PNY GF6800 GT Freezing/Artifacts

Tikiti

Junior Member
Dec 30, 2004
7
0
0
Well like the title says, I've recently had my A+ Cert friends put together a wicked machine from BRAND-NEW parts, and it just fails to do anything 3D.

Here's a summary of my system.
I'm on an AMD 64bit 3200 1st-gen (1Mb cache), on an MSI K8N Neo-FSR motherboard, with 1Gb Kingston RAM, PSU is a 550watt, the card's only got 1 slot for a power dongle, which is only attached to the video card and nothing else, nothing else installed on there except for my keyboard, HD, Floppy, mouse and monitor, nothing in PCI slots, all updated drivers, even tried newer drivers from guru3d.com, nothing works. I read the previous posts about the 6800 GT and tried most of the stuff they suggested in there, even checked the BIOS on my mobo and my GPU, both are current. I tried the devault voltage on my card (1.50) tried it at 1.60 too but no dice. I grabbed Rivatuner and Powerstrip, but didn't toy with any of the settings, the card isn't overclocked at all, all the clocks are factory default (350/1000 I think). In my system BIOS I believe I have the AGP3.0 at 4x/8x, the AGP2.0 option is greyed out and locked in "Auto" maybe that's the problem though I can't modify it any. Fast-Writes was auto, now disabled. I tried playing around with the AGP Aperture (sp?), setting it at 64Mb/128Mb/256Mb/512Mb, none of the settings seem to help any. I heard there was a conflict with 64bit CPU's and SP2 so I tried removing that as well, no luck there. I've got 2 HD's set up, one with SP2 one without, and they both get this same problem. I had at least 5 techs look at it and they're all completely stumped. I tried phoning PNY too, but no one's answering :p

Now here's a description of the problem.
Booting up, I don't run into any problems at all, the screen looks fine, the system is up and in windows in no time, but as soon as I get INTO windows, I experience random artifacts, little discolored pixels on my screen, they'll come and go if the window is ever refreshed. It's most apparent whenever I drag my mouse across the desktop, like to highlight multiple icons, and also very apparent whenever I scroll up and down in any webpage. Eventually, if the screen gets garbled up enough, the entire computer locks up for a good half minute, and then the screen flickers black and then everything's normal again, that is normal and getting all these graphical glitches.
If I ever try and run anything 3D, the graphics will become completely garbled for a good half-second, before the system locks for the same familiar half minute, go garbled for another half second, lock for half a minute, etc. This goes on for a few minutes before the system gives up and goes into a BSOD, before rebooting itself.

What's most confusing is that one of my friends has a nearly identical system, same mobo same card same CPU, and he runs fine, even with dual monitors.

I've been stressing over this problem for a while now I'd really appreciate whatever help I can get.
 
Dec 1, 2004
46
0
0
Test the system with your friends vid card, if it does the same thing .. youv'e gotta keep investigating. If it runs fine, RMA your video card.
 

Tikiti

Junior Member
Dec 30, 2004
7
0
0
well I did do an RMA, and this is with my second PNY GF 6800 GT

the RAM's a 1gb Kingston, 64bit compatible or something like that.

-edit-

About the first card, it was MUCH worse, during bootup the text was shaking awkwardly, and then once I got into windows, there were two vertical columns of distortion, and artifacts all over the screen. Now with a brand new card I still get artifacts, though not nearly as bad as before. I still find it highly ironic that only the top of the line hardware seems to be getting this kind of problem.
 

Fenuxx

Senior member
Dec 3, 2004
907
0
76
Try updating the BIOS on the card. I'm having the same problem with my XFX 6800GT. When I get the card back from RMA, and if it doesn't work, I'll try updating the BIOS, as I've read that some of the BIOS revs that the card makers have used are borked and don't work correctly with certain hardware.

HERE is the link for the BIOS files for PNY, and make sure you use the latest version (although you can try all of the different versions). Also, make SURE you use the one that is correct for your board (i.e. 6800GT 256MB, not 6800GT 128MB, as they are configured differently at the hardware level, and can render the card useless).

HERE is the link for the BIOS flasher, make sure you use the latest version of that as well (I don't recommend that you use an older version, as it may be incompatible with your card).

MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP YOUR EXISTING BIOS BEFORE FLASHING TO A NEWER VERSION.

If the flash fails, pop in an old PCI card and re-flash with the original BIOS or a different version.

However, the chance of failure is less than 30%, as the NVIDIA flasher is a good utility.
 

Navid

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2004
5,053
0
0
What is the temperature of the GPU?

What is the CPU temperature?

What is the motherboard temperature?

How many fans in the case?

Have you installed the chipset driver?
 

Tikiti

Junior Member
Dec 30, 2004
7
0
0
CPU temp about 50-60 C
GPU temp the same
not sure what mobo temp is
like 5 fans in the case, with a huge industrial fan in the room too
installed the latest chipset drivers from the nvidia site, tried another chipset driver from guru3d.com

-edit-
gonna try the bios flashing, wish me luck
if I don't update, avenge my death.
 

Navid

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2004
5,053
0
0
I am talking about the chipset (on the motherboard) not the graphics card. Did you install the chipset driver? If not, do that.
Don't flash the bios. There is a lot more to do before doing things like that. That should be your last resort!
 

Tikiti

Junior Member
Dec 30, 2004
7
0
0
Yeah I'm talking about the nForce3 chipset drivers from the nvidia site.

-Edit-

One question, how do I backup my GPU's current BIOS?
 

Navid

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2004
5,053
0
0
I think the utility you use to flash can save the BIOS that is on the card also. But, I have never done that.

Can you get another graphics card and replace your card with it and see how it works? If there are still problems you know that there are other problems.
Is this not a new card? If you think something is wrong with it, why are you trying to fix it yourself (flashing)? Why not RMA it?
 

Tikiti

Junior Member
Dec 30, 2004
7
0
0
yeah, it's definately the card, I'm currently on my friend's GeForce FX 5500 OC now, and I don't get any glitches or artifacts. Could it be the BIOS, or should I really do a second RMA?

-edit-

on a side note, how long does an RMA usually take, and will they let you pay for, say, rush shipping or whatnot?

and yes this is a new card, about 2 days old now, and I'd rather get it fixed with a new BIOS than send it to PNY with probably the 9999 other RMA'ed cards, to get it back a year from now >_<
 

Hyperlite

Diamond Member
May 25, 2004
5,664
2
76
well correct me if i'm wrong...

when your just sitting on the desktop, your still processing in 2D mode, correct? some PNY's have been reported to have bonked 2d engines, or something that really messes up their 2d display abilities.
 

Tikiti

Junior Member
Dec 30, 2004
7
0
0
well I suppose that's 2D mode, but 3D mode is even more messed up. If I could upload a screenshot I'd show ya. Polygons are all skewed and running off the edge of the screen, the sound loops over and over again, colors and textures are screwed up, random things are glowing random colors, of course all of this only lasts half a second before the system locks up.

ANYTHING 3D causes the system to crash. Even the 3D-Flowerbox screensaver that comes with windows...
 

btbam

Banned
Jul 19, 2004
936
0
0
why are you asking how long an rma takes, didnt you say this would be the second rma, so dont you already have questions to those answers?

I have a PNY too and mine did that when I installed wrong chipset drivers for mobo.

Took care of that and now all is well in the land of high framrates
 

RampantAndroid

Diamond Member
Jun 27, 2004
6,591
3
81
I have a PNY 6800U, and one way I fixed mine was through getting rid of my crappy PSU....couldn't hold a stab;e Vcore or 12V rail. I still get some lockups (got one while in HL2, in follow freeman, make that 2 or three, but that is it.)

I think I'll look into upgrading my card's bios, but that is it...otherwise, I am fine