EVGA 8800 GTX video artifacts; is my card dying?

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freeze888

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Mar 10, 2007
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Hi everyone,

Yesterday I was playing DOTA with my friends when all of a sudden my computer locked up during mid game. I rebooted my computer thinking it was some random event but it locked again when I loaded the game. Now I am seeing artifacts during post and on the windows loading screen.





Once passed the loading screen, windows just locks up. I took out my GTX and clean the fan using a Q-tip and rechecked the power cables but to no avail. I did a quick search on the internet and it seems that these are the signs of a dying video card. I have never overlocked my video card and it is receiving pretty good air flow in my P182 case.

Now, one possibility is to RMA it but I was wondering if I could do anything else to try and fix it. If I do ultimately RMA my GTX, what would the equivalent substitute be if EVGA doesn't have a 8800 GTX on hand. Any input is appreciated.

Thanks.
 
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yeah, rma if you can.

thats similar to what happened to my gtx when it died. unfortunately, i hadn't registered my card when it died so thats why i baked it!
 
Args, apparently you need to have a ticket number before you can process a RMA. Just submitted a message to EVGA's support.

What puzzles me is to why my card is suddenly dying. I've never overclocked it, has good airflow and I have a good power supply. I ran into this thread on the EVGA forums: Did my 8800GTX just die? People are actually saying that the 8800 GTX have a "planned obsolescence" of two years. I'm not quite sure what to think of it really. What do other people think?
 
i dont think they would be give a lifetime warranty if they had a planned obsolescence
 
Haste266 said:
i dont think they would be give a lifetime warranty if they had a planned obsolescence
Click to expand...

True. I'm thinking that the stock cooler wasn't really adequate for the 8800 GTX. I mean, for EVGA to say that running 60 C at idle and 80 C at load is normal put a lot of question marks into my head. To me, those temps are really high for a video card.
 
search nvidia solder problems. apparently they were using crappy solder or something, look around the forums and see an escalaction of 8800gtx issues from april/may/june this year.

Same thing happened to my 8800gtx few months back, same looking windows screen and a funky POST/bios screen (random characters / blurring). Luckily HASTE had just recently posted the Oven trick, so gave that a shot and it worked (oem out of warrenty card, nothing to lose)

Have had to re-bake twice more.. (2nd one wasn't long/hot enough, 3rd times a charm and going strong afer a few weeks - disabled aero now though, might help), now just waiting for new ATI offering to see whats available, no confidence in nvidia quality now.

for sure though RMA if available, bake if not.
 
I have almost the same problem. The patterns I'm seeing are red, and it only happens sometimes. The other night, I couldn't play games at all since they appeared every time about a minute into the games I played. The patterns appear for a few moments, then my displays go into sleep and the computer restarts. Sometimes I get lucky and the driver manages to do the GPU recovery thingy. That night, I could trigger the problem with any kind of 3D acceleration (not Aero though). FurMark triggered it too.

The day after that, the patterns didn't appear. The card worked perfectly, even after an hour of constant stability testing in FurMark. Today, the problem appeared again, but only ONCE. GPU recover kicked in a few times, but to be sure it wouldn't happen again that session, I restarted the computer. Now I've been playing games for about an hour after that happened and it all works as usual.

I still have warranty on the card, and I would like to use it. But this is quite a tricky problem as I can't force it to appear. I'm sure several days could pass between the patterns show themselves.

What do you think I should do?
 
Wingdings said:
I have almost the same problem. The patterns I'm seeing are red, and it only happens sometimes. The other night, I couldn't play games at all since they appeared every time about a minute into the games I played. The patterns appear for a few moments, then my displays go into sleep and the computer restarts. Sometimes I get lucky and the driver manages to do the GPU recovery thingy. That night, I could trigger the problem with any kind of 3D acceleration (not Aero though). FurMark triggered it too.

The day after that, the patterns didn't appear. The card worked perfectly, even after an hour of constant stability testing in FurMark. Today, the problem appeared again, but only ONCE. GPU recover kicked in a few times, but to be sure it wouldn't happen again that session, I restarted the computer. Now I've been playing games for about an hour after that happened and it all works as usual.

I still have warranty on the card, and I would like to use it. But this is quite a tricky problem as I can't force it to appear. I'm sure several days could pass between the patterns show themselves.

What do you think I should do?
Click to expand...

Well it would help if I knew what your computer specs are, but here are some general assessments. It sounds like your problem is only occurring when your card is under load (ie: running games / FurMark).

One possibility could be a heating issue caused by dust build up, in which case you can take out your card and clean the fan. Or it could be your power supply not supplying enough to your card. That could cause artifacts when under load.
 
yeah sounds like its time for an RMA.

I'm willing to bet EVGA still has a good stock of 8800GTX's, if not they'll send you a 9800GTX.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
yeah sounds like its time for an RMA.

I'm willing to bet EVGA still has a good stock of 8800GTX's, if not they'll send you a 9800GTX.
Click to expand...

Yep, my GTX is actually in transit for a RMA. I'm hoping to get my card sometime next week. But I'm kinda worried getting a 8800 GTX model back. Sure it will probably work but for how long. After reading a lot of threads about the 8800 GTX suddenly dying, mostly to what D0n2k mention earlier.

D0n2k said:
search nvidia solder problems. apparently they were using crappy solder or something, look around the forums and see an escalaction of 8800gtx issues from april/may/june this year.
Click to expand...

I rather not want to go through the RMA hassle over again.

Isn't the 9800 GTX model lower, spec wise than a 8800 GTX? From what I've read, the 260 GTX would be a more suitable replacement for my card.
 
freeze888 said:
Well it would help if I knew what your computer specs are, but here are some general assessments. It sounds like your problem is only occurring when your card is under load (ie: running games / FurMark).

One possibility could be a heating issue caused by dust build up, in which case you can take out your card and clean the fan. Or it could be your power supply not supplying enough to your card. That could cause artifacts when under load.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your response!

How silly of me to forget posting my specs. Here they are:

Core i7 920
EVGA x58 SLI
OCZ PC-12800 3 x 2 GB @ 1.6V
ASUS Geforce 8800GTX
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer
Intel X25-M 80 GB (G1)
Corsair HX620W
Antec P180B

I should mention that I have checked the temperatures while being under load and they haven't changed a bit for several months. They're still within reason for a 8800GTX - it reaches 90 degrees C on Xtreme Burning Mode in FurMark. I have been running an overclock on the CPU for a few months but no issues have come from it. I have dialled back the overclock to stock speed but the problem persists. I have tried switching the PCI-E cables from the PSU and letting it draw power from the other connectors (different rail).

I have also underclocked both the core, the shaders and the memory to rule those out, as well as running MemtestG80, which is a CUDA program that tests the RAM on the graphics card.

Here's a screenshot of it happening in WoW:


The other night the problem appeared, and in addition to the displays going black and my computer rebooting, the displays stayed in sleep mode. No matter how many times I restarted or how long I let the computer boot, they stayed black. Only after inserting another card into the 8800GTX's PCI-E slot and running the forementioned card on a secondary PCI-E slot I could get my picture back.

Really iffy problem. I will be sending the card in for RMA in the next days, but I'm still worried that it's not the card that's faulty. It should be, though, since I have been running LinX and Memtest86+ without errors. Oh, and I have been getting the problem on both Windows 7 and Windows XP x64, with different driver versions.

EDIT: I really need to tell you guys how randomly it appears. Hours or even a day could go by without it showing itself, even on full load.
 
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Wingdings said:
...snip...

The other night the problem appeared, and in addition to the displays going black and my computer rebooting, the displays stayed in sleep mode. No matter how many times I restarted or how long I let the computer boot, they stayed black. Only after inserting another card into the 8800GTX's PCI-E slot and running the forementioned card on a secondary PCI-E slot I could get my picture back.

...snip...
Click to expand...

I think your video card is starting to give way. We can eliminate poor power supply / case airflow since they are both good products and we can eliminate your motherboard since putting another video card in the same PCI-E slot solved your problem.

You should send a request for a RMA. As to the cause of your failing GTX, I'm just as puzzled as you are. But I'm pretty sure it has to do with what D0n2k mentioned.
 
freeze888 said:
I think your video card is starting to give way. We can eliminate poor power supply / case airflow since they are both good products and we can eliminate your motherboard since putting another video card in the same PCI-E slot solved your problem.

You should send a request for a RMA. As to the cause of your failing GTX, I'm just as puzzled as you are. But I'm pretty sure it has to do with what D0n2k mentioned.
Click to expand...

When I put another card in the primary PCI-E slot, I didn't start any games or put load on it since that card in particular has memory issues (baked X1300). I was simply checking to see if the black screens were a product of the 8800GTX or if it was something else.

Also, the problem hasn't appeared since I moved the 8800GTX to the second PCI-E slot. Yes, the card does get hotter due to hotter air intake, but I still haven't experienced the strange patterns and the reboots. As I said in my previous post, the appearance of problem itself it VERY random. Not getting any issues after moving the card could simply be coincidence.

One thing did happened yesterday, while I had the card in the second slot. While I was playing CoD4, the screen froze on several occasions and the GPU recovery kicked in several times. I could continue playing, and there was no signs of the patterns or getting reboots.

This card has served me well for 2½ years, but this is starting to wear me out. I'm anxiously awaiting the HD5800 series to replace my current card. Resolving this problem before that would be nice, though.

I'd hate for the card to work perfectly at the RMA center, though. Whether the problem appears or not is seemingly completely random (while in high load, of course). I'm hoping they'll just read my instructions and send me a replacement immediately.
 
freeze888 said:
Yep, my GTX is actually in transit for a RMA. I'm hoping to get my card sometime next week. But I'm kinda worried getting a 8800 GTX model back. Sure it will probably work but for how long. After reading a lot of threads about the 8800 GTX suddenly dying, mostly to what D0n2k mention earlier.

Isn't the 9800 GTX model lower, spec wise than a 8800 GTX? From what I've read, the 260 GTX would be a more suitable replacement for my card.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but EVGA will keep replacing them, I almost feel bad... Same seems to be happening to the 8800GTS's, mine died a few months back (they sent me the 112sp version as a replacement!), My friends 320MB just died, seems like the G80 just isnt such a good chip life-span wise. Too bad, its a bloody brute this thing, the 6.0L V8 of graphics cads.

No the 9800GTX is considered by BFG and EVGA to be a step up from an 8800GTX, there are two stories I can recall of people on these forums getting a 9800GTX back from an 8800GTX RMA'd. It does have less memory (although the 2nd case might have recieved a 1GB version?), and it does have a smaller memory bus, but the increased TMU and ROP efficiency, combined with smaller-faster ram, means that in almost every scenario theres a small net gain. But yes, if you stress the memory bandwidth you will see the 8800GTX come up on top by a margine of 2 or 3%.
 
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When HardOCP reviewed the 9800GTX a long time ago against the 8800GTX, they found that sometimes the two were equal, sometimes the 9800GTX was up to 15% faster, depending on the game. The 9800GTX certainly isn't a downgrade.
 
Wingdings said:
Thank you for your response!

How silly of me to forget posting my specs. Here they are:

Core i7 920
EVGA x58 SLI
OCZ PC-12800 3 x 2 GB @ 1.6V
ASUS Geforce 8800GTX
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer
Intel X25-M 80 GB (G1)
Corsair HX620W
Antec P180B

I should mention that I have checked the temperatures while being under load and they haven't changed a bit for several months. They're still within reason for a 8800GTX - it reaches 90 degrees C on Xtreme Burning Mode in FurMark. I have been running an overclock on the CPU for a few months but no issues have come from it. I have dialled back the overclock to stock speed but the problem persists. I have tried switching the PCI-E cables from the PSU and letting it draw power from the other connectors (different rail).

I have also underclocked both the core, the shaders and the memory to rule those out, as well as running MemtestG80, which is a CUDA program that tests the RAM on the graphics card.

Here's a screenshot of it happening in WoW:


The other night the problem appeared, and in addition to the displays going black and my computer rebooting, the displays stayed in sleep mode. No matter how many times I restarted or how long I let the computer boot, they stayed black. Only after inserting another card into the 8800GTX's PCI-E slot and running the forementioned card on a secondary PCI-E slot I could get my picture back.

Really iffy problem. I will be sending the card in for RMA in the next days, but I'm still worried that it's not the card that's faulty. It should be, though, since I have been running LinX and Memtest86+ without errors. Oh, and I have been getting the problem on both Windows 7 and Windows XP x64, with different driver versions.

EDIT: I really need to tell you guys how randomly it appears. Hours or even a day could go by without it showing itself, even on full load.
Click to expand...

Ouch that is bad, get it ram'ed asap!
 
After moving the 8800GTX from the top slot to the medium slot, no issues have occured. It's now been almost two days.
 
Just an update on my RMA. I used FedEx ground international for my RMA and as of right now, my shipment is stuck with a status of "Clearance delay". I called FedEx and they told me I had to pay a brokerage fee in order for it to proceed (btw, shipping from Canada). I told the FedEx rep that it was my understanding that I shouldn't have to pay this fee since I'm just sending my GTX to be repaired under warranty. She said that it didn't matter and I had to pay up or have my package shipped back to me. UNBELIEVABLE!! I have yet to pay FedEx and told them I'll call back to give them an answer.

In the mean time I sent a message to EVGA asking to extend my RMA deadline since I have no idea how long it's going to take. Has anyone from Canada had to go through this crap for a RMA?
 
Just another update for those of you that are following this thread. My GTX finally reached EVGA's RMA department 2 days ago and I just got an e-mail from them that they have shipped my replacement. Hopefully I'll get it early next week.
 
Well I finally got my package yesterday but sadly I didn't get a bonus upgrade like I was reading around. EVGA probably had a lot of 8800 GTX in stock since there was an influx of failures earlier this year. I also received my Fedex invoice for the brokerage fee. Friggin $33.00 USD!! The breakdown of the cost is pretty stupid:

Code: 
Entry service: $ 17.00
PDA processing - Disclaim: $2.00
Advance notice requirement: $5.00
Obtain/send information: $9.00

Honestly, if I knew it was going to cost that much, I would have used Fedex express instead of Fedex ground. It cost pretty much the same when factoring the brokerage fees.

I was pretty disappointed with the packaging though. My video card was covered in some kind of white powder and the molding of the plastic clam shell they provided clearly wasn't made for the 8800 GTX. I believe the person that was packaging my card had to use some force to make it fit because I had a hard time taking my card out.

I've installed my GTX and everything seems to be in working order. However whenever I power up or shutdown my computer, the video card would make a loud squeal. I'm thinking it's the video card fan but should I be concerned? Is there a stress test program for the video card that I could use?

Any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated.
 
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