Graphics Problems with a 6600GT! Please Help!

[BluSyko 0]

OK, this is the scenario:

 

I was happily gaming in CS today, about 6 hours ago, on an empty server with just me and my friend. We were playing on de_cbble and doing pistols only. He's in the window, I aim at him, then ...... I get a black screen and my LCD Flat Panel shuts off. By "shuts off" I mean, the LCD is not getting any signal from the video card, because the status light on the LCD is blinking. It's the same effect as when you leave your LCD on, but put your computer on hibernate.

 

I'm using headphones w/ mic, and the sound is just repeating, so I get impatient and hold the power button on my computer for about 5 secs to force it to shutdown. Reboot.

 

Nothing seems to be wrong; no fatal error/ crashed messages.

 

I load up CS, and I get this wierd graphical problem... It's tearing and has black and white artifacts that are constantly blinking... (Pics at the bottom)

 

Anyways, what I've done so far:

 

Reinstalled graphics drivers (Downloaded one set from Nvidia's site AND downloaded the same drivers (but 15megs bigger) from my vid-care manufacturers website; both were same version)

Reinstalled DX9

Ran DXDIAG - DirectDraw tests were fine, but had same graphical problems I had on CS with the Direct3D test

 

I've also dusted out my computer, and cooled down the card...

 

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System Specs:

 

HP M1080N

 

Windows Media Center 2004 installed over a WINXP Pro w/ SP2

 

3.2ghz HT Intel P4 (540)

2X256 PC3200 RAM

250GB WD SATA HDD

DVD-ROM drive

DVD+RW/CD+RW combo drive

eVGA 6600GT 128mb PCI-e

 

 

Samsung SyncMaster 712n 1280x1024 Native Resolution

 

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http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/5yko/tribes.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/5yko/Clipboard02.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/5yko/640.jpg

 

 

Also, It does not just affect CS. It affects any game I try to run; so far: DOOM3, Far Cry, Tribes, Hitman, Soldat...

 

The first pic is from TRIBES

 

Second Pic is the Valve Stress Test

 

Third pic is ingame on Prodigy (CS:S)

 

I can take more Screens from other games if you want...

 

[BluSyko 0]

bump?

[chrissalter 0]

Hi Blusyko

 

I have a very similar problem, an low an behold im also usin media centre, lol

 

Now i think ive got it down to one of two things

 

1. drivers....i just read something about using 66.xx version drivers, possible i suppose!!

 

2. Psu rating, unfortunatly i have the card in my shuttle pc which has a physically small psu and has no power descriptions on it whatsoever

 

BUT!!! i have found a temorary fix, get coolbits, and drop both the clocks by about 50mhz on both settings, this appears to give the card a little more stability,

May be worth looking for a newer bios for the card but i got a little more investigating to do yet

 

Hope this helps, keep in touch as our problems seem a little too similar to be coincidence

 

Chris

 

[BluSyko 0]

Now that I've done a bit more research, and actually talked to someone from eVGA, I think it might be my PSU thats causing problems.

 

First of all, my system refuses to return to its normal state when I have programs open, and set it to hibernate. The system just hangs and doesn't do anything. Second, the eVGA rep I talked to said that usually the cause of my specific problem is a bad PSU which is not supplying enough power, or bad memory on the actual card.

 

 

Now, is it possible for bad memory to start SHOWING UP or showing signs of failure even 6 MONTHS after use? I would think that it would be a problem right out of the box, and not something that gradually breaks...

 

Anyways, I think my PSU is rated at 350W... not sure though. I'll reopen my case and reinstall my 6600GT and do some more tests, because I really don't want to have to ship it out and wait a couple weeks for a replacement.

 

 

BTW, I am on my craptacular X300SE right now... sigh...

[wizard8873 8]

you are experiencing one of three problems:

 

the first is that your power supply isn't putting out enough juice to run everything.

 

The second is that your card is over heating.

 

lastly, you might have a bad card.

 

I had the same problem on my pc except that mine is and agp card not pci-e. open your case and put a normal house fan to the side. if the problem goes away, then you know u need more cooling. if it continues to have the same problem, try another power supply. if the problem is still occuring, see if one of your friends that has a 6600GT thatll let you try it out on your PC and he'll try yours on his PC. If it runs fine on his PC then its probably the motherboard.

[BluSyko 0]

Ok I checked out my case...

 

My PSU rates at a max output of 300w. eVGA says that the 6600GT PCIe needs ATLEAST a 300w PSU...

 

But why would my PSU be able to run my card for the past 6 months, and just give up all of a sudden now?

 

I enabled Coolbits with my Forceware 71.84 drivers, and TRIED to underclock my card by 50 on core and memory frequencies, but it FAILS everytime... No matter what value I change the clock freqs. to --even by 1 increments, the test always fails.

 

Now... I don't think its the motherboards problem, because my other card runs fine.

 

I guess I'll go out today and buy a 350w PSU... If not, then I guess I'll have to ship out my card.

 

 

[chrissalter 0]

Hi, just solved the problem with mine, If anyone is having these symptoms i strongly suggest you get ur Ram tested

 

1. game stop's and sound stutters like a stuck audio cd

2. then screen goes black

3. system auto reeboots

 

now furthering my earlier post im fairly certain its not a psu issue, i finally managed to get a spec sheet for my shuttle pc an its only a 300w psu

 

ive uploaded an industry standard test utility to this location www.chrissalter.karoo.net/files/pc_check.iso

 

1. download is and burn it as a disk image with nero

2. boot from the cd and select advanced diagnostics

3. select memory

4. you can now test either ram, vram, or cache

 

i did a ram test and found a bad stick, after removing it i can now overclock the hell out of my card and its as stable as ever

 

Hope this help's

 

Chris

[BluSyko 0]

Unfortunately... I don't have those symptoms... It only happened once, and thats when my videocard started to mess up.

 

 

[BluSyko 0]

bump

[Phalanx-Imawano 0]

My suspicion is an overheating video card, or more specifically the GPU. I did experience that once with my GeForce 6600 while playin Half-Life 2, when mysteriously at the same time the temp sensor (I have the kind that includes an LCD display mounted in one of the drive bays) told me the GPU was at a scorching 80C. I discovered that one of the SATA cables somehow got entangled with the GPU's fan and jammed it, hence the GPU overheated.

 

Other than that, all I can suggest are:

1. your PSU can't handle your vidcard (to prevent that from happening to my system, I upgraded to a 400W PSU)

2. bad RAM, or something gone bad on the video card itself (like the VRAM).

 

Have you tested that video card on another computer or tested another video card on your computer?

[BluSyko 0]

Yea I figured it out...

 

The problem is that the VRAM on the videocard burnt out.

 

I upgraded to an ANTEC 400W PSU and that didn't solve it.

 

My X300 works fine, so it's not the motherboard.

 

To prevent this from happening in the future, I drilled holes into the side of my case and added an 80mm exhaust fan on top, and an 80mm intake fan on the bottom. I also added a 20mm intake fan on the bottom front of my case...

 

It's really loud, and I like it that way...

 

Now I have to send my vidcard to eVGA and get a replacement.

[Dazultra2000 0]

I get a fairly similar problem on my sparkle 6600GT. When playing world of warcraft on winxp sp2, after a while it would just stop dead, monitor would go into power saving and I get a variety of unhealthy noises (remember what modems sound like?) from my speakers. A reboot and everything is fine, and there are no problems whatsoever. That is, of course, until I play a game for a while again.

 

I unlatched the side of my case, and it hasn't crashed like that again, but it does get very slight grapical corruption with a white diagonal line down the screen for a split-second every 20 secs or so - so I guess it's a heat issue!

 

Gonna investigate a better cooler for the card. Probably one of those zalman things, although I hear they don't fit the AGP 6600GT very well.