serialcomma

Hey everyone, new member here. I recently built my first computer, bought all parts new, except I used a PNY 9800GX2 that my brother had lying around for around a year and didn't want anymore.

Put it in the computer, installed Vista X64, installed drivers, and the computer worked great for a day. Played Fallout 3, DoD etc with no glitching, great performance. The next day, I turned my computer on. When I tried to log into my account, the monitor kept switching resolutions over and over, and all I could see was the cursor on screen. Ctrl-alt-del, and re-login. Now I actually got in without graphical glitches. Tried to fire up Fallout 3, but saw weird green dots all over the screen. Even though I'd only used the computer for 20 minutes compared to the hours I had yesterday, I figured it might be some artifacts caused by overheating, so I shut the computer down. Ever since then, after the progress bar for windows starting up, the screen goes black for 30 seconds, before throwing a bsod "Shutting off to prevent damage to your computer" screen. This goes away if I uninstall the NVIDIA driver in safemode, but upon reinstalling it every time the problem keeps coming back, and I can't even get into Windows.

Thinking maybe something installed with fallout 3 borked the drivers, or perhaps the vista x64 drivers weren't all they cracked up to be, I installed this copy of XP Pro x64 I had lying around. Installed the NVIDIA drivers. 2d stuff, like just puttering around windows and web browsing works great, but if I ever try to do anything that seems to use the 3d capabilities of the card, it freezes.

If I run dxdiag, when the progress bar gets to around 80%, the computer locks up. Heck, when I go to the nvidia control panel by right clicking the desktop, the NVIDIA logo which is supposed to spin just shows up in the wrong place, motionless, and the computer is locked.

I would appreciate any help or suggestions, advice about how to proceed, or advice to help me figure out if the card is indeed screwed. Is there anything I did that could have killed it? I haven't tried overclocking a single thing in this computer.

Thanks a lot, and I appreciate any help you guys can offer.

Quantum Reality

The only way to tell for sure would be to see if you can reproduce these issues in another computer. However I would be inclined to say your GPU is likely be at fault.

People say this rudely here on the forums, I find, so I will say it less rudely. It is highly suggested that you enter your system's configuration into your user control panel. This is so people can assess if other hardware you have might potentially be at issue.

http://www.overclock.net/specs.php

Click that and your browser will take you to your edit-systems page.

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highoc

It is the GPU ! Do u have warranty for it ??

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highoc

Yes

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serialcomma

Thanks, sorry about that, I updated the information.

I was afraid the card would be at fault. Is there any software tool I might use? Unfortunately, I live about 2000 miles away from my brother, so trying it in his rig is out of the question, and both my housemates have micro-ATX cases, so I can't fit the card in there. Is there any other software test solution?

I didn't know a card's 2d performance could be uncompromised while its 3d capabilities would be messed up - I just figured a bad card would prevent you from POSTing or show constant artifacts.

Perhaps this should be in another post. I'd still really like to hear what everybody thinks about the card problem I have now, but maybe in passing you could weigh in on this. I'm a broke college-grad, and already got about $550 deep into this computer building what I have already. Would the HIS H487FN1GP Radeon HD 4870 1GB for 139.99 on Newegg be not a bad alternative?

Ladiesman101

do u have warranty, do that
check if it works in another computer
or is the card overclocked and waqt are temps

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[Teh Root]

It's a heat thing. You need to up your FAN Speed to 100% ausing RivaTuner, or EVGA's Precision tool, and make sure that the Fans run at 100% on the card. Make sure to have it apple at windows startup. Leave the cmoputer alone to make sure it is cool. Try playing Fallout 3 again and logging in etc. I'm not sure if it's a graphics card errors as it is heat. 9800GX2's are notoriously hot.

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reiben05

what he says.. try doing that.. 9800GX2's and GTX295 runs awefull hot since the PCB's are like sandwitched together

serialcomma

Hi, thanks for the replies, everybody. I tried taking your advice, and using RivaTuner, and letting things get cooler, into the mid 40's. Unfortunately, the crashes still persist. Even navigating to the dinky "3d Flower Box" screen saver in the display properties causes a loss of responsiveness, where i can move the mouse for about 5 seconds before everything freezes completely. All this behavior takes place whenever in an application with anything 3d going on at all.

I'm going to try reinstalling Vista x64 and see if the problems persist, and I'll update with the results.

Thanks everybody!

serialcomma

Thanks so much for your replies, everyone.

I WAS able to boot the system without the BSOD when taking the cover off and pointing a desk fan into the side of the computer.

I reinstalled vista several times trying different driver configs as the problem was very inconsistent and difficult to duplicate -- sometimes it would boot with the fan, sometimes it would boot without it.

I ran RivaTuner and did some hardware monitoring -- GPU Core0 temp = 55ºC, Core0 Ambient Temp = 51ºC, Core0 Fan Speed = 1461, Core0 Fan Duty Cycle = 45%

Now here's where things are weird -- GPU Core1 temp = 57ºC, Core1 Ambient Temp = 58ºC, Core1 Fan Speed = 0!!, Core1 Fan Duty Cycle = 0%

Okay, what's going on here?! Why's my Core1 fan not spinning? Could the reason I'm not able to boot because fan 1 isn't spinning on startup, and it's hotter than it should be? Is there any way I could flash the bios of the PNY 9800gx2 to cause the fans to just always be spinning at 100%, and would this be a good idea? I'm only running one monitor, and a small one at that.

I really appreciate any help and advice you can offer, thanks a lot!