Geforce EVGA 6800 Ultra locks up - Is there a diagnostic tool available?

[PolishPaul]

networkgeek - I thought about that. I initially suspected the HDD, but i did a drive fitness test that came out OK. I do have a new killer SCSI set that i just installed XP on and i'm slowly transferring my junk over. I'll see how it behaves there.

FlashDude - i was not aware that Nvidia has tools which i could monitor the temp. Is that the standard tools that come with the drivers?

I'm also suspecting my MOBO - i do have a spare, but not the spare time to gut it all out.
The reason i suspect the mobo is that when i boot up i get a warning "your computer is in overclock mode, disable to prevent performance issues" or something like that.. ofcourse i have to F1 to continue. I've reset the factory defaults before, messed with the settings but the problem just comes back. Even replaced the battery. Once i boot up past the error, i can reset the box and it will not halt during POST. Only if i shut it down completely, will the warning come back. Even a full powerdown doesn't always generate this warning. This makes it kinda tough to diagnose after making BIOS changes. As a matter of fact, when i tweaked some settings it seems like the game goes on longer without a lock up.

Sigh... I just wish i had all the hardware like i do at work Then i'd just swap parts and bam!

 

[FlashDude]

Yes the standard drivers have built in temp monitor, If you are using the new control panel switch to the clasic and if your card has a temp diod then it will be displayed. My 6800gs has it so you would think the ultra would as well. Have you tryed flashing the bios?

 

[SYL\X/3K]

If i were to overclock too much a message would also pop up Saying to "change the setting to prevent damage to the hardware" so i did but i dont get why it still popes up on yours :/ try resetting the BIOS by pulling out the battery in the MOBO for 5 minutes to clear everything up completely

 

[PolishPaul]

FlashDude - Yeah, i'm a duchebag, i actually had slightly older drivers (last set?) so.. i now have the newest And i RTFM and found the temp monitoring.

Interestingly, i just had it lock up in regular windows before upgrading drivers. I still don't think that will help.. but i'm also thinking of taking the BIOS advice... I do remember doing all the 'needful' when i got the machine but i'll see if there's a new version out. I also tried taking out the batt and draining the mobo...

Lets see how Company of Heroes does now

 

[PolishPaul]

Welp, that didn't help.

I put on CoH on my fresh install of XP - the game played fine for a few hours, but then at one point it froze again - this time there were graphic glitches visible on the screen (black lines and shapes).

I'm actually beginning to think it may be related to the PSU... Maybe there is a drain in power in one of the leads connected to the VC (maybe HDD is suddenly drawing some current) and it leads to a crash. I'll try to isolate the leads to make sure nothing else is connected to the ones that are used for the VC.

This is such a PITA to figure out...

 

[PolishPaul]

Update:

Welp, wouldn't you know it - as i'm poking fun at my friend cause his mobo is dead and he wouldn't stop b!^(#ing - my PC just shuts down with the lovely smell of burned circuits... (heart stops).

Turns out one small component burned out on the mobo. I replaced it with a different model, and haven't had any problems yet. Although booting from the SCSI the issue was almost gone (before mobo replacement) - only here and there it would lock up.

So the mobo's been on the list of things to be replaced, but i had no choice now. The best part about all of this is my SATA drives won't boot because its a different controller :-o I was almost happy to learn it was the mobo that got fried... cause i think its been the culprit of many other issues....