Curse

Admael · May 20, 2008, 09:01 PM // 21:01

Most RAM have lifetime warranty. OCZ is no exception.

If you do find out there's a problem with your RAM, just RMA. No receipt? No problem. Just call them up and request an RMA, then when approved, ship the RAM back to them.

Mark Nevermiss · May 20, 2008, 09:29 PM // 21:29

I had an ATI 9600XT card which was working fine until I started getting similar symptoms to yours; I'd be playing just fine and then BAM! system auto reset. I found the reason: very dirty VGA fan ---> not spinning anymore. The room is air conditioned so it works but then when the chipset heats up, PC resets.
I bought a cheap nvidia card because I was unable to find any AGP cards in the local market. I will try to find a replacement for the old fan tho.
Could yours be a similar problem?

Cyb3r · May 20, 2008, 11:35 PM // 23:35

what i'm seeying refers to arctifacts which refers to overheating i suggest you clean out the fan of the video card i know this can be a pain (it is when you got to clean Dual 7800gt's and those follow the design of nvidia which has been almost the same since the 6XXX series

Lord Sojar · May 21, 2008, 12:12 AM // 00:12

Hmm... well, in all my experiences, that looks like a cache corruption on the chip itself. My opinion, card is dead. It could be cache write checks from drivers, but most likely, you will need a new card.

I will give you something to try, but I nor nVidia are not responsible for any damages this may cause to your PC, OS, or anything related or connected to it, near it, or associated with it. Use it at your own risk.

What this could be is a cache overlay issue. That means the GPU's BIOS is corrupted. You MUST read what I am about to type CAREFULLY, and remember, try this at your own risk!

Find a blank floppy disk
Get your floppy drive plugged in if it wasn't already.

Download NiBiTor

Download NVflash v5.50

Now, for the fun part!

Create a bootable floppy disk, and copy the NVflash files to it. You also need to set your PC to boot from floppy disk, not HDD or CDROM.
Restart the PC. Once you are inside NVflash, type exactly is below this line bolded for you:

a:nvflash -b backup.rom

Now, get back to into Windows. Using NiBiTor, open the backup.rom file off your floppy disk. Bring the voltage down a small amount, and adjust the clock speeds down just a bit, and loosen the memory timings a bit, meaning make them just a tiny bit higher (lower = tight, higher= loose). Now save the file as biosrev.rom

Restart the PC, and boot from the floppy again. Once you are there, type what you see below this line, I have again bolded it for you to type:

a:nvflash -p -u -f biosrev.rom

Restart the PC and enter windows. If you notice the card is acting even worse or doesn't want to turn on, use that floppy again, go back in, and type this:

a:nvflash -p -u -f backup.rom

Your card will be back to default settings.

My goal here is to reduce the core temperature that a temp probe may not be seeing. It is also to release electron pressure off the cache gate by reducing the frequencies and the total voltage.

Best of luck if you try this!

snaek · May 21, 2008, 12:16 AM // 00:16

sounds like overheatin imo

Lord Sojar · May 21, 2008, 12:23 AM // 00:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by snaek

sounds like overheatin imo

No, it isn't overheating. It may have overheated in the past, but that type of artifact creation isn't directly caused by heat, it is caused by a damaged pathway to the cache interface on the chip.

Each vertical line is an overlay of the cache. If the cached information becomes corrupted before it is sent to final process and output, it results in linear artifacting. Typically, it shows itself as a nasty color artifact or a nice black and white pattern that covers the screen. Both are not good, but color is better than black and white. Try my BIOS fix if you are brave.

Quaker · May 21, 2008, 12:27 AM // 00:27

Most common cause for those sorts of errors is the video card not seated properly in it's slot. Take it out and put it back in.

Next to that is bad video RAM and/or GPU on the video card.

Next to that would be dust clogging the fan on the video card and/or the fan isn't running.

After that, it's a crap shoot.

For a video card, at that price range I'd recommend an ATI 3450 based card.

Lord Sojar · May 21, 2008, 12:41 AM // 00:41

It isn't overheating guys... that is not his current problem. Either his vRAM is shot, the cache on the GPU chip itself has been damaged by heat/overvolt, or the VGA BIOS is corrupted. It is NOT overheating.

Cyb3r · May 21, 2008, 12:41 AM // 00:41

yes rahja is right sorry for my wrong interpretation getting late here. The only way is indeed like rahja suggest reflash the bios, cause it indeeds sounds like a cache corruption / overflow caused by the corruption

dark_slayer · May 21, 2008, 06:05 AM // 06:05

Well i think its not a overheating problem cause i always keep it cold in here, i always keep my computer dust free and has nice airflow.
I don't think its my system ram, but i don't have a floppy drive so i cant use memtest to find out. but i have tryed taking 1 stick out, it didint fix it so i swapped it out with the other one and still didint fix it.

Anyways the new video card is on the way, i had to pay using a money order so its going to be a couple of weeks before i get it but i will report back when it arrives, i hope the video card is the problem.

Fingers crossed

Brianna · May 21, 2008, 07:22 AM // 07:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by dark_slayer

Well i think its not a overheating problem cause i always keep it cold in here, i always keep my computer dust free and has nice airflow.
I don't think its my system ram, but i don't have a floppy drive so i cant use memtest to find out. but i have tryed taking 1 stick out, it didint fix it so i swapped it out with the other one and still didint fix it.

Anyways the new video card is on the way, i had to pay using a money order so its going to be a couple of weeks before i get it but i will report back when it arrives, i hope the video card is the problem.

Fingers crossed

If not, then enjoy your new video card.

It's most likely the video card though, as suggested.

Lord Sojar · May 22, 2008, 04:26 AM // 04:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brianna

If not, then enjoy your new video card.

It's most likely the video card though, as suggested.

Or the motherboard, god forbid...

Brianna · May 22, 2008, 07:44 AM // 07:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

Or the motherboard, god forbid...

Worst case scenario yes, that's why I kind of flip when my RAM dies.. the potential of it being the DIMM slot.

We shall see!

dark_slayer · May 30, 2008, 04:13 AM // 04:13

Got the new video card today and yep it fixed all my problems, i can play with max settings at about 50-60 FPS flawlessly. and when I run 2 accounts at the same time i get about 15-30 FPS on both.

I ended up getting this card for $39.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161096
HIS Hightech H155F512N-R Radeon X1550 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card

I wasn't expecting much from such a low end card but wow this things almost just as good as my old broke down 7900 gtx when it was new, i would recommend this card to anyone who needs a decent/cheap card to play GW on. i haven't tested any other games on it cause all i play is GW.

Thanks for all the help.

Brianna · May 30, 2008, 04:37 AM // 04:37

Cheers, now donate your 7900 to Blendtec and tell the guy to blend it.

''This old 7900 was good in its time, but I decided to get an upgrade, so the question is, will it blend?"

"Phew, Nvidia Smoke, don't breathe this!"

If you don't know what ''Will It Blend'' is, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI pretty funny stuff. It would actually be funny if you could really donate stuff to them, and someone donated a dead 9800GTX or something, but the new Nvidia cards are coming out really soon here so it'd be better to get a dud one of those.

Blackhearted · May 30, 2008, 05:16 AM // 05:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by dark_slayer

Got the new video card today and yep it fixed all my problems, i can play with max settings at about 50-60 FPS flawlessly. and when I run 2 accounts at the same time i get about 15-30 FPS on both.

I ended up getting this card for $39.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161096
HIS Hightech H155F512N-R Radeon X1550 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card

I wasn't expecting much from such a low end card but wow this things almost just as good as my old broke down 7900 gtx when it was new, i would recommend this card to anyone who needs a decent/cheap card to play GW on. i haven't tested any other games on it cause all i play is GW.

Thanks for all the help.

Eh. I know i'll probly be a "happy mood spoiler" here but... You probably coulda picked up a little better than that for around your price range. In fact you shoulda went with that hd 2600pro you were eyeing originally.

Lord Sojar · May 30, 2008, 07:23 AM // 07:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brianna

Cheers, now donate your 7900 to Blendtec and tell the guy to blend it.

''This old 7900 was good in its time, but I decided to get an upgrade, so the question is, will it blend?"

"Phew, Nvidia Smoke, don't breathe this!"

If you don't know what ''Will It Blend'' is, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI pretty funny stuff. It would actually be funny if you could really donate stuff to them, and someone donated a dead 9800GTX or something, but the new Nvidia cards are coming out really soon here so it'd be better to get a dud one of those.

I'll send him a failed board. lol. Unfortunately, it won't have this GIGANTIC heatsink the 280 uses, because we don't typically take care of that end. I must say though, this 280 is one crazy card. I am currently doing some at home "testing" of my devkit. Fun stuff, especially the PhysX capabilities being almost fully realized. You don't want to even know what FPS this gets at 1920x1200 in guild wars, everything maxed obviously.... you might vomit (and I can't tell yet, because the final drivers are not finished and it hasn't officially released)

Cyb3r · May 30, 2008, 07:29 AM // 07:29

i wanna know rahja (god i'm evil today again :P)

Brianna · May 30, 2008, 07:41 AM // 07:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

I'll send him a failed board. lol. Unfortunately, it won't have this GIGANTIC heatsink the 280 uses, because we don't typically take care of that end. I must say though, this 280 is one crazy card. I am currently doing some at home "testing" of my devkit. Fun stuff, especially the PhysX capabilities being almost fully realized. You don't want to even know what FPS this gets at 1920x1200 in guild wars, everything maxed obviously.... you might vomit (and I can't tell yet, because the final drivers are not finished and it hasn't officially released)

Yay, do it! It'd be fun.

Also, I got my 8800GTS up to 666+ FPS (I actually did cap it at 666 FPS, but took a long time to get it to land on that number, was changing up and down a lot).

So I can imagine what the 280 can do.. O.O.

Lord Sojar · May 30, 2008, 07:53 AM // 07:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brianna

Yay, do it! It'd be fun.

Also, I got my 8800GTS up to 666+ FPS (I actually did cap it at 666 FPS, but took a long time to get it to land on that number, was changing up and down a lot).

So I can imagine what the 280 can do.. O.O.

I give you a hint. It is related to the number of bits in 128 bytes of RAM minus a vaguely small number.