Need some advice desperatly!!!

Ok am getting really worried now.

I have just built a new rig a few days ago with the following components, all from Overclockers,:

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EP43-S3L
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 LGA775
Graphics - XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB
RAM - corsair 2x2Gb 800MHZ
PSU - OCZ PSU 700SXS STEALTHXSTREAM 700W
OS - MICROSOFT WINDOWS VISTA HOME PREMIUM 64BIT
HDD - SEAGATE BARRACUDA hard disk
Case -Coolmaster 335 case

This is the first computer I have built. Assembled with no problems, even applying thermal grease to CPU ect, and installed windows and drivers all working well.

I installed and played the original crysis game and on the first day played it for at least 3 hours with no problems.

I then was messing with the overdrive feature on the CCC and tried to clock the GPU to 700Mhz from 650 and the memory to 1200Mhz or something like that. Then when I ran crysis it crashed instantly. Having realise this was a mistake and after some problem getting crysis to work again, requiring a reinstall and deleting my config files, I disabled the overdrive feature.

After playing for some time more the computer completely locked up the screen displaying vertical lines of 2 shades of the same colour, and this has happened several times the colour varies. I am unable to control + alt + del or escape the game. I must manually hold the power button. I must also point out that the sound is a repeated sequence of whatever the last few milliseconds of sound were.

To resolve this I have reinstalled the drivers, ensuring my AVG was disabled. I checked for an obstructions to the any of the fans and there is non. I even changed the connector to the power supply. The problem still persists.

I ran the game in windowed mode with the CCC running so I could see the load and temp of the Gfx card and this occurred when the load was at 99% and the temp was 63 celcius. The fan speed was gradually increasing as the temp increased so I assume that the cooling on the graphics are ok.

I must point out that I can play supreme commander on high everything as the same resolution for longer periods of time with no problems.

i have posted on other forums regarding this and have found suggestions such as PSU short circuit and fan failure ect. I have ruled out fan failure.

I will try a complete reinstall of windows next week when I have some time but I am beginning to think there may be a hardware failure not necessarily in the Graphics.

Any help on the matter at all would be greatly appreciated.

I would instantly say it's a gfx fault, though you've clearly thought about it more.

Any chance that crysis is just stressing the GPU more than SC? Crysis is notoriously hard on machines, might just be enough. Sounds like the OC'ing may have borked it somehow though.

You need to test the machine thoroughly now to rule out the other components. Do a memtest86+ and prime95 etc to check it's stable and mem is ok. I would also reinstall before you pass final judgement unfortunately. Run something to stress the GPU like furmark as well, then you can see if that locks it up.

Can't rule out the PSU yet but doesnt have the typical symptoms of PSU problems.

I would imagine that Crysis stresses it more than SC I will test that tomorrow. Could it be because the XFX radeon is a out of the box OCed card. and that it is simply overloading.

I will look into the memtest ect. As I said am new to these sort of problems as am used to off the shelf systems. Again i will have a look at this tomorrow and will get back to you.

Although the problems only started occurring after i mess with overdrive I can I can play through some of the earlier levels with no problems. I also noted that it happened at the same or similar points when playing. It's either a very annoying coincidence or there may be something else causing this. Either way very annoying. If the card is faulty, I take it there will be no problems returning it for testing, repair or replacement.

Anyway, Thanks for your fast reply. I will try and do those tests tomorrow and maybe I will get some results that will help me figure this out. Am sure I have some other games that might be intensive enough to load the card.

Probably the best way is to source another known tested and working graphics card and use it in your system and run the above tests, a good prime will let you know if it's the PSU or not.


And I wouldn't get too worried just yet - if you can get through some games fine but not others, the game may simply require a patch or updated drivers for your card.


Simply overclocking anything will not damage it (apart from extremely rare cases). damage comes from voltage/current increases.


Hope this helps


Regards (a very drunk m3)

Prime 95 -

I have been running prime 95 with no problems for about an hour. I will continue to run it for a little bit more. According to task manager the CPU usage has been 100% so I think that may have ruled out CPU overheating. It is also using 66% of the RAM and there has been no crashes.

I am still to run memtest86+. TBH am not really sure how to use this one. I downloaded the binary, is that the version I want to be using?

Also downloading 3Dmark 06 to stress the graphics card find out if that's the root if the problem. I am going to send a ticket to XFX support on this as well as am starting to think more and more that the card is faulty. I noticed that on some occasions there is corruption to the intro vids to crysis.

Am going to run some other games to see if any of the problems persist. Although I don't have much that will stress the card as much as crysis. The games are:

UT3
Titan quest
Battlefield 2
medieval total war 2.

try furmark, that should really stress the card very quickly and tell you if it's a gfx issue. Would save a lot of time compared to 3dmark, it's not as GPU heavy.

Thanks, am just going to try that now. I stopped the Prime 45 at 768K test with all test passed up to that point. That is about an hour and a half of cpu 100% load with no problems.

I am sure it's the GFX card. After testing using Furmark it fails consistently at about 62 - 65 celcius with a similar sort of error.

I have sent a ticket to XFX to see what they have to say. Will let you know how that goes.

Thanks for your support.

I only hope that the warranty covers it if it needs replacing. Otherwise I could be in a spot of bother. Feel pretty angry at myself because I have feeling that it was messing with the overdrive feature that buggered it somehow as all was working well before that. I will try reinstall windows once I get the chance to back up my files but since reinstalling the drivers had no effect I doubt reinstalling windows will make that much difference.

Thanks again. Very helpful bunch you are. I will defo stick around on this forum. try and return the favour.

Jammy you practically have the same build as myself and built about the same time (see my sig) and i have exactly the same problem - crysis and Furmark but nothing else. (See this [thread=17997317]thread[/thread] and this [thread=17997041]one[/thread] for my posts of the same problem.) Edit: Also a guy called Magicpanda has same problem see near of end of thread for his link.

I too thought it was the gfx card but i'm fast coming to the conclusion that it's either incompatible memory or a problem with the motherboard. The fact that you have exactly the same mb and memory as myself makes me hope that it's the memory rather than the gfx card - even though your gfx card is the same. (Edit - I now think it's either the gfx card or the memroy as i have found another poster with the same problem but a different gfx card. I need to got to bed so no time to rewrite post - sorry for any ambiguity.)

The reason i think this is that if re-install Furmark it runs benchmark after benchmark after bench mark. But, when i run a stress test that too run fine - but - now this is the strange part - if i press esc it goes straight back to desk top and when i run it again it crashes with the vertical lines as you describe and then i have to re-boot. But i have found after a the re-boot if i re-install Furmark again over the top it starts to run fine again - until i press esc again and then future tests start to crash until i re-install again.

Could you try this out? Clear your CMOS, load optimal results and then re-install Furmark. Run benchtests and see if they work fine. And then run a stress test - let it run for about 10 minutes and then esc out of it. Then Try running a benchmark - if it crashes with lines we have not just a similar problem but exactly the same.

Crysis too crashes in exactly the same way - yet all my other games seem to work ok.

The crashes seem to cause my memory to become temporarly corrupt as when i run memtest it shows errors but a quick reset of the CMOS and it's cured. However, the fact that the memory becomes unstable is starting to make me think that it's the memory at fault. I'm was going to buy a different brand and see if it cured the problem. If you can get your hands on some it would be a great test for both of us.

Obviously it could still be the gfx card - but i don't understand why it would run for so long stable when stressed to the max but freak out there after just from the esc key being pressed. Having said that why would the system memory do it? It's a really baffling problem.

I've been going slowly insane with this problem hopefully with some combined efforts we may be able to solve are identical problem.

Additional: - then again it could be the XFX card see this [thread=17995822]thread[/thread] by Magicpanda very similar problem and his card seems to have been added to an existing system - and the only other common component is the system memory. But it may be his system ran fine before the card was installed which would point towards the gfx card - unless the system memory somehow conflicts in some way with this partucular gfx card.

It may be an idea to start a combined thread, personal message each other or exchange e-mails as we may be able to troubleshoot this problem a lot faster combining our efforts.

I'll try and combine our problems into one post tomorrow for other forum members to pick over - but in the mean time if you're able to try out different gfx card or system memory on your system that would help eliminate a gfx and corsair conflict, I'm afraid i can't get my hands on any different memory or gfx card.

Good luck to you

Plec

I am so happy to see am not the only one with the problem. I had nearly given up home and was going to try and return the card. I was so angry with myself and thought that by trying the Overdrive feature had somehow mess up the card.

I was able to run crysis absolutly fine until I did that but then again the earlier levels seem ok. It was only when I got to onslaught that the problem began and I started trying to find out why.

I am definatly wanting to swap emails ect to try and get this sorted and I have a feeling that there will be a very simple solution. Thinking about it there are a few possible solutions.

Compatability - howver I ran Prime 95 and it reported no errors. This indicates that the CPU is not the problem. Am not really sure how to use memtest86+ so I will leave that up to you. We have different power supplies and considering that out problem is exactly the same I think that rules that out. Memory and motherboard are a real possibility. Am not sure the memory was on the compatability list that was on Gigabytes site for the board so it may become unstabel in some way under load. I will try and find this again to check.

Edit - Although for my boad is says refer to the compatability list this is all I could find on the site, it's not even the same http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/MemorySupport/motherboard_memory_ga-p35-ds3r.pdf

GFX - There may be a design flaw that results in the failure under 100% load. This might explain why Furmark and Crysis fail but other games that maybe don't use the card to full potential don't. It could be that crysis uses a feature of the card that other games don't that has failed/faulty/overheats very quickly although I find this unlikly as the card has been tested with crysis that it could have been missed.

Cooling - not likely. Based on the temps being good on the card and the processor. However there may be components on the board that are overheating. I notitce when I open the case after the crash, looking for blocked fans ect, that there was a heat sink in the board that was very hot. I will investigate that later today to find out what it is and if it could cause the crash.

Drivers/windows - Since it worked for a while for me and before i tried to overclock it, just for the record I never had any intenstion to use it overclocked I just wondered if there would be performance increase for crysis and I was only going to test for 5 mins, refer to my previous post for how that went. There may be a windows update that somehow caused it to crash or a setting in the driver somewhere thats not reset by simply reinstalling.

edit - Just had a thought that it may be the video memory or the bios on the card that might need an update. Am trying to keep all my options open.

I have come to the conclusion that at this present time there are only a few things I can do to try and solve it:

I will test furmark benchmark, and then stress and then bench. However my comp was crash when I ran stress straight away afters 5 mins or less.

I have written to XFX support i will let you know what happens when they reply.

I will reinstall windows when I get my external HDD which is wed to see if that solves it.

Unfortunatly being a student means I can't but any new components at all. Am pretty screwed if I can't return the card for a replacement/money back. I highly doubt that any of my friends have RAM I can borrow to test with but I will ask.

I notice in one of the posts you where using an older driver from ati 9.3, I was using 9.4 from the start I will try to test it with 9.3.

I notice that you are using win XP pro 32 bit, I am using vista home premium 64 bit. Which indicates that it may be driver releated. Let me know how you get on when you get your 64 bit OS.

I hope that this may help you. As soon as I know anything I will let you know. Am glad to have someone with the same problem because I was finding it really difficult to explain this to others. Sorry about the long post am tired am rambling a bit. Just let me know when you want to swap emails ect.

Edit - I will contact overclockers to ask if there have been any issues with the card and inform them am having an issue. Alought I don't want to do anything to comprimise the warrenty in terms of testing.

cheers man,

good luck

James aka jammy

Have you tried a different ati driver?

1200mhz+ on memory?! Could have fried the mem chips (hence the lines down the screen). Getting it to 1100mhz would be a good achievement.

Hi jammy

Yes, i too was very relieved to see someone having the same non-descript and fairly innocuous problem.

I've scan read your thread my kids woke me up at 6 am as usual this morning and i didn't get to bed much before 2am last night as i was trying to correlate your information and magicpandas with mine.

I'll just list my trouble-shooting techniques so far:

• Prime95 the cpu and memory - no problems
• Memtest both sticks of memory, individually and in dual channel mode - all passed. (sometimes requires me to clear the CMOS if system has crashed a lot)
• I have re-installed windows XP 3 times.
• Ran Furmark with just one stick of memory. But can get it working if i re-install it over the top - sometimes requires me to clear the CMOS if system has crashed a lot)
• I have installed all the latest drivers for the motherboard and graphics card - I have even tried earlier drivers for both. I'm using 9.4 cats now.
• Tried varying voltages in the BIOS for the memory and CPU.
• Increased all the fans on components to maximum.
• I've had system applications running to check all the temps and everything runs very cool - especially the graphics card, which makes me believe that it is the memory on the card at fault.
• The most conclusive test would be fitting the card in another machine and simulating the same error but as of yet i haven't been able to that.

Here is the link to the memtest website http://www.memtest.org/ you need to d/l Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip) just scroll down from the page link to down loads. Unzip the file and save it to a cd and then change your BIOS to boot from cd first and just let the computer take over.

The following is deff worth trying if you have time as your memory may be running corruptly with all you system crashes - mine eventually does using the same board. Clear the cmos (see you manual - but basically unplug power from system and just touch the CMOS jumper with a screwdriver for 2 seconds) and then re-intsall furmark and see if the benchmark works in furmark (not stress test) and if it does run the crysis benchmarks.

It's looking more like a gfx problem now, for sure, but there may be a tenuous link between the fact that we all have the same system memory and gfx card - but it would be an odd incompatability.

I'll post back later when i have a more time and hopefully magicpanda will notice he's had a reply. I'll insert my e-mail into my OC's forum account and set you to trust etc - i've never done it before so it may not appear straight away.

Hang in there - but, as you've mentioned, don't let this balls up your revision these new builds seem to absorb time and it's easy to lose a week before you know it...

Good luck and more importantly good lucj with your exams.

Additional i'll edit this post so it's makes more sense later - but for now i would try the clear cmos/re-intsall of furmark as it's very quick but remember not to run the stress test - just benchmark without pressing any keys. Then after testing bechmark a few times try running the stress test for a while and then press esc and see if the problem re-appears. (You can just re-install Furmark from then on until your memory becomes corrupt from system crashes.)

Plec

No i haven't tried a different driver yet. I will try that tonight.

As far as clocking the memory I never ran the card on load with those specs, the game crashed during the ea logo the first time then i disabled the overdrive.

If the memory was fried why would the game crysis play at all. Surly the lines would appear almost instantaneously.

Also with others with the same problem regardless whether they used overdrive suggests it is something else. Thanks for the suggestions though. I will try an earlier driver version tonight.

Edit -

no worries plec. Am new to this forum, and forums in general. There is no rush with the email i will try and figure out the trust thing in a bit.

am off to study. be back on later to see if there have been any developments.

cheers

I've just started a new thead on whether or not there is a compatibilty issue with the ATI 4850 card or 48** cards in general with Furmark. Click [thread=17997995]here[/thread] for link.

It would at least rule that possibilty out if a few ppl reply with positive experineces using this card and Furmark - and vice-versa.

Edit: I may start a new thread compiling all the problems we 3 are having and things that we have ruled out so it's an easier read for other members to critique.

It's got to be either the gfx card or the system memory or that the combination of the 2 conflict in some way. The only other possibilty is that Furmark and crysis just don't like the XFX 4850 XXX edition - if i get a lot of replies to the thread link above we may be one step closer resolving this.

Jesus, i had a holiday before all this...

Plec

Hi, I am new to the forum and had to wait long time before my account was activated really annoying as I was eger to post LOL.

I have a XFX 4850 512MB not XXX version and I am experiencing same problem. Yesterday I was playing crysis and about 10-15 minutes of playing I get vertical lines on my screen of two different shades of same colour like you describes it. I tested furmark and it did the same thing. However when I play counterstrike I can play for hours without a hitch. Can anyone help me, the card is brand new less than a week old. It also has coil whine and buzzing. However crashing in games is worst. I like the card because I got it for cheap price and I dont want to spend too much on graphics cards.

If I return it and get a replacement. Am affraid that I will get a card with exact same issue. The card was sold in the companies own name cheaper than the exact same card, they even told me they got it for cheap from XFX and I supposed they have been sold a bad batch. I dont know am just saying stuff.

Sounds like your card has a fault. you should return it to the retailer so they can replace it for you. The reason it's probably fine in CS is that it doesn't stress the card anywhere near as much as furmark or crysis.