Leadtek 6600gt Underpowered or Motherboard Damaged?

[Johuuy]

Hi,

I'm having some problems with my a8n-sli deluxe and single Leadtek px6600gt. I am currently using a 350 watt psu and have an Athena 500 watt on the way:

Athena 500 watt psu

I know I am underpowered but while replacing the stock chipset cooler with a Zalman NB47J, I scratched 3 pathways near the chipset :Q, after examining with a 5x magnifier it appeared they *might* still be connected. So I decided to try installing software and if there was a problem I would attempt a repair with silver conductive paint. Anyway, everything runs great except for some problems with graphics corruption in games:

Every game has displayed issues except C&C:RA2...strange?

What do you think? Do the above pictures look like a power supply issue, a driver or card problem, or something related to my possibly damaged motherboard.

Any comments greatly appreciated

Thanks!

Asus a8n-delux bios 1003 (I've tried them all)
Leadtek 6600gt pci express
athlon 3000
1 gig mem
350 watt psu (not for long)
zalman chipset heatsink cooled by overhead fan
GPU temps never over 65
cpu/mb never over 50

 

[Johuuy]

*bump*

 

[Gentle]

Driver version?

Gentle

 

[kmmatney]

Well, you should test things one at a time. Cutting off lines near the chipset would cause more serious problems than video corruption, so my guess is that your motherboard is OK. I would throw in another video card to confirm this.

You can also enable coolbits, and underclock the card in 3D. This might help, but still wouldn't tell you if the card is bad, or underpowered.

I think you'll just have to wait until the new PSU comes in, before you can make any more conclusions. I found driver version 67.66 to be the most stable with my 6600GT, so if you want something to do until the PSU comes, try out different driver versions (using something like DetonatorRIP to get rid of old driver files).

 

[Johuuy]

Yep,

I'm currently running xg 75.90 with the same problems as 67.66. Absolutely no difference. I was wondering if underclocking would lower the power requirement so I could tell if the psu was the issue or not...it doesn't seem like it will make much of a difference tho. I did try underclocking using Nvidia's software but it wouldn't let me increase or decrease clock values..it would say that it failed the test? I was kind of hoping that if the graphics problems were unique enough, someone might be able to narrow it down to the mb, card, or psu....but it sounds like this behavior could be associated with more than one thing. So, I'll just wait it out till that beautiful monstrosity of a power supply arrives 😀 At least command and conquer plays perfectly :thumbsup:

Thanks for the help everyone :beer:

 

[Johuuy]

--UPDATE--

OMG..lol. Well, I just installed the 500w psu...and the video problem persists. No change at all. So, process of elimination, we are down to 2 possibilities...A. motherboard is damaged and I'm going to have to buy some silver conductive paint. B.video card is defective & Zipzoomfly only offers a replacement for defective units except right now they are out of stock!! I know what I need to do is test the pci-express slot with another video card to see if a similar problem arises; but, alas, I do not have another card. And does it make any sense that command and conquer RA2 would run perfectly? Any ideas?

Argh! 🙁

..also, I've added a couple more screenshots of the problem:

graphics corruption pics




Asus a8n-delux bios 1003 (I've tried them all)
Leadtek 6600gt pci express w/67.66 drivers
athlon 3000
1 gig mem
500 watt psu
zalman chipset heatsink cooled by overhead fan
GPU temps never over 65
cpu/mb never over 50

 

[Johuuy]

*keep alive*

 

[DAPUNISHER]

My first guess is the card is overheating, what does the temp read for the card? Some brands of 6600GT are notorious for the cooler detaching from the core so start there if temp looks like a problem. I haven't played C&C RA2 so if it isn't graphics intensive that would explain why it runs OK, because it isn't stressing the card enough to overheat.

Just saw you mentioned GPU temp never over 65c, but is that in game? or after exiting? They cool down fast so in game can be considerably higher. then the question of wether the reading is even accurate comes into play. You could nuke all the drivers, run drivercleaner, reinstall an see if the problem persists. You have the extra power connector hooked up and not sharing with another devcie too correct? What do the power rails look like, particularly the +12v?

 

[Johuuy]

Ok, I just did some serious heat/power testing using Rthdribl. I never fully stressed the gpu it seems, cuz look at these temps!

Peak values:
GPU CORE: 81
GPU AMBIENT: 51
CPU: 46
MB: 41

Also, I don't know whether it was false advertising or if I just got a psu with a weak 12v & 5v rail...even tho it's supposedly got 28 amps on 12v, but my values are a little low on the 12 & 5.

IDLE /LOAD
+12 11.52/11.264
+5 4.892/4.919 --->huh?
+3.3 3.312/3.312

Important to keep in mind with the graphics corruption I'm seeing is that *immediately* when I load a game the corruption occurs...this is before the card has even started heating up....temps at game load are around 55-60.

Thanks

 

[Stark]

your card is dead. i killed two of them myself. RMA it and have them either issue a credit or get something else.

(see sig for pictures almost exactly like yours)

 

[Johuuy]

Quick update

It was a defective 6600gt. I got my rma'd card back from leadtek and everything runs great! Thanks for all your help guys.