Ultima OC 8800GTX Issues

rendez2k · 16 Feb 2008 at 23:23

I've just purchased an Ultima OC 8800GTX from OC and I've got two issues....

1. Not a big issue, but twice now (since Tuesday) the system has failed to find my IDE devices on boot up

2. This is a bigger problem - the system has started rebooting itself tonight. I'm wondering if its a heat issue? Using Core Temp, it reports

Core 0: 34
Core 1: 28
Core 2: 30
Core 3: 31

Are these correct? I'm not sure how Quads work - do you look at individual cores or the total temperature (which would surely be bloody hot!?)

pegasus1 · 16 Feb 2008 at 23:28

rendez2k said:
I've just purchased an Ultima OC 8800GTX from OC and I've got two issues....

1. Not a big issue, but twice now (since Tuesday) the system has failed to find my IDE devices on boot up

2. This is a bigger problem - the system has started rebooting itself tonight. I'm wondering if its a heat issue? Using Core Temp, it reports

Core 0: 34
Core 1: 28
Core 2: 30
Core 3: 31

Are these correct? I'm not sure how Quads work - do you look at individual cores or the total temperature (which would surely be bloody hot!?)

Your temps are fine, just check that you didnt knock anything when you instaled you gtx., outside of that you need to look at latest drivers and bios.

rendez2k · 16 Feb 2008 at 23:45

OK... well all drivers and bios versions are up to date. One thing I did notice, is that on the bottom of the product page it states "Note - If you select the 4GB Memory Upgrade option then the CPU overclock is reduced to 3.1GHz - 3.2GHz region to maintain stability with all four memory banks filled."

Now I have 4gb and its come overclocked at 3.2 - is this classic signs of instability? Is it normal I may not have noticed it in the first week? Also, its restarting when the PC is doing relatively very little!

pegasus1 · 17 Feb 2008 at 00:05

rendez2k said:
OK... well all drivers and bios versions are up to date. One thing I did notice, is that on the bottom of the product page it states "Note - If you select the 4GB Memory Upgrade option then the CPU overclock is reduced to 3.1GHz - 3.2GHz region to maintain stability with all four memory banks filled."

Now I have 4gb and its come overclocked at 3.2 - is this classic signs of instability? Is it normal I may not have noticed it in the first week? Also, its restarting when the PC is doing relatively very little!

Only just realised you have got this from OCUK, your first port of call should be a web note to them detailing the problems.
Some motherboards do not clock all 4 mem slots very well, thats why most people recommend 2 x 2gb rather than 4 x 1 gb sticks.
Run a few benchmarks, one for the CPU (Orthos), one for the mem (memtest) and one for the gfx (any 3dmark) to see if you can pinpoint the hardware culprit.

rendez2k · 17 Feb 2008 at 12:19

OK, looks like a memory issue. Started getting corrupt files in Windows this morning so did a memtest - got 3 errors almost instantly then memtest locked up! Took out two of the 1gb's and ran it again and it passed. So, is the memory likely to be damaged or have Overclockers pushed the overclocking too far?

mame · 17 Feb 2008 at 12:42

If my system did that i would increase the northbridge voltage slightly and maybe the RAM voltage but as its a pre-built, pre-overcloked system you should get in touch with ocuk really.

rendez2k · 17 Feb 2008 at 14:10

Thanks guys. Does it seam odd to you that the problems didn't show up for the first 5 days? Surely if it was unstable I would have seen this earlier?

rendez2k · 18 Feb 2008 at 10:39

Well OC have said its faulty memory if memtest failed. I think I'm going to stick in the two sticks I removed and test them separately. I guess it might explain why I had no errors for the first 5 days?

rendez2k · 18 Feb 2008 at 22:48

A further update. I decided to test the modules that I took out assuming to be faulty and they passed first time. So, I put all 4 back in and they passed first time. Spent the night playing games until I got a BSOD (stating dxg.sys as the issue). Rebooted with memtest in the drive and I got hundreds of errors scrolling up the screen. Powered off for 1 min, rebooted then the memory passed again with no errors.

So, is the memory faulty? The motherboard? Processor? Over heating? Bad
overclocking? Bad XP install (although I don't think its this as I had a recovery CD based on Vista that also had BSOD).

mame · 18 Feb 2008 at 23:23

Will probably need either slight voltage increase in VDIMM or slight increase on GMCH to help run 4 sticks stable. I would try each kit on its own for a short while first

rendez2k · 2 Mar 2008 at 10:02

Well, after OC replaced the memory almost 2 weeks ago its been fine. But last night it started with exactly the same issues again in almost exactly the same time frame! I'm finding it hard to believe that its two bad batches of memory. Could it be that the overclocking slowly trashes the memory over a few days?