grafics card related problem not neceserly related to ps

[Elvicat]

ok heres my problem i just bought me a new grafics card a msi geforce 7800gs AGP 256Mb card hoping i could get the last playing years out of this rig, well my computer keeps locking up almost every time i play ps and as it seems other opengl related games to but for the most part direct3d games seems to run fine, the lockups seem to happen randomly from a couple of minutes to hours and i've tryed different drivers ranging from 84.21 to 91.33 beta same thing  tho sometimes i seem to have some light in the darkness and have beter times.

my mobo can handle dual channel ram but to my surprise the rig went nuts if i have it like that so i had to back down to single channel to get a more stable system, i have also tried turning of fast writes with at first worked but not now  and only way i can turn off fast writes is via riva tuner theres no such think in my bios.

so if anyone good at computers can help me i'd be very gratefull

sys info if needed
win xp sp2
pentium 4 HT @ 3.2Ghz
epox 4pda5+ mobo
msi geforce 7800gs 256Mb AGP
kingston cl3 2x512mb ddr400
seagate 300Gb sata hdd
nexus 400w 29A over +12.1 and +12.2 aka 2 lines

[Karyuu]

Do you have a decent PSU for the rig?

[Elvicat]

a nexus 400 watt and it should be enough as it pumps out 29A on the 12v line and it has 2 lines by the way 15A and 14A

oh and i had another card before that reacted the same way and i tested via a friends rig with a 550w and it was exactly the same

[SovHed]

sounds like yet more faulty nvidia hardware. Get a replacement

[Elvicat]

well i had another stronger card before a gainward 7800gs + nad that didnt work eather in my comp it was even worse, funnily it worked in another computer

[steuben]

* steuben is now ready to blame the motherboard.

[Xordan]

Try updating your mobo bios... sounds to me like a problem there, seeing as it can't handle dual channel... I don't trust Intel chipsets as well

[Elvicat]

xordan when i had my older geforce card in could run dual channel and if im not wrong i have the newest bios but if i dont i cant update it anyway being afraid i would muck up the mobo and i would not be able to get a new one just becuse im poor

[Uyaem]

I had similar issues with faulty RAM installed.
Download this and burn it on a CDRom (Yes, the download is only 39kB).
If you are using Linux too or have at least an installation disk lying around somewhere,they usually offer MemTest86 in their boot menu too.

The tool's test will run continuously, so don't be surprised it it never finishes.
Give it one or two passes. If it discovers more than 20 to 30 bit errors per pass, the RAM is a safe bet. In this case, remove all but one RAM module and re-run the test to discover which module is failing.

If memtest86 doesn't reveal any errors, I'd also blame the motherboard. I don't believe it's e.g. heat problems since newer nVidia cards automatically reduce the clock speed once the GPU temperature exceeds 127 celsius (driver setting, if you check the nVidia driver settings, there's an audible alert somewhere that you can turn on).

[Elvicat]

i've tested the ram many times before with memtest and never got anything tho yesterday i tryed setting the ram mhz lower to 333 instead of 400mhz, and didn't get a freeze but it's to fast to say if it worked. so i will proberly run it like this atleast for a week but i think it can be memory related if i go from dual channel to single channel and that helps abit... funny huh?
tested with 3dmark03 to see if i lost much performance and no only went down 300 point so no biggie