Random Lock-Ups while Gaming

[1Wolf]

Greets,

I'm hoping that someone here might just be able to solve this riddle that I haven't been able to solve for a very long time now and its driving me bonkers....

I've got two EVGA NVidia 8800 Ultra's. If I set them to run in SLI via the Nvidia control panel, I get random total system lockups when gaming.

Playing Age of Conan in June/July of 08, I'd be able to play for hours...sometimes days...sometimes minutes with no lockups...then...the screen would freeze and everything would just hard-lock. No BSOD. No black screen. Just frozen. Then I'd have to reboot.

Playing World of Warcraft...same thing. WoW doesn't do much with SLI and SLI sometimes causes goofyness with shadows and such in WoW so if I go into the Nvidia Control Panel and set the World of Warcraft profile to only use a single video card....that fixes any shadow or SLI goofyness and the system runs smooth. Yet...I still get random lockups. Sometimes I can go days, sometimes hours and then I get a complete lock up. However...when I went into the Nvidia conrol panel and completely disabled SLI on my system....it never locked up again. That was alright for a while because WoW was the only game I was playing. However, when I started playing another game that I enabled SLI for...then WoW started the random lockups again.

Recently started playing Lord of the Rings Online...same thing....unpredictable random lockups when SLI is enabled. However...for LOTRO...I have to enable SLI as my FPS is literally double with SLI enabled and pretty unplayable with it disabled.

So this behavior has been occuring for about a year now. I don't think its memory related because the system is stable if SLI is disabled. However it only locks up when gaming...not in any other windows tasks. I'd also ran memtest against all the RAM. Maybe the 2nd video card is bad? My overclock is rock solid in all Prime95 tests for over 24 hours...however....maybe I need a voltage bump somewhere to support some sort of additional load that SLI might need? *shrug* (I've included my system voltages below).

Intel Q6600 G0 2.4Ghz OC'd to 3.33 Ghz
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme & Scythe S-Flex 120mm
EVGA nvidia nForce 680i SLI NF68-A1
8 GB (4 x 2GB) Mushkin DDR2-800 (PC2-6400) 4-4-4-12
2 x EVGA 8800 Ultra in SLI
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1
1 x 150 Gb WD RaptorX
2 x 320 Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
Cooler Master Stacker 830 Evolution
Thermaltake Toughpower WO133RU 1200W PSU
3 x Thermaltake A2018 120mm Blue LED Case Fans
Ultra 4 Channel Fan Controller, Blue LED
Sony 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy
Samsung 18x SATA DVD Burner w/ Lightscribe
Logisys 12" Blue Cold Cathhode
Logitech G15 USB Gaming Keyboard
Logitech MX518 USB Gaming Mouse
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit


The system has been stable with this overclock for almost a year now unless I'm running SLI. Tested over 24 hour stable in Prime95.

Voltages are:

CPU Core: 1.46875
CPU FSB: 1.4
Memory: 2.100
nForce SPP: 1.40
nForce MCP: 1.500
HT nForce SPP <--> MCP: 1.20

Temps are usually fairly even and low-to-mid thirties idle....high forties to low-fifties under load.

Case has plenty of airflow.

I run EVGA Precision on the video cards to keep the card fans at 100%. No Overclock on the video cards.

Video Card #1 does tend to run pretty hot (sometimes 90-94 degrees)...however...the system locks don't seem to occur when the card is hot. The system has locked up with the cards at nice low temps....and run stable with the primary card up at 94.

Well...I've tried to include all the info I could think of.

Thanks in advance for any observations or advice you might have.

Thanks!

 

[BlindedByScience]

Try this....just try it. Remove the side of the case (so the case is open) and see if the lockups still occur.

I just built a new system with a C2Q and a 260 (216 core). With nothing overclocked, in a case with "plenty of airflow" I'd get weird lockups after gaming for some time. Took the side panel off to check on something, and son of a gun the lockups went away. Seems sometimes "plenty" of air isn't enough.

I know you said your temps are all under control but this is a quick way to make sure you really are getting enough cool outside air in the case.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

try upping the voltage a tad bit on your northbridge and see what happens.. since its only doing it in SLI you might be overstressing the northbridge.. especially since it also has the memory controller in it..

 

[1Wolf]

Thanks for the responses guys. Greatly appreciated.

Alrighty...well....I'll try both and see what happens.

First, I'll bump the SPP voltage from 1.4 volts to 1.5 and see if maybe sirmonkey1985's shot was right and it might give me a bit more oomph for SLI...

...and I'll take the cover off the PC and see if it really is an airflow problem after all.

I'll do some gaming with the same games over the next few days...and if I don't get any lockups then I'll know its one of the two things mentioned. If it locks up...then I guess maybe it points to a faulty video card in the second slot.

Thanks!

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Thanks for the responses guys. Greatly appreciated.

Alrighty...well....I'll try both and see what happens.

First, I'll bump the SPP voltage from 1.4 volts to 1.5 and see if maybe sirmonkey1985's shot was right and it might give me a bit more oomph for SLI...

...and I'll take the cover off the PC and see if it really is an airflow problem after all.

I'll do some gaming with the same games over the next few days...and if I don't get any lockups then I'll know its one of the two things mentioned. If it locks up...then I guess maybe it points to a faulty video card in the second slot.

Thanks!

if neither idea's work id take out the first card since you know that works perfectly fine and swap it with the second card.. run it in non sli then run it in sli.. see if you re-create the problem.. if the second card works fine by its self but fails in sli.. then id start looking at the board as the issue and not the cards.. if all else fails try putting the cpu back at stock speeds and see if it starts working again in sli..

 

[1Wolf]

Well....thanks again for all your help

I've tried everything that was suggested....

Voltage bump to SPP
Opening the case to improve airflow
Swapping the cards
Underclocking the cards
The whole 9 yards

Never happens with SLI disabled...only in SLI.

However...one of the times I just happened to be playing a game windowed and so when it locked up I did get a message...NVLDDMKM.dll stopped responding.

So I searched the forum based on that information and it seems that others are experiencing the same thing under various conditions...one of those conditions being a few people reporting the same as I...that they have SLI'd 8800 series cards and it only seems to happen in SLI.

So after seeing how LONG that thread had gone on with lots of people trying to figure this out....as far as I'm concerned....its not worth the frustration. I think I'm going to plan on cutting bait and just picking up a new card. I'm thinking that my 8800 Ultra's are old enough now so that I could probably use a single-card solution to get the same frame rates I'm getting now in SLI.....while running more reliably and with less heat. I think I'll throw a separate post up in the Video Card forum and see what recommendations folks have.

Thanks again for your help and advice.