7900 GT OC assistance.

August 28th, 2006, 06:16 AM

This is the machine I just built:

MSI K9N SLI Platinum Mainboard with NVIDIA ® nForce 570 SLI Chipset
2 OCZ Tech 512mb DDR2 for 1gb RAM
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+
BFG GeForce® 7900 GT OC
300gig Maxtor IDE HDD
Lite-On 8X DVD Recorder
Case with 500w PSU

Everything works great. Everything, that is, but any 3D game I try to play (let's say any Source engine game for this example). Sometime between 30 seconds and 3 minutes, the applications crash back to desktop with the standard "send error report to Microsoft" box. I'm pretty positive it can only be the video card and/or drivers, as nothing else causes this behavior. I also slapped the machine around for 30 minutes with the Sedona test util, and got no errors. However, the video testing only showed a 3D display for a couple of seconds at a time.

This is a clean install of XP Pro patched up to current, and I installed straight into the 91.31 drivers. I asked BFG support about it, and they told me the 91.31 drivers only added support for th 7950 GX2 series, and that I should install the 84.21 drivers instead.

Is the tech support guy correct? Are the 91.31 drivers crap for this card, or known to have problems? Should I sick with official WHQL nVidia drivers, or is there a hacked set that is more stable?

I would prefer not to return the card (nobody likes returning things to Fry's Electronics), but if I have to, I will. I just wanted to ask around before I do so to find out if anyone else has had this or similar problems, and if they also found a solution. I know I don't want to be stuck running outdated drivers forever...

**Regeneration** · August 28th, 2006, 06:35 AM

"Send error report to Microsoft" is a memory related issue. Check out your memory timing/voltage and use memtestx86 to verify its stablitiy.

August 28th, 2006, 02:41 PM

Sir, were I a gay man, I would want to spoon you tonight.

You were correct, it was a memory problem. I ran memtest86 while I watched TV (have the machine hooked up to my bigscreen until I dish out the cash for a nice display and a desk of some sort). Came back to test 7 on the first pass just cranking out errors.

When I originally setup the board, I didn't touch the memory timings in the bios. I figured 'auto' should handle it. Boy, was I wrong. Aparently, the was at 400mhz rather than 800. Dunno about the rest as it doesn't display, but I suspect they were vastly wrong. Went to the OEM site to confirm the CAS, etc (4-5-4-15, I think it is), and presto. Ran CS:S for more than 3 minutes, smooth as butter on a summer afternoon in Phoenix. Will do some more testing before I am officially satisfied, but I have a gut feeling that this is it.

Thank you, sir. After being stuck on a laptop for the past 2-3 years, I had forgotten just how bitchy a desktop can be at times. Not to mention that it's rather annoying to dump almost $1k on something that doesn't work.

I'll shut up now.

After I say thanks once more.

**Regeneration** · August 28th, 2006, 04:28 PM

Your welcome!

August 28th, 2006, 09:58 PM

Did a little more testing. I can play CS:S fine, but I get a BSOD straight into reboot when I run the video stress test in the game. Seems to happen right during or after the stained glass Gorden.

Is there any settings that the card won't do? I read something briefly that suggested doing full FSAA with HDR was a no-no. Perhaps that's the issue?

**Regeneration** · August 28th, 2006, 10:02 PM

Can you tell me what kind of error msg do you see in the BSOD screen?

August 29th, 2006, 11:12 AM

Nah, not yet. It leaves the BSOD up for less than a second before rebooting. I just installed XP on the system, and have been focused too much on the issue to adjust how long XP waits before rebooting after a BSOD.

Happen to know the registry setting off hand?

squall_leonhart · August 29th, 2006, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regeneration

"Send error report to Microsoft" is a memory related issue. Check out your memory timing/voltage and use memtestx86 to verify its stablitiy.

SOMETIMES

othertimes it can be
corrupt pagefile
page file is trying to write to corrpted space.
hdd write error.
or general mft error

September 1st, 2006, 11:39 AM

Ok, I found the registry key and will be trying it out soon.

Not dead, just busy during the work week. I've not got the time.

September 1st, 2006, 01:27 PM

Here's a pic of the error. Took the lazy way out, rather than typing it all in.

Looks like it's in the driver, but I dunno if it's related to heat or just that it doesn't like zp drivers. I can always clean off the current driver set and try some straight from nVidia, I suppose.

Again, this seems to happy just after the stained glass Gordon in the CS:Source stress test. I've not really run anything else to test the card. Is there some feature of DX9 that's tested right at that point? Maybe a card setting that's the issue?

Anyone else have any other ideas, or should I just take the card back and get somethin' else? I've heard that the OC cards have known issues...