Graphics can NOT get video to work properly

Shuttle SN25P w/ nForce 4 Ultra, 350W PSU
Athlon64 4000
1GB (2x 512MB) Corsair XMS - set at 2.2.2.5, as recommended
BFG 7800GT PCI-e
WD 74GB Raptor
NEC DVD-RW

Just reloaded machine completely and the video will not keep stable in games. I finally got FFXI stable with the 81.95 drivers, but Far Cry and Fable will not run longer then 5 min. Fable gave artifacts and would crash with an error on the nVidia 81.98 drivers, so I just deleted the game from me HD. FFXI would run about 30 min and crash to desktop or BSOD. Set memory timings to 2.2.2.5 instead of 'Auto' fixed the BSOD problem, and rolling back drivers to 81.95 fixed the game crashing. Now Far Cry will not run longer than 5 min w/o crashing to desktop. No errors, it just closes. Rolled back to the 77.77 drivers, same problem. This machine was running great, until I noticed it was time for the 6 month overhaul. HELP!!!!

 

Tried a re-format? Just rolling back the drivers might not cut the mustard.

Sounds like you might have some conflicted drivers on your OS install to me - I had exactly the same thing when I was setting this up a few weeks ago, turned out the mem controller and HD controller drivers weren't working properly.

 

just did a fresh reload again, still having same problems. using nforce 6.70 mobo drivers, and 77.77 vid card drivers. game will run a little while with everything set low as possible in far cry. checked the PS, 350W with both 12V rails rated for 17A. kills me that i find out 6 months after i build the box that far cry can put it on it's knees and i gotta build another dam box.

 

Try loosening those ram timings, 2.5-3-3-6, then try and play your games...

 

is it a heat problem?
Shuttles dont have much room so the air flow might be bad.

 

I was thinking the same thing.

Have you primed for a while to see if it overheats? It might be the CPU or GFX card heating up after your rebuild...

 

Underclock and maybe even undervolt, inc your gfx card. At the very least run everything stock with safe rather than optimal settings (eg BIOS defaults). Since it's stability you're seeking rather than performance setting the RAM to PC2700 speed with 3-4-4-11 T2 would be wise too. The latest mobo BIOS and latest official drivers all your hardware is also a good place to start.

Give Prime95's Torture Test and MemTest a go to check your CPU & RAM are okay. I'd also suggest avoiding nVidia's NIC and IDE drivers, they're just plain awful and often cause problems. Do you have another system you can swap components to and from in order to eliminate faulty hardware? Sounds like you have a lot of troubleshotting to do, best of luck!

 

tried setting everything under-spec, crash to desktop, although it took longer than normal, and set the gfx in game to 1024x768 all lowest settings. tested RAM in a known good system, and it performed fine, dont have another PCI-e board to check the vid card, and got all the latest drivers. the nforce 4 6.70s are loaded, including the nic and ide drivers, but i never had any problems with those before. been running the box with the cover off the past week or so to try and eliminate heat issues. ill try prime95 and see how it does......

this box was running fine till i got tired of bad sound drivers from initial build 6-7 months ago and reloaded it. thats when i decided to start playing other games besides FFXI and the problems showed up.

 

The LAN drivers are OK for me but the ActiveArmour software and SW IDEs are problematic at best. I saw various instability during intial testing when I setup my K8N SLI with them. Nuked them but fast, and the system has been a rock the last 9 months+.

Have you mointored the GPU temp for the 7800GT and made certain the fan is spinning up properly? Did P95TT and memtest pass?

 

p95 didnt even run for 30sec before it gave an error. backed off the memory to 3-3-3-5 at stock speed, runs like a champ and games run. albeit it had some weird coloring. going to try a fresh install of far cry with all the latest updates tonight and see how it does. fable was running rock solid as well with all the eye candy turned on until this latest re-format >< sometimes i really hate computers.......

on the other hand I could use this opportunity to get that matched pair of 2GB memory ive been lookin for.......

edit: the gfx core temp never gets over 53-55, after careful monitoring.

 

Timings are only worth a few percentage points performance so no big deal. A very mild CPU overclock would easily compensate since the best performance on A64 comes from clockspeed with the IMC coming along for the ride. Overclocking the BFG a bit more given the good thermals, would do the trick too. Out of curiosity, did you try giving the ram a voltage boost? 2.8v or so would still be healthy and might let you tighten your timings again.

Some games would definitely appreciate that extra ram though too.

 

I'm gonna do some more tweaking with it tonight. This has given me some hope that it may be just some settings I can tweak and change. I've read to many people using this setup with great results.

 

SUCCESS!!!! set the memory at 2-3-3-5 at 2.7V, no problems. Far Cry looks absolutely amazing at 1280x1024 with all the eye candy on. played for over an hour with no issues whatsoever.

Thanks for all the input and suggestions, as everywhere else I looked everyone was certain my PS was inadequate, even when others have the exact same setup as me running just fine.

Off topic - The memory is Corsair XMS LL memory rated at 2-2-2-5 but I wonder why it won't hold those settings anymore???

 

If you mointor the voltage, what does it indicate? If it is undervolting or fluctuating, that could explain it. But some ram IME, just needs substantially more than default voltage to run its rated speed and/or timings. I usually just set mine to 2.8-2.85v from the get go now, since I don't shoot for too high a ram speed and it seems to save tweak time.