I've done quite a bit of research and modifications to my computer. I've basically narrowed it down to my graphics card. My PNY 8800GTX has random crashes. They take a while, but they'll happen in the middle of a game. I've done ram diagnostics, hardware patching, and used another graphics card to see whether it was my mother board or something. My power supply is fine, I changed that too, so I'm about to send the card in for its warranty. These crashes don't have to happen. They don't happen on games like Supreme Commander but they do occur on source games. My question is (since I've asked so many on the topic at these forums), is this just a general driver problem, or could it be that I have a bad card? Does Nvidia intend on fixing their problem (which I think is an infinite loop in their programming)? Should I just deal with it and consider it normal until a fix is released or what? I guess my main worry since the crashes don't occur very often is whether or not it will eventually by force shutting down or pressing the restart button will damage other components? Thanks for all your help!
This problem is driving me crazy. I updated to the Beta, I downgraded to old drivers, I CANT GET RID OF THE CRASHING.... :'( Someone help me! I just want to play half-life 2 Episode 2.
so the cards still underwarrenty? look at it this way, if you bought a car and the engine just shut off on the highway after driving for an hour or so, would you take it back to get fixed? yup. RMA it.
I'd send it in to have it checked out. My 8600M GT in the laptop will crash in Source games as well, but only if overclocked by a margin that is deemed safe in any other game.
run a ATI Tool's scan for artifact. by the way, are your crashes to do with nvk__.sys under Vista? have you tryed this?
What other gfx card did you plug in? Was it another NVidia card and what were the results - did source games work?
Same graphics card, different motherboards. It's factory overclocked, and I had the idea to turn that down a notch, but figured that would void my warranty. So I'm basically requesting a RMA at PNY.
rma is the best way to go. when you get the new one and the pc works, then the problem is solved. if it still doesn't work, then we know to look elsewhere. Either way, you get a new card out of the deal.
After a VERY long time, I wanted to post an update. I got my card back and I'm still having the problem. I don't have the problem in the Crysis demo, which I immediality used as a benchmark and then declared the problem over with. Then I got on CSS and bam, after 2 hours I crashed in the same way as always. I'm so lost.
Can you list what you have done so that we know everything you've tried? I know this sounds like a huge hassle but it would help to have a listing of all the symptoms you've got and the things you've done to remedy them. My usual first suggestion is to remove everything including the case from the equasion to eliminate outside interference in the troubleshooting process. So basically get a box, cardboard or something non-conductive/static friendly, and plop your motherboard on that. Pull out your PSU, graphics card (in motherboard), OS HDD, Ram (in motherboard), CPU (in motherboard) and fire it up with a jumper pull off of the power switch header. Then navigate to the app that's causing the problem (HL2) and give it a go. If it works then start adding components back in one at a time to ensure what is causing it. I take it from your previous post that PNY said your card was good? I'd demand a new card if I was you if this problem continues. P.S. Have you reloaded your OS? Clean load etc? Is the computer crashing completely when your playing or is the game crashing? Sorry if any of this sounds like a repetitive stupid question, just need more info is all. Have you tried another hard drive, maybe it has corrupted sectors where your driver is loaded. That's a long shot but it might be the problem. If you used another card the driver would be installed somewhere else on the hard drive and therefore not have the same symptom. Do you have a friend with the same card?
Well, here's what I've done so far: I first cleaned out all my old nvidia drivers, and installed the latest version. Then when that didn't work, I tried several older drivers and I'd get crashes on different games, etc. Some games don't crash, like with the drivers I have now, Crysis runs perfectly. However, if I install something older, newer games begin to experience the same problem. Also, I see different errors depending on the driver. I'll see BSODs reporting an infinite loop or I'll get black screens with everything else still running in the background. Anyways, from there I ran multiple benchmarks like 3dmark06, which ran perfectly, then I tested my CPU using a program a friend gave me. Then I loaded memtest86+ on a floppy and ran it for about 5 hours (no problems). So yeah, I figured it was the graphics card, RMA'd it, and they sent it back saying it passed all the tests. I'm extremely angry and disappointed that I can't get this build working, and somewhat worried that if these crashes persist, it'll affect something that isn't broken. I haven't reloaded the OS or tried different parts except for the card itself. I really don't have any extra parts that aren't outdated to debug with.
Here's my setup (could it be motherboard/cpu/card conflicts?): Asus P5k3 Deluxe motherboard, 2 Gigs of DDR3 Ram (forgot the brand), PNY 8800 GTX Factory Overclocked, 750W CM Real Power Pro, CM Case Similar case to mine: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=46582&pid=254925&mode=threaded&show=&st=&#entry254925
Is it possibly a heat issue? Is the card's temps good under load? I'd compare when playing the game, and when doing other things. If the temps peak when playing the game in question then I think you've found your culprit, whereas if they peak on normal stuff as well but don't crash then that's likely not the problem. Do you have good airflow around the card? Is there possibly some sort of PCI conflict? Maybe the motherboard is bad. There are a lot of factors to try to isolate without using different hardware to test. Maybe you should take it to a computer repair guy and see if you can borrow some stuff by setting it up right there just to test if it's your hardware.
