Video card overheating...?

[Richscd2]

OK, heres my problem. My (AIW 9800 PRO) graphics crashes after a few minutes everytime I try to play something 3D(such as running 3dmark03). The screen just turns into all colorful lines vertically and horizontally(best way i can describe it) and nothing else. I don't know if this is the memory on the card that is overheating or the GPU that is, which is causing this problem. I have all latest drivers,
direct x, patches, service packs, etc. I also reinstalled windows about 5 times trying to fix this problem. I would think my cooling method is sufficient because I have a 80mm case fan blowing from underneath the card and a side case fan blowing in cool air. 2 exhaust fans and 2 intake fans on top of that making it 6 fans total. Ok here are my specs...

A7N8X Deluxe Rev 2.0 Bios v1007
Athlon +2500 oc'ed to +3200 (Volcano 12 HSF) 1.700 volts
2 x 256 Kingston HyperX PC3200 2-2-3-15 Dual Channel
ATI AIW 9800 PRO 128mb (Catalyst 4.2 Official)
Audigy 2 ZS
SATA Hitachi Deskstar 80gig 8mb
Maxtor 80gig 8mb
400watt PSU

[Darthtanion]

Silly question but I'll ask it anyway as I like to start with the simple things. Did you install recent motherboard drivers right after the OS (before other peripherals)?

[Richscd2]

After reinstalling a fresh os, I downloaded the service pack and all updates first, then applied the motherboard drivers, then sound and video.

[Beefy]

That's a fair overclock there, and I hope those RAM timings are a typo. Some of the All In Wonder cards aren't too happy when you overclock either. Is the AGP speed still at 66mhz, or has that been overclocked with the rest of the system?

That being said, I haven't seen any reports on the 4.2 drivers yet, so I don't know if that could be your problem.

For starters, I'd try lower your overclock and see how that runs.

[Richscd2]

Nope, those ram timings aren't a typo. Whats wrong with them? They are designed to run with low timings. And yes, I locked the AGP bus at 66mhz. You think this graphics problem might be cpu related? I was kinda thinking the same because I pushed the fsb up over 200mhz by 4mhz so it was 204mhz. Don't think a few mhz would matter if the ram is able to run a slight bit faster than its marked. :cheers:

[Beefy]

Your RAM timing is 2-2-3-15? I could understand 2-2-3-5, but 15?

Anyways, clock it down a little and see if that makes a difference.

[amd_man2005]

Actually if you didn't know, alot of times x-x-x-11 timings work fastest on nForce2 normally for some odd reason (x being whatever you set it at of course)

[Beefy]

No, I didn't. :) That's strange... Ah well, my bad.

[minibubba]

Actually if you didn't know, alot of times x-x-x-11 timings work fastest on nForce2 normally for some odd reason (x being whatever you set it at of course)

I've heard that, although I'm quite sceptical. But from what I've heard the "11" is not set in stone what-so-ever. It's take some experimentation and far too many benchmarks to find the optimal setting for your specific RAM.

[Richscd2]

yep, I've benchmark the timings and found 15 has the best performance.

[amd_man2005]

I've heard that, although I'm quite sceptical. But from what I've heard the "11" is not set in stone what-so-ever. It's take some experimentation and far too many benchmarks to find the optimal setting for your specific RAM.

Yeah, thats what I meant but didn't have time to say :)

[Richscd2]

Alright, I did as beefy said and lowered my overclock and ran 3dmark03. I discovered it was actually the cpu that was causing my graphics to crash. I'm kinda glad it was a cpu problem instead of my precious video card. Anyways, I set the fsb to 166mhz which was stock fsb for my cpu and ran 3dmark03 thoroughly with no problem. Then immediately rebooted into bios and pushed the fsb to 200mhz and ran 3dmark03 and crashed almost instantly during the first loading screen of the benchmark. I tested this a few times, quickly as well so the card didnt have time to cool down during the fsb change. So much for ordering 8 new copper ramsinks and a vga silencer for my card when there was nothing wrong with it in the first place. But it's all good, 9800 pro's always need alot of cooling anyways. So now that I know it's my cpu overclock that is causing this problem, does anyone know what I can do to run at 200mhz fsb more stablely? Increase cpu voltage maybe? I ran 200mhz fsb with 1.700 volts all along because I didnt know if that was too high or not and didnt want to fry my chip. Thanks

[maximus7001]

Have you tried getting it stable @ 200fsb with a lower multiplier?