Any else have (has had) a faulty 6800 graphics card?

My motherboard is a DFI LanParty nForce2 chipset + Athlon processor.
Standard processor settings and voltages (i.e. no overclocking).

The first thing I noticed after installing my Galaxy 6800 GT graphics card was
that the LanParty splash screen was corrupted with white pixels.

I was able to boot into Windows XP, but the graphics screen was covered in
random sometimes regular blocks of pixels of the wrong colour. Thankfully I
could still use the system to shutdown cleanly.

Resetting and going into the BIOS, the text screen was completely garbled as
if it was a graphics screen rather than a text screen. Only a tiny handful of
characters were recognisable.

I've now tried the card in a second PC (also a nForce2 chipset). The screen
corruption was identical. I've searched and can find no reference to
incompatibility between nForce2 and the 6800.

I suspect a faulty card and I am going through the painful(?) process of
RMAing the card. Of course the person I need to speak to is away until Tuesday
:-(.

I've searched various web sites and forums and I have come across similar
descriptions of faulty card, including some specific postings about the Galaxy
card. Some postings mention the extra power connector being important - I have
checked this connection carefully.

Am I just very unlucky or has anyone else had a faulty 6800 card?

I considered installing the drivers (even with the screen corruption it is
still just about usable) and *under*clocking the GPU and RAM. This may
invalidate the warranty so I am now reluctant to do this. I'd be fascinated to
know whether it fixed the problem.

Do the symtoms suggest faulty GPU or faulty RAM?
Or is it possible that there is a magic setting in my BIOS?
Or is the card just duff?

regards...

--Gary

Review previous post - scroll down.

The system you describe seem to be faulty card.
Strange RMA department person will back on Tuesday? Curiously strange.
During the meantime, are you using a 350W PSU and under with your PC rig? If
so, try another PSU like about 350 or higher wattage and see if it making
any differences. If problem remain the same, continue the RMA on Tuesday
when that person come back. Or if you got that card locally, return to the
place of purchase and exchange for another.

CapFusion,...


"Gary Morton" wrote in message
...
My motherboard is a DFI LanParty nForce2 chipset + Athlon processor.
Standard processor settings and voltages (i.e. no overclocking).

The first thing I noticed after installing my Galaxy 6800 GT graphics card
was that the LanParty splash screen was corrupted with white pixels.

I was able to boot into Windows XP, but the graphics screen was covered in
random sometimes regular blocks of pixels of the wrong colour. Thankfully
I could still use the system to shutdown cleanly.

Resetting and going into the BIOS, the text screen was completely garbled
as if it was a graphics screen rather than a text screen. Only a tiny
handful of characters were recognisable.

I've now tried the card in a second PC (also a nForce2 chipset). The
screen corruption was identical. I've searched and can find no reference
to incompatibility between nForce2 and the 6800.

I suspect a faulty card and I am going through the painful(?) process of
RMAing the card. Of course the person I need to speak to is away until
Tuesday :-(.

I've searched various web sites and forums and I have come across similar
descriptions of faulty card, including some specific postings about the
Galaxy card. Some postings mention the extra power connector being
important - I have checked this connection carefully.

Am I just very unlucky or has anyone else had a faulty 6800 card?

I considered installing the drivers (even with the screen corruption it is
still just about usable) and *under*clocking the GPU and RAM. This may
invalidate the warranty so I am now reluctant to do this. I'd be
fascinated to know whether it fixed the problem.

Do the symtoms suggest faulty GPU or faulty RAM?
Or is it possible that there is a magic setting in my BIOS?
Or is the card just duff?

regards...

--Gary

"Gary Morton" wrote in message
...
My motherboard is a DFI LanParty nForce2 chipset + Athlon processor.
Standard processor settings and voltages (i.e. no overclocking).

The first thing I noticed after installing my Galaxy 6800 GT graphics card
was
that the LanParty splash screen was corrupted with white pixels.

I was able to boot into Windows XP, but the graphics screen was covered in
random sometimes regular blocks of pixels of the wrong colour. Thankfully
I
could still use the system to shutdown cleanly.

Resetting and going into the BIOS, the text screen was completely garbled
as
if it was a graphics screen rather than a text screen. Only a tiny handful
of
characters were recognisable.

I've now tried the card in a second PC (also a nForce2 chipset). The
screen
corruption was identical. I've searched and can find no reference to
incompatibility between nForce2 and the 6800.

I suspect a faulty card and I am going through the painful(?) process of
RMAing the card. Of course the person I need to speak to is away until
Tuesday
:-(.

I've searched various web sites and forums and I have come across similar
descriptions of faulty card, including some specific postings about the
Galaxy
card. Some postings mention the extra power connector being important - I
have
checked this connection carefully.

Am I just very unlucky or has anyone else had a faulty 6800 card?

I considered installing the drivers (even with the screen corruption it is
still just about usable) and *under*clocking the GPU and RAM. This may
invalidate the warranty so I am now reluctant to do this. I'd be
fascinated to
know whether it fixed the problem.

Do the symtoms suggest faulty GPU or faulty RAM?
Or is it possible that there is a magic setting in my BIOS?
Or is the card just duff?

Dude, what a horror story...

Anyway.

Maybe this is the start of a 6800 fiasco...

OUCH

Expensive card.. gone bad... wasted... destroyed... overheated... YIKES

Oh my god... warranty gone... because of overclocking (idiots)

Well not you ofcourse....

Few...

CapFusion wrote:

Review previous post - scroll down.

The system you describe seem to be faulty card.
Strange RMA department person will back on Tuesday? Curiously strange.
During the meantime, are you using a 350W PSU and under with your PC rig? If
so, try another PSU like about 350 or higher wattage and see if it making
any differences. If problem remain the same, continue the RMA on Tuesday
when that person come back. Or if you got that card locally, return to the
place of purchase and exchange for another.

CapFusion,...


I have a new 400W (450W peak) Seasonic "Super Tornado" PSU. This is much
quieter than my Q-Tek 500W PSU, despite the "Tornado" name!

Note that the 500W rating of the Q-Tek is peak and this brand seems to have a
very poor reputation. My friend also had the same Q-Tek PSU until it blew up.

I bought the card from a small company which has a good reputation according
to my research on the web. The downside appears to be that the person who
needs to agree that the card is faulty is away for a few days. This also
explains why my email was unanswered. Thankfully I was able to get through on
the phone.

There is little chance of finding such a high spec graphics card locally, so
mail order was my only choice. This is my first Nvidia card - not a good start.

They say never buy something that is leading edge and has only just been
released to the market - let other people find the teething problems.

regards...

--Gary

Skybuck Flying wrote:



Dude, what a horror story...

Anyway.

Maybe this is the start of a 6800 fiasco...

OUCH

Expensive card.. gone bad... wasted... destroyed... overheated... YIKES

I think that you are being a little dramatic.

The card works but has symptoms which suggest a faulty memory chip or chips.
The fan on the Galaxy card is working and it is relatively quiet.
I'm not convinced that it is a heat problem, but I have read postings where
heat does appear to be a factor which pushes a marginal card over the edge.

Oh my god... warranty gone... because of overclocking (idiots)

Well not you ofcourse....

Few...


I haven't even installed the Windows drivers, let alone overclocked the card.
My old ATI card is back in the machine.

BTW the Galaxy comes as standard at 370MHz core which is 20MHz more than normal.

I look forward to other postings to find out whether 6800 cards in general
have a higher than normal failure rate, or whether only certain brands have a
problem.

regards...

--Gary

"Gary Morton" wrote in message
...

I look forward to other postings to find out whether 6800 cards in general
have a higher than normal failure rate, or whether only certain brands
have a problem.


Did you plug both power connectors into the video card?

To be honest, I think you would need at least an Antec Tru Power 480 for
this card. What other components do you have in your PC? These cards are
very power hungry.

I had the exact problem with an MSI 6800NX which was a vanilla 6800. I
wasn't the only one with the problem, there was a whole thread about it
on the MSI website.

I RMAed my card and got my money back. So 'twas definitely a dodgy card.

Gary Morton wrote:
Skybuck Flying wrote:



Dude, what a horror story...

Anyway.

Maybe this is the start of a 6800 fiasco...

OUCH

Expensive card.. gone bad... wasted... destroyed... overheated... YIKES


I think that you are being a little dramatic.

The card works but has symptoms which suggest a faulty memory chip or
chips. The fan on the Galaxy card is working and it is relatively quiet.
I'm not convinced that it is a heat problem, but I have read postings
where heat does appear to be a factor which pushes a marginal card over
the edge.

Oh my god... warranty gone... because of overclocking (idiots)

Well not you ofcourse....

Few...


I haven't even installed the Windows drivers, let alone overclocked the
card.
My old ATI card is back in the machine.

BTW the Galaxy comes as standard at 370MHz core which is 20MHz more than
normal.

I look forward to other postings to find out whether 6800 cards in
general have a higher than normal failure rate, or whether only certain
brands have a problem.

regards...

--Gary

Gary Morton wrote in
:

My motherboard is a DFI LanParty nForce2 chipset + Athlon processor.
Standard processor settings and voltages (i.e. no overclocking).

The first thing I noticed after installing my Galaxy 6800 GT graphics
card was that the LanParty splash screen was corrupted with white
pixels.

I was able to boot into Windows XP, but the graphics screen was
covered in random sometimes regular blocks of pixels of the wrong
colour. Thankfully I could still use the system to shutdown cleanly.

Resetting and going into the BIOS, the text screen was completely
garbled as if it was a graphics screen rather than a text screen. Only
a tiny handful of characters were recognisable.

I've now tried the card in a second PC (also a nForce2 chipset). The
screen corruption was identical. I've searched and can find no
reference to incompatibility between nForce2 and the 6800.

I suspect a faulty card and I am going through the painful(?) process
of RMAing the card. Of course the person I need to speak to is away
until Tuesday
:-(.

I've searched various web sites and forums and I have come across
similar descriptions of faulty card, including some specific postings
about the Galaxy card. Some postings mention the extra power connector
being important - I have checked this connection carefully.

Am I just very unlucky or has anyone else had a faulty 6800 card?

I considered installing the drivers (even with the screen corruption
it is still just about usable) and *under*clocking the GPU and RAM.
This may invalidate the warranty so I am now reluctant to do this. I'd
be fascinated to know whether it fixed the problem.

Do the symtoms suggest faulty GPU or faulty RAM?
Or is it possible that there is a magic setting in my BIOS?
Or is the card just duff?

regards...

--Gary

I too had a bad 6800GT (PNY). It was horrible. BIOS screen dump
corruptions, and/or random Windows XP crashes out of the blue,
constantly.

I returned the card and received a new PNY 6800GT, which interestingly,
was physically different - it was a different color PCB and had a metal
bar running the length of the top of the card. No crashes since.

So I say the card is "duff". You should try to exchange it if at all
possible, and look for the new card having a metal bar (if that's not
just a PNY thing).

Bill M.

Wilhelm wrote:




I too had a bad 6800GT (PNY). It was horrible. BIOS screen dump
corruptions, and/or random Windows XP crashes out of the blue,
constantly.

I returned the card and received a new PNY 6800GT, which interestingly,
was physically different - it was a different color PCB and had a metal
bar running the length of the top of the card. No crashes since.

So I say the card is "duff". You should try to exchange it if at all
possible, and look for the new card having a metal bar (if that's not
just a PNY thing).

Bill M.

Hi Bill,

thanks for the posting. The Galaxy already has a metal bar along the top.
I have never seen this before and wondered if it was for decoration or served
some useful purpose.

I hear on Tuesday what the RMA person says, but I'm pretty much convinced that
the card is duff.

regards...

--Gary

"Gary Morton" wrote in message
...


[snip]
I have a new 400W (450W peak) Seasonic "Super Tornado" PSU. This is much
quieter than my Q-Tek 500W PSU, despite the "Tornado" name!

Note that the 500W rating of the Q-Tek is peak and this brand seems to
have a very poor reputation. My friend also had the same Q-Tek PSU until
it blew up.
[/snip]

Did you try with the Seasonic PSU? Did it make any difference? Otherwise,
RMA is in order.
Sorry, Q-Tek and Seasonic brand PSU, I have not used or experience with
them. I mostly use Antec / Enermax type for testing and personal use.


[snip]

I bought the card from a small company which has a good reputation
according to my research on the web. The downside appears to be that the
person who needs to agree that the card is faulty is away for a few days.
This also explains why my email was unanswered. Thankfully I was able to
get through on the phone.

[/snip]
Still interesting. One person will take care and verify protential bad card
prior for accepting return?
Anyway, hope everything on Tuesday will work out for you.


[snip]
There is little chance of finding such a high spec graphics card locally,
so mail order was my only choice. This is my first Nvidia card - not a
good start.

They say never buy something that is leading edge and has only just been
released to the market - let other people find the teething problems.

[/snip]
Sorry to hear your unfortunate occurance for your first try on nVidia type
product. Newer release card normally will have quirk that will need to be
address as it mature.Normally gamer / tester or similar will take this path
since they seem to have more resources to handle these unexpected or should
I say "may expect".

CapFusion,...