Lockups, VPU errors - PSU the cause?

fer312t · Nov 27, 2006, 09:56 PM

Ive been experiencing alot of lockups and vpu errors lately since installing a AiW x800xt to replace a dead 9800pro. There seems to be very little pattern to these lockups...I can run for hours under heavy load sometimes - and sometimes I get an error within a few minutes. Very frustrating... (and makes it difficult to isolate the problem)

I've tried various drivers, and browsed these forums, and it seems a week PSU might be the most logical cause for my troubles...I'm running a Antec 'truewatt' 330W which I suspect is only borderline exceptable, even though the Aiw box recommends a 300W...

I ran speedfan per recommended on another thread - I was wondering if anyone could interpret these results...and whether I should bite the bullet and up the PSU...

vcorea: 1.54v
vcoreb: 2.48v
+3.3: 3.20v
+5v: 4.78
+12v: 11.49v

**Grace** · Nov 28, 2006, 02:04 AM

While your power supply unit IS weak for the system you have it to power, one cannot interpret its performance by the voltage readings of the motherboard at a single moment of time. If they won't fluctuate, the system should work perfectly, but the motherboard sensors fail to catch fast fluctuations and one cannot tell without a fast multimeter connected directly to the unit. Their +/- 5% tolerance is already bad enough...

Perhaps you want to run something like Memtest or Prime95 for several hours and see if they give you any errors? It could be a software problem too, from all that I can guess.

>GSXR<mrbusa · Nov 28, 2006, 02:45 AM

These questions need to be asked anytime there are sudden problems after a recent hardware change.

What steps did you take when you swapped cards?
Did you do a complete uninstall of the 9800pro with DHDC pro in safe mode and manually cleanup all the leftover folders and registry entries in refference to the 9800pro of the drivers and any tweaking apps you had installed, if any?
Are your bench scores and game performance FPS where they should be compared to similar sytems and driver settings and clocks?
Are your other system drivers up to date along with your GPU drivers?
Have you changed anything else software or hardware related other than your GPU?

fer312t · Nov 28, 2006, 04:46 AM

I was VERY careful to uninstall/purge the system of the drivers in the manner you mention, running DHDC Pro in safe mode, and manually removing an traces in the registry. There is zero chance of my doing a reformat, as this card was intented as a replacement until I get do a major upgrade in several months...

I was not expecting a fps improvement as my aging PC is the limiting factor (a p2.0) but I was surprised to see a pretty large jump in dx9 and higher resolutions over the 9800pro. So I'm thrilled with performance really...

Have made no other changes software or hardware...I made sure I was running the latest motherboard bios when I began to encounter this trouble...

I read elswhere that uping the agp voltage might be a possible solution but I doubt think I have the capability to do this...

>GSXR<mrbusa · Nov 28, 2006, 10:07 AM

Raising the AGP bus voltage is not going to help. Usually the only time you really want to do that is if you have a serious OC that will not hold because of your chipset being under powered or fluctuating its voltages.

The reason I asked for a comparison of performance to another similar system is to determine if the card is running at its highest capabilities on your system. Even if your CPU is bottlenecking your GPU it will still give us an idea.

There is also a chance that your specific mobo does not like that card. You seem like you know your way around your PC and it is your hardware , not mine, so you know best. I will say that from my own personal experience with many, many system upgrades on my current mobo, that hardware changes can do weird things to an OS install.

When you manually removed any registry leftovers from the 9800pro did you search with a with an app for keywords like, 9800, 9800pro, 9800 pro, radeon, ati radeon, atiradeon, ati, and also atitray, rayadams, omega, dhzp, dhzeropoint, ngo, any anything you can think of related to any drivers that was installed?

You should also try to run some stability benches like Grace said in a previous post. Also manually configure your bios setting, ram spd timings, and system voltages.

I hope you get it worked out.

fer312t · Nov 29, 2006, 01:39 AM

I think I've eliminated overheating as a possible cause, as the gpu seems to be idling ~44 and only getting up to 65-70 under heavy loading. Am I correct in saying this is an acceptable range...

One other question...and perhaps you might advise me if this is an avenue worth pursuing...I was checking out the system info, and it shows the following...

Quote:

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Intel(R) 82850/82860 Processor to AGP Controller - 2532
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF RADEON X800 Series

IRQ 16 RADEON X800 Series
IRQ 16 NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller

IRQ 17 Creative SB Audigy
IRQ 17 NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller

Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF Intel(R) 82850/82860 Processor to AGP Controller - 2532
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF RADEON X800 Series

I/O Port 0x00005000-0x0000FFFF PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00005000-0x0000FFFF Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller - 2443

IRQ 18 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
IRQ 18 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
IRQ 18 HPT370 UDMA/ATA100 RAID Controller

IRQ 19 NETGEAR FA310TX Fast Ethernet Adapter (NGRPCI)
IRQ 19 Intel(r) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Intel(R) 82850/82860 Processor to AGP Controller - 2532
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF RADEON X800 Series

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB Intel(R) 82850/82860 Processor to AGP Controller - 2532
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB RADEON X800 Series

I/O Port 0x0000C000-0x0000CFFF Intel(R) 82850/82860 Processor to AGP Controller - 2532
I/O Port 0x0000C000-0x0000CFFF RADEON X800 Series

Is the x800 sharing a IRQ 16 with the 'NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller' a possible source of my troubles and worth pursuing further?

>GSXR<mrbusa · Nov 29, 2006, 02:47 AM

I have three systems, this one, a server and an extra, two intel p4, agp, 875p/845 and one amd semp, nforce3, agp, and all of them share the usb controller IRQ assignment.

As far as heat goes, 70 is supposed to be well within MFG acceptable ranges. Not one of my cards have ever seen over 60 at full load on the hottest of days and this is all I have to go by.

You have one of those random problems that will take another person to have the exact same problem on the exact same hardware to find a fix. We have to remember that this is windows and anything can happen.

Have you ran memtest and prime yet?

H3X4D3C1M4L · Nov 30, 2006, 04:53 PM

Raising the voltage has no effect on this card because it gets its power from the PSU on the floppy connector plug.

The temperatures are fine, well within stock cooler typical temps.

The IRQ sharing shouldn't be a problem unless your mobo is goofy.

I think its the PSU. I had this exact problem when I did the exact same thing (AiW 9800 --> AiW X800XT), and a replaced PSU fixed it

I would try reinserting it into the AGP slot again and dusting said slot out, as well

fer312t · Dec 7, 2006, 02:12 AM

Just an update

Thanks for all the help guys...I ran the suggested tests and after recieving no conlcusive source or errors, I tried unplugging several components (cd-rom, sound card panel, case fans etc.) to lighten the PSU load and did some testing - no errrors...

More evidence of PSU being the cause, I decided to take a shot and upgrade to 450w PSU... Been running stable for several days - no lockups, monitor shutdowns, or VPU errors

H3X4D3C1M4L · Dec 7, 2006, 12:40 PM

Glad that it was so easily solved

Luck with further computing endevors (sp?)