Games problems with my new system

[parad0x]

That's insane! Looks frightening.

I describe the RAM problem in post #11 about halfway through I don't think my RAM sticks have any issues, but the motherboard just won't take them up to their rated speed.

I just hope Scan will reply soon with some help.

[[Grevane]]

ok, in relation to this RAM problem, and I would certainly check this with Clunk, don't go "just" on my say so... but my first question is, do you have the "SLI Memory" option enabled?

The reason I ask is looking over ALOT of posts on the internet (do a google search for something like "striker extreme 1066fsb problem") regarding people struggling to obtain the higest rated speed on the FSB and their RAM. In this thread...

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1179348

...from what I could tell from your post, they "seem" to be having a similar problem. I would certainly (when Clunk gets a spare moment, since it seems every man and his dog needs Clunks advice...lol) run it past him before doing anything too major... but it would be interesting to see if by reading that thread, they seem to have the same problem you are having..

[Pob255]

Can I just say I've seen something simular to thoes screen shots, a couple of years ago on my Radeon 9700Pro.
The fault was bad memory on the card, to be exact the memory cooked itself and rappidly went down hill, it started out with doing now and again in 3d games, then became all the time in games and doing that on windows, but then I started getting that sort of corruption on the BIOS and post screens. I RMA'd the card.

[[Grevane]]

Can I just say I've seen something simular to thoes screen shots, a couple of years ago on my Radeon 9700Pro.
The fault was bad memory on the card, to be exact the memory cooked itself and rappidly went down hill, it started out with doing now and again in 3d games, then became all the time in games and doing that on windows, but then I started getting that sort of corruption on the BIOS and post screens. I RMA'd the card.

Yeah, my gut feeling is his hard locks are the GX card at fault (especially as the 8800Ultra is such a new card out and i got those screenshots when the 6800Ultra was similarly new) but I suspect the RAM issue is something more fundemental with just the setup of the mobo. I've not read enough about the Striker Extremes but there seems to be an indication that having certain settings like "SLI Memory" enabled will stop you from getting the fastest settings out of your FSB and RAM.
I've never "seen" a Striker Extreme either so I'm only working from what I can find on google...

But my gut is definitely saying to me that the card is causing the hardlocks... and thats not just because I just ate a Mcdonalds... mmmm... maccy d's!

[parad0x]

Yeah, on quite a few occasions I've read that the SLI memory setting should be left disabled,. and this is what I've been doing; everything manual and by hand, and still I just can't get it to work at the speeds.

Would any Scan staff care to peruse this thread and tell me what I should do next?

[[Grevane]]

"IF" the GX card is faulty, you never know what affect that it is having on the motherboard.

If you have a faulty component in your system, which obviously you have, and imho, I would probably put money on it being the GX card (if I was a betting man but I'm not), I wouldn't expect the rest of the system to behave 100% as it should until the faulty component is replaced.

It can't hurt to RMA the GX card as thats the most like cause of the hardlocks, then get the mobo running at stock speeds, test in similar situations as you have been for hardlocks in games etc.. and if alls ok, then start with the OC'ing work.

Of course, see what the Scan staff have to say, but that is probably what I would do in your situation.

[parad0x]

Thanks your help + advice is much appreciated!

[[Grevane]]

Not a problem mate. More than welcome.

I'm glad to do what I can to help since I can very much relate to how frustrating it must be for you having a lovely PC and particularly GX card and not being able to get the best out of it.

Hang in there, I'm sure you'll get it fixed and best of luck with it mate. before you know it, all this will be a distant memory and you'll be chuffed to bits with a PC that you can run pretty much every game out on full.

[Pob255]

but I suspect the RAM issue is something more fundemental with just the setup of the mobo. I've not read enough about the Striker Extremes but there seems to be an indication that having certain settings like "SLI Memory" enabled will stop you from getting the fastest settings out of your FSB and RAM.
I've never "seen" a Striker Extreme either so I'm only working from what I can find on google...

I've not had any experence with this board, but if "SLI Memory" enabled stops you from getting the full speed out of your memory, that would just mean slower memory and a loss in performance, not screen corruption.
He's definatley got a fault there and while I have no experence with an 8800Ultra I have seen simular screen errors and they were down to faulty graphics card memory.

Only other thing I could put this down to is PSU struggling to meet the power demands of the system, however that Zalman ZM600HP should be enough to cope.
So I'd say graphics card.

[[Grevane]]

I've not had any experence with this board, but if "SLI Memory" enabled stops you from getting the full speed out of your memory, that would just mean slower memory and a loss in performance, not screen corruption.
He's definatley got a fault there and while I have no experence with an 8800Ultra I have seen simular screen errors and they were down to faulty graphics card memory.

Only other thing I could put this down to is PSU struggling to meet the power demands of the system, however that Zalman ZM600HP should be enough to cope.
So I'd say graphics card.

He's talking about two different issues.
When the mobo is stable and goes into games he gets hardlocks. Those screenshots were of a problem I had when the 6800Ultra's first came out when I was similarly getting hardlocks. Replacing the GX card sorted that problem. I posted the screenies to show him incase he had anything similar to that.
The other problem is when he's OC'ing the mobo, it won't post after a certain point... well below the max the board and ram can do...

[Pob255]

my bad got confused between people there, sorry.

Could it be a PSU problem? I'm not sure on the power demands of the 8800Ultra but as every other Ultra card was massively power hungery . . .

After just reading the other post about the xfx 8800Ultra sound like the same problem. card clocked by manufactor beound what it can actually take.

[Robbie G]

Beast of a machine you have there. Just think in a year it'll be worth about £300!

[[Grevane]]

my bad got confused between people there, sorry.

Could it be a PSU problem? I'm not sure on the power demands of the 8800Ultra but as every other Ultra card was massively power hungery . . .

After just reading the other post about the xfx 8800Ultra sound like the same problem. card clocked by manufactor beound what it can actually take.

Ah no worries Pob, I kinda guessed you'd mixed up who was posting what... I've done the same thing before. There are so many people on this board that it gets confusing following a thread at times.

I would doubt it was the PSU, although I suppose theoretically, it "might" not be putting out the correct voltage... I'm not sure I can think of an easy way for him to get it tested though... (**looks for someone else who knows ways of testing rails on PSU's**)

XFX are one of the few companies who also OC the shaders as well as the core and memory so it's entirely possible they accidentally pushed on bit too far or maybe, in a batch of cards that tested initially ok for a factory OC, maybe he was just unlucky and got one that was so borderline that after it's factory OC, it gave way shortly after 1st use.

It's a bit of a guessing game, very hard to definitively check. But imho, I think there is enough evidence to suggest a problem with the card and hopefully for Scan to swap it over for him. If the 2nd one checks out, everyone's happy, and he can then deal with the "problems" he wa shaving with OC'ing the RAM and mobo...

Beast of a machine you have there. Just think in a year it'll be worth about £300!

That's not... particularly nice... isn't that the nature of computer hardware that we all live with anyway? Doesn't particularly matter what the initial expenditure is, the depreciation is always relative.
Your £2000 PC might be worth £300 but your £500 PC might be worth £75...
And besides, thats not the point because how to you measure the value of the entertainment and pleasure any one person gets from the ownership and use of that machine during the PC's lifetime?

Personally, I would say my personal relaxation time is priceless... and in that time I get to play/use my PC which makes my PC a very valuable piece of equipment... far in excess of what I paid for it... so therefore worth every penny.

[[Grevane]]

ok, i had a little search around in respect to the question about testing the power supply and found this which is a cheap option for testing the power on each of the different connectors on your power supply. I have no idea how accurate or good this product is but for £10 + P&P it's not going to burn a hole in your pocket just for some peace of mind. It's a gadget that Thermaltake make called Dr. Power. There is currently one available on Ebay for £10 + £2.50 P&P. Here's the link...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Thermaltake-Dr...QQcmdZViewItem
I'm tempted to get one for myself... just a useful gadget to have lurking around the house.. you know... just in case...

[parad0x]

Sorry I haven't replied quicker, but there's been a disturbing twist to the whole situation.

After some pretty intense downloading (large game patches) I noticed different bluescreens related to nvtcp.sys - the nVidia nForce Ethernet driver. After doing a bit of searching I've managed to cure those BSODs by removing the Network Manager control panel thing.

And the game lockups have (so far) stopped to an extent!

I've been playing BF2142 rocksolid for about 2 days pretty much without any lockups, same with Counter-Strike etc. I have had only one crash, but this time it was slightly different. The game began to freeze, then I got a Windows error saying the the nv4 display driver had stopped responding. I then had to reboot. Event Log had logged it as the driver going into an infinite loop.

I'm actually a bit bewildered because it's been much more stable since. I still don't completely trust it though and I'm going to carry on testing. Far Cry used to fall over the most so I'll see if I can play that for an extended period.

@Robbie G: Money doesn't matter to me, I just love computers.

@Grevane: Got the PM - thanks! Looks like a useful gadget - though I'm reasonably handy with a multimeter as I muck about with other electronics-related stuff.

The testing continues, I guess..!

[Robbie G]

That's not... particularly nice... isn't that the nature of computer hardware that we all live with anyway?

Erm that was my point, yes There's no need to get upset.