hardware problem

[James T]

I have had a nvidia fx5700 ultra in my system for about 7 months with no
problems. However in the last week or so I keep getting black screens which
last about 2 seconds at random intervals. Try to do anything more complex
than use the internet is impossible as games just keep pausing. I have
tested the graphics card and hard drive in friends computer and both seem to
work fine, I have also tested the ram and re-installed windows. However
because of the nature of the problem I still think it is the graphics card
or could it be the motherboard or cpu? Full system specs: Windows XP
(updated) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.4ghz) Abit KX7-333 motherboard Nvidia
5700ultra 128mb graphics card 1 gig ram Soundblaster live sound card 60 gig
deskstar hard drive all latest drivers

 

[kony]

I have had a nvidia fx5700 ultra in my system for about 7 months with no
problems. However in the last week or so I keep getting black screens which
last about 2 seconds at random intervals. Try to do anything more complex
than use the internet is impossible as games just keep pausing. I have
tested the graphics card and hard drive in friends computer and both seem to
work fine, I have also tested the ram and re-installed windows. However
because of the nature of the problem I still think it is the graphics card
or could it be the motherboard or cpu? Full system specs: Windows XP
(updated) AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.4ghz) Abit KX7-333 motherboard Nvidia
5700ultra 128mb graphics card 1 gig ram Soundblaster live sound card 60 gig
deskstar hard drive all latest drivers

Pausing in games is typical of video card instability.
You could run a stress test like Prime95's Torture Test to
check the CPU, but that should cause a crash, not game
pauses... if Prime 95 fails I'd suspect you have multiple
problems, not just one.

Check all system fans for failure.
Do the pauses occur at regular, exactly the same interval
each time? That would tend to suggest software or power
managment, a bios firmware-sensor setting, etc. This is
less likley though.

Use "coolbits" to underclock the GPU by at least 20% and
then see if the problem goes away if not at least reducing
in frequency of occurance.

I'm suspecting your GPU is overheating OR the board's
capacitors are going out and the (onboard) power supply to
GPU is fluctuating too much. Either way a GPU speed
reduction should show at least a minor improvement... it is
to aid in pinpointing the problem, not a suggestion for
longer-term use.

If that video card has aux power input (think so?) it could
also (or instead) be a system power supply problem. You
didn't mention your power supply but an FX5700 Ultra is
fairly power-hungry for it's time.

 

[James T]

Answers to few of your questions:

All the fans are working.
The pauses are random.
The GPU is not overheating.
Yes, the video card does need an aux power supply.

I will try a couple of things you mentioned. Cheers. Any other thoughts
would be useful.

 

[DaveW]

The twp possible causes that I see for your problem is either an
underpowered/unstable power supply unit, OR the video card is not getting
enough cooling in the case and is overheating.

 

[Mac Cool]

James T:

I keep getting black screens which last about 2 seconds at random
intervals.

It is a driver issue, read the fix here:

http://www.techimo.com/forum/t117062.html

 

[James T]

I don't understand how it can be a driver issue. I installed the drivers
when they came out and I have had this problem only about week.

 

[Mac Cool]

James T:

I don't understand how it can be a driver issue. I installed the drivers
when they came out and I have had this problem only about week.

Try it. I don't understand it either because I experienced the problem in
a pure DOS environment and Linux in addition to XP, yet when I followed
the instructions the problem went away. It has been a few weeks and the
problem has not returned.

I could usually force the problem by right clicking on video files larger
than about 8MB.