MSI x800 Woes

[teddyv]

I folks,

I have a Epox 9NPA+Ultra system that has worked flawlessly since I built it last October until today. I fired up the system and fired up World of Warcraft when it suddenly froze and got extremely garbled with the patterns changing between blocks to striped about every three seconds and finally defaulting to my desktop with this:
http://www.verrill.com/misc/vcard_error_1.jpg
VPU Recover Box. It reset my resolution to a lower rez and told me to reboot if I wanted to return to hardware rendering. I did that and tried WoW again, with the same result. I then tried again with WoW in window mode and it seemed to work OK but very notchy/laggy. I switched back to full mode and within seconds it froze then shut off the monitor requiring a hard reboot.

Any ideas? Is the card fried? It seems to work fine under windows, and WoW is the only 3D prog I have. I have had this exact setup, same settings for 6 months now without issue.

 

[teddyv]

Update - I opened the case and checked all connections, all fine, the card on close inspection looks perfect. I fired it up, the card fan is working as it always has.

 

[teddyv]

From MSI e-mail tech support:

Please if can try reseating the card also make sure that you do have the latest chipset drivers for the motherboard as well as the latest for the card link provided below for download but does seem like a card issue if can try the card in another system if cannot then go out and request a RMA number Thank You,

Does RMA mean I have to box it up and ship it back, then wait for them to fix/replace it? Will MSI send me a new one then credit a credit card once the defective is received?

 

[Ika]

is your card still under warranty?

 

[teddyv]

Yes, under warranty.

 

[Raduque]

Maybe it's a sign to stop playing WoW

In any case, you should download something else that's 3D, like a 3dmark benchmark, or a demo of a latest game (FEAR, Tomb Raider Legend, NFSMW, etc) and see if there's issues with them. It may be that you just need to reinstall WoW and/or the ATI driver.

 

[Munky]

That error happens often when the video card overheats and the driver has to re-initialize it. I would download a program like Ati Tool so you can monitor your temperatures while you game or run some 3D stress tests. If the core temperature reaches 80C or more under load, then chances are the card is overheating.

 

[teddyv]

I downloaded ATI Tools, unfortunately the current stable release does not support temp monitoring of my MSI-X800:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127176

I started spinning the 3D box (147FPS) and after about 10 seconds the screen melted down as it does in WoW. The enfuriating thing is it works just fine in non-3D (and worked fine with 3D until today...) Sounds like I have to send this stupid card back

Is there a decent x800 (~$100) I can use as a replacement while this is getting fixed? I cannot be down for the week(s?) it will take to turn this around.

 

[teddyv]

OK, I think it must be the card - tonight it is garbled and showing weird characters in a matrix sort of way during the boot process. It goes off to MSI tomorrow.

 

[unclebud]

sorry for the rma, but thanks for posting.
i was thinking hard about buying this card from newegg today
didn't really want to deal with the rebates though anyway
again, thanks for posting.