Defective Geforce 3?

skybolt_1 · June 26th, 2002, 11:06 AM

OK here is the breakdown of the problem. My computer freezes up while running 3dmark by MadOnion.com, as well as when I run things like SOF 2. In 3dmark, it will sometimes it will make it as far as the "Nature" game demo, or sometimes it will freeze at the 2nd car chase scene. However, the system cranks through PCMark2002's tests no problems at all, with scores as follows:

CPU: 4397
Mem: 2965
HDD: 562

Since PCMark's benchmark tests concentrate on CPU-Mem-HDD more than the GPU, is this a possible indicator of a defective GPU? I think this card may have been the source of various problems over the past 6 months, with random rebooting, intermittant freezes, ect, and I have at great expense gone through several motherboards, proc, ram, ect, in trying to figure out the problem. My current config is:

Gigabyte GA-7VRX mobo w/ athlon 1700+, 512 megs DDR RAM, Maxtor 40 gig Quantum Fireball, Creative SBL 5.1.

Please let me kno ur opinions because at this point im just about to ditch the card for a G4 but dont want to spend the 300+ just for that if its not the problem. Thanks.

skybolt_1

KenKun · June 26th, 2002, 11:10 AM

Hi there,
Are you sure you have enough power to feed your system continuously at a high rate? .. i'm asking coz you have a high demanding system

Also what drivers and OS do you have?

**GroundZero3** · June 26th, 2002, 11:10 AM

What Verison updates do you have for the video?

do you have it overclocked?

and what is the temp of your computer

and what os?

ngc457 · June 26th, 2002, 11:18 AM

I had the same problem. It was because I had a cheap power supply $29 for case and power supply. I replaced it with an antec 400w and that has solved all problems. Check your power supply.

skybolt_1 · June 26th, 2002, 01:36 PM

Nothing in the box is overclocked, not the card, proc, or ram. OS is XP Home. Drivers are Nvidia's Detonators, the latest version.

Power supply probably not the problem... im running a PC Power And Cooling 400 Watt Silencer. I thought it might be the PS too but I upgraded from a 275 watt and its still freezing... well, at least not it doesnt soft-reboot like it did before. Now it just locks up.

Any other culprits?

skybolt_1 · June 26th, 2002, 09:18 PM

One other thing - does PNY Technologies have a history of shoddy product replacement and support? I have been trying for 3 days now to reach their tech department with no luck whatsoever. Emails are answered by automated script, phone calls are not returned, and I die on hold for hours. Anyone else have similar misfortune?

Sweeper · June 27th, 2002, 05:59 AM

I have never had a bad experience with PNY. I have purchased 3 different cards from them. I had a GF2MX 400 64MB that went bad and was past the stores warranty so I called them and they told me to send it in, they would fix it "NO CHARGE". I also just sent in a "REBATE" and they answered within 5 days of sending the rebate out USPS. They have answered my e-mail promptly everytime I have talked with them. Hope you get everything streightened out.

ngc457 · June 27th, 2002, 07:52 AM

It could be the graphics card. However many other things can cause this problem. Play with you bios settings and or upgrade your bios. Try the card in a different system and or a different card in your system. If you have 2 sticks of ram put them in bank 1 and 3. That has been know to fix a few of those problems. If you have a sb sound card they usually share the same irq as the graphics card. Put them on seperate irq.

piyopiyo13 · July 1st, 2002, 01:17 PM

Okay, I had the same problem.

First, go to CMOS setup and make sure that AGP Mode is set to 4x or higher.

Second, go to your vid card's website and dload the latest drivers.

Third, go to nvidia.com and download the latest DetonatorXP drivers. PNY boards are practically reference boards, so there shouldn't be any problems.

There has also been a MAJOR bug found in the KT333 chipset. It's supposedly not compatible with GeForce4. Don't think it applies to GeForce3's though.

Tell me if this works.