a known bug with nVidias 6xxx series and SP2 if using any driver after.....uhh 71.20 I think. read http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=148297 that thread for some more info.

 

[imported_g33k]

Maybe the card is defective. When my leadtek 6800gt first came in, it would BSOD right out of the box. I got an RMA and the new card has been working like its supposed to.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: Stangs55
never buy pny again

You figured it out.

PNY is trash.

 

[DaveBC]

Originally posted by: aceofsnett
Well, I am using the latest detonator drivers, but I'm leaning more toward a hardware problem here, as my BSOD sometimes occurs during normal windows use (not gaming) with a disk.sys error. And after that, the harddrive cannot be found. Could this be a lack of power?

Wifey's puter is an A7N8X too. The disk.sys error happned to hers too. Try Installing the latest Nforce platform drivers 5.10 the newer ide driver stopped hers from doing that. AGP driver might help your other probs too.