New 6600GT causing freeze in games

[redd2k9]

I recently purchased a PNY 6600GT 128MB AGP and installed it with no problems whatsoever.  I have since installed Quake 4 and played the game for hours with no issues.

I just installed Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood and the game runs for approx 25 mins before freezing the system entirely, must be manually rebooted. The same symptom occurs while trying to play Age of Empires 3.

Call of Duty 2 runs well, but has frozen once - in a different manner so i suspect it is unrelated. Where BIA and AoE3 instantly lockup, CoD2 video froze, with sound continuing for several seconds before everything locked up and sound stopped altogether.

I have checked all temps after each incident and everything is well within acceptable levels. I have checked voltages to my video card and they check out, but i have no way of checking them while im playing a game, only on re-boot. I have also tried the latest Nvidia drivers as well as some older ones, specifically 81.85 and 77.77

Anyone have any suggestions? you guys have helped me out before!


Thanks,
Redd2k9

P4 3.0E
PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP 8X
1 gb DDR3200
80 GB HDD
120 GB HDD
160 GB HDD
ABIT  IC-7 G

[GX1_Man]

You posted everything except your power supply. Have you tested that as well? And the lockup is ONLY on those two games? No other times?

[redd2k9]

ah yes whoops - its an antec 350, which is the min for the 6600GT.

CoD2 JUST now locked up the same way as the other 2, this is its 2nd lockup, first time like the others.

I thought that it might be a PS issue at first also. I have 3 HDDs, the video card, and 2 80mm fans - but no CD ROM or floppy hooked up. there is also a 10/100 NIC but thats pretty inconsequential right?

[GX1_Man]

Can you unhook two of those drives and give it a spin? I wouldn't worry about the NIC, especially if it is onboard.

[redd2k9]

I'll do that, gimme 5 mins. thanks for the quick reply haha

[GX1_Man]

Play till it locks, or it doesn't, or you beat the game.

[redd2k9]

took about 10 minutes, then locked up. just long enough to think I had found the problem haha

Thats running on a single 80 GB drive

[GX1_Man]

And the system temps and the Gfx temp are both ok? What about leaving the side of the case off?

[redd2k9]

Temps are all good, I cant leave the side off because i need one of my 80mm's to be blowing on my HDD's all the time, and its mounted on the case. After it freezes i take the side off and check temps "manually" aka does not burn me = within range (after properly discharging myself of course).

The only temp I cannot check with software is the gpu, but the heatsink is room temp . . . i guess it could be a heat transfer problem? maybe some thermal paste . . . do you know any utilities i could get to monitor the gpu temp?

[Fed]

1) Sound drivers
2) Test your ram
3) Disable antivirus & antispyware for a test
4) Disable other auto start programs
5) Quake 4 is scary eh?  
5) I'm stuck at the big cannon  

[redd2k9]

I can't run RAM diagnostics because I have no floppy discs. and no CD Burner. Lets just assume that my RAM is fine because this problem only occurs in newer games. CounterStrike Source runs just fine.

Installed new sound drivers, still same problem.

[GX1_Man]

I wouldn't avoid #2 on the list. Surely someone can download and burn memtest for you?

[Fed]

1) Sound drivers
2) Test your ram
3) Disable antivirus & antispyware for a test
4) Disable other auto start programs
5) Quake 4 is scary eh?
5) I'm stuck at the big cannon

[redd2k9]

Good News and bad news:

Good News - Found the problem, from as far as I can tell the graphics card was overheating. By setting all of the performance options and the resolution down as low as possible, and running a fan into the side of my case I was able to run Brothers in Arms for 2 hours.

Bad news -  all that work for something that could have been easily fixed with a temp sensor and a program.

Thanks for your help!

PS the big gun at the very beginning?? like the anti-aircraft gun?

[Fed]

Yes! That's the one, I climbed up out of the trench then a bad guy popped up out of a hole.
I killed him & now I'm running around in circles.  

Of course the one place I didn't look was down the bad guy's hole. LOL!
I'm up & going again.