Strange behaviour since a few days with Q6600/8800GTX system

Patrick Vervoorn · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 51

Hi,

Since a few days my Q6600/8800GTX system has been behaving rather
strangely. Full specs:

MSI P6N-Diamond (680i)
Intel Q6600, non-overclocked
4GB RAM
Club3D 8800GTX (by all looks a reference design)

I'm having these problems under both WinXP32 and Vista64. It doesn't
happen in the desktop, but it happens in a few games (Diablo II in both
DirectX as well as Glide mode via a Glide wrapper, Mythos beta). I've run
Crysis for a few hours, and it seemed to behave ok.

What happens:

The games are running ok, until suddenly all action seems to slow-down.
Sometimes they pick up again, only to halt again a second later.

In almost all case, the nv4_disp is faulted. Sometimes via a BSOD (and a
report after rebooting), the most recent one a requester which popped up,
with the title: "Windows Display Driver Stopped Resonding", text: "The
nv4_disp display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work ...
etc".

While I can understand Mythos (a game in beta status) has some display
related problems, especially Diablo II always worked flawlessly. I've
since then tested my memory with MemTest86, and this afternoon the system
completed 2 full succesfull passes.

I've also uninstalled the drivers in Safe mode, wiped out every trace of
them using DriverCleaner, and re-installed the latest XP WHQL drivers
(169.21), again. This made no difference.

What's the best way to test if the 8800GTX is at fault (and has somehow
recently developed a problem?), or could someone provide a way to proceed?

I suppose the next step would be to re-install XP, and see if that changes
things, but this will take me quite some time, so if there's anything I
can do which doesn't involve re-installing XP, I'm all ears. Also, since
I'm seeing the same type of behaviour under Vista64 (installed on another
HD in the system), I suppose all arrows are blinking and pointing at the
8800GTX.

Regards,

Patrick.

Archived from group: alt>comp>periphs>videocards>nvidia

First of One · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 291

"Patrick Vervoorn" wrote in
message $47b09253$82a1d3bf$506@news1.tudelft.nl...
> The stuff is mounted in an Antec P182. I checked the temperatures with
> Everest, and the card is around 55-65 degrees, even when loaded. I also
> hear the fan of the 8800GTX spin up.

How are you checking temps "when loaded"? Do you have Everest running on a
2nd monitor, alt-tabbing back and forth, or logging to a text file?

> Just tried running the 'Froggy' demo from NVidia, and that also crashed
> after about an half hour.
>
> If this is temperature related, it doesn't show on the monitoring tools.

There are other components on your card that can heat up, such as the RAM or
voltage regulator modules. These may not show up in a "simple" monitoring
tool such as Everest.

How are the CPU temps with a stress utility such as Toast? (Run 4 instances
of Toast to load up all four cores.) Are you overclocking the Q6600?

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

Rene · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 43

"Patrick Vervoorn" schreef in
bericht $47b0833b$82a1d3bf$15751@news2.tudelft.nl...
>
> Hi,
>
> Since a few days my Q6600/8800GTX system has been behaving rather
> strangely. Full specs:
>
> MSI P6N-Diamond (680i)
> Intel Q6600, non-overclocked
> 4GB RAM
> Club3D 8800GTX (by all looks a reference design)
>
> I'm having these problems under both WinXP32 and Vista64. It doesn't
> happen in the desktop, but it happens in a few games (Diablo II in both
> DirectX as well as Glide mode via a Glide wrapper, Mythos beta). I've run
> Crysis for a few hours, and it seemed to behave ok.
>
> What happens:
>
> The games are running ok, until suddenly all action seems to slow-down.
> Sometimes they pick up again, only to halt again a second later.
>
> In almost all case, the nv4_disp is faulted. Sometimes via a BSOD (and a
> report after rebooting), the most recent one a requester which popped up,
> with the title: "Windows Display Driver Stopped Resonding", text: "The
> nv4_disp display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work ...
> etc".
>
> While I can understand Mythos (a game in beta status) has some display
> related problems, especially Diablo II always worked flawlessly. I've
> since then tested my memory with MemTest86, and this afternoon the system
> completed 2 full succesfull passes.
>
> I've also uninstalled the drivers in Safe mode, wiped out every trace of
> them using DriverCleaner, and re-installed the latest XP WHQL drivers
> (169.21), again. This made no difference.
>
> What's the best way to test if the 8800GTX is at fault (and has somehow
> recently developed a problem?), or could someone provide a way to proceed?
>
> I suppose the next step would be to re-install XP, and see if that changes
> things, but this will take me quite some time, so if there's anything I
> can do which doesn't involve re-installing XP, I'm all ears. Also, since
> I'm seeing the same type of behaviour under Vista64 (installed on another
> HD in the system), I suppose all arrows are blinking and pointing at the
> 8800GTX.

Have You tried playing the games without the computer case closed and a big
fan blowing at the internals (for testing purposes I mean)? The things You
are describing make me think of the card getting a bit too hot. Perhaps dust
has cluttered up in Your computer? Bad airflow inside the case? Warm weather
outside (probably only of importance during this time of year when You're on
the southern hemisphere Wink

)?

Good luck!
Yours sincerely,
Rene

Patrick Vervoorn · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 51

In article ,
Rene wrote:

[snip]

>Have You tried playing the games without the computer case closed and a big
>fan blowing at the internals (for testing purposes I mean)? The things You
>are describing make me think of the card getting a bit too hot. Perhaps dust
>has cluttered up in Your computer? Bad airflow inside the case? Warm weather
>outside (probably only of importance during this time of year when You're on
>the southern hemisphere Wink

)?

The stuff is mounted in an Antec P182. I checked the temperatures with
Everest, and the card is around 55-65 degrees, even when loaded. I also
hear the fan of the 8800GTX spin up.

Just tried running the 'Froggy' demo from NVidia, and that also crashed
after about an half hour.

If this is temperature related, it doesn't show on the monitoring tools.

Regards, Patrick.

Patrick Vervoorn · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 51

In article ,
First of One wrote:
>"Patrick Vervoorn" wrote in
>message $47b09253$82a1d3bf$506@news1.tudelft.nl...
>> The stuff is mounted in an Antec P182. I checked the temperatures with
>> Everest, and the card is around 55-65 degrees, even when loaded. I also
>> hear the fan of the 8800GTX spin up.
>
>How are you checking temps "when loaded"? Do you have Everest running on a
>2nd monitor, alt-tabbing back and forth, or logging to a text file?

Well, it seems the temperatures dropped off faster than I thought. I
finally decided on using the 'Froggy' demo, combined with the nTune
monitor app: if you press the Windows-key while Froggy runs, you get to
see the windows task bar, let Froggy run in the background, and show the
nTune Monitor window on top of that.

The GPU1 temperature, when running Froggy for a while, evens out around 80
deg C. After about 0.5 to 1.5 hours of 'Froggy' the system starts to
'stutter'. The current windows clock is actually updated, the temperature
of GPU1 drops down a bit (to ~73-75 deg C), and if I let it 'stutter' on
like that, it usually ends with a BSOD error.

>There are other components on your card that can heat up, such as the RAM or
>voltage regulator modules. These may not show up in a "simple" monitoring
>tool such as Everest.

I am aware there are only a few sensors on an 8800GTX, and I'm currently
assuming something on the card not near any of those sensors is
overheating. Perhaps something not making a 100% connection with the
heat-sink? I can't think of any other problems which takes between 0.5 -
1.5 hours of heavy load to show up.

>How are the CPU temps with a stress utility such as Toast? (Run 4 instances
>of Toast to load up all four cores.) Are you overclocking the Q6600?

The system ran (and still runs) SetBOINC 24/7, and does that comfortably.
All 4 cores are each utilized for 100% running that; I suppose that's as
good a test as Toast? It's only when heavy 3D work is being done that the
system goes down. Games are not the most handy tools to check this with,
so I decided on a demo of NVidia, Froggy, in a non-interactive mode (Flyby
2) to stress the GPU.

Oh, and as I said in my OP, I do not overclock the Q6600. Neither do I
overclock the 8800GTX.

I'll contact the shop I got it from, and hope to pick up a loaner this
afternoon. I'll plop that in, and if it's capable of some 3D work (I'm not
expecting another 8800 class card as the loader unfortunately) I'll try to
stress-test that to see if the system still goes down. If that solves it,
the 8800GTX will be returned to the shop, and I suppose be RMA-ed.

Regards, Patrick.

Fishface · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 17

Patrick Vervoorn wrote:

> In almost all case, the nv4_disp is faulted. Sometimes via a BSOD (and a
> report after rebooting), the most recent one a requester which popped up,
> with the title: "Windows Display Driver Stopped Resonding", text: "The
> nv4_disp display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work ...
> etc".

I also have this happen occasionally with a Q6600 and 4GB of RAM installed.
I only have an 7600GS for now and just play Battlefield 2, running a BF2 server
concurrently on the same machine. I wonder if pulling 2GB or setting the
processor affinity to a single core in task manager's processes tab might not
be a worthwhile experiment.

GMAN · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 9

In article , "Fishface" wrote:
>Patrick Vervoorn wrote:
>
>> In almost all case, the nv4_disp is faulted. Sometimes via a BSOD (and a
>> report after rebooting), the most recent one a requester which popped up,
>> with the title: "Windows Display Driver Stopped Resonding", text: "The
>> nv4_disp display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work ...
>> etc".
>
>I also have this happen occasionally with a Q6600 and 4GB of RAM installed.
>I only have an 7600GS for now and just play Battlefield 2, running a BF2 server
>concurrently on the same machine. I wonder if pulling 2GB or setting the
>processor affinity to a single core in task manager's processes tab might not
>be a worthwhile experiment.
>
>
>
>
Double check to make sure your little cooling fan on the card hasnt melted. I
had my 7600GS fan melt down into a glob due to it freezing up.

Patrick Vervoorn · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 51

In article , Fishface wrote:
>Patrick Vervoorn wrote:
>
>> In almost all case, the nv4_disp is faulted. Sometimes via a BSOD (and a
>> report after rebooting), the most recent one a requester which popped up,
>> with the title: "Windows Display Driver Stopped Resonding", text: "The
>> nv4_disp display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work ...
>> etc".
>
>I also have this happen occasionally with a Q6600 and 4GB of RAM installed.
>I only have an 7600GS for now and just play Battlefield 2, running a BF2 server
>concurrently on the same machine. I wonder if pulling 2GB or setting the
>processor affinity to a single core in task manager's processes tab might not
>be a worthwhile experiment.

The machine had this behaviour in applications/games which were previously
working perfectly. I had also already pulled 2GB out, but that didn't
change anything.

Anyway, the shop I brought it back to tested everything, and they
concluded the 8800GTX was fine, but the 680i mainboard was having serious
problems. It will be RMAed, and I'm trying to get something else back
if/when possible (thinking of getting an Intel X38 based board). We'll see
what's possible/what happens...

Regards, Patrick.

Fishface · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 17

GMAN wrote:

> Double check to make sure your little cooling fan on the card hasnt melted.
> I had my 7600GS fan melt down into a glob due to it freezing up.

Well, it is a fanless card, but it has a thin 80mm fan in the P180 blowing
ducted air right on it.