GeForce 6800 is flickering and freezing

I

Incred

n00b
Joined
May 6, 2005
Messages
16
Hello,
I recently purchased a BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra OC, AGP version. I'm now getting some amazing frame rates in my games, but I'm getting a lot of flicker. Random textures will flicker. Sometimes I'll see it flickering way off in the distance, and sometimes it flickers right under my feet. As an added bonus, the games I play will freeze. The system will lock up for a second or two and then return to action.

I guess I should note that these problems do not crop until I've been playing the game for more than 5 minutes. When I first start something up, there are zero issues.

Previous card was a Geforce 5900XT. I uninstalled the drivers and ran driver cleaner before installing the new card and getting the latest drivers from nVidia. The card has not been overclocked. It's running at factory speeds.

Any suggestions?

Specs:
MOBO: Asus K8N-E Deluxe w/ nForce 3
PSU: 500W Aspire
CPU: AMD64 3400+ Newcastle
RAM: 2GB DDR 3200
GPU: BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra OC (AGP)
OS: Windows XP Media Center 2005
 
Incred said:
Hello,
I recently purchased a BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra OC, AGP version. I'm now getting some amazing frame rates in my games, but I'm getting a lot of flicker. Random textures will flicker. Sometimes I'll see it flickering way off in the distance, and sometimes it flickers right under my feet. As an added bonus, the games I play will freeze. The system will lock up for a second or two and then return to action.

I guess I should note that these problems do not crop until I've been playing the game for more than 5 minutes. When I first start something up, there are zero issues.

Previous card was a Geforce 5900XT. I uninstalled the drivers and ran driver cleaner before installing the new card and getting the latest drivers from nVidia. The card has not been overclocked. It's running at factory speeds.

Any suggestions?



Specs:
MOBO: Asus K8N-E Deluxe w/ nForce 3
PSU: 500W Aspire
CPU: AMD64 3400+ Newcastle
RAM: 2GB DDR 3200
GPU: BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra OC (AGP)
OS: Windows XP Media Center 2005
Click to expand...


Heat comes to mind as does power. Try running 3DMark and checking your GPU temps before and after. You might also download asus probe and check your voltage.
 
Before running anything, the temperature was 63 degrees. After running 3DMark the temp was 73 degress. I tried Asus probe. With that, I wasn't sure what to look for, but the voltages were a little lower than their category (4.99v instead of 5v, for example).
 
It looks like you had similar problems with the FX5900 XT also. That would tend to tell me the problem is with something else, not the video cards. Could be a heat issue.
 
Your frezzing problem is probably due to heat. Download coolbits and post what your gpu and ambient temps are.

What drivers are you using? Do you have v-sync tunred on?
 
When I installed the 5900, it was a simple matter of using driver cleaner before installing. It tried to do the same procedure here, but no worky.

During gameplay. GPU temperature got as high as 77 deg. The ambient temp hit 57 deg. Is this too hot?

Driver version is 72.14 for media center version of XP.

As for vertical sync, I don't know where else to check it, but in the game I'm testing (World of Warcraft) it is enabled. As is triple buffering.

I found a temporary fix. I don't know why it works, but it does. When playing World of Warcraft, the textures started to flicker as I expected, and I switched to window mode. Once there, the problems vanished. I ran all over the place and saw nothing wrong in the least. I then returned to full screen and the flickering came back.

FYI, I also tested Battlefield 2, and it flickers like crazy as well.
 
I posted similar issues around here, I just bought a BFG 6800GT and I get the freezing issue, but not the flickering issue that I've noticed. It will hang for a few seconds then go on as if nothing happened. Seems to only affect DirectX games as well. Definitely post if you find the answer please. MCE issue possibly? I even did a clean install and it still happened.
 
Incre- I have the opposite problem you have- in BF2 I get stutter/ chop in the beginning of a map but then it settles down for the most part- in both sp and mp. It's the only game that does it to me. Network issue, card, cpu..I have no idea. My ping is always lower double digits.

A7N8x-E Asus MB
1 Gb Ram
BFG 6800GT 256 oc
AMD Athlon 3200+ Barton
 
Ares900, that stutter is likely due to RAM issues, it's loading everything in as you start the map. Does that to me too.
 
OldPueblo said:
IMCE issue possibly?
Click to expand...

I am wondering about this myself. I sent emails to BFG, and the guy who replied seemed concerned about the fact that I use Media Center.

I went back and forth with BFG, trying every little fix they could think of. They even asked me to try beta drivers for my motherboard. When nothing worked, I finally got an email back say that my issue was very complex and that it was being passed on to another department. It went on to say that I may be contacted in 7 days. :rolleyes:
 
I hadn't thought of it before, but when I did my clean install and the hangs still happened I of course installed MCE again. I'm going to do a clean install again on my test partition and do my Pro this time. I'll let you know.
 
I ordered another stick of IGB PC3200 from Newegg, as my MB accomodates up to 2 GB in RAM. I have 1GB now but doubling that can't hurt. I'll post again if it makes a big difference.

Arkalius- did you make adjustments for the in-game stutter? I reluctantly lowered most of the settings to medium, kept the res at 1600x1200, and left the AA at zero, sight distance at 80%. It has helped but I want to see if the beefing up the RAM works.
 
powersupply im thinking... my 6800NU is doing terrible on my nearly dead PSU :( im picking up an FSP storm 500 though :D

by terrible i mean locking up, no shimmering though, shimmering is probably AF believe it or not...
 
To those of you having problems, are you using Windows Media Center as I am? I'm wondering if there are compatability issues with that OS.

I'm patiently waiting on OldPueblo's test results. ;)
 
nah, it's not specific to MCE. I just got an xfx 6800gt on monday and have been fighting the same freezing issue. These boards as well as xfx's are littered with people having the same problem, but no solutions unfortunately. my card is idle at 54c and shoots up to 71c in game. If anyone has the solution to this, please post it somewhere. My vid freezes when it hits 71, but as soon as it drops back down to the high 60's it starts working fine again.
 
bk12321 said:
^^^
Click to expand...

Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean. :p

Anyway, I did notice a few threads regarding 6600 gt cards and their problems. I didn't think it applied to me since I have a 6800 ultra. What's the real difference between these cards?
 
Well I finally got around to it, same issues with XP Pro. The search continues!
 
i just rma'd my xfx 6800gt to newegg, i guess i'll wait a month or two when i can afford an amd x2 a new mobo, and a 7800gtx.
 
Well I just moved to XP 64-bit and the issue is gone. :D After all my testing and messing I believe it was related to IRQ sharing, though I couldnt get it fixed in XP 32-bit. I don't have a PNP OS option in my BIOS to toggle and I couldn't find anything major that was being shared in device manager, but that's all I have to guess on.
 
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