BFG 8800 GTX OC Problems

Hi,
A short while ago i bought myself a 8800GTX, which after a few weeks began to full screen artifact, freeze in games then progressed to doing the same almost the instant i booted windows; I got it RMA'd after testing everything on my end and getting in contact with BFG (i think it was due to an incorrect resistor or something) this card performed REALLY well before the problems however.

The people at BFG were kind enough to send me the OC version of the card to my surprise, and all my problems were gone.

However, now i get the Nvidia sentinel error when i boot complaining about not having enough power (i can drag the exact error up if you need it), I use a OCZ GameXstream 700W PSU, i have minimal "extras" in my pc (none infact) and nothings changed since my previous normal edition GTX. I can play most games okay even with this problem, but its underclocking my gpu memory in half and it really hurts performace in a lot of games (and benchs espeically) i've tried disabling the sentinel, this just removes the error and not the forced underclock though, i've also had a look around on the web to find a fix but to no avail; so a freind of mine pointed me over here

Any help is really appreciated guys, and just let me know if you need any more information about my system etc

Can you tell us what kind of idle and load temperatures you are seeing? That information can be found using the nTune system monitor, which is available from NVIDIA's site.

Sorry for the slow reply, just got the Ntune app, using the monitor for my GPU, it read as 53C , this doesn't seem to change no matter what i do, load wise or not though, not sure if there is something i'm missing here however

Please post your system specs including OS. Sounds like you either got another dud from RMA (which happens with BFG) or there is something else going on with your system, possibly motherboard.

I know this is weird, but try resetting your CMOS...

My PC's specs:

Core 2 Duo e6300
2GB Corsair DDR2 XMS2 Dominator
Gigabyte-965p-DS3
OCZ GameXstream 700W psu

and of course my GTX

This is all running on Windows XP Home edition.

Really hope it isn't ANOTHER dud, i've read about a few problems relating to the NV sentinel etc that didn't seem hardware related but heres hoping i can get it sorted with your help

I'll be sure to try resetting the CMOS as you said a little later also.

Well I had almost that same setup for awhile with no problems. Hmm... if the CMOS thing doesn't work, try installing a different set of NVIDIA drivers.

Neither changing drivers or clearing CMOS stopped the card from underclocking itself when i booted up, could the fact that this card is an OC version be causing the problem? My last card, until it died was a normal GTX and worked fine. If you've got anymore suggestions it's really appreciated

You say you have underclocked memory? judging by what? run 3dmark06 and tell us the result.

My ADSL is slow at the moment, so it will be a bit before i can get hold of 3d06, i did run aq3 on my old GTX though (i know, an old test but it's something) and on that it would score 95000+ whereas this will score only 65000, the GFX score is way down and the CPU score is unchanged, i've made sure it's not something simple like having AA enabled by mistake also

About the memory, my core clocks are normal for the OC version, so it's an educated guess as to what it's lowering, i've been out of the loop for a long time and have never been all that with software etc (never overclocked) so i'm not sure if rivatuner showing my memory clock as 900 is half, or if it is normal and should be doubled to 1800 (normal) as it's DDR?

Anyway thanks again, i'll post back when i have my 3D mark scores

SuperKeijo: Just ran 3dmark06 and scored 3001 points, i wouldn't know but that seems very low, anyway i hope this helped.

holy cow, that's low

i would bet that you received a dud from RMA

if you're feeling bold, you might try flashing the BIOS to a stock 8800 GTX and see how that runs? but if i were you i'd just set up another RMA.

I'd really prefer it if i could find out exactly what is going on with this card first, then see if it's irreversable or not, seeing as this would be my second RMA of the same card, and it's a massive hassle

So, any ideas? I'm at a loss, i definatly don't have a power issue on my end so if it is incorrectly thinking i have low power and underclocking, is there a way i can force it to correct itself?

I may give the bios flash a try, but as a last resort only

Moogz said:

I'd really prefer it if i could find out exactly what is going on with this card first, then see if it's irreversable or not, seeing as this would be my second RMA of the same card, and it's a massive hassle

So, any ideas? I'm at a loss, i definatly don't have a power issue on my end so if it is incorrectly thinking i have low power and underclocking, is there a way i can force it to correct itself?

I may give the bios flash a try, but as a last resort only

Click to expand...

Dude, I hope youve installed the motherboard drivers? Sounds like you havn't. I doubt the gfx card is the issue. They either work or they don't. It's not like they run half speed or anything. Rivatuner shows the right values for memory. In your case 900MHz (1800 DDR).

My motherboard has all the corect drivers installed, as i said it worked fine with my last card until that died (for a totally different reason, not realating to this at all; check my first post) i'll double check though of course.

Also, some sort of throttling is definatly going on, it's really noticable in games, and after checking 3d06 on the advice given here the score is really low to

Anyway, I really don't believe its your card causing problems. I'm almost 100% sure its something else. Take the videocard over to a friend and see if it still doesn't work properly.

Silly question, You do have both power connectors hooked up to the card, right?
If so then try another PSU just to make sure, but my guess is that card is hosed.

I have the same issue with my evga 8800GTX SC. It's intermittent. Sometimes I boot fine, othertimes the card is crippled.

Power connectors - Check!
Reseated hardware- Check!
Bios update- Check!
Swap PSU- Check!
Reinstall WinXP- Check!
3 types of drivers- Check!
Swapped motherboard- Check!

Only thing I have not done is swap my card out. Of course, there is no cross shipping in Canada and I'm not about to drop another $700 on a second card. So, I will wait for the next revision mid-may and use their upgrade option.

I do suspect that it's a heat/contact issue. It seems to be fine once the card is heated up, but again, it's hit-or-miss.

Good luck and PM me if anyone knows a solution.

Kangg said:

Silly question, You do have both power connectors hooked up to the card, right?
If so then try another PSU just to make sure, but my guess is that card is hosed.

Click to expand...

Yup, checked this multiple times.

My card will always throttle itself when i boot unlike yours friedchicken, there's still a few things i want to try so i'll post back if i find anything out.

One last thing, if the card IS a bad one, what is it thats causing the throttle? A bad power detector or something?

I pulled out the 4-pin molex connetor near the SATA, IDE and front pannel connectors on my evga MB and I haven't had the error pop up - yet. I am not running sli also.