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Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GS+ AGP

fuzzball

fuzzball

fuzzball

Associate
Joined
29 Apr 2006
Posts
14
Hi all

I am new to the forum, and this is my first post, thanks for any help i receive.

Anyway, on to this baby!
I received the card yesterday,
I have a problem, in that the card locks up at random times (sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 1 min etc)
and frame rates in games/benchmarks drop suddenly to something like 7-10fps!

I stop the game/benchmark, and check the temperature in forceware panel, and it says -246 degrees! and the led indicator in the panel is in the red. The card is not hot at all when this happens, and cool/warmish air is being exhausted .
I reboot the pc, and then everything is fine again. I check the control panel, and the temperature is back to normal 43 degrees celcius..

This has happened 5 times today, and i am clueless as to what is the problem..
The ambient temperature reads 20degrees, case temperature is 30 degrees, cpu, 24 degrees

I have been able to game and run benchmarks occasionally. and there is no problem,

3D mark Scores-running stock speeds

03-----16206
05-----7184
06-----3973

( I know my cpu is holding me back on the scores, but i bought the card for gaming, and when i have managed to play, the gameplay is great!)

The fact that the card completes the benchmarks sometimes, and can run games sometimes is annoying me to say the least, and i am fed up when it happens now, i instantly know when it happens, and like clockwork the temperature reading will be -246 degrees in the forceware panel! and all i have to do to fix the problem ( for a little while) is reboot!



Help! :(

fuzzball
 
Thanks Mitch007

I have checked for virus/spyware, and it is clean-- i did a clean reinstall of windows two days ago. I have Kaspersky anti virus on the machine, but even when disabled, i get the same problems..

I am running Windows xp pro sp2
All latest drivers for board, inc intels latest chipset software
forceware drivers that came with the card 84.21
software, i dont have much on the pc at the moment-- office 2003, fear, quake
halo, everest home edition

fuzzball
 
Last edited:
I'm glad your happy with your purchase but for £360 you could have got a new motherboard/cpu and PCI-e gfx (x1800xt) and score 9,000 at stock, and over 10K overclocked.
 
what card did you use before this?
Maybe theres some driver issues, i recently went from 7800gtx to x1800xt and had loads of problems, reinstalled windows after a format all was good.
Use ATI tool and scan for artifiacts - this should tell you your max temp under load as ATI tool pushes your gpu like nothing else.
 
Thanks vegeta,

I had a 6600gt bfg agp before this. I dont think it is a driver issue, as i uninstalled the previous drivers, and used driver cleaner pro in safe mode, which deletes all nvidia registry entries, before installing this card.
I will use that ati tool you suggest, and get back to you, thanks for the help

kli
 
Hi vegeta,
I ran the ati tool for 10 minutes, and there were no errors, and the core temperature went up to 58 degrees, and stayed there!

Is that a good sign?

kli
 
Hi did you click the "scan for artifiacts" button?
If thats all true, then thats a bloody good sign the GPU stays so cool on stock its hard to believe.
Just to let you know I also used driver cleaner pro but still had issues.

I'd run it for longer than 10 minutes though, try atleast 30, it shouldnt make much difference but just to be sure.
When I build a new pc and new overclocks I normally leave ATI tool on for aslong as I can before I get bored and need my pc, 2 hours minimum.
 
Get hold of a copy of Prime95 and run the torture test... it may not be an issue with your card, but the system it sits in... Prime95 will pick up any instability.....try www.majorgeek.com and search there for the software.
I run Prime95 for a couple of hours to test stability... it will cook your CPU and memory and stress it to test for issues...
 
Hi vegeta, thanks, i did press the scan for artifacts button, i just ran the ati tool for 1 hour, and the core temperature stayed at 59 degrees. any ideas?

Hi Mitch, I primed the system the other day before i received this card, for 14 hrs, and there were no errors!

i will run prime 95 for a few hours and let you know if it passed the stress testing

Thanks

kli
 
hmm I dont have a clue, something must be getting hot though I reckon, why else would the card run fine then suddenly run slow? Throttoling perhaps, whats cpu temps?
 
Thanks for your replies guys..

I do not want to physically remove the cooler, as this will invalidate the warranty, and i have heard that these coolers are stuck to the ram chips!

My cpu temperatures are 24 degrees idle, and never over 40 degrees when under load! Case temperatures are cool, and northbridge is cooled by swiftech copper heatsink with fan

I ran two instances of prime 95 for three hours, and there were no errors .

My psu is has very steady rails, and whilst dual priming, i measured the 12v and 5v rails with a multimeter to make sure, and both rails hardly fluctuate, and always remain above their ratings of 5v and 12v.

The problem remains, and i will let the card settle for a day or two, and if no improvement, it is going back, as i am not happy at all at the moment!

kli
 
I was searching for more info, and i came across this article on the inquirer
http://www.theinquirer.net/images/articles/79agp3.jpg

This is a picture of the core chip on a (gainward 7800gs) with the cooler removed,
and i must say, the amount of thermal paste being used seems too much, and, in my opinion, that much paste, would insulate heat, rather than conduct heat away from the chip via the heatsink (the paste seems to have been pushed to the sides, in order to identify the chip)

A possible explanation regarding overheating core, and it would explain, why coolish/warm air is being exhausted, rather than hot air

What do you think guys?


kli
 
Yeah that seems feasable to me mate, I really wouldnt worry about taking the cooler off its fairly easy, but dont blame me if anything goes wrong!

I normally re-apply the cooler on every vga card I buy and put as5 on the ram and core and tighten the hsf even more as normally the manufacturers put it on loosely to say the least.

And yes the amount of solution on there is way too much.
 
i had the exact same problem with my 6800, would do everything your card does, however this was quite some time ago (when they first came out) and i cant remember if it was going watercooling or just a driver change.

Try using a different driver version to the one your using, if not then its a thermal contact issue.
 
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