[Fordeus]

Hi to all,
Over the last week a problem has begun to develop on my computer. I will recieve momentary freezes on my computer while playing Call of Duty 2, C&C Generals, etc. At one point it began to occur every 2 to 6 seconds. Essentially what will happen is the game will just freeze and you will hear a buzzing sound. At the same time that this is occuring my Video Card is overheating. I have a XFX nVidia 6800gt. A while back I over clocked it to about 370 and 1.02 (from a stock 350-1). Unfortunately I did this with a stock fan. I am wondering if this is coming back to haunt me. WHen I play CoD 2 the video card gets to about 108 degrees. I tried underclocking it and the problem did improve slightly. However, on top of all this I am getting random crashes on my desktop and have also recieved the blue screen of death with the following message-IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. I googled that and didn't get anything helpful. Is there a possiblity that it could be a virus? Or did i just screw up my video card? lol. Well any help would be appreciated. Thanks bunches.

Sincerely,
Peter

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what are your system specs? call of duty might need more than you have...

[daniel_c]

what are your system specs? call of duty might need more than you have...

[Fordeus]

No, it isn't my computer. I have run CoD 2 B4 this with most the settings on high with no problem. Also note that the game runs fine when it isn't freezing. Anyway, I realized I should have posted my specs in my last post. Oh well, here they are.

Lan Party UT nF3 250GB MOBO
AMD 64 Bit 3200+
XFX nVidia 6800gt
1 GB Kingston RAM
10,000 RPM WD Raptor

Peter

[daniel_c]

pretty spleak system you have there.....do you have any big programs running or anything like that?

[MNOB07]

Also, has there been any hardware or software changes that preceded the momentary freezing? Drivers, hardware upgrade...

[visigoth]

I just experienced the same problem with my Geforce 6200. I've done hours of troubleshooting to no avail. When I hit upon the overheating possibilty this is what I did: I took the cover off the case and pointed a small portable fan directly at the GPU and it seems to be working, no crashes for 36 hours now! This may be a low-tech work around but unless someone more expert sees a problem I say why not?

[MNOB07]

If your GPU is overheating and crashing at stock speed (unless maybe if your house temp is very hot or something) then that's grounds for an RMA (return).

For the case of the 108 degree video card... that IS insanely hot. I noticed you haven't posted for about a week but how is it doing? I should have elborated more before, it's a long shot but if your using newer drivers since it happened try going back to older ones, I've heard of problems with Nvidia cards overheating after a driver upgrade. If you've messed around with the heatsink like tried upgrading it or took it off for whatever reason, make sure it is mounted properly.

I don't know the threshold for damage to the video card's GPU but if 108 is not past that threshold it's definately close... if they will let you, (they may refuse it due to your overclock) you should probably return it.

[Fordeus]

To All,
Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. To answer everyones questions.
No there are no programs running in the background that I am aware of, unless there is a hiden virus that I am not aware of (which I doubt).
Also no I have done NO driver updates in the last several months. The last thing I can remember doing to the computer was re-formating it . This problem started when I had a buddy of mine come over and we had a LAN going....(we were playing Generals, etc).
That is a interesting idea pointing a fan directly at the card, however I don't see how a fan could cool a card down that much. Right now all I have is a stock fan though I suppose I could purchase I new heatsink to help with the problem but I am not to confident that that will fix the problem.
MNOB07 the threshold for damage on the 6800 is 120 degrees. Now in the last week things have been getting worse. The computer has begun to crash about every 15 minutes with the blue screen of death. The thing about this is that it isn't the same screen every time. I have seen about 4 different messages. Now please note that the computer ONLY crashes when I play a demanding game (AoE III, C&C Generals, CoD 2). I was interested to hear that you thought I could RMA it. I didn't think that was possible since I OCed it. I might try that. Also I just upgraded the video card driver to see if that would help. It didn't of course....(I didn't think so). Do you think I should try to find the oldest driver and install that? Thanks for the help guys...

Fordeus

[MNOB07]

RMA the video card! Your overclock was modest, you should definately try to return it.

[rddg]

The computer has begun to crash about every 15 minutes with the blue screen of death. The thing about this is that it isn't the same screen every time. I have seen about 4 different messages. Now please note that the computer ONLY crashes when I play a demanding game (AoE III, C&C Generals, CoD 2).

Fordeus

Somethings fried. Somethings bleeding thru or short circuiting once that temp gets up there (the inconsistant error messages) Sooner or later probably sooner it will fry for good if you keep running it.