Assumed Video Card problem

I've been having this problem since I purchased Guild Wars (about a month ago). I can manage through it, it's just a real pain to deal with when it comes up.

Specs first:
Athlon64 3400+
MSI Neo Platinum motherboard (NVidia chipset)
1GB DDR400 GeIL memory
BFG 6800GT OC (!!! Down-clocked from 370MHz to NVidia-native 350MHz... will get into that below)
Dual-monitor setup
SB Audigy 2
x2 80GB Western Digital HDDs in RAID 0 array

The game will run fine for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour or more, then all of a sudden my entire system freezes up for a good 5 to 10 seconds, followed by a second or so of life, then freezing again. It'll do this repeatedly until I minimize my screen (Win-key + D) and then bring it back up. Then it'll run fine for anywhere from a few minutes to a couple hours and it'll do it again. This is Guild Wars specific.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? I'm presuming it to be my video card for reasons I'll get into in a moment, but it's not memory as I just purchased brand new DDR400.

I'm thinking it's my video card since somewhat similar events happen while playing Halo or Doom 3... "newer" games, you might say. My fix for that? Downclocked the video card.

I'm curious if it's a temperature problem or not, and have a plan in mind for looking into that (hopefully I'll get to that this weekend), but it averages high 70's/low 80's celsius while playing... the highest I see it reach is 86C. I've looked on other boards regarding temps... I've seen such varied temps, from 70C underload to (unbelievably enough) 110C! My CPU temp gets upto 65C... sometimes 70C.

Any thoughts? Or similar occurrances? Thanks!

dont laugh,

i have an ABIT nforce 7 main
AMD 2200
512 ram
an old 32 meg GEFORCE 2 card
and two harddrives..no raid....
onboard sound

GW runs fine


i wonder if these problems people are having with thier graphics is due to internet speed

dunno..

No, I somehow doubt an internet connection would cause the *entire* system to come to a halt. I guess I should have included I have 4Mb/s cable internet.

look at my card...it ancient....

Like I said at first: I've had similar problems before... and on non-internet games (I didn't play Halo multiplayer). Other MMO games I've played without a hitch. There's the possibility my video card can't handle these frequencies/temperatures very well. There's very little support for a connection-centric problem here.

From reading your system specs, it suggests you have overclocked your GPU. If so, leave it at it's normal settings and see what happens. Possible, with what others are saying that GW hits the card harder than some other games with all that is going on, and causing it to heat up more. I could be wrong on this. Only going by others comments.

Standard rule of thumb, if you ever OC expect problems. If problem occurs de-clock your machine.

I seriously wonder why people OC there hardware when todays hardware is plenty fast enough. WHy bother spending all that money only to fry the sucker is beyond me just to get a few more FPS.

I realize that the way I worded it was misleading, sorry!

No, I don't overclock my hardware (not anymore, at least). The BFG line of GeForce cards come overclocked out of the box. Factory-set core frequency for the 6800GT from BFG is 370 or 375MHz (forget which one). NVidia's reference design runs at 350MHz. So to fix the Halo problem I down-clocked my card to the native (ie: NVidia referenced) frequency of 350Mhz.

I'll have to look at the specs but 65C and 70C seems high for that CPU's temp so I am saying yes, its running too hot. I haven't found anything that shows what the upper limit is, but from memory on few machine that had Temp warning programs on the MB, that would have fired off a warning. I make sure the heatsinc and fan are operating properly and clear of dust and debris (the program that gave the warning also listed the RPM of the fan and it was at like 800 which a new one operated at 1400, that solved that customer's issue. Then I'd make sure where you have your PC housed is getting proper air flow.

Ok went to AMD's website and they list Max Temp at 70C on a AMD 64 3400+ so I don't think its your card, I think your system is cooking, literally. Not sure what boards you have hit but the 3 or 4 I looked into report temps in 40 C up to 50 C. 100 C if I remember my conversions properly is the boiling temperature of water (212 F) and way too hot.

I hadn't really checked boards for CPU temps, but I've always read stock HSFs from AMD tend to be a bit sub-par... I'll have to look into that more. Thanks for the tip!

(And yes- those are the boiling points. )

It seems to me that its heat related as well.

Okay, I"m not too sure it's the CPU overheating: it's reading at 50C- I have the side panel off and am blowing a fan right onto the motherboard. I'm going to throw in my 5700Ultra in a bit and see how that takes it.

A few more things.

Just noticed that you haven't spec'd your PSU or it's ratings. It could be a power issue as the Spec you have may require more power than your PSU is supplying.

2nd thing.

Do you have enough clearance around the whole of your PC, at least a foot clearance all around. This will help with air flow and feed in cooler air. If not, then you are just feeding the PC heated air over and over, which could be increasing the temps.
Check for dust bunnies too and clear out as much dust on the components as possible. Don't use a hoover on the components, only on the base of the tower itself. Use a Compressed Air Can to blow the components free of dust, while using a hoover to suck up the air close by.

As for me, I only have a few fans in my PC.

I have one on the side panel which blows Cool air into the Case, one on the CPU and one on the GPU. Then there is the PSU fan which is the only fan that blows air out of the case.
I have several large fan slots at the back which are empty so the air just circulates nicely.

I also tend to always use large towers as well which i think give better air circulation as everything has room to breath. I think too many fans is not a good thing either. I have read some reviews where people have experimented with various fan types and combinations and too many fans and the inside temp actually starts to heat up due to the actual air flow in the case itself.
Not sure how it works, something to do with air pressure etc.(Going from the Techie Reviewer)

With regards to your card problem, if your Ultra fixes the problem, it's quite possible the BFG has fried itself, in which case get onto whoever for a replacement.

Or, it could be a Driver issue which others are experiencing with other cards with similar issues as you.

It's a 520Watt PSU, so no problems there. As for air-flow, I'm pretty conscious about cooling- I have 3 inlet (two front, one side) and two exhaust in the back. There's plenty of breathing room around the case, and it's a larger tower, which I tend to prefer: nothing is all bunched up in themiddle, obstructing air flow.

But that's probably all moot because I just ran GW (albeit briefly) with my 5700Ultra without so much as a hiccup (earlier today I couldn't even log on, the freezes were so bad and so frequent). I'm going to call BFG up later today. I'll let you know what BFG has to say, and how things go with the 5700 Ultra.

Saying you have a 520 w psu doesnt mean much since it can still be a crappy brand,check the 12 v and see if it gets at least 20amps,i have a similar setup to you(amd 64 3400 with 6800gt stock) and my temps for video card range from 51c to 62 c and cpu goes from 37c to 54c when playing.

No wonder you're confused. You're completely misled on the art of overclocking. If you truly know what you're doing, few or no problems arise. My CPU has been running 600mhz over stock speed for 2 years without a single problem.

Mercurial - your problems could come from heat. Mess with your cooling a little bit (take the side panel off for a bit just to test it out perhaps). Another possibility is that your video card could be going bad - it happened to one of my cards a while back and I had similar symptoms (not overclocked).

As I stated in today's 12:02pm post: I have taken the side panel off, and there is a house fan aimed inside the system. As for my PSU, it's an OCZ that recieved a number of good reviews (I forget the model number). Admittedly, I haven't checked the Amps, but I had a solid 450 Watt Antec PSU in there before this one (nothing is wrong with that one; I moved it to another computer I was building), which I was using while running into the Halo/Doom3/etc. problems before.

I talked to the BFG tech support guy... I'm going to call back later, but his guess is it's the card itself that's gone bad, so hopefully when I call back they'll give me an RMA number (something came up and I couldn't finish the support session with him). At his suggestion though: I threw the card into another computer I have here and booted up GW only to encounter the same problem.

Oh yeah: my temps. Idling, my CPU is at 40C, and 6800GT is at 64C. Under load my CPU reaches about 55C and the 6800GT hits mid-80's. The tech guy said the cards will frequently start to flake out around 90C, which might be contributing to the problem.

I'm not confused, I just don't see the point. OC, get bigger PSU, get bigger Fans etc etc. Just isn't a concern for me. Mine runs plenty fast enough and I know what i'm doing, which is the reason I don't do it.

I tend to agree with you Dirkiess... these days I spend too much money on hardware to risk losing it due to an overzealousness on my part. I have no problem with overclocking: if someone wants to do it they should go for it, I'll even tell you how. But it's just not for me anymore.

... then again, a friend of mine is *giving* me an old computer from his work. I have no clue what the specs are but it's an older model... the temptation to play around with it is growing.

its an addiction you can fight (well maybe)

i remember when overclocking gave me 15 FPS instead of 11 FPS on a dx2 66

that actually made a difference

Holy cow. So I called BFG Tech again, and he had me do one thing: change the AGP Fast Write from Auto to Disabled. Apparely the 6800 line is having trouble with it, and disabling it will usually remedy a lot of problems.

The game runs flawlessly now.



Thank you guys, for your input and help!

Yay.