Dead 8800gt?

[abbadaba]

I need some help diagnosing a problem with my eVGA 8800GT dual slot videocard. The first symptoms were a few random crashes/lockups while playing SC2. Now I am getting a BSOD referencing nvlddmkm.sys when booting into Windows 7. Safe mode worked fine, and so long as I uninstall the graphics drivers I can boot normally (minus of course aero or anything that needs a graphics card). If I install the drivers I get the BSOD when i reboot. I'm also getting red dots in my BIOS screen, which is making me lean towards a hardware problem like faulty video ram however there are no artifacts or stability problems in windows. So far I have tried updating drivers for everything, including motherboard drivers and BIOS. I have tried old drivers and new drivers for the videocard. I have tried using driver cleaner utilities. I have cleaned dust out of my case and out of the graphics card. Temps for the graphics card never got over about 80C - high but well within the limits for a G92 core. So do I need a new gfx card or should I give reformatting a try?

 

[Termie]

Screen corruption in the bios suggests that this is a hardware failure as you surmised, not a software/windows/driver issue. Have you seen this thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2093991? Your card may have been affected by this problem with SC2.

 

[abbadaba]

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I am aware of the SC2 issues. I checked my temps with rivatuner during gameplay and it wasnt anything scary. However it is possible i may have damaged my card during the title screen during which i did not monitor temps. Anyway, I know the BIOS red dots are indicative of bad news but if my video ram is fried shouldn't I notice some artifacts or corruption in windows? does windows somehow bypass my gpu when its in safe mode or when no video drivers are loaded?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Got any muffin mix? Might be time to do some baking.

 

[abbadaba]

Got any muffin mix? Might be time to do some baking.

I have pilsbury brownie mix, will that work? I read about people baking faulty g92 boards with some success but my fiance might have me committed if she caught me baking a PCB in the oven.

 

[tweakboy]

Try this to fix it perhaps.

Boot into safe mode and run driver cleaner and check nvidia and clean. Then reboot back into normal mode and install the latest WHQL found @ nvidia site. Then use riva tuner and make sure the fan speed is at 100 when gaming. If you still get problems, then the card is faulty and probably will die soon. Have a proper burial for it. God Bless your card and you and to all my members. Thank you gg

 

[abbadaba]

After tinkering for a few more hours I gave up and bought a new card. Newegg has a sapphire 4850 512 with gddr5 ram for only 71 dollars after a 10% coupon code and mail in rebate. At least a few notches up from my defunct 8800gt, it'll be interesting to see how much the ddr5 memory helps.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102901

 

[Termie]

After tinkering for a few more hours I gave up and bought a new card. Newegg has a sapphire 4850 512 with gddr5 ram for only 71 dollars after a 10% coupon code and mail in rebate. At least a few notches up from my defunct 8800gt, it'll be interesting to see how much the ddr5 memory helps.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102901

Probably the right move. Interesting pick of video cards. Hadn't seen these come on the market. That card should be exactly 83% of the performance of a 4870 512MB card: 625/750 = 83% (clock speed ratio), 3000/3600 = 83% (memory speed ratio). Looks like Sapphire was very deliberate about that. If you can overclock it, it will be even closer to a 4870. I assume that memory has some headroom, at least.

Edit: These old benches should give you an indication of how much performance you'll pick up with your new card: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2556/13. Interestingly, in many of the benches, the 4850 was already 83% as fast as the 4870. These were probably GPU-limited, rather than memory-limited, so the DDR5 will only help in the latter cases (high resolution, high AA).

 

[Campy]

I had a 8800 Ultra die on me 3 days back. Well not exactly die, I experienced almost exactly the same thing as you except i got the nv4_disp error. I also got some dots during startup, and complete video failure after just a couple of minutes gaming something as non-graphics intensive as football manager 2010.
XFX only have a 2 year(shit) warranty in europe so I'm getting a 5850 now.

 

[abbadaba]

Yeah, I think sticking gddr5 on a 4850 could just be a gimmick or maybe sapphire ordered too many gddr5 chips and is just dumping them. But in either case it will be at least as good as a stock 4850 and it was the cheapest 4850 on newegg. Maybe i'll post a benchmark or two when i get it.

I've had a Sapphire brand 9600pro card for um... 5 years? 6? the fan on the heatsink broke 2 years ago and its still running WoW every day. Hopefully my new card will be as reliable.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

They could just be HD4870s downclocked.

 

[abbadaba]

I had a 8800 Ultra die on me 3 days back. Well not exactly die, I experienced almost exactly the same thing as you except i got the nv4_disp error. I also got some dots during startup, and complete video failure after just a couple of minutes gaming something as non-graphics intensive as football manager 2010.
XFX only have a 2 year(shit) warranty in europe so I'm getting a 5850 now.

The sad thing for me is evga would've bumped the warranty from 1 year to a 3 year if I had registered my card. If I had paid attention to the fine print I could've RMA'd it and gotten a free refurb.

 

[Termie]

They could just be HD4870s downclocked.

Don't think so. The 4870s had two PCIe power plugs, while this Sapphire 4850 GDDR5 only has one. The PCB is also much shorter.

 

[Campy]

The sad thing for me is evga would've bumped the warranty from 1 year to a 3 year if I had registered my card. If I had paid attention to the fine print I could've RMA'd it and gotten a free refurb.

That sucks man, it seems pretty shifty how these manufacturers want us to register all our hardware.
The reason for my problem is that i bought the card from a retailer that went bankrupt not too long after my purchase, and so I couldn't make use of the 5 year "guarantee" we have in Norway by law. The card I'm getting now I'm gonna buy from a big/stable retailer.

 

[lavaheadache]

i would love to get my hand on the card to try baking it

 

[Campy]

I might actually try baking mine. There's no way i'll get anything through warranties etc. anyway, and it's basically baking it or having to use a x850(yes, that 6 year old ATI card) until my 5850 gets here.

 

[abbadaba]

You guys are starting to convince me to try baking it. Even though I've already got a replacement on the way my brother in law could use it, he's still using an 8600GT - on a high native res monitor, scary.

In other news the 4850 with gddr5 memory is already sold out from Newegg, less than 24 hours after I ordered mine. Guess I was right on time, hopefully I'll have it by this weekend.