Strange ANNOYING problem.

BarBrawllin

BarBrawllin

BarBrawllin

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17 Sep 2011
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In my PC
Hi ,im sick of writing about this but i want to know WTF is happening with my PC:mad:

My hardware setup is in my sig,basicly the 9800GT stopped working in my motherboard. It's not detected in the blue PCIe x16 slot but it DOES get detected in the grey/white PCIe x8 slot,BUT.....after playing a game for a minute,it will start crashing the driver and eventualy locks up the PC and it will have to be restarted.......

I tested 3 other ATI cards in my system with success (ATI 3650/4850/6770) all of them work perfectly and dont crash during games and the motherboard detects them when they are plugged into the blue PCIe x16 slot on my motherboard. Logicly i start to assume its the graphics card thats ****** up.

I sent the 9800GT back to overclockers and today at 5:20pm they emailed me back to inform me ""Graphics card passed all test" , and "no fault could be found.In accordance with our terms and conditions, you have been charged a testing fee of £10 + return shipping + VAT.".....!!!

WTF!!?!?!?!

I just dont get it,3 other ATI cards work perfectly in that blue PCIe x16 slot so im assuming its not the motherboard or CPU thats at fault.......how the hell can they say it "passed all test" when my friggen machine cant even boot up with it!?!?!
I've removed all my hardware from the case (several times) and re-assembled it out of the case and it still wouldnt work so no short circuits.......i bought a brand new OCZ ZS 650W PSU,so its not the PSU thats faulty because its now been replaced......i've taken the battery out of the motherboard,cleared the CMOS aswell with the jumper pins,and it still didnt work! now overclockers is telling me they tested that card and it works perfectly?!?!

Im seriously p!ssed off,i spent £7 posting that back and now im going to have to pay £10 test fee + postage + VAT to get a graphics card returned to me that does NOT work in my motherboard. Can somebody PLEASE explain to me what the hells going on? No doubt i'll end up having to send the motherboard/CPU back to them just to be told they all work perfectly and this is all in my head lol. Im gonna shut up now before i start cursing and swearing at nvidia/PNY/asus and God.

Anybody here know what the hells happening with my gear?
 
Might be worth posting the customer service section and explaining to them there what's happening and also finding out a little about what tests they actually did. If all the other cards are working on your system them it's unlikely that the motherboard/CPU is at fault.

Which NVIDIA drivers were you using? The latest beta caused a lot of system crashes with me so rolled back to 290 and been stable as a rock!
 
Cat_J said:
Try running this on the 9800 and see if you get any errors, its like memtest for video cards

http://majorgeeks.com/Video_Memory_Stress_Test__d5896.html

You buy the rest of the stuff from OcUK? Nice of them to be so blunt. I've had faults missed by companies in the past.
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I already sent the card to overclockers and they said it passed "all test" so i cant run anything on it right now because i dont have the card in my possesion,i have to call them tomorrow and give them payment details so they can return it to me:(

I thought overclockers would have tested everything anyway?

I bought every single part from overclockers and always have bought all my parts from here since 2007 and always recommend them to people because of the good RMA service.I sent an asus motherboard back to them years ago that wasnt booting up and they returned it to me with a FREE 1GB ram stick that ran @ 1.8v so that the motherboard could boot up if it ever locked up again(it had an issue booting with 2.1v ram very very rarely) I've spent over 4 grand here over the years.

I dont know what to do....should i give them the £10 + postage + VAT and then send them back my motherboard/CPU? I really wish id bought the computer pre-built now so that i could have had proper hardware support....but i dont have any money tbh and took me ages to save up for these parts so i was doing the best i could and didnt expect a problem like this to happen. It's rather sickening.
 
shadow_boxer said:
Might be worth posting the customer service section and explaining to them there what's happening and also finding out a little about what tests they actually did. If all the other cards are working on your system them it's unlikely that the motherboard/CPU is at fault.

Which NVIDIA drivers were you using? The latest beta caused a lot of system crashes with me so rolled back to 290 and been stable as a rock!
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I've tried all the drivers lol. fully uninstalled/driversweeper etc but the drivers wouldnt stop the motherboard detecting it and it was working fine before so somethings definetly changed and its not me who's done it.
 
You got a friends PC you can test it in? Still sounds like the card is at fault. Find out exactly what tests they've run. You could even ask for the results. Then get it back and run some test yourself and also test it in another PC if possible.
 
Cat_J said:
You got a friends PC you can test it in? Still sounds like the card is at fault. Find out exactly what tests they've run. You could even ask for the results. Then get it back and run some test yourself and also test it in another PC if possible.
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I'll have to wait a couple of weeks for my cousin to get back from holiday so that i can test it in his machine because theres nowhere else i can test it,all my mates have got old crappy ghetto PC's and have consoles:rolleyes: lol......looks like there wont be any BF3 for me for a few weeks.:(

I'll ask what tests they ran and also ask for the results of the tests if they have any. I suppose i'll need to pay to get the card back now and run the memory test thing myself if they didnt already try that.

Totaly regretting buying the thing now its put me right off ever building a PC in my life again.
 
I would have suspected the same fella. We suggest trying the card on a known working rig to check if it fails on that too before RMA'ing if possible. How did you get access to other cards?

Your mobo has an IGP so you can use the onboard graphics to test stability of the system (i.e mobo) without the GPU. If the onboard is ok and ati cards work fine in games and the PSU is good. I very much doubt it's the mobo, it's either that 9800 is duff or it's a driver/compatibility issue.

I would do as shadow suggests and get in contact with them and ask for a brief explanation of what you are exactly paying them for. Have you updated the mobo bios and did you remove the drivers in safe mode? (I don't mean to insult your intelligence)
 
honosuseri said:
I would have suspected the same fella. We suggest trying the card on a known working rig to check if it fails on that too before RMA'ing if possible. How did you get access to other cards?

Your mobo has an IGP so you can use the onboard graphics to test stability of the system (i.e mobo) without the GPU. If the onboard is ok and ati cards work fine in games and the PSU is good. I very much doubt it's the mobo, it's either that 9800 is duff or it's a driver/compatibility issue.

I would do as shadow suggests and get in contact with them and ask for a brief explanation of what you are exactly paying them for. Have you updated the mobo bios and did you remove the drivers in safe mode? (I don't mean to insult your intelligence)
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Yeah i removed the drivers in safe mode ,even used driver sweeper and i updated the BIOS too. Im using the ATI 3650 in the PC right now (i've owned it for years as a backup card),i dont use the ATI 4850 because it artifacts in games slightly( weird lines etc) but at least it doesnt crash the system lol.(wich proves that even a duff card still manages to work in the system and can be detected by the motherboard).

I managed to get a hold of the ATI 6770 from a friend who works in ******,it had been sent back because the dude who bought it didnt have a PCIe slot on his motherboard (lol) and he was kind enough to let me test it in my system for 1 night since it was already opened up and we played Crysis 2 ,BF 3 ,left 4 dead and a couple of other games and it was working perfectly for hours and hours without crashing! Unfortunately i dont have the money to buy that card right now because if i did i would have bought it and just wrote the 9800GT off and been happily playing BF 3 right now instead of crying on a forum lol.(id have bought it from OCuk dont worry guys lol)
 
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In future try to get a better brand than PNY, they really are quite budget. I've had a few of them and Inno3D cards go faulty (not my buying choice.)

These things are often down to ultra cheap video RAM
 
Cat_J said:
In future try to get a better brand than PNY, they really are quite budget. I've had a few of them and Inno3D cards go faulty (not my buying choice.)

These things are often down to ultra cheap video RAM
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I was on a limited budget and couldnt resist the urge to build the PC on the cheap because id been sitting without one for 6 months,when i saw the "refurbished" PNY 9800GT here on overclockers with 1 year warranty for £37 i thought it was a good deal since i will be moving house at some point and getting all my stuff back from storage so i thought it would last me a decent amount of time untill we get a new house to live in.I have a 480GTX in storage and an old core 2 duo PC that i cant get access to because im at the mercy of the council and living in a temporary furnished flat provided by the housing association.

It was the council who set up the property storage for me and my family and they say i cant take anything out of it untill they find us a home,wich they havent been able to do for about 8 months:( id get up and leave and find my own place but its not that simple since my parents need constant care due to health issues so i wont be leaving them on their own,just last week my mother broke her elbow and arm because i wasnt here to keep an eye on her and she fell down in the kitchen(she has sleep disorders and sleepwalks and various other stuff) My dad has dementia and its too much for my mum on her own to cope with.

this PC was the only thing keeping me sane and it doesnt even work and i dont even know whats wrong with it,its really depressing tbh.
 
Reading back on your previous posts.. seems youve posted a lot about this card, different issues each time. You've also had it's paste changed, bios update? and other stuff, then ocuk test and say it's okay..

I'd be looking at your other components tbh :o Maybe im wrong tho.
 
Vespasian777 said:
Can't you just ask for a replacement card?
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I wish i could but i dont think they'd do that? If they test the card and say its working then why would they refund/replace my card? Im going to have to somehow prove to OCuk that its not working on my system and that means sending them the motherboard/ram/cpu back so they can plug the 9800GT into the machine and see for themselves that its not even detected by the motherboard. I was really really hoping the card wouldnt work when they got it because it would be a simple refund/replacement but it looks like its turning into a nightmare worst case scenario. the strange thing is i had this niggling feeling in the back of my mind a sort of bad feeling that the card was going to work when they got it and that i would have to send it all back in the end and thats exactly what has happened it seems.

I have asked them what tests they ran on the card and showed them the graphics card memory test tool the guy above suggested that i use to check the cards VRAM. i also asked if they are 100% certain the card is working correctly but im pretty sure a place like OCuk would know what they are doing when it comes to testing for defective hardware?

Now i just wish id waited a little bit longer and bought a better GPU because im pretty sure my motherboard/CPU/ram is all working correctly because i've stress tested everything on my machine and its 100% solid so it HAS to be that GPU:mad:
 
unp|dissy said:
Reading back on your previous posts.. seems youve posted a lot about this card, different issues each time. You've also had it's paste changed, bios update? and other stuff, then ocuk test and say it's okay..

I'd be looking at your other components tbh :o Maybe im wrong tho.
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I have looked at them and tested them with stress testing tools like prime95 and intelburn test and i've even used different graphics cards and all of them work(except my 9800GT). I was gaming on an ATI 6770 the other night for hours and hours and didnt have any issues and all the games ran great at high settings so how can that be the case if the rest of the system wasnt working? The 9800GT doesnt even get detected by the motherboard lol......

The issues with the card before were overheating issues and also i noticed in furmark a few tiny artifacts but that was only when certain options were ticked and i dont think your meant to run that on a 9800GT anyways from what i read lol. What i dont understand is why it was working fine then just stopped working? I remember it happaned after updating my chipset driver and the computer wanted to restart....after that it was never detected again by the motherboard.And before anyone blames the chipset driver,the drivers wouldnt make the card undetectable by the motherboard BIOS since windows isnt even loaded by that stage. If it was any other components in my PC then you would expect all cards not to work?,but i tested an ATI 3650/4850/6770 and all of them worked and didnt crash when a game was loaded. The whole things driving me crazy:mad:

Theres something weird about the whole situation,when i plug the card into the grey/white PCIe slot the motherboard will detect it but that slot works at x8 speed and id rather use it at x16 speed,but anyways,i did try using the card in the other slot and it worked for a few days like that but i noticed it was a little bit choppier in my games(but even this configuration stopped working for me in the end,it just started crashing after 1 minute of gaming). Another thing i noticed is that if i put it in the x16 slot and stick another card in along side it(like my ATI 3650),it will be detected by the motherboard! but it runs at x8 speed because its in dual card config so it seems to me like its something to do with the PCIe speed and not the actual slots themselves. I wonder if OCuk tested it in a x16 slot? hmmmm

its definetly a hardware problem,but what bit of hardware is the problem?( i still think its the graphics card lol)
 
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I just noticed something! My ram timings should be CAS Latency: 9-9-9-27 2N but CPU-Z shows that my RAM is set to 9-9-9-27 1T........should they be 9-9-9-27 2T??? ......2N = 2T command rate?

This is the RAM i have https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-094-KS

Could it be this i've overlooked and causing all my issues with the motherboard not detecting the graphics?!? I'll feel like a total noob if it is but at least i'll have solved it! (keeping my fingers crossed)
 
when testing any component make sure everything is running at stock values. do not change voltage, cpu clocks etc... it sound like you have been changing values and why you may have unstable system

does your bios give you any error messages, or any beeps from motherboard when loading bios?
 
BarBrawllin said:
I just noticed something! My ram timings should be CAS Latency: 9-9-9-27 2N but CPU-Z shows that my RAM is set to 9-9-9-27 1T........should they be 9-9-9-27 2T??? ......2N = 2T command rate?

This is the RAM i have https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-094-KS

Could it be this i've overlooked and causing all my issues with the motherboard not detecting the graphics?!? I'll feel like a total noob if it is but at least i'll have solved it! (keeping my fingers crossed)
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you can run at 1T timings if you add a tiny amount more vccio voltage,did you set dram to whats printed on your ram? 1.5v and if your using stock vccio voltage of 1.05v try setting it to 1.1v with ram at 1T,should run fine then
 
wazza300 said:
you can run at 1T timings if you add a tiny amount more vccio voltage,did you set dram to whats printed on your ram? 1.5v and if your using stock vccio voltage of 1.05v try setting it to 1.1v with ram at 1T,should run fine then
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I had my ram timings on auto because it said 9-9-9-27 but i overlooked the command rate,it had it set to 1 when it was on auto but i've set it to 2 now because thats what it says it should be.I manualy set my RAM voltage to 1.575,it says it should be 1.5v for 1333mhz and 1.65v for 1600mhz. I set it to the lower value of 1.575v in the BIOS but it displays the actual voltage as being 1.59v so its overvolting a tiny bit. I read on here that the memory shouldnt be over 1.59 volts according to intel specifications and i saw people using this RAM at a lower voltage so im playing it safe and going as high as intel says i should. if im being too paranoid about the 1.65v then let me know! i've not changed the VCCIO voltage and cant remember what it is but when i get the 9800GT back from overclockers i will try it @ 9-9-9-27 - 2T - 1.65v and if it works then GREAT! if i can get it to work with my 9800GT i will then start to play with the VCCIO voltage and see if i can get it working stable with 1T with the VCCIO you suggested.

Does anyone think the command rate being set to 1T instead of 2T could be the ultimate cause of the graphics card not being detected?
 
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