system crash

[pederson]

Hello. I am having some graphic problems with my computer.

Here are my specs:

Galaxy 8800gt (the one with the big cooler)
80 GB HD
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800
Thermaltake TR2-500 power supply
Asus M2N-E Motherboard
CM2X1024-5400C4 2x2gig sticks of RAM
I have one large exhaust fan, and two intake fans. The computer is also dust free.
Microsoft XP Home

Here is the problem, which I think is either a RAM problem or a GPU problem.
When playing any game, like Oblivion, WOW, COD4, and Crysis, the game with seem to lose the picture- the ground and sky will pixelate and text will turn into a solid distorted box. This seemed to happen at least every other time I play. Some games may just lock up as well, either when playing or at the menu screens. In addition, 3dmark06 will freeze up or give me an error message stating the NV4 driver stopped working.

I reformatted yesterday with the current NForce divers and the current Nvidia video drivers from Nividia, as well as service pack 3 and any other critical updates from Microsoft. The same problems occurred so I cleaned the drivers from Nvidia and downloaded 177.83 drivers from Galaxies website. The crashes are now less often, but seem to occur at least 1/3 of the time now.

I also ran memtest for 18 hours the other day and no errors occurred. I am stumped….any thought?

Thanks
Chris

 

[KSoD]

There is now the 178.15 driver available from the nvidia site. Try those. The 177 drivers were mainly Beta driver which could explain the driver failure.

Also use Driver Cleaner Pro to remove the drivers fully. then restart. Download and install the newest set from teh nvidia site. Then restart after you install those.

Driver Cleaner Professional download from Guru3D.com

 

[pederson]

There is now the 178.15 driver available from the nvidia site. Try those. The 177 drivers were mainly Beta driver which could explain the driver failure.

Also use Driver Cleaner Pro to remove the drivers fully. then restart. Download and install the newest set from teh nvidia site. Then restart after you install those.

Driver Cleaner Professional download from Guru3D.com

Thanks for your post. I tried what you stated, but 3dmark06 keeps locking the entire system up. Any other thoughts?
Thanks
Chris

 

[KSoD]

Shut down 3dMark. No sense in running it while you are having issues. Shut down that application and then continue.

 

[pederson]

Shut down 3dMark. No sense in running it while you are having issues. Shut down that application and then continue.

3dmark is not running when other programs, like games, are running. I am using it to determint the stability of the card.

Any other things i can try?

thanks
chris

 

[kagekitsune]

if you have more than 1 stick of ram do the 1 stick trick with the ram you have. if it fails then it bring it down to gpu or even cpu. get core temp turn on temp recording play a game let it freeze then check the log. if high temps that may be the case if not its most likely your gpu.

 

[pederson]

if you have more than 1 stick of ram do the 1 stick trick with the ram you have. if it fails then it bring it down to gpu or even cpu. get core temp turn on temp recording play a game let it freeze then check the log. if high temps that may be the case if not its most likely your gpu.

ok. i will try that. Does it matter what slot the single 1gig ram module in is?

How would i test the CPU?

thanks for your help
Chris

 

[kagekitsune]

technically no it doesn't matter what slot you put them (unless your dual channeling then put them in the correct slots) in its a good idea to try different slots to see if a slot didn't go bad.

 

[Darkart777]

hmm interesting i had a customer with almost the same problem went down the list of things to check ended up being a bad PCI-E slot same mobo you have...

 

[pederson]

hmm interesting i had a customer with almost the same problem went down the list of things to check ended up being a bad PCI-E slot same mobo you have...

not good to hear...lol

I had the same problem with previous parts I ordered. I can't recall what the old board was..but the old card was a XFX 8800gt. I ended up RMA'ing the old board and card, with the stuff I have now. The only remaining parts, from which I had the same problem, are the CPU, RAM, and HDD.

Any thoughts? I am stumped.

Thanks