Constant crashing on games

[Skurge]

So I upgraded my system from an old E6600 to the rig in my sig.

The 6870 worked perfectly well in the old system, but as soon as I moved it over I couldn't games would lock up and crash almost immediatly.

Dirt 3, it would lock up within minutes of entering the game, sometimes even in the menu.

Starcraft 2, the display would just go black and my monitor says "no signal". Sometimes the game would hang. If I ctrl-alt-delete to the desktop. I can go back into the game, but it would do the same thing a few minutes later.

PCSX2 (PS2 emulator), it would do the same thing as dirt3.

I ran furmark for 30mins. Temps never went over 76c and I had no issue. After that I fired up Call of Duty 4 and played a few levels with no issues. After that I tried SC2 again this time it lasted a lot longer, but eventually the display goes black and I get no signal.

OCCT also get no errors.

I Tried 11.10 (The driver I used with my previous system that worked fine) and 11.11. It still get the same issue.

 

[Termie]

That's a letdown for sure. I know you were considering that upgrade for a while.

First question: Did you do a fresh install of W7 when you upgraded the CPU/MB? If not, I think that's your first step.

Second question: have you tried playing a game on the built-in video? It should be able to run COD4. This would just be to test the CPU/memory subsystem.

Third: could there be a conflict between the Intel graphics and the HD6870? I've never used an SB system, but perhaps there's something you missed in the setup (especially if you didn't do a fresh install).

Fourth, do you have another PCIe graphics card laying around that you could try, to make sure the 6870 is not damaged?

 

[Skurge]

That's a letdown for sure. I know you were considering that upgrade for a while.

First question: Did you do a fresh install of W7 when you upgraded the CPU/MB? If not, I think that's your first step.

Second question: have you tried playing a game on the built-in video? It should be able to run COD4. This would just be to test the CPU/memory subsystem.

Third: could there be a conflict between the Intel graphics and the HD6870? I've never used an SB system, but perhaps there's something you missed in the setup (especially if you didn't do a fresh install).

Fourth, do you have another PCIe graphics card laying around that you could try, to make sure the 6870 is not damaged?

Yeah I did a fresh install of windows. I have an old X600. Going to try that now then the onboard graphics. Not sure what I can run on the X600

Right now I'm testing it in the Second PCI-E slot.

 

[Skurge]

Looks like the 6870 might be damaged. Built in video works fine and so does the X600.

I'll try the 6870 one more time.

 

[busydude]

What about your PSU?

IIRC, the card automatically throttles to both Furmark and OCCT.

 

[Termie]

What about your PSU?

IIRC, the card automatically throttles to both Furmark and OCCT.

Well, remember that the 6870 worked in his old system, and frankly, his new CPU/MB should be using less power, not more. It may have been damaged during the upgrade, however, or perhaps the OP is using the wrong plugs/adapters to feed into the two PCIe power connectors on the 6870. A possibility, but I don't think this is the most likely case.

Skurge, can you give us details on your PSU?

 

[Skurge]

Well, remember that the 6870 worked in his old system, and frankly, his new CPU/MB should be using less power, not more. It may have been damaged during the upgrade, however, or perhaps the OP is using the wrong plugs/adapters to feed into the two PCIe power connectors on the 6870. A possibility, but I don't think this is the most likely case.

Skurge, can you give us details on your PSU?

http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-500w-stealthxstream-power-supply-eol.html

This is the PSU I have.

 

[Termie]

http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-500w-stealthxstream-power-supply-eol.html

This is the PSU I have.

That PSU should handle the 6870, and clearly it was working before the CPU upgrade.

According to this, your PSU only has one PCIe plug: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341012

You'll need to be careful about how you connect molex adapters to it, due to the dual rail design. It's possible that you are loading one rail too heavily, which would be the case where both the CPU and GPU are stressed, i.e., in a game, not furmark.

You may want to post a question in the PSU forum about that if you rule out other issues.

 

[Skurge]

After looking at the technical Diagram. ONLY the CPU gets to use the +12V1. Everything runs off +12V2 including all the molex connectors.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/drivers/OCZ-500-SXS.pdf

Still doesn't explain why it worked before.

It's late now. I'm gonna take the PC to work tomorrow where I have another PC to test the card in.

 

[notty22]

It may have worked before, because the old cpu could not/ was not , driving the video card to it's limit. Now you are probably getting near 100% gpu , usage in games, which stresses the psu and memory subsystem more. With more data passing through the sub-systems faster than before.
Try setting your memory at 1066 or loosening up the timings up a notch.
A more powerful video card can expose numerous things.
I know it's the same video card, but it was not pushed the same with the old cpu.
So that leaves memory, psu and possible bad video card still. But more testing ideas.

 

[Skurge]

It may have worked before, because the old cpu could not/ was not , driving the video card to it's limit. Now you are probably getting near 100% gpu , usage in games, which stresses the psu and memory subsystem more. With more data passing through the sub-systems faster than before.
Try setting your memory at 1066 or loosening up the timings up a notch.
A more powerful video card can expose numerous things.
I know it's the same video card, but it was not pushed the same with the old cpu.
So that leaves memory, psu and possible bad video card still. But more testing ideas.

Thanks.

I'll do some testing at work and report back.

 

[Skurge]

So It looks like it's the ram.

 

[Termie]

So It looks like it's the ram.

Interesting - I actually had that happen when I upgraded from an HD4670 to a GTX460 in my HTPC. The computer wouldn't boot and of course I thought it was the new graphics card. But I dropped timings/frequency to default and suddenly it worked.

Are you saying yours doesn't work at 1333, the rated speed? If so, that's disappointing, but not the end of the world. If it doesn't work at any speed, then obviously you need to return it, but given that you figured out it was the ram, I assume you got it to work at a different setting.

 

[Skurge]

Interesting - I actually had that happen when I upgraded from an HD4670 to a GTX460 in my HTPC. The computer wouldn't boot and of course I thought it was the new graphics card. But I dropped timings/frequency to default and suddenly it worked.

Are you saying yours doesn't work at 1333, the rated speed? If so, that's disappointing, but not the end of the world. If it doesn't work at any speed, then obviously you need to return it, but given that you figured out it was the ram, I assume you got it to work at a different setting.

One of the modules was working fine, the other would show the symptoms. I didn't try it at other settings. I just had the ram replaced and now it's running beautifully.

It's strange that RAM would manifest symptoms like that.

Now I can start playing Skyrim, BF3 and Dirt 3

 

[Termie]

One of the modules was working fine, the other would show the symptoms. I didn't try it at other settings. I just had the ram replaced and now it's running beautifully.

It's strange that RAM would manifest symptoms like that.

Now I can start playing Skyrim, BF3 and Dirt 3

That is great news. Yes, I've found ram to be the most difficult component to understand in a computer. Problems can appear quite unexpectedly as you change other components and settings. For instance, I had 2x2GB with 2x4GB working perfectly in my computer, but when I bought a new 5850 for crossfire, the computer wouldn't boot. I spent many hours frantically trying to fix my new 5850. But then I thought to take out the 2x2GB sticks (since I'd had memory problems on VGA installs before), and the computer (and crossfire) have been working perfectly ever since. I was tempted to buy another 2x4GB during the Black Friday sales, but I was afraid of running into new and unwanted problems, so I skipped it. Don't need it anyway.

You will have a good time playing BF3 on your new rig. I think you should be able play at 40-45fps on high settings.