NOOOOO!!! Not again!!!!

[drpootums]

D@mn!!! If u saw my post about 1 week ago or so u would notice that i had 2 go on me, but now my replacement 6800GT from BFG just went!!! I had it for 4 days!

Ok, at first i got a Leadtek GT, it worked great and i was happy with my new build until it went bad on me after about 3 days or so. I RMA'ed it to newegg (had a lot of artifacts and the monitor would flicker after a few seconds and then go off). Newegg didnt have any in stock so they refunded my money.

So, i went to my local BB and picked up one of the 2 BFG 6800GT's in stock. I was so glad when i got it home that it worked. But now after appx. 2 weeks it starts with the artifacts again while i was playing BF: Vietnam, and then it happens when i start it up again too. WTF???

Alright, BFG's tech support is really good (besides the 1 hr wait on hold) and they get me a replacement from the time i ship it out to the time i recieve it in 4 days!!! Wow! But now after 4 days i had the same freezing i had on BF: Vietnam (minutes before the artifacts) in Halo and 3dmark'01. It didnt start getting artifacts before i turned it off last night. Now, when i turn it on this afternoon it takes a while to start up, and then when it gets past my Lanparty's startup screen, it comes up with the safe mode warning thing, but except for the safemode message it comes up with something like "there has been a change in your hardware/software since the last time u started windows" and it gave me options of the start up. I picked the "start windows normally" and when it's done loading...BOOM...artifacts all over the screen again! After a bit the screen starts to flicker again and it freezes up...

I am completely ticked off and utterly confused! I cant seem to find what the problem is.

I have a few theories i suppose, maybe u guys/gals can help:
-PSU is killing my cards
-i have extremely bad luck!
-for some reason 68 C load is too much for my cards (that's the highest i've seen and i know it can go up to at least 80 C)
-i have gremlins in my room...

Please help! I want to get this figured out. Hell, if my return to newegg thing was longer than a month (i've had for about 5 weeks, but 2 of those weeks were RMA waiting times) i would send it back and take the 15% hit. I am fed up with this. I need help!:frown:

 

[aceadrian1]

Well, you've already mentioned my primary two questions: heat and PSU. PSU is easy - check the voltages aren't too off/low in the BIOS or do a google for how to check PSU voltages with a multimeter (quite easy). Ensure your BIOS settings are normal - 66 for AGP/PCI bus etc. It sounds like a heat thing really. Ensure you have good case cooling, maybe remove a few unnecessary things from the mobo (1 RAM stick if you have two, unnecessary PCI cards, fans running off the fan headers on the mobo (move directly to PSU) etc. Mobo may not be getting enough juice to power it all.

 

[montag451]

i think you should look at your BIOS settings very carefully, and also your win settings -
its unlikely that you would recieve 3 bad cards on the trot.

 

[drpootums]

Ok, thanks

I have my 2x120mm fans hooked up to my mobo, but that's just to monitor fan speeds. I have all my fans (except CPU fan) running off the 4 pin molex connectors on my PSU.

I have 2x512 ram sticks, my CPU fan and CPU, and my modem drawing power from my board. It doesnt seem like too much, but i will surely give DFI a call.

Thanks!

 

[montag451]

Also, have you run MEMTEST for each stick of RAM individually?

 

[boshuter]

You don't need to double post this in different sections of the forum.