Fifo: Watchdog Timeout Error and 8800GTX

[Dmitri]

I've been experiencing intermittent crashing in a variety of games over the past few months. It appears to be a machine freeze. Lately though it's gotten worse.

The graphics freeze, yet I can hear the sounds of the game running in the background. Forced to hard reset. Upto now this only happens with games, and not frequent enough for it to be a major problem.

Yesterday I started experiencing the same with non-fullscreen apps (Maya, Max). Garbled graphics and artifacts. Same symptoms, machine appears to be frozen, but if I alt-ctrl-del I can eventually kill the app causing the freeze. Though I'm forced to restart the machine, won't run any other 3D apps till I do.

Ran Debugview all day. During the games and 3D app crashes it spits out a bunch of these errors out:

NVDX: Channel Error: "Fifo: Watchdog Timeout Error"(8) on channel 2.
NVD3DREL:
NVDX: Total Channel Errors: 14

I've tried reinstalling drivers, underclocking the card (it's never been overclocked), updating directx.

The problem seems completely random and does not appear to be heat related, my system is well ventilated.

I've googled this issue, most users reporting the problem don't seem to find solutions.

Only conclusion I can draw is that the card is physically defective, that it's dying.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[BlueStorm]

I've been experiencing intermittent crashing in a variety of games over the past few months. It appears to be a machine freeze. Lately though it's gotten worse.

The graphics freeze, yet I can hear the sounds of the game running in the background. Forced to hard reset. Upto now this only happens with games, and not frequent enough for it to be a major problem.

Yesterday I started experiencing the same with non-fullscreen apps (Maya, Max). Garbled graphics and artifacts. Same symptoms, machine appears to be frozen, but if I alt-ctrl-del I can eventually kill the app causing the freeze. Though I'm forced to restart the machine, won't run any other 3D apps till I do.

Ran Debugview all day. During the games and 3D app crashes it spits out a bunch of these errors out:

NVDX: Channel Error: "Fifo: Watchdog Timeout Error"(8) on channel 2.
NVD3DREL:
NVDX: Total Channel Errors: 14

I've tried reinstalling drivers, underclocking the card (it's never been overclocked), updating directx.

The problem seems completely random and does not appear to be heat related, my system is well ventilated.

I've googled this issue, most users reporting the problem don't seem to find solutions.

Only conclusion I can draw is that the card is physically defective, that it's dying.

Any input would be appreciated.

Does the screen go black and then come back? do you see a message about nvlddmkm.sys?

Also, what specifically are you running when this happens? one of those programs? or multiple applications with 3D? Aero on or off?

Do you run anything else while running Maya/Max?

 

[LAiN_OfTheWired]

Fifo: First In First Out.

Watchdog timeouts in general are found on Linux and Cisco devices, and almost always tied to a NIC because what is happening is usually that data is being processed out of order and screwing up the transmission, which in turn throws errors and results in data loss. Or something. In hax0r speak: ur watchdog is watchin ur packetz drop.

Put the two together, apply it to a videocard, and you get:

Your videocard is processing things way outta whack, and your GPU is probably on its way out.

 

[Dmitri]

Does the screen go black and then come back? do you see a message about nvlddmkm.sys?

I know the error you speak of and this sadly isn't it

Also, what specifically are you running when this happens? one of those programs? or multiple applications with 3D? Aero on or off?

Do you run anything else while running Maya/Max?

XP, don't have Vista.

It could be a fresh boot with nothing running but a single game and it'll seize up. It's happened with about 15 different games I can think of, so not game specific.

Your videocard is processing things way outta whack, and your GPU is probably on its way out.

Yeah, that's what I figure.. Darn, not the greatest time to have to upgrade. My 8800GTX was still going strong..performance wise.

Ah well.