konai_konai666

I've been getting blank blue BSOD's a few times since installing this graphics hog.. Just can't figure it out.. I notice the +12v rail hovers at 12.6 to 12.8v regularly now though (BIOS monitor) and that kinda worries me. My spec as of now:

P4s55fx+ Mobo
P4 3.0C @ 3.22GHz
x850 XT PE
Chaintech AV-512 PCI
2 SATA150 HDD's
2 IDE HDD's
4 Sticks of RAM @ 3-3-3-8
2 DVD's
2 CCFL's
6 80mm fans
1 92mm fan
1 Aero 7 Lite blower
1 40mm fan

loaded on the Ultra 600W I won here almost a year ago..

Never happens durring regular usage, but usually within an hour (give or take) of gameplay..

The Dragon Reborn

Have you looked at the temps (mainboard, processor)? Your PSU should be able to take the load...
So I guess some parts are heating up too much...

I noticed you've got a BUNCH of fans in your system... however, that doesn't mean much...

Air needs a "clean path" from intake to exhaust... standard "stamped out" grills hamper air flow, they really do.. (dremel time!) lot's of "messy cables" don't do much good either... (bring out the tie-wraps!)... what can really kill airflow, though, is wrong positioned fans & fans "blowing" that should be "sucking" &
vice-versa... that only creates "turbulence" & really messes things up...

Could you tell us more about your fan config?

TDR

konai_konai666

Actually, I upgraded the cooling on teh processor with the installation of the videocard, so it runs the same temp when the videocard heats it up as it used to, but runs usually some 8C cooler idle. Its at 38C right now.

sandalfon

Run memory with memtest86 overnight to see if you got bad RAM. I got BSOD's all over when I had a bad ram module...

Worst case is that you eliminate atleast one reason for it to go blue...

konai_konai666

Hmm I'll try this, but its a pain because I don't ahve a floppy disk (kinda forcing me to use an external USB one I can never find piled beneath boxes), anyway, I also notice that ever since the date/time of installing the card (event viewer reports something around 9:45 on the 11th) WMI Performance Adapter has been tryign to start often, so I re-enabled it from Disabled in services.msc.. I'll see if that helps, how often does bad memory function perfectly durring regular non-gaming usgae, then never show any string in BSODs?

konai_konai666

After re-logging in (with no reboot) the BSOD came through with a message from WMI perf.
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
ati3duag.dll

so, its my videocard's ram thats bad now?

Albedo

Well, since it says "ATI" in the dll filename, i'd guess it has something to do with your video card.

konai_konai666

I've found several things simmilar.. http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:X...ge+fault&hl=en
Maybe i'll try reinstalling the drivers and driect x?

ED: Well, after reinstalling the drivers, I haven't had any more BSOD's yet.
I also managed to find out how to eliminate the notorious stutter/hitching I was experiencing in the F.E.A.R multiplayer demo aswell as gain about 5FPS: by enabling geometry instancing in the ATi CCC. Lowering my AGP aperture to 128MB polished it off to where I still got 59FPS avg with 2x AA added to high settings (which got 65FPS avg otherwise)..
Far Cry still seems broken though as my version has been patched to 1.33 now and in shader 2.0b there's minor artifacts like sometimes a bit of flashing foliage or the trees detail textures missing from a certain angle and/ or flashing/ with the ugly low res ones prevailing. - Unless I manually load a level, enable geometry instancing (\r_TexNormalMapCompressed 1), then the 3D vegitation view range to 100 (\e_vegetation_sprites_distance_ratio 100) , then the 3dc (\r_TexNormalMapCompressed 1), - then repeat that process in backward order except with negative values to undo them \r_TexNormalMapCompressed 0>\e_vegetation_sprites_distance_ratio 1 >\r_GeomInstancing 0
-all of which adds up to a pretty annoying process of tweaking every time I load a different level or exit the game (the whole picture not being worth it as the issue is relatively minor). Its just really too bad the only "perfect" patch for the x800 cards* (allowing manual setting to both the anomoly-free sm2.0 and super-fast, yet artifactual sm2.0b paths instead of only sm1.1, 2.0b, and sm3.0) *was recalled (patch 1.2)..

Lets hope big for next month's Catalyst release (rumored to contain significant OpenGL speed enhancements, especially amongst 16-pipeline cards; although the ones in question are specifically R5xx generation hardware, they state it may provide perks for R4xx, maybe even R3xx generation cards!!) 'cause, maybe, just maybe, running the game in OpenGL would solve something.. Plus, what better a time with Quake 4 looming less than 48hrs from release!

konai_konai666

On that problem I was having with the Shader Models.. I found the real fix.
Entering \r_sm2xpath 0 in the Far Cry console enables the higher precision rendering (ala 9800 series awsome IQ SM2.0) while \r_sm2xpath 1 (enabled by default if available/ on high settings) enables about a %25 FPS increase, roughly comparable to the increase seen by enabling SM3.0 on compatible hardware taking advantage of more rendering passes.. Only problem with this being that you get robbed of the image quality in SM2.0b unless you force/undo the tweaks I mention above each time you load a level. The shader selection sticks with level changes/ game exits, so, I figure in most cases, SM2.x/b while faster and almost as nice looking as it's predecessor (not GeForce FX-spawned SM2.0a -which isn't, but 2.0) is 2nd to SM1.1 in Far Cry because of the IQ glitch.. Leaves me wondering though, -how many people reported this to Ubisoft, or know of the problem?

kardiacc

Quote: Originally Posted by konai_konai666 Hmm I'll try this, but its a pain because I don't ahve a floppy disk (kinda forcing me to use an external USB one I can never find piled beneath boxes)

Memtest can also be burned to a CD for systems without floppys. Also if your systems supports booting from USB I highly recommend making a usb drive that is bootable. I use them all the time at work for ghosting machines. It works so much better than having to have a couple of floppy disks for the different NIC's, and the joy of finding out that the disk has gone bad right when you need it the most.

Here is the link for HP's utility I have used it on 3 or 4 different brands of usb drive and haven't had any problems. All you need is to have access to something with Dos system files on it, and to select the option to "Create a DOS startup disk." Oh and be very sure you have the right device selected. I accidently wiped my 1gb drive by mistake the first time.

konai_konai666

Good point on burning; infact, I might be able to burn onto a DVD I already burned, multisession.. At this point though, I'm highly doubtful my RAM had anything to do with the BSOD's that have stopped since I did the above.. I tried to lock it up a few ways, turning on both CCFL's while running 3DMark01 nature in a 3hr loop, running the Far Cry Pier benchmark (I know the level wasn't as stressful as some others, it was just the level it BSOD'ed at the loading screen of right after I finished Fort with SM2.0b tweaked as I mentioned above) at 8x AA/ 16x AF in 5-loop intervals for about an hour. I think it really was the WMI Performance Adapter somehow being necessary (atleast durring the driver installation?) as I'd noticed it had rapidly tried starting after the time I mentioned and when finally enabled, reported how an ATi dll was at fault, then stopped bugging me altogether after the fresh driver install..

konai_konai666

Blank BSOD'ed again in Far Cry.. MemTest86 result:

Wall Time: 3:58:40 Cached: 1536M RVSDMeM: 136K MemMap: e820-std Cache: On Ecc: Off Test: Std Pass: 8 Errors 1 Ecc Errors: 0 Tst: 4 Pass: 4 Failing Address: 0004799ea28 - 1145MB Good: 9ad4112f Bad: 9bd4112f Err-Bits: 01000000 Count Chan: 1

Can anyone help me translate this here? Is it that the modules are in the wrong order? Can they not all handle DDR400+ speeds? Is it the first stick in the second channel?

Heres a bit more info:




I find my motherboard's PDF explaining which channel is which kinda confusing.. http://www.asrock.com/Drivers/Manual...FX_UM_v101.pdf

WrathOfSocrus

How much RAM are you running? Unless you were runing out of RAM, and your HD was getting thrashed from page files, there is no good coming from running odd combinations of RAM. If you have 1x 1GB stick or 2x 512MB sticks, stick with those. Don't try to slam RAM together just to squeeze out a bit more. Particularly if the RAM is a different brand, even worse if it has different memory timings, and NEVER if they are made to run on different busses. I could see using PC 2700 and PC 3200 together on a CPU that runs 100FSB, because it will never push the memory anywhere near its limits. But you stated you are running your FSB at 215. Explain to us how many sticks you are using, their brand, capacity, speed (PC-?), and timings (such as 6,3,3,2). This could be key to solving your mistery.

OK you just edited that. When you run RAM, most times you want the larger modules first, and smaller last. FOLLOW MOBO DOCUMENTATION. I can speak from experience, and if the manual says no preference, usually the mobo will be picky, and you will have to swap out. WHY DO YOU NEED 1.5 GB? Take those 256's out and try again. Those memory timings are loose as heck. Run the 2x 512MB at their rated speeds and don't underclock the memory by using any dividers or anything. You need to break this stuff down to basics and start over. Maybe just remove the 256's and clear CMOS. Let BIOS choose the best memory timings, then start OCing from there.

konai_konai666

All I know is explained above, the 2x 512MB in channel 0 (Rosewill/Elixer mix), 2x 256MB in channel 1 (Nanya match). They're all OC'ed right now..

PS: THEY ARE installed larger first, that is, the larger-capacity ones are in the BLUE DIMM slots, thats the right place to put them, right?

ED2: Ok, i'll take this advice, gotta be quiet tho.. Don't wanna make too much noise (ma worries I been up all night; well, heck, dunno what to say about that; I tried to sleep durring the 4hr mem test and I got such a slackers school schedule anyway (9:30-1:30) but nm that i'm dropping the FSB back auto and pulling some stix..)

WrathOfSocrus

Some mobo's can be picky about where the larger sticks are, and running mismatched memory can give negative results. Try to find out the proper timings for the 512's, and put the slower timing in the BIOS settings. start off at stock FSB and 100% on the memory ratio, and take it from there. Unless you are using up near 1 GB of RAM or more, those other sticks are probably hanging you up. You can always tell when you run out of RAM; your hard drive just keeps reading and writing. I have walked in a room with a PC like that and had to turn around. You can just hear the death that awaits a HD under those conditions. Anyway, good luck with that, I'm sure you will be getting better performance and with a little luck, no more BSOD's either.

konai_konai666

DWAJFAHFWUAM!!! Arrgh, almost shat myself when I woke up from a two or so hr nap.. My horrible nightmare seems to be coming true:

Wall Time: 1:58:40 Cached: 1024M RVSDMeM: 136K MemMap: e820-std Cache: On Ecc: Off Test: Std Pass: 6 Errors 8 Ecc Errors: 0
Tst: Pass: Failing Address: Good: Bad: Err Bits:
5 2 0000ec69d20 -236.5MB 01000000 81000000 800000000
5 2 00018405f20 -252.2MB ???????? 01000001 810000000
5 3 00019405f00 -388.3MB ???????? 80000000 C0000000
5 3 00000800 -404.3MB ???????? C0000800 C0000000
5 3 00000800 -998.4MB ???????? C0000800 ????????
5 5 40000000 -195.2MB ???????? C0000000 80000000
5 5 40000000 -211.2MB ???????? C0000000 80000000

?-marks are where I forgot to write down or lost track of all the random nuerals on paper, crap, I just realized the first line up there is probably the only one I'm positive I got right, the gist of it is I got 8 errors in 2hrs after taking out the 256's and reversing the 512's (as I wanted to put the slower one in the first slot and already knew the Elixer one was faster than the Rosewill one I have, So I did it).. What almost sickens me more though, is that I had problems booting up when at 215FSB (didn't have problems before) now! I think I forgot to clear CMOS, but doubt that has anything to do with it. Things so bad I never seen em before, -like showing both HDD's on the RAID, locking up while mounting the second one, then displaying that the first one loaded NTLDR, but NTLDR missing fromt the second one!! (That one alone got me securing the molex plugs once again).. Anyway, I don't know what to do, right now, I couldn't even afford to replace the 256's let alone my MAIN ram.. Sh---

ED: Right now, im running at stock, this test was done at stock aswell.
At this rate, I think teh x850 is just pushing my RAM (which all seems to be bad) overboard, I think I also need to enable the extra flexibility option (drops me to roughly DDR300) just maybe, for more prolonged gameplay, and put those 256MB sticks back in because I DO use them and F.E.A.R can't handle 1024 above medium textures which I find to be a major turnoff..
In the end, maybe I should just put my 9800SE back in and save the Platiunum component for another day?

ED2: I also notice that whenever I start the machine, the screen goes black (like the just-installed-new-display-driver test that happens when you get to the desktop) then comes back and the ATi icon proceeds to the system tray.

konai_konai666

Man, this sucks so bad. Now the system will lockup while the monitor is off (thats what was happening before; I just didn't think it was this yet).. Stepdad's getting back tonight, boy will he be happy to hear (or not)/ find out for himself when games/ the whole system keep locking up..

Is it normal for something like a Videocard upgrade to "set off" a chain reaction that pushed my already damaged ram over the edge, or you think maybe my Motherboard is dying as after taking out what I thought to be the faulty memory modules, I got 8 times as many errors?

Also, speedfan says my -12V rail is at -14.91V and my -5V is at -7.71V just mentioning in case anyone has any other ideas what I might do..

Might disabling Fast Writes help keep the system going a bit longer at all while i'm trying to play a game?

Playing F.E.A.R @ 100% stock now, I just realized chatting with someone that as most all RAM you have a receipt for has a lifetime warranty.. I guess I might be looking into an RMA.

WrathOfSocrus