7800GTX - Artifacts got me puzzled

sammy5gs · Jun 10, 2006, 06:54 AM

Hey Guys...

Not sure if this should go in the General Hardware section, but I was running an SLI setup with two BFG 7800GTXs with my X2 4800+. However, I began experiencing some artifacting (yellow lines, full green block screens, etc.), so when I went to investigate, I noticed that my second 7800GTX fan was not spinning? I assumed it was a heat issue and decided to run a single 7800GTX to see if that was the problem (took the non-spinning 7800gtx out).

After a few days, I noticed the same artifacting when the single 7800gtx that was left in the rig. It occurs when you do anything graphic intesive after a few minutes (play games, movies, benches, etc). It has occasionally occured when I am just sitting at the desktop, at which point I get the lovely BSOD (STOP: 0x000000EA, (0x89A64798, 0X89F48700, 0XBACE7CBC, 0X00000001). This Stop Error indicates that the graphics card got stuck in an infinite loop, signifying a hardware or driver problem.

Obviously, this seems like a heat issue, when I check the temps of the card, it is solid at 43 idle, and upper 50s/low 60s load. Also, I checked my PSU rails, and my PSU is running solid with expected voltage.

I am operating under 84.21 forcewares. Keep in mind, I was doing some earlier research about the alleged bug between dual core cpus and SLI rigs, and followed the instructions (to a tee) to see if that was the problem, but it is still continuing.

I am thinking there is a severe driver conflict that is impacting my cards, or that both of my cards died at the same time, which I would find highly improbable. Any thoughts whatsoever?