X1800XL Problem, so gutted and annoyed!

[DazedNFuzed]

Before I begin please excuse the bad grammar!

Back on the 02.02.06 I purchased the following from Overclockers to upgrade my PC:

HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1800 XL
ASUS K8N4-E Delux Socket 754

On the 06.02.06 i purchased:

Geil 2GB (2c1gb) PC3200 Vaule Dual channel ram.

Before all this i purchased a new power supply from an-other shop.

Antec True blue 480w

I started to experience some freezing up when playing Battlefield 2 but I put up with it and sort of ignored it, then I purchased battle for middle earth 2 and the freezing up began to happen allot more I turned down the graphics and the freezing did not occur as much...

Also purchased from Overclockers and installed the following:

Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower

Still it froze intermittently.

I then purchased oblivion and then this is when i relay really got fed up with the freezing - i so badly want to just play this game with out any problems.

Honestly i have tried every thing i can think off, here is a list of what i have done.

Removed every thing from motherboard and case except the basics, MB GC HD -Still freezing!!
New HD, again with all un needed items installed just basic drivers -still freezing.
Taken to work and tried on our test benches out back encase of bad power - Still freezing
Ran 3DMark06 -DID NOT FREEZE
Ran Burnintest -DID NOT FREEZE
Tried Mates Video card - DID NOT FREEZE

So still banging my head against the wall i contact Overclockers and send the card back with the attached Message:

------------

When playing games my machine is freezing up and I am unable to use CTRL ALT Del to exit I have to completely reboot the machine, some times once I have rebooted it will freeze up on desktop - but that has only happened about 4 times. The following games are what I have been playing Oblivion, Battle for Middle Earth 2, F.E.A.R & BF2. The majority of the time I am unable to play for more that an hour at a go but when it is really bad it freezes every ten minutes.

Tried the following:

Different hard drive with only MB drivers and the latest Video drivers installed – Crashed
Different Memory and tried different slots - Crashed
Replaced Heat sink with Zalman CPS9500 - Crashed
Ran 3DMark06 – but did not crash.
Ran Burnintest v4 for 1 hour – and found no faults.
Tried a friend’s Video card for 5 hours and did not experience any faults what so ever.


Regards
Rob.

-----------------------------------

They contact me by email informing me that the card is on its way back , i contact then and they say that they ran 3Dmark for 1 hour stress testing it with no problems what so every...

Ok now I'm confused what the hell can it be...

So i contact them and talk about what the problem may be, after a 10 minute conversation i ask what if i purchase new CPU PSU and MB and try that if it still freezes what would they do, they said that if it still freezes they would change the card..

SO i bought the following:

Sapphire Pure Advantage Crossfire Radeon Xpress 200p Crossfire
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego
Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580w Modular ATX2.2 PSU

and for good measure treated my self to :

NEC Mulitsync LCD20WGX2 20.1" wide-screen LCD Monitor
Sony DVD Rom
SONY DVD+RW - needed the drivers cause all where beige wanted silver

OK SO....

its easter weekend and I'm thinking yeah this has to fix the bloody problem and I'm goner play Oblivion all easter weekend....


Guess what!!

after installing and setting up every thing....
And after blowing my 1GB USB memory stick and 2GB USB Memory stick and having problems with My SATA Boot drive and 2 Mirrored drivers - that still wont mirror - I install Oblivion and with in 2 minutes the FRIGGING GAME FREEZES!

I contact Overclockers and ask what should i do?
I'm told to send it back and they will test it again!
I ask what happens if they find no faults?
I'm told that it will just be sent back to me again!!

WTF SHALL I do I'm really pulling my hair out and on top of that I'm completely whipped out the bank account trying to fix the fault that just blatantly tells me its the Video card.


I work in a I.T department and all my Superior's colleagues and looked at my machine and think the same...Graphics Card Fault.

I am going round mates on Sunday to again try his Video card and swap RAM about....nbut it cant be RAM cause Ive installed XP so many times with no problem!!


Please excuse the frantic grammar and typo errors I'm just so F-ed off.

All Views and Advise welcome.

 

[DazedNFuzed]

so what happened to the bit about overclockers saying if the card still freezes theyll replace it? you get that in writing? or a name to contact about it as thats what i would try first.

NO nothing in writing, i just trusted them, I am going to check my phone recordings at work but I may have used my mobile.

Can you get your hands on another graphics card - just as a test?

Borrow from work/friend maybe?

If you put a new card in and it works fine then its a strong indicator that your card is the problem. The only other thing it could be in that case, would be a driver issue.....

Before sending the card off I tried my colleague’s card and all appeared to work fine, I am going round his house again Sunday to try one more time.

I would have said overheating video card.

Maybe 3DMark does not freeze because the tests don't last long enough for the card to overheat?

Yeah I agree, Overclockers say that tested for 1 hour, but since getting it back and having all the new parts installed and running on my new NEC 20.1” Widescreen at 1680 it freezes almost immediately.

I so annoyed I spent so much money an I cant play any games.

 

[DazedNFuzed]

It has to be the Card at fault, i just cant see any other problems and with all the pars changed they surely should change the card.

Going to friends Sunday to test his card in my machine and his in mine and then I'm going to contact them again Tuesday and speak to the manager and request an exchange.

 

[DazedNFuzed]

When you have that many of problems and you just bought the card recently I don't understand why the person who replied to your message didn't offer to replace a new card?
After you have gone such length just to solve the problem (I suppose you ordered the new stuff from OCUK) then they MUST give you a new card, that's just not right.
Like the last time when my MB Asus A8N32 Deluxe gave me all sort of troubles I emailed them and was offered to choose a different MB (even different brand) the same price or more expensive and they will replace it with the Asus one which I think is great customer service.
So write another email explain everything I'm sure they will send you a new one. But it's Easter you may have to wait until next Wed

Sorry to hear about your problems and hope you get it sorted soon.

And ooh, if your budget is not so tight get a better GFX card,ie. X1800XT or 7900GT, I jumped from X1800XL Excalibur to X1900XT-X and the difference is unimaginable

Well i asked to speak to the manager but he aint in till tuesday so i will give them another call them, spent over £1300 since febuary with them.

What temp is the card getting to? ATI tool can show the temps of the gpu, I'd look at that, not forgetting that ATI tool can manually override the fan speed settings. I'd crank up the fan speed and watch the temps drop.

Another thing (though you do this at your own risk), bios flash the card, the bios may be iffy. A collegue of mine experienced the same problems with a HIS X800XL, 2 hours into Battlefield 2 and he got a solid lock up, temps were reasonable and nothing on his pc was overclocked. He decides to take the card back to the vendor at the Manchester computer show, only to find the trader has ceased trading. Contacting HIS was a waste of time, he put a sapphire X1800XL bios on the card and everything is sweet.

Links to what you would need to Bios flash.

Bios

Temp on card for GPU is 54, I spoke to friend who has same card and he got same temp, thanks for idea about flashing the card but i will only do that if I cant get it exchanged.

Demand That they test it under the conditions that you specify, anything else is just bad service. Its your right, your card, your money, and your guarantee and they are legally bound to honour it so dont be fobbed off by some techy whos just out of diapers doing a half arsed job just because he cant be bothered to sit and monitor actual gameplay for an hour.

If you can, drive there and take your PC so you can show them and personally and tell them you want to see it being tested under a game, not 3Dmark. Running 3Dmark 03 / 05 / 06 / for an hour is similar, but not the same as actual game play.

Also start up oblivion for us all here, play it for 15 minutes till you start to encounter freezing, TAB out (keep the game running of course) and tell us what temperature your video card is.

Yeah will be demanding on Tuesday...and was thinking about taking PC there if they don’t listen.

I can’t TAB out cause the machine locks up and has top be rebooted.

did you try your card in your mates pc? if it freezes then, its game over for overclockers surely

Will be testing it on Sunday monring.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you all for your replays and help

all this forum chat has carmed me down allot

 

[DazedNFuzed]

Bloody thing has been crashing a lot on desktop today and i cant play any game for more than a couple of minutes now, it appers to have got worse...

Downloaded the ATITOOL 0.24 - what do i need to do?

 

[DazedNFuzed]

TBH mate, have a go at the bios flash.

ive never flashed a video card bios and i would be concernd that if i did that it would ruin my warranty i have with the card??

 

[DazedNFuzed]

I second this, do not flash your BIOS under any circumstances, this sounds much more serious than just a BIOS flash. Crashing and freezing at desktop I think the card is probably physical duffed either memory or the GPU itself.
Just wait for a few more days, contact OCUK and ask for an upgrade.

don't worry i wont be flashing it, I'm well with in my rights to get this card exchanged.

I'm sure the manager will see it my way and the nonce who i spoke to on the phone just didn't have the authority to say that it could be changed.

They have to change it right?
Do they read these forums?

 

[DazedNFuzed]

Hi there

First of all sorry to hear about your troubles and the not so top notch support you should have gotten.

This to me sounds like a definite faulty graphics, but if you could test it in a friends PC it would help.

One thing to make sure is that the card is been powered from a clean line, so basically a cable running from the PSU that has no other devices connected to it.
Also make sure you have installed all appropiate chipset drivers for your motherboard and then install the latest offical ATI drivers, I believe which are CAT 6.4 so maybe give CAT 6.3 and 6.4 a try.

If its still giving you trouble call tech support tomorrow, ask for Phil or Andy and tell them Gibbo has authorised a priority swap for another product. Inform them that they need to swap it out for one of the Sapphire X1800 XT's as we have no more XL's left and this will be done for you at no charge, so in essence a free upgrade for the troubles you have had.

In the meantime I will ensure our technical department get some new stress testing involved that involves actual game engines to prevent such problems happening again.

If you want and are not too far away from OcUK you could always travel up and bring your card for swap-out either tomorrow or Monday as we are open during the bank holiday.

Yup, all latest drivers installed and MB bios up-to-date.

That is absalotely awesome gibbo, you wont beelive how stressed about it all i have been, ive run my self int the ground about it and a got a sty thingy growing on my eye

I live in essex but im willing to travel up tomorrow to salavage my easter weekend and get back to Oblivion

will that be ok do you think?
Should i bring my tower to?

 

[DazedNFuzed]

Hi m8

Bring your tower, Oblivion game and I will get our guys to get it working for you whilst you wait and if it needs a new card they will replace it with a Sapphire X1800 XT for you.

I shall let Phil know to expect you, try to get there for as close to 9am as you can as Saturday get really busy and you don't want to be standing in a long queue.

So ask for Phil Meredith when you get there and let him know Gibbo has authorised for everything to be sorted, but I shall inform him anyway by email as I am not in over the weekend.

just checked map

http://www.maporama.com/share/iti.a...&VV=1680x1020&SEARCH_ITI.x=16&SEARCH_ITI.y=11

over 3 hours there , i will leave as early as possible.

 

[DazedNFuzed]

Leaving at 7.30, second long journey this week did 620 miles tuesday and wednesday for work

illl report back first thing when i get back

 

[DazedNFuzed]

Well after over 400 miles I'm Home!

let me settle and ill let you know how i got on.

Suspense...

 

[DazedNFuzed]

So...

I left this morning at 7.30 and arrived at Overclockers about 10.30, after over 3 hours driving i had allot to think about and must admit wound my self up so much on how much i had spent trying to solve this problem, But once there i met Phil and Dan from Overclockers who to be honest carmed my nerves immediately, I explained every thing that had happened and Dan and Phil got to work.

I did have to wait until about 3.30 until they felt confident to invite me out the back and feel happy that the machine was now stable, they must have tried every thing they could think off and i know that the Tower must have had 3 different PSU and 2 processor's 3 motherboards ram tests HD test you name it its been swapped about, at one stage i know Dan just didn't know what to do next so after a chat he decided to try and removing from the case completely - we both said this is highly unlikely but he had to try it.

Yep highly unlikely was true that wasn't the problem cause it still had the same problem.

any way like i said 3.30 and after a great upgrade all appeared to run stable, I'm home now and just plaid Oblivion for 30 minutes with no problems, 30 minutes is more than before and all appears to be stable, I'm going to reinstall and test it over the next couple of days but already i feel confident that Overclockers have solved the problem.

I got an upgrade one some parts - not going to let you all know how much of an upgrade, but lets just say I'm OVER THE MOON.

Gibbo, Phil & Dan thank you so much, my loyalty has been completely restored in Overclockers!

And Ive been told that if i experience any problems they will continue until it is sorted!!!

again thanks guys!

Overclockers for life


THANK YOU SO MUCH!

 

[DazedNFuzed]

Cheers Man thats brilliant!

Oh yeah I Forgot to thank ...


The Arctic Monkeys and my Ipod for getting me up and down that bloody M1

Oblivion looks amazing on my NEC, going to just play tonight and reinstall again tomorrow.

Again thanks Overclockers.

 

[DazedNFuzed]

I got an upgrade one some parts - not going to let you all know how much of an upgrade, but lets just say I'm OVER THE MOON.

Well we are all still unsure but there was definetly somthing not quiet right, and after so many parts being changed it has now been resolved, its just one of them F-ed up things.

maybe both previous motherbaods where at fault - who knows?

I Really dont know, just one of then things, all i do know is that all is now sorted and im over the moon with the service recived by Overclockers.