Take a look at the following screens. This is happening with a new Geforce 4. It happens at random maybe a few times a day. Screen goes to this and computer locks up though if i'm playing a MP3 or something when it happens the mp3 continues to play fine and i can sometimes still move the mouse around on the screen and see a corrupted pointer move. Sometimes if left sitting in this state for a few seconds it will crash to a corrupted bluescreen which i can somewhat make out saying something about nv4_disp.dll

If i reboot it stays corrupted. Only way to get rid of it is to power off and restart.

It's not heat related as the card isn't hot. It's not driver related as i've tried multiple. I can put my geforce3 back in and it works flawlessly. The geforce4 was allready sent back and replaced and the replacement is doing it as well.


http://showcase.netins.net/web/scottshow/images/Image13.jpg
http://showcase.netins.net/web/scottshow/images/Image02.jpg
http://showcase.netins.net/web/scottshow/images/Image03.jpg

My best guess is a component failure (maybe due to heat even though you dont feel any), perhaps a messed up memory module.

Where does the 3D foot go?

Running that card right now on another system, basically playing a looped scene in 3dsmax over and over to try and crash the card. So far 4 hours and no crash. Starting to wonder if it's not something in my system causing it. Problem is my system works fine with any other video card. I've tried my geforce3 and 2 and not a single issue.

Was going to return this one again, but unless i can get it to crash in the other system.....

You say it isn't driver related - but what driver are you using and which have you used.
Two other things.
1. Have you got at least a good 300 w PSU or above. This is a must have with a Ge force 4.
2. Did you uninstall all other det drivers before installing the ones used with this card?


[This message has been edited by Cas141 (edited 08-14-2002).]

If you are running on a VIA chipset, you should also upgrade those drivers...... also "sometimes" the motherboard can be to blame, there are a few motherboards around that don't like certain video cards..... they usualy put out a BIOS upgrade for these.... but if you don't know what you are doing it's a bit on the scarry side

Is the replacement card of the same brand/make?

You could try running this util
http://www.7byte.com/hotcpu.htm



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Check out my Customised/moded PC

"Flying is the second hardest thing known to man.........the first is landing!"

I started wondering about power supplies myself. I had bought this case a few months ago and it was supposed to have a 400w power supply in it. It doesn't say anything on the side as to wattage so i pulled it out quick to check. Well guess what, out of the ENTIRE top label everythign is perfect EXCEPT for the first number of the wattage. THe first number has bee scratched off.

Didn't think too much of this at first, then started wondering. Did a search of the model number on the side on google and guess what comes up. Three matches. All three of these matches show that this is a 200w power supply. So now i'm ticked. It's obvious that when they sold this case they purposely scratched off the wattage and threw in an old powersupply they had sitting around to cut their costs. I mean odds are the average user wouldn't EVER figure this one out.

Problem is i found out too late. I don't remember where the hell i bought the case anymore and i KNOW i don't have the receipt.

Live and learn i guess. Goes to show that when you buy a case it's a good idea to check that PS. Going to put in a 400 today and then run the card awhile and see if things are ok and that this was definately it.

Well spoke too soon. Put a 400w power supply in my system and put the GF4 card back in and it did the same thing within 2 hours of putting it in.

Back to square one.

I keep my BIOS and via 4in1's up to date, I spent 8 years as a computer tech so i'm not gonna miss something basic like that. I wish nvidia themselves had some sort of support as i'm guessing they are the only ones that can answer this.

Yes the replacement card was the same brand/make, did just a straight RMA.



[This message has been edited by swampthng (edited 08-14-2002).]

Tricky this one.

Are there any essential differances bewteen the systems, like one AMD and one Intel? Different mobo brands or something like that.

My remaning and far fetched idea points towards the mobo. Maybe (in some very wierd way) there is some signal or voltage that differs just a little between the system and this is enough to trigger a component error on the card in the one systems. One thing I can think of as both cards work in one machine, one works in both and the cards are the same.

I know you said you put in another (400w)power supply, but it may be worth checking the 5 volt rail in the BIOS.

I had a similar problem just a week ago, although mine is ok untill I put an 1800+ proc. in.. just not enough voltage on the 5 volt rail .. reading like 4.38 -4.45v.

It's fine with a tbird 1gig and GF3.
Using an Enermax EG365P-VE 350watt PSU.

Both systems are AMD's, one is a 1.2 and mine is a 1.4. The motherboard in the 1.2 is older, it's an abit kt7a if i remember correctly. Mine is a asus a7v133.

I'd like to be able to narrow down if it IS actually the card or something in my system. Place where i bought it talked to gainward and they gave me a 800 number and a name to talk to as i guess the guy wanted to try and help with it. We'll see i guess what happens when i talk to the guy. I musta emailed gainwards HQ before because the guy i got was TOTALLY clueless and didn't really speak english.

This guys' name is william so i'm hoping for a native english speaker at the very least. I should probably try and run it in that other system a bit more as this crash is SO random but you'd think after 6ish hours of a 20k poly animation running in a loop it woulda crashed at least once if it was gonna.

I'll check the voltages in the BIOS and see if that could be off just in case.

Pity you didn't give that util a go, as it pushes your vid card *HARD*.

Ah well...

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Check out my Customised/moded PC

"Flying is the second hardest thing known to man.........the first is landing!"

Well....... I had a go at it..... and then found out it needs four hours to run!!!!! theres never a four hour period that I havent got the need to kill something on my PC

You never mentioned what brand of motherboard you have.

I ran a Gigabyte 7VRXP for a few weeks with an older video card just fine. When I put a GF4 in there, it went to hell in a handbasket...now I have all the same hardware on an Epox motherboard and it is solid as a rock.

Sierra

Yeah i did, up top, asus a7v133.

My ideas:

1. Use MBM to report high/low/ave voltages on +12V, +5V, and +3.3V rails when running your heaviest load benchmarks.

2. Try adjusting the FSB up or down. This sort of thing helped some 8500 owners with problems on Gigabyte boards (wouldn't touch Gigabyte myself.) Try adjusting the spread spectrum setting in particular. This might fix a problem related to frequency interference on the PCI/AGP bus it that happens to be issue.

3. Mind telling us brand of 400W you are using? There are some really light junk units labeled as 400W. I've seen some really bad 400W units in local shops.

4. Does it happen after the monitor is awakened by any chance?

5. If you have two sticks or more of RAM, what happens if you use just one? Sounds silly but sometimes motherboards can be picky about RAM. My ASUS A7V 266-E did not like a second stick of 256 MB Corsair PC2400 DDR in the second slot--wouldn't even boot. Moved it to the third slot and all is well, stable as a rock. Go figure.

Just thought i'd post on this problem and let everyone know what the issue was. Turns out this was a pretty well known issue with Gainward and frankly i'm pretty pissed about the whole thing as i've now returned 3 cards to my retailer and one to gainward. Waiting on my replacement from gainward in which i DEMANDED either a 100% guarantee that the replacement would NOT do the same damn thing OR i wanted an upgraded card considering that after all the shipping i've paid for i could bought a ti 4600.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=5144
http://discuss.madonion.com/forum/showflat.pl?Board=techdisplayadapters&Number=973234
http://discuss.madonion.com/forum/showflat.pl?Board=techdisplayadapters&Number=973234

Personally i'll never buy another damn gainward card again.