Artifacts with BFG 6800 Ultra

T

Tricky

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
171
Well,

My buddy just got his 6800 Ultra and it's just not working. In BIOS, startup, just everywhere, artifacts. Moving dots and lines all over the screen. Off the bat I thought it was a faulty video card. So we swapped out my BFG 6800 Ultra, same thing. Put his in my computer, looks fine. Plays Doom3 great.

So I call the fine folk @ BFG tech support (who were awesome I might add) and they had me try various things. None of them work. Giga-byte was closed but I'm gana have my buddy call them tomorrow but I doubt they will be much help. So I turn to you guys. First the specs:

Athlon FX-53
Gigabyte K8 Triton K8NSNXP-939
2 GB Corair XMS 3200 Pro
WD Raptor 360's in RAID-0
SB Audigy 2 ZS
Antec Trupower 550w

Here's everything I've tried so far.
*Up AGP voltage +0.1v
*Disable Fast Writes
*Drink beer
*Flash MOBO BIOS
*Used RivaTuner to underclock video card
*Unplugged everything from power supply exept HD's and video card
*Drink more beer
*Lots of cursing and yelling at the machine
*Switch from DVI to Analog (getting desperate)
*Watch as buddy examines his Doom3 box while praying for god to smite him now and get it over with.
*Went home to play Doom3 on my machine and leave buddy in pain.

Thats all I can think of ATM. Thanks in advance and all that stuff.
 
Thats what I thought too. Maybe this thread should be in the mobo forum. If a mod agree's go ahead and move it.
 
*Went home to play Doom3 on my machine and leave buddy in pain.
Click to expand...

That was key. :D

Is anything on the system overclocked? It doesn't seem likely, but as the guy above hinted at, swap monitors. Might want to try to swap RAM too. Maybe try taking out that Audigy.

By the way, you both have monstrous systems.
 
i notice he has a really good Powersupply, but perhaps it's somewhat faulty and not supplying correct power to the card? worth a shot anyways.
 
Remove one gig of ram and see what happens. If that works then consider adjusting the timeings and or aperature settings?
 
*Try different monitor
*Try different power supply
*Remove 1GB RAM
*Update chipset drivers.


Sweet, keep em coming guys. Hopefully after work I can get this fixed.

Nothing on his machine is overclocked. He's scared of it. And his current monitor is a Samsung 710T.
 
Tricky said:
*Try different monitor
*Try different power supply
*Remove 1GB RAM
*Update chipset drivers.


Sweet, keep em coming guys. Hopefully after work I can get this fixed.

Nothing on his machine is overclocked. He's scared of it. And his current monitor is a Samsung 710T.
Click to expand...

dont forget to drink beer :)

when i think of artifacts, i think of heat... may want to check the temps, i may be wrong tho
 
My first inclination is update your chipset drivers too. You'd need to remove Forceware first, install the chipset's AGP drivers, then install ForceWare.

If that doesn't work, check your temperator using the Temperature Settings option in the nVidia Control Panel during a run using the Real Time High Dynamic Range Lighting Demo for a few minutes.

Check if the video card fan still works.
 
Every time I checked the temp it was around 52C. I'll try the AGP/Forceware driver thing tonight as well. And oh ya, the beer. Can't forget the beer.

*Try different monitor
*Try different power supply
*Remove 1GB RAM
*Drink beer
*Update chipset drivers.
*Update AGP driver.
*Keep eye on temp after running HDR demo (Which I doubt will change much and the machine will probably blue screen on me, worth a shot tho)
 
duh it's obviously the motherboard or power supply. why would you think it's the card after you already tested that on your machine and it works? :rolleyes:
 
^^^^^

Tricky said:
Thats what I thought too. Maybe this thread should be in the mobo forum. If a mod agree's go ahead and move it.
Click to expand...

I never said it was the video card.
 
theelviscerator said:
Now thats the least offensive thing you said all night. And the most helpful too........
Click to expand...


You know wearing sunglasses indoors just isn't cool, even if they are red.
 
i doubt it's the drivers if you are having problems before the OS loads.

i suspect the PSU.
 
Alot of mobo's suffer capacitance issues with all memory slots loaded, the memory controllers tend to over heat as well. This manifests itself in a mariad of funky chit that intialy appear to be a video issue but in fact are cuased by system memory anamolies. Removal of a gig of ram should be telling.
 
Sounds like interference.

I had a similar problem a few years ago. I installed a tuner card 2 slots down from my ti4200 and got the same effect.

Check and see if you have anything like that near his card. This includes, speakers, cellphones, tuner cards..

Also, what type of cooling is on the cpu?
 
Well, had him try the memory and the monitor thing. Neither worked. Also tried unplugging everything near his card. Southbridge fan, his Zalman CPU cooler and his rear fan. Same thing.
 
Remove everything from the mobo except for the CPU, one stick of memory and the video card.

You said that it's snowing in the BIOS so this cannot be a driver issue. So try resetting the CMOS then leave at defaults and swapping out the PSU as well.

Good luck
 
The gigabyte 939 doesn't come with a metal backplate. Did he put one on with his HSF?

Without it, you might get EMI from the CPU.
 
Ya, his Zalman came with a backplate.

Ok update for all you guys. It turns out that his PSU had a faulty 3.3v rail (Thank you Multitester) so we thru in an old Thermaltake 480w he had in his closet. Works fine now. Only problem was when we switched out his PSU his RAID went belly up. Dunno whats up with that. Anyways, he's over there installing Doom3 right now and all is well. Thanks to everyone for your help. For all you who guessed PSU, here's your prize:

new-belgium-fat-tire.jpg


Has anyone noticed that I really like beer yet? ;)
 
Hey, I didn't think anyone else had this same problem, but then I found this forum. You described the symptoms EXACTLY as they are on my machine as well. I have the exact same motherboard and RAM as you do. Besides that, everything is different. As stated below your post, it definitely isn't the graphics card. Also, I have two HD's in my computer and no matter WHICH one I boot up with, the same problem prevails. Also, this was happening even before I installed any system drivers on my second hard drive. Thus, I don't think it can be a driver related issue. I also know this because I uninstalled all drivers and just boot up XP normally, and the same probelm was there. They're both running Windows XP with Service Pack 2. The screen is even messed up in SAFE MODE. It's ridiculous. The only difference is that I CAN still get to the desktop in safe mode, but there are permanent funky lines across the screen. What I found is that the problem gradually increased in severity over the course of three days. For example, I would boot my computer and the bios would be completely messed, so I would restart. I then got the SAME messed-up bios, so I rebooted again. However, this time, the computer booted normally. I could then play BF2 or do whatever I wanted for HOURS. In fact, the problem did not arise at all when I had a clean boot. During this time I was usually scouring the internet looking for solutions to this problem. However, the next day, after a clean boot I would see blue lines start fading in and out on the desktop, and then my monitor basically went into power-save mode (you know, when that little box is bouncing around the screen that says "Monitor Self-Test, your monitor is working correctly"). It can't be the monitor because I've had monitors die on me before, and they certainly weren't exhibiting these kind of symptoms. Furthermore, I plugged my monitor into my laptop to have dual display, and my monitor can stay on for hours with no problems WHATSOEVER. Now, even when I get to the desktop (which is once in about 10 tries) it LOOKS like I'm in safe mode, but I'm not. That's how much the quality of the image has degraded. ANY suggestions?!!
 
Lol, this thread is 3 years old, man. This might get locked anytime soon. The only thing I can say is the video card has bad RAM or it's overheating.
 
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