8800GTS freezing, could PSU have something to do with it?

midnilux · Jan 28, 2007, 02:44 PM

Ever since I got my 8800GTS I have gotten frequent freezes while playing games for extended periods of times, I've tried different drivers, windows re-installation, different ram, nothing fixes the issue so I either have a defective videocard or it has to be the power supply.

I'm running it on an Antec NeoHE 500W PSU, could it be the power supply causing the problems?

zaim · Jan 28, 2007, 08:30 PM

try unplugging another hard drive/cd rom.. you know, stuff that isnt being used while playing the game, and simply try again

god i miss the days of playing games @ an extended period of time rate

fobis · Jan 28, 2007, 09:13 PM

If you have other beastly components running along with the 8800, then it could be your PSU, I suppose. What's your 12v rail look like? Amps?

Hapatingjaky · Jan 29, 2007, 01:22 AM

http://www.antec.com/specs/NeoHE500_spe.html

It seems enough it also depends though on CPU, Memory size, Hard Drives, etc etc. List all your system components, including keyboard and mouse aswell as any LED fans etc etc.

**kris23** · Jan 29, 2007, 06:53 PM

thst 500w psu doesnt sound like much..... 2 17A rails and only 100w away from minimum the GTS requires 400w minimum so if you got other powerful components..... that can be the culprit

midnilux · Jan 29, 2007, 07:01 PM

I just got a PC Power & Cooling 750W Power Supply with 60AMP on the +12v rail, and I still get the problem.

I returned the 8800GTS, got another brand new one and I still have the same problem.

WTF?

It clearly seems like a GPU problem to me, the visuals in the game freeze but the sound still keeps playing, if it was a ram or CPU problem I'd get a blue screen.

midnilux · Jan 29, 2007, 07:10 PM

Reading through the EVGA forums someone suggested raising the GPU fan to 100% instead of the stock 59%, I have done that and am playing games with extremely cranked up settings and so far so good.

But this thing is very tricky, it will run well for hours, then all of a sudden freeze me 5 times in a row so I dont trust it.

**kris23** · Jan 29, 2007, 09:54 PM

so its the cooling huh? could you maybe save up for the ACS3 model? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130081

but then that could also be a delimma since that thing is overclocked and the added cooling might not do a thing. some cards could probably be not up to spec, no 2 GPUs are EXACTLY the same so i doubt the heat tolerance would be the same, but then theyd probably filter out the ones that didnt go up to spec. kinda hard to call. wanna try RMAing again and giving it another shot?

also are u using the latest drivers for the card by nvidia or something?

midnilux · Jan 29, 2007, 11:55 PM

With the fan on 100% the card never gets above 50C, and they are designed to run at 80C+ comftorably so it's not that its overheating. It's winter and I have the PC set near an open window, it's freezing in this room, everything is running at stock speeds, the system/CPU/RAM/GPU are as cold as they could ever be, I dont know what the hell is going on.
I'm in the process of doing a full reformat and reinstalling windows again

This always happens in World Of Warcraft,I'm not sure if the problem is specific to the game or what. Then again WoW is the only game I play for extended periods of time so its more prone to it I suppose.

I just ran 3DMark06 and passed all the test at 40-60fps, so... I think my hardware is fine... wtf is going on with the freezing

**kris23** · Jan 30, 2007, 09:35 AM

world of warcraft......... man that there is not a very graphic intensive game.... even my 9550 can handle that reasonably well at 1024x768, are u using the latest drivers for the card? 50c is a pretty low temp.... lol is the card inserted right? is the cable getting pushed too hard?

but ya it could be a driver issue since we eliminated all the others......

midnilux · Jan 30, 2007, 03:32 PM

Well the fan runs at 59% speed stock, when you turn it up to 100% the temps run really low but its more noisy.

Anyway I found out its a problem with WoW, other people have reported the same issue on the same area of the game as me. Apparently reduce the AA to 2x fixes the problem for now until nvidia fixes the damn drivers.

zaim · Jan 30, 2007, 05:38 PM

how do you turn the fan speed up??

ntune? because that freees on my pc apon open

Lelisevis · Jan 30, 2007, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zaim

how do you turn the fan speed up??

ntune? because that freees on my pc apon open

atitool or that other bugger I can't remember the name of, the one I use every single day. Arghhh my memory.

Riva tuner thats the one.

midnilux · Jan 30, 2007, 06:44 PM

I do it with ntune, anyway I lowered AA to 2X and haven't crashed since.

Kind of stupid that I have to play WoW at 2X AA on a $450 videocard, they need to fix the damn drivers.