P5B-Deluxe/8800GTX problems? Need advice!

[LintMan]

Here's the system I put together a few months back:
C2D E6700 (no OC)
Asus P5B-Deluxe
Zalman 9700 HSF
XFX 8800GTX XXX edition video
4x1GB Corsair XMS2 Dominator DDR2-800 ram
Seasonic S12 Energy Plus 650W PS
WD Raptor 150GB 10K RPM drive
Samsung 320GB 7200 RPM drive
Silverstone TJ-09 case (5x120mm fans)
Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Summary:
In 3D-games (any game) I was getting random blue screen crashes indicating a problem with the video driver. I got the vid card replaced, and with the new one, I'm seeing the game crash instead of the OS (but I was forced to use the 8800 in the second SLI slot, which might make a difference in behavior).

To me, it looks at this point like the issue is with the motherboard but I'm frazzled and could use some suggestions on how to proceed.
- Deal with the hassle of trying to get the 8800 back into the main SLI slot to see if I can reproduce the blue screen?
- Contact ASUS for support?
- Give up and buy a new MB? (If so, P5K? Or stay away from ASUS?)
- Something else?

I'm at a loss for what to do now, and my misery level is climbing fast. I hate to buy a new MB, but that's a heck of a lot cheaper than replacing the 8800GTX or the pricey RAM.


Gory details:
For those curious, here's the of what I've tried, and why I think it's the MB:
- New nvidia driver versions: didn't help.
- Flashing P5B to more recent BIOS verions didn't help.
- Swapping out the pairs of ram (running just 2GB): didn't help.
- Fresh install of Vista: didn't help
- Fresh install of WinXP: didn't help
- Running my old nvidia 6800 board in the system: I sometimes saw some flaky but recoverable video driver related system errors, but couldn't reproduce the blue screen crashes with it. (But then, it's such a different card, that's not unexpected).

XFX had me send the card to them, and they did some heavy testing (including in assorted games), but they found no problems with it. Helpfully (but slowly), they sent me a replacement one instead of returning the one I was having the problems with.

So I finally get the new card back yesterday, and because of a problem with my case (a big gripe for another post), I can't fit the 8800 into the blue pci-express slot nearer the CPU. So I tried it in the second (black) SLI slot, and it comes up OK.

So after a day of testing, I haven't seen any blue screen deaths, but the game itself has started crashing ("appcrash") regularly (something it never did before with the old 8800 or with the 6800).

Edit: added more system info

 

[Shimmishim]

don't use the bottom slot... it's limited to 4x bandwidth... go back up to the top one so you'll have 16x bandwidth

are you overclocking at all? what sort of mem settings are you using? cpu speed? voltages?

more information please

 

[LintMan]

I was concerned that the bottom slot would be x4 also, but checking the specs at Newegg, I think both slots are x16, so I should be OK, right?. But anyway, it's just a temporary solution until I resolve my case problem. (Fixing the case requires me to remove the MB, so if I'm going to replace the MB anyway, I'll do it all at the same time).

Oops, forgot to mention what processor I'm using! I have an C2D E6700 in there. I'm not OC'ing at all: all my bus, CPU and RAM settings are default. (I don't want to mess with that stuff while I'm still having the video card headaches.)

Thanks!

 

[Shimmishim]

dont' look at the newegg specs... they are wrong.

the bottom slot is 4x. if you want confirmation check asus's website.

i am 100% sure the bottom is 4x.

for your memory, make sure you have enough voltage to run at ddr2-800.

i dunno what the spec'ed stock voltage is but be sure to manually set this.

99% of the problems i've had with a system has been the memory.

 

[LintMan]

Damn, you're right about the Newegg specs. I'll have to keep that in mind during future shopping. I guess I'll want to deal with my case issue ASAP.

It didn't occur to me that the ram might be under-voltaged, but that's a good point. I'll check it out. Thanks!

 

[cmdrdredd]

Check that your PSU is able to handle the requirements of the GTX. Did you plug in the PCI-E connector? I think there is 2, try using both of them and see what happens.

 

[o1die]

Have you tried a bigger power supply? I would list your power supply specs.

 

[Shimmishim]

yes, PSU is another good thing to check as well. 8800GTX is a power hog!

 

[LintMan]

Sorry, that's another thing I forgot to list. I have a Seasonic S12 650W power supply. The 8800 needs 2 PCI-E power connections, and the PS provides two.

I also tried changing the memory voltage to the 2.1V my ram is spec'd for, and my system started badly flaking out, bluescreening within 1-2 minutes of bootup.

I haven't done much OC'ing so I'm not terribly familiar with playing with the voltage levels, etc. What I had done was change the setting from Auto (which didn't show or let me change any voltages) to AI NOS. That exposed several parameters for adjustment, all of which I left on Auto, except for the Memory Voltage, which I set to 2.1. The BIOS shows this 2.1 value in red after I select it, so I don't know if that's bad sign.

Thanks!

 

[Shimmishim]

dont' set it to AI Nos.. there should be a manual option...

this gives you full control w/o it overclocking anything.

try that again.

 

[LintMan]

I set it to Manual, then left all the parameters on Auto except the Memory Voltage again, and the system bluescreened every time at the end of bootup. I tried 2.1V, which is what the Corsair's web site says for the ram, and I tried 2.25V and 2.35V with similar bad results.

I noticed that the BIOS shows all voltages above 1.9V in red if I select them, but I don't know if that means anything.