7900GTX bluescreening/artifacting in 3DMark06

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Chaos_Being

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 26, 2005
Messages
173
Well, looks like I just ran into a MAJOR stumbling block with my new build.

First of all, a quick rundown of my components- Opty 165, MSI K8N Diamond Plus, 2gb G.Skill pc4000, Silverstone Zeus 560w, and finally, an XFX Geforce 7900gtx factory overclocked to 665mhz core (from 650,) and 1.63ghz memory (from 1.6ghz.) Everything else is still at stock speeds.

I played an evening of WoW on it last night just fine. Today I decided to run 3Dmark 06 and a few other benchmarks at stock to get a baseline of comparison for when I start overclocking. All of the tests completed successfully until I got to "Deep Freeze." The first time, it locked up around frame 1400, bluescreened, and rebooted. I found this error message in the event viewer:

"The driver nv4_disp for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates."

I was running the newest certified driver at the time. So, I went to Nvidia.com and downloaded the latest beta driver, ran driver cleaner in safe mode, rebooted, and installed the beta drivers. I ran 3Dmark 06 again and it locked up again on the same test, at about the same time- except this time, instead of bluescreening after it locked, the screen started flashing an artifacted combo of the 3D mark screen and my desktop.

Oh, and the molex connector on the motherboard that helps to power the video cards is plugged in.

Are there any other drivers that I can try, or ANYTHING else I can try before I have to consider an RMA? The only other thing I can think of is to try downclocking it to stock speeds and try the test again, as I know from reading that I'm not the only person with a messed up factory overclocked 7900 series card :(
 
Looks like you might have one of the defective cards.

I'd try out F.E.A.R for an hour and then Oblivion to stress the card to see if it crashes as well.
 
Yup, sounds like you have a bad card. You have the classic symptoms (I've gone through three cards in a row) of the problems that some of the 7900 series cards are having.

See the "Burn baby, burn" aritcle and thread on this site.
 
Yeah, I saw that thread after I posted, I haven't read the article though.

I already tried downclocking it to stock refrence clocks without any success. Someone suggested trying new chipset drivers, but I'm not hopeful. I'm smelling an RMA.

KJ43, did you eventually get a good card or was it eventually replaced by the x1900xtx I see in your sig?
 
Ok, I had someone tell me that they had luck with downclocking their 7900gtx really far, and then slowly clocking it back up. Sounded too good to be true, but I figured hey, worth a try right?

Weeeeeel...

I tried downclocking to 600/700 and it still artifacts and locks up in "Deep Freeze," and although it does eventually give me a 3d mark score, I have to hard reset to regain control in windows.

Looks like my card is F'ed up!

Now I just need to decide if I want to try to RMA it back through Zipzoomfly for either a direct replacement (although as I said, they are out of stock...) or just say the hell with it and try to get them to exchange it for a x1900 series card. The only thing that would suck about that is it would kind of kill the whole reason for getting an SLI board- I wanted to do SLI eventually. My other option would be trying to RMA it directly through XFX in the hopes that I might get a pre-tested card. Suggestions?
 
Chaos_Being said:
Ok, I had someone tell me that they had luck with downclocking their 7900gtx really far, and then slowly clocking it back up. Sounded too good to be true, but I figured hey, worth a try right?

Weeeeeel...

I tried downclocking to 600/700 and it still artifacts and locks up in "Deep Freeze," and although it does eventually give me a 3d mark score, I have to hard reset to regain control in windows.

Looks like my card is F'ed up!

Now I just need to decide if I want to try to RMA it back through Zipzoomfly for either a direct replacement (although as I said, they are out of stock...) or just say the hell with it and try to get them to exchange it for a x1900 series card. The only thing that would suck about that is it would kind of kill the whole reason for getting an SLI board- I wanted to do SLI eventually. My other option would be trying to RMA it directly through XFX in the hopes that I might get a pre-tested card. Suggestions?
Click to expand...
In the "Burn, Baby, Burn" article, they say that XFX is one of the companies that is doing a terrible job replacing people's cards :(

I would try to return it for an X1900XT if I had to make the choice, but if you have an SLI board why not just get an RMA? Up to you if you want to take the risk, but I personally would not.
 
Chaos_Being said:
KJ43, did you eventually get a good card or was it eventually replaced by the x1900xtx I see in your sig?
Click to expand...

I have my fourth card on it's way (RMA through BFG Tech). I'm going to keep it sealed in the anti-static bag and sell it as new to recoup what money I can.

My X1900XTX is what I have now because the 7900GTX wasn't working out for me and I didn't want any problems. It's a great card.
 
After screwing around with the card all day and getting extremely frustrated, I've given up. Its going to be RMA'ed. As much as I wanted to use my SLI board for SLI, I may just try to wrangle with zipzoomfly and convince them to let me swap it for an x1900xt instead. It did say "Non-refundable. Exchange for defective units only." when I ordered the card, I'm just not sure if that means I can only exchange it for another 7900gtx, or if I can exchange it for an entirely different card. I'm guessing the former.

Its either that or roll the dice and RMA for another 7900gtx, in the hopes of getting one that works and being able to run SLI eventually. I'll see how I feel after I sleep on it, I guess.
 
Well I'm RMA'ing it through Zipzoomfly, I figured it was worth a shot since it seems that XFX has been taking a while from everyone's reports. I have my fingers crossed that I get a good one, as I am stuck with it- ZZF will not give me a refund or let me exchange it for a different item. Suffice to say, in the future I will not be purchasing any products labeled as "Non-refundable. Exchange for defective units only" from ZZF, I'll get any such parts from Newegg instead, even if they are more expensive. At this point I'd rather have a x1900xtx (and I am kicking myself for not buying one first,) but I don't have that option unless I plunk down another ~$500 out of pocket and then try to sell the replacement 7900gtx on Ebay. I'm not very happy at the moment, that will escalate to "pissed" if the replacement card is a dud too.

Edit: the more I think about it, the more appealing the idea of trying to sell my unopened replacement on Ebay and then just buying a x1900xtx is. Thoughts?
 
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