Tech help / ideas graqphics crashing vista 64

[Catnip]

Where to start....


What have I got:

Dell XPS-720
Intel Core 2 Quad 6600
nVidia nForce 680i m/b
nVidia 8800GTX
8GB ram
Creative x-fi (something custom for dell)
Logitech G15 keyboard (the old one)
Logitech G5 mouse
2 x 500gb disks in raid 0 to give me 1TB
Dell 2405FPW screen
looks like this:

http://i.dell.com/images/global/products/314x314/xpsdt_700_black_closed.jpg

It's a gaming rig.

So the problem, well the graphics driver crashes when I play AoC or a'n'other game I'm in beta with.

The problem appears in all nVidia drivers from December to the latest version, I've even tried the one for the 200's.

I checked the system out with pc-check hardware level checks all appeared fine.


To check whats going on I performed the following test:

Installed 3dmark06 advanced version
1920 x 1200
Anisotropic filter 16
Continual loop
It crashed after 28 minutes, blue screen reboot time, same as the games.

Uninstalled sound and gfx drivers cleaned them up and reinstalled them several times, tried different version of gfx drivers, same result.


So I installed Windows XP SP3 x32 on to my machine as dual boot, ran the same test:

Installed 3dmark06 advanced version
1920 x 1200
Anisotropic filter 16
Continual loop
It ran for 8+ hours in a loop no issues no crash, so I stopped it.

Right I thought it's not my hardware, is it corrupt windows vista install..


So next test:

Clean install Vista Ultimate x64 SP1
Installed nVidia nForce 680i m/b drivers
Installed latest official nVidia driver
Installed sound card driver
Installed keyboard and mouse drivers
Installed media card reader with bluetooth driver
Full windows update
then:

Installed 3dmark06 advanced version
1920 x 1200
Anisotropic filter 16
Continual loop
ran the test, it crashed after 10 minutes, dx9 crash and nVidia driver crashed managed to reboot before blue screen of death.


Therefore my assumptions are:

It's not the graphics card
It's not the drivers
It may be ram? as xp 32 only sees 3.25gb
It may be due to a windows updated sometime around the release of Age of Conan
I don't know what it might be :)
Things I'm going to try next:

Uninstall drivers and patches one at a time and re-test
Do a full check of all 8gb of ram
Try Vista 32 and see if it's a Vista thing
Any ideas thoughts or advice, I want to get to the bottom of this one as it's irritating me :)

[Kalima]

hmm for the memory you can always switch it so you can run it with only 4gb ram in xp32 to check if the ram has a problem to eliminate that one..

tried allready in 64 without that soundcard? heard creative didnt have that stable drivers for vista...

usually is best to test to start with a basic system, without extra gadgets installed and see if it remains stable, if it is then add somethings like the soundcard etc.. untill it starts crashing... check then again without that last piece installed. if happens again try that piece in another comp with the same OS (if possible ofcourse).

If ok in other pc perhaps check voltage lines etc and temperatures if something goes whacko there...
voltage to cpu, graphicscard, memory and all those temperatures also.
Dunno what PSU is in that Dell, I would think they put a good PSU in it with enough W but you never know... that gtx is a powerhungry card, got one myself..

hope it helps.

Kalima

[Justar]

It's unlikely to be hardware if it works fine under XP unless it's RAM related.

Take out 4Gb, try it on 4 only, swap them, see if either one causes the crash whilst under XP. That's rule out your RAM unless it's a pairing issue.

PSU will be fine unless you've added anything to the PC since you bought it. Dell do spec PSUs properly, although they're never as good as custom built PCs.

[Ogrush]

I've been running Vista 64 with an 8800GTX for a year now. I've had a lot of mysterious crashes related to gfx drivers. Lowering details helped and upon closer inspection I found that Anti Aliasing was the culprit. Since then I've had low or no AA in all apps and my system has been stable since. I played through Crysis with all details maxed except AA at x2 or x4 running at 1920*1280. No crashes, no hickups.

[Catnip]

Thanks all :)

It was indeed the RAM, the 2nd two pairs of ram failed the dell ram test in both their original slots with 8gb and on their own in the first slots, the other pair are fine and all is well with just the first 4gb.

So i'll get them replaced next week, of course it's all clear now, I thought it was Age of Conan that did it, but then thats when I upgraded to 8gb from 4gb of ram :)

[Justar]

Glad you've got it sorted mate, nothing worse than having an intermittent fault that stops your gaming ;)