GeForce 6600 GT problem with 3D

[RoamDog]

System:
DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D
GeForce 6600 GT 128 PCIe
Windows XP
1GB ram
AMD Athlon 3000+
Dell 1905 FP (flat panel monitor)
500W power supply
Jumbo 120mm fan to keep things cool

I have not over-clocked anything.

2D (operating system, MS Excel, IE, etc.) works flawlessly. 3D does not work at all. I get the flickering-black-triangles syndrome (not sure what the technical term is).

I just downloaded and installed the latest drivers for the mobo and the video card. Still, 3D does not work. I cannot even get the most-basic Microsoft-supplied 3D screen savers to work unless I disable hardware 3D rendering (at which point the screen saver will work).

There is nothing running other than the OS and Norton (even turned Norton off temporarily). I tried completely turning off Anti-Aliasing and Antistropic Filtering. Also disabled tri-linear filtering. There is only one refresh rate option available -- so that is set to 60 Hz. Still not even the 3D screen saver will work. Also, checked GoogleEarth (just in case the MS Screen Savers were bad) and GoogleEarth also does not work. Nor does any game.

Clearly, this is not a top-of-the-line monster rig; however, it should have more than enough firepower to run a 3D screen saver with nothing else running. So, what am I doing wrong? What setting do i need to change? How can I fix this? Please help. My daughter is not at all pleased.

 

[A554SS1N]

It might be overheating? Try checking the temperatures either in the NVidia Control Panel, or by using an application called RivaTuner, available from Guru3D.com.

 

[RoamDog]

It is registering 49 degrees. Which seems to be about the midpoint of the green zone shown in the nVidia Control panel. It mentions 127 degrees as the point where some kinda slowdown occurs. And while that seems kinda high to me, I was thinking that I was good to at least 70 degrees. So, I do not think that it is a heat issue. But please let me know if that is wrong thinking.

Originally posted by: A554SS1N
It might be overheating? Try checking the temperatures either in the NVidia Control Panel, or by using an application called RivaTuner, available from Guru3D.com.

 

[Stumps]

sounds like you GF card might be dying....if you can grap something similar and try it our...if it works then your card is the problem.

 

[Modular]

Might want to try the 84.21 drivers before anything else. They are "arguably" the best 6-series drivers out there.

Also, your card will be fine with temps over 100c, but really should not get close to that. The highest my Leadtek 6600gt ever read was 91c. After seeing that I installed a Zalman VF-700 AlCu cooler and I never see temps above 65c even when overclocking.