GPU crashes, need help

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:33 am

Alright, I had my computer HDs crash. So I replaced them. My fan on my GPU was going bad, so I got a better HSF for it.

When I went to reinstall XP I found out that I lost my legit CD when I moved. So in deciding what do due, due to my lack of a desire to buy XP and then Vista, I found out that Vista had a "RC3" released.

So I figured I'd save a $100 till Vista was boxed and then would upgrade.

So I installed and everything went fine.

I did notice a couple of things. Company of Heroes at times artifacted for me, but never crashed and the artifacting was minimal. I figured it was just driver issues, since I had asked around and said that sometimes it acted up with Vista.

Well, I just install FEAR:EP and played it. Within 2 minutes of playing it it crashed on me. Blue Screen (The one that tells you that you have a HW failure and dumps the memory) came up, dumped the memory and rebooted.

I went to BIOS and checked if I had it OCed at all. FSB was at 202 on my DFI SLI-D Ultra Nforce4. So I backed that down.

Started up FEAR:EP, got the same artifacting and virtually in the same room the thing Blue Screened for me a second time.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me about how to fix this?

Also, is there a way to check the temp on my GPU? I know my MB has the ability to do it for my CPU. Where do I look to tell me what went wrong so I can start looking for a fix.

I recently ran memtest and everything was fine.

Specs:

DFI SLI-D Ultra Nforce 4
AMD X2 3800+
2 Gigs of RAM
eVGA 7800 GT 256MB of RAM
Audigy2 ZS

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 8:24 am

Install "nTune" to monitor your temps. You can get it here
http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_2.00.23.html

It could be an overheating problem or an issue with Vista.

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 11:53 am

Ok, I'll DL it and try it out. Thank you.

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 2:10 pm

Well, it seems nTune isn't compatible with Vista yet.

Right now my drivers are 9.6.8.5. Seems other people are having issues with gaming and those drivers. I wonder if there are newer beta drivers around.

At least I am now sure that the GPU is the problem.

I wonder could it be a bad card? Could the fan issue have damaged it at all. I wonder if there is a way to test the hardware, because I'm not overclocking it.

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:30 pm

Oh geez!

Seems nVidia seriously screwed the pooch on heat and the drivers for Vista:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/990/