8800gt lock up/crash

[Pederson]

hello all. I purchased the following parts one month ago to upgrade my pc
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-5400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC2-5400 DDR2-667 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory
Biostar NF4UAM2G ATX AM2 DDR2 NF4ULTRA 1PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 4PCI SATA2 Sound LAN Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual Core Processor Socket AM2 Brisbane 2.5GHZ 2X512KB 65NM 65W Retail Box
XFX GeForce 8800GT XT 512MB 640MHZ 1.9GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out DIRECTX10 Video Card

Since day one, I seem to experience random lockups and crashes when playing the following games: BF2, Crysis, COD4, and Oblivion. The lockup/crash are random. For example, I can play crysis or cod 4 straight, on high settings, for anywhere from 1-2 hours without any problems. Some times, it will crash within 30 minutes, and sometime it will crash on the game menu. I went out and bought a new power supply thermatake (sp?) 500watt 2 -12 volt rails at 29 amps – still have the problem. I updated the bios, motherboard drivers, and just toady installed the NVIDIA’s new drivers, 169.12 for the 8800gt, and 6.86 for the board. I have ran memtest numerous times and found no errors. I have formatted numerous times as well. Just tonight, I ran 3d mark 06 5 times.
1) score 5441
2) crashed – Nv4-display driver stopped working error appeared half way through test. Required a reboot.
3) Score 5849. Upon finishing the test, the nv4 error appeared.
4) Same as 3, but scored 4159. I under clocked the card to 600/900 on this test.

Any thoughts? Am I doing something wrong, or is the card pooched?
Thanks for your help,
Chris

[Cantina_Fly]

One of two things.

Heat. Make sure your CPU heatsink is seated properly and use a program like CoreTemp to get an idea of what's going on thermally.

Biostar is POS as far as motherboards go. They are inexpensive, but I've never heard anything good about them. You couldn't pay me to build a system around a Biostar mobo. (Actually you "could" pay me, but I'd laugh all the way to the bank on how you wasted your money )

If you're not overclocking at all, I'd start swapping out components till you see what fails. If you ARE overclocking, go back to stock and see if you crash. If not, that's your problem, if you do, then test other components. I'd still put money on your mobo though.

[Gunner_01]

I know what it is you have the 512 MB 8800 GTS card ... Which is G92 based JUST like me....

Well i am not sure if they programmed this video card wrong or something .. well the driver .. but the AUTO fan speed setting BLOWS. Mine did this its a heat issue on the video card.


GO to ur nvidia control panel. Go to Performance, Adjust GPU settings...

Set the speed to manual ... u will have to do this everytime you boot ur computer because it re-defaults to auto ... which auto SUCKS...

i keep mine around 65% fan speed all the time ... EXCEPT when i am in a game i put it about 95%. Its not good to keep at 95% when u r just idleing.... but while playin games it needs it.

Then no more issues. Your card will work just fine and not be overheating anymore. Cuz mine was around 70 celcius idle and 80+ under load. After doing this the card stays around 40-47 celcius under load or idle.

[Pederson]

One of two things.

Heat. Make sure your CPU heatsink is seated properly and use a program like CoreTemp to get an idea of what's going on thermally.

Biostar is POS as far as motherboards go. They are inexpensive, but I've never heard anything good about them. You couldn't pay me to build a system around a Biostar mobo. (Actually you "could" pay me, but I'd laugh all the way to the bank on how you wasted your money )

If you're not overclocking at all, I'd start swapping out components till you see what fails. If you ARE overclocking, go back to stock and see if you crash. If not, that's your problem, if you do, then test other components. I'd still put money on your mobo though.

I am not OC anything. The card can run great one day for hours, and the next crash within minutes. I am going to RMA the board and see if that fixes it. It not, I will RAM the card back to the manufacture.

I dont think the problem is heat, as I have two fans in there, and I am using rivatuner to up the fan speed to 80%.

What would you suggest for a MB from ncix.com. Something in the 150$ range, with SLI would be nice.
Thanks
Chris