BSOD stuck in video memory?

[evilsaint]

I'll Cliff's this for ya from the start :

Installed new Sapphire 1900XT 512MB from Newegg.
Installed drivers from CD, no problems.
Re-installed ATiTool (was using a 7900GT previously).
Didn't recognize card, but set core/mem to artifacting overclock, and reduced %10.
Blue-screened during second benchmark; reduced back to factory speeds.
Every startup, new multiple flashing to blank-screens and (green) BSOD start happening.
No BSOD's anymore, but benchmarks won't finish, and prolonged gaming causes freezes.


So, do I RMA the card to NewEgg and order a new one in the meantime on Monday, or do I try different drivers than the ones provided on the CD, or something else? Any thoughts or suggestions are very welcome; after getting one of the bad batch of eVGA 7900GT's and inadvertently having my 1900XT kill itself in less than three hours, i'm ready to go back to AGP 0.o

BTW, the green BSOD comes up after the XP loading screen comes up, but before the login screen pops. It's not an actual BSOD, but rather seems to be a duplicate of the same BSOD that I had that's stuck in the video-cards memory somehow...

 

[sisq0kidd]

I'm quite a bit confused by your post. Did you overclock the card yourself or is it set to auto overclock?

And you said it gave you a BSOD, but it doesn't anymore, but your last sentence says it does it again?

If your games are freezing, it could be a temperature problem with the core itself. Or the core can't handle the clocks. If it's artifacting, I'd say it's more of a memory issue. You should have just ran it stock first at least.

And I don't think this is the best place for you to come saying that you overclocked your card and are now trying to RMA it. I personally don't like to get into peoples' business, but I'm just giving you a fair warning that others might mind more than I do.

Try the card in another computer?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Did you nuke the old drivers, run drivercleaner, then install? Also, overclocking OOB=Lamont! You big dummy! Always stability test at least a few days before doing anything. It helps narrow down issues, and ensures OCing wasn't responsible.

 

[evilsaint]

First off, I ran 3DMark2001, '03, 05', '06, and Aquamark OOB without any problems whatsoever. Great scores too =D Then I slowly but surely raised the OC in 4Mhz increments to where it started to find artifacts for the mem, set the mem back to stock, found artifacts with the core, and set the mem back to it's max and the core to it's max minus ~%10.

Sorry for the confusing original post and my general lack of grammar; i'm was and still am a bit tipsy. In terms of the blue screen sticking, it's still sort of there, but not as an actual error. After the XP loading screen with the little thing running back and forth, but before the login screen, it flashes black for a second, while it's initializing the card or whatever. Where it used to flash black, it now flashes a corrupted version (green + random visual white noise) of that exact same blue-screen, like it's stuck in the VRAM or something...

And I know it's sort of bogus to OC and possibly RMA right off the bat, but the card was set much lower than stock speeds OOB anyways (by a *very* significant margin), and even though NewEgg labeled it as a new retail item, the Sapphire sticker on the box was already broken when I pulled it out of the NE packaging... not very NewEgg like at all

 

[JBT]

That screen corruption before loading windows sounds like what I belive was a VERY common bug with the Cat 6.4's. (happend to me along with everyother person with a x1900xt/x) which is more than likely what came with the driver CD. I would def check out the newer drivers.

Also FYI I heave heard plenty of times newegg opening videocard/mobo's packaging before.

 

[evilsaint]

Hrm... I *did* install the drivers that came with the card (even though I know it's a big no-no)... any drivers that you would suggest trying? I can't stand the brand new ones (6.8, or whenever the screwed up the CCC even worse).

 

[postmortemIA]

wise people don't waste their time and go directly to reinstall windows after swapping one card for another of different chip maker.

 

[Ackmed]

There is zero reason to RMA, if the card works fine at default speeds. You are not guaranteed any overclocking.

How does the 6.8's screw up CCC worse than 6.4's? Newer drivers are almost alway better for fixing bugs. Uninstall old drivers, clean them all out, install the 6.8's.

 

[Worthington]

A re-install just because you swapped video vendors? That seems a bit harsh. I've never had to. Removing the old drivers, booting into safe mode and running driver cleaner then installing the new card and going from there has always worked just fine for me.

 

[evilsaint]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
wise people don't waste their time and go directly to reinstall windows after swapping one card for another of different chip maker.

A fresh install of XP didn't stop my last card from rendering my rig pretty much FUBAR... GoGo nVidia driver conflict ftl

And Ackmed, I think I may be thinking of the newest nVidia drivers being wonky; I guess I will try out the 6.8's.