Rand-o-Crash...

[skool h8r]

Hi all,
i'm currently having problems with games. For some reason, on the 'older' games, such as FarCry, UT2004Demo, and similar (i.e. games that don't stress my system), the computer randomly hangs (no BSOD or restart, just complete stop). The music stops abruptly, and the graphics freezes. The HDD LED isn't on, flashing or similar so i know it's hanging and not just slowing down. The weird thing is, on games that do stress my system; NFSMW Demo, Codename Panzers, EE2, FEARCombar, etc., the computer runs perfectly, no slowdowns or anything like that. Has anyone heard or experienced anything like this and knows a way to resolve it?

I'm using 91.45XG's, and i've gone back to default clock speeds but it's notmade a difference.

Thanks,
Scott.

[skool h8r]

UPDATE: The original Unreal Tournament Demo doesn't hang the system at all.

[Wolf2000me]

I had a whole bunch of problems with the 91.45 to 91.47 drivers. Several games using older shader models would either not run or crash to the desktop.
I then installed the 91.48 drivers, those solved all the problems at once.

http://www.guru3d.com/newsitem.php?id=4350

If your event viewer reports the driver stuck in an infinite loop you might also have some graphics overheating issue.

[skool h8r]

Well nothing in event viewer, but i'm gonna go to 91.48's and hope i don't get the problems with videos that monkeyman mentioned.

[skool h8r]

Well the 91.48XG's are still causing the same problem so i'm gonna try the stock WHQL 91.48NV's.

[skool h8r]

Do you know, you're a genius. I've just installed the 91.48's from the link you gave me, and WOW. Killed 2 birds with one stone. Firstly, the problems are gone (in FarCry, it hasn't crashed once) and previously, the max my moitor would support without going 'out of range' was 1152x864, now i can use 1280x1024 without any problems (in games, it lags a little bit but what's to be expected, i can live playing at 1152x768).

Just wow.

Thanks,
Scott.

[Wolf2000me]

I aim to please

That's the only driver that enabled tAA for me without crashing. It looks like I'm going to hold on to this one for quite a while

[skool h8r]

Well, i thought it has sorted itself out, but it's just made the problem better. It's still hanging during some games. FarCry was a lot better, i have to admit, but i'm still having problems. FarCry, UT2004 both use SM2 don't they? If this is true, is there any way of forcing SM3 from within the NV control panel, or with a seperate utility? Rather than having to go through all games and force it. Or is the HDR in FarCry SM3?

I really can't stand it when things like this happen, upgrade and badaboom, it crashes.

[Wolf2000me]

It looks like the 91.48 drivers are more stable on your card as your crashes have become more frequent.

If your FarCry version is updated it supports SM3. HDR is also, and indeed, SM3.

You can force a shader model in games using directx with rivatuner but I don't think that will do much good stability wise. However it might be worth a try.
Also try reverting to an older 87.xx driver version to test the cards stability.

Maybe posting this in the graphics and sound section may shed some light.

[skool h8r]

Well the VS and PS override didn't do a damn. I'm gonna try the 87.25's (the only 87's i could find on AOAFiles) and see if it helps any. The only problem is working out whether they're working or not because the crashing can happen at any time.

EDIT: It wasn't until after i posted last time that i remembered that HDR is SM3

[skool h8r]

Well i think this case is all wrapped up. It appears that i forgot to change my PCIE clock in BIOS from 145, which is what i set it at when i had the 6200TC. It appears that the pure raw clock speed of the 7600GT doesn't agree with a high PCIE clock. I've just managed to make it through 2 whole matches in UT2004 demo without a single problem. Something i must remember in future.

I've also disconnected my CCFL's, removed one case fan and removed the PCI firewire card that was in there. I've also managed to hide almost all cables from view so it's all nice and tidy inside now.

I'm gonna see how things go over the next few days and if all is well, i'm gonna go to a newer driver, add my CCFL's and maybe the other case fan and see if it looks better.

OT: After i'd taken out my 6200TC but before i installed my 7600GT, i noticed something that shocked me quite a bit: The length of both cards is almost identical with the 7600GT being only a couple of millimetres larger than the 6200TC! It really is a wolf in sheeps' clothing.

So there you have it people, almost conclusive evidence that if you are having problems with random hanging shortly after installing a new graphics card, make sure that you set your PCIE clock speed in BIOS to the default setting (usually 100Mhz).

[skool h8r]

Triple post, i know but looks like there's still something wrong somewhere. It's still hanging during the UT2004 demo. I'm really stumped for ideas now. I really wished my college course taught me about diagnostics on GPU's rather than on working out why a whole computer doesn't work. I think i'm gonna put it in for warranty because i can't go on with problems like this. Only got the thing a few weeks ago as well

Here's the diagnostics from RivaTuner:

$ffffffffff ----------------------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff Northbridge information
$ffffffffff ----------------------------------------------------------------
$0400000000 Description : NVIDIA nForce4 series
$0400000001 Vendor ID : 10de (NVIDIA)
$0400000002 Device ID : 005e
$0400000003 AGP bus : not supported
$ffffffffff ----------------------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff Display adapter information
$ffffffffff ----------------------------------------------------------------
$0000000000 Description : NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT by TweaksRUs
$0000000001 Vendor ID : 10de (NVIDIA)
$0000000002 Device ID : 0391
$0000000003 Location : bus 5, device 0, function 0
$0000000004 Bus type : PCIE
$000000000f PCIE link width : 16x supported, 16x selected
$0000000009 Base address 0 : fa000000 (memory range)
$000000000a Base address 1 : d0000000 (memory range)
$000000000b Base address 2 : none
$000000000c Base address 3 : fb000000 (memory range)
$000000000d Base address 4 : none
$000000000e Base address 5 : 00006c00 (I/O range)
$ffffffffff ----------------------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff OpenGL driver information
$ffffffffff ----------------------------------------------------------------
$0f00000000 Vendor : NVIDIA Corporation
$0f00000001 Renderer : G73/PCI/SSE2/3DNOW!
$0f00000002 Version : 2.0.2
$ffffffffff ----------------------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff NVIDIA specific display adapter information
$ffffffffff ----------------------------------------------------------------
$0100000000 Graphics core : NV4B/G73 revision A2 (12pp,5vp)
$0100000001 Hardwired ID : 0391 (ROM strapped to 0391)
$0100000002 Memory bus : 128-bit
$0100000003 Memory type : DDR3 (RAM configuration 01)
$0100000004 Memory amount : 262144KB
$0100000100 Core clock domain 0 : 558.900MHz
$0100000101 Core clock domain 1 : 558.900MHz
$0100000102 Core clock domain 2 : 558.900MHz
$0100000006 Memory clock : 702.000MHz (1404.000MHz effective)
$0100000007 Reference clock : 27.000MHz
$ffffffffff ----------------------------------------------------------------
$ffffffffff NVIDIA VGA BIOS information
$ffffffffff ----------------------------------------------------------------
$1100000000 Title : GeForce 7600 GT VGA BIOS 0639
$1100000002 Version : 5.73.22.18.06
$1100000100 BIT version : 1.00
$1100000200 Core clock : 560MHz
$1100000201 Memory clock : 700MHz
$1100010000 Performance level 0 : 560MHz/700MHz/1.30V/31%
$1100010001 Performance level 1 : 560MHz/700MHz/1.30V/65%
$1100020000 VID bitmask : 00000011b
$1100020100 Voltage level 0 : 1.30V, VID 00000010b
$1100030001 Core thermal compensation : 7°C
$1100030002 Core thermal threshold : 115°C/105°C
$1100030003 Ambient thermal threshold : 120°C/110°C
$1100030004 Thermal diode gain : 0.045°C
$1100030005 Thermal diode offset : -235.170°C

Don't know if that'll help anyone help me work out what's wrong but you never know.

Thanks,
Scott.

[skool h8r]

Ok, think i have definately nailed it this time. Seems my 2.6Ghz CPU OC doesn't agree with this card so now i'm running at 2.4Ghz. Seems stable, no problems in UT2004 demo, still got to test far cry but hopefully, it's all sorted.

[cloasters]

I hope it works for you now!

[Samuknow]

It is funny how picky some combinations can be.

[Wolf2000me]

Originally Posted by skool h8r

Ok, think i have definately nailed it this time. Seems my 2.6Ghz CPU OC doesn't agree with this card so now i'm running at 2.4Ghz. Seems stable, no problems in UT2004 demo, still got to test far cry but hopefully, it's all sorted.

That's strange. Graphic cards don't get unstable because of a CPU frequency, unless that CPU is unstable itself. I'm pretty puzzled with the situation where you changed the video drivers which somehow made your system less unstable.
It looks like a combinated problem to me and your solution sounds like bad doctors advice to me as well. You know, like you're telling your doctor your leg hurts when you move it where he answers "then don't move your leg".
There must be a better solution to all of it and you might already have sorted out some of the error combination by changing the PCI-E frequency. To test you might want to try changing back this PCI-E frequency and see wheather some of your old problems return. If yes then CPU stability and memory (controller) should be checked.