HELP! 6600GT with MAJOR problems (RP)

[SHK1024]

System specs:
Asus NForce4 A8NSLI-Deluxe Mobo
Athlon 64 3500+
Asus 6600GT 128MB PCI-e Video card (just one, running in non-sli mode)
1GB Kingston DDR3200 (2 dimms)
160GB HD
Windows XP Pro-SP2
17" KDS CRT
Everything spec, nothing overclocked
Temperatures are fine, 1CPU fan, 1 mobo fan, 1 Graphics card fan, 1 PSU fan, 1 Case fan

What works:
Dxdiag Direct Draw (2D) works fine
Some basic games i assume do not require 3D acceleration runs fine
Basic computer functionality is fine (word processing, chatting, internet)

What doesn't:
Doom 3 and Spellforce (massive polygon flickering... hard to describe it other than constant black polygon flickering across the screen, depending on where i look, it changes)
.avi and .ogm video files. They play... sorta... the sound comes out, the display either locks into one of the initial images and flickers, or just shows garbage. Tried WM player and VLC Media Player, same result. Sometimes the video feed (sounds works) will pause causing the entire computer to freeze up (except the cursor) and then after 30 seconds reset.
Direct 3D (through DXdiag), the "spinning cube" flickers randomly and only looks vagueling like what it should (somewhat looks like it's spinning ultra ultra fast, or it's not really spinning at all and it just flickers, depends on how you look at it)
During use (haven?t noticed it not during active use) average 15 minutes (with shortest being 30 seconds and longest being 30 minutes) the computer will freeze completely for 5-10 seconds, the monitor will flash (as if changing resolutions) and then come back to normal. This is not just a display glitch because during the ?freeze out? the performance graph in the task manager does not update.

Here's the situation. Built the computer back in February. Worked fine for a couple months. Then one day, come back, display is black, computer running, can't get it to come back. Restart computer, get "system failed VGA test" boot error, so it doesn't boot. RMA the 6600GT and get a new one back. Install it, runs fine. Run some video files i moved off my laptop, they work fine, then suddenly around the 10th file or so (.avi) the video suddenly scrambles and hasn't worked since. Ignored it for the time being, tried to play some DOOM3, and it's got problems. That's when i realize something's up. Tried other things, troubleshooting, didn't work.

What i've tried:
installed new detonator drivers from nvidia website
installed omega drivers to see if those work
tried to update DirectX 9.0c (but i already had it, so it didn't change anything)
changed resolutions and game settings
Wanted to update my BIOS, but no floppy drive and not entirely sure how to do it otherwise
Yelled loudly and beat my desk a few times

Help??!?!?!?

 

[SHK1024]

*cough* help =)

 

[SHK1024]

not so subtle *bump*

 

[SHK1024]

desperate, one last bumpity

 

[JokerRulez]

It appears that noone knows about problems of this sort.

I have a similar issue I described in response to someone else with a similar issue HERE but noone responded. The only ideas I've found were given elsewhere from much scouring of the net with help from Google.

My only guess remaining is potential failure of a memory stick. I'm troubleshooting that angle tonight now that family has gone home and we have our house back.

About your desire to update your bios. The ASUS system for doing that is very easy and described in full within the user manual that came with your card. If you can't find the book you can download it from the net (assuming ASUS isn't updating their website again like the last two weekends). You WILL need a floppy drive but those are so cheap anyway don't let it stop you. $10, $15 at most. Using afudos.exe, keep the /i switch but not the /o switch.

Good luck. I'd be interested to know what you find.

Joker

 

[Diogenes2]

Oops... Never mind.

 

[clarkmo]

6600GT HOW TO MAKE IT WORK RIGHT, HOT TOPIC: old rig - still successful
Setting agp aperture to 256mb worked for me. I don't know what that setting would be for pci-e.
You don't mention your psu in your specs and that is prime info to include when asking for help on a power hungry video card.

 

[nRollo]

Do you have a friend with a PCIE computer that you could put your 6600GT in? It would be nice to know if it's the card or something else for sure.

Drivers: don't use any beta drivers. I had some real problems with them- grab whatever is WHQL on nVs site and use that after you've cleaned out the others.

 

[SHK1024]

Thought i did mention my PSU, but it's 450W. Went out and bought a PNY 6600GT, threw it in, works like a charm. My only thought is i have to RMA the Asus one, thanks for the help guys. Thanks for the link clark, i'll read through that.