Seemingly Endless Trouble (BFG 7800 GT, Crashes)

[Guy BlueSummers]

These two were not a matched kit (Although I thought they might be for a second). I bought them over two different orders at newegg.

 

I'll test 3dMark with just the good stick of ram when I get back from class!

[wevsspot]

Were the part numbers and factory timings and voltages exactly the same for both sticks of RAM?

 

Good luck in class.

 

p.s. You could go directly to the official OCZ Support Forum for quicker assistance with this RAM issue. You can find them here;

 

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/

[Guy BlueSummers]

Back from class

I'm running one last memtest to make sure I haven't mixed up the two, before I try booting to XP and running 3dMark.

 

The two sticks are identical inside and out. I made real sure when I was on newegg to order duplicates.

 

I'll head over to OCZ now!

[Guy BlueSummers]

Wierd keeps getting wierder

I booted up using the single good stick. Windows started normally, and I ran 3dMark.

The first test was completed entirely, which gave me a little jolt of excitement!

 

However, it promptly crashed on the second test with a new error message:

"IDirect3dDevice9::Present failed: Device lost (D3DERR_DEVICELOST)"

Microsoft is descriptive as usual:

The device has been lost but cannot be reset at this time. Therefore, rendering is not possible.

 

The system remained stable, and I was able to restart without problems.

 

**EDIT**

A second attempt to replicate this problem, yielded results similar to earlier in this thread. 3dMark locked up on startup and crashed XP.

[wevsspot]

Ok,

 

Now for the fun part

 

Download the latest nVidia nForce drivers from here;

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_win2k_6.86.html

 

Use the Windows Add/Remove Programs utility to remove your existing nForce drivers (careful not to uninstall your video card driver or RAID driver)

 

Reboot, defrag and then install the latest driver pack that you downloaded in the step above.

 

Reboot when prompted.

 

Uninstall and reinstall 3DMark just to make sure that program isn't corrupted.

 

I'm kind of worried about your whole installation at this point with the huge number of errors in Memtest on that one stick.

 

Another hard medicine pill to swallow - if this were my rig, once I confirmed I was Memtest stable with that one good stick - I'd reformat my hard drives and install a fresh copy of Windows. But I'm kind of anal that way. I'll leave the final choice to you, but I'd recommend that course of action highly. If you decided to go that route of course you could forego the uninstall routine on your current chipset drivers and 3DMark.

[AnUnknownSource]

I concur with wev... at this point, a re-install would be a good idea! With that bad stick of RAM in, there's no telling what errors are present in the files that make up windows. Your 3Dmark errors are likely due to one or more such errors...

[wevsspot]

Amen brother! Man, our advice is brutal, especially when we aren't sure it will cure all of your ills.

 

After re-reading this entire thread from start to finish I think two things become apparent.

 

First - Almost from day one you probably had a bad stick of RAM - strange from OCZ, but it does happen.

 

Second - I think it might be time to consider getting rid of your current video card and going with something else. BUT, before I went that far, I'd surely consider a fresh install of Windows to see if the problem is resolved.

 

I know this has been a long drawn out process and I apologize for the time it's taking you to get to this point. But on a positive note, we have really identified some of the problems with your current setup, and hopefully we will be able to resolve them to your satisfaction.

 

Keep us posted.

[Voltes-5]

Yes, it looks like he will have to reinstall his OS, its the best way to be sure. I think it was you Wev or it could be ExRoadie who recommended that I reinstall the OS after getting the max out of the system OC. I have been doing that to every build that I OC and it eliminates most if not all problems.

[wevsspot]

Windows is so damned finicky, even when you're not overclocking. It doesn't take much to scramble up your OS.

 

Thats a major reason why I end up doing a fresh install every 3 months or so. I test so many different things, both software and hardware on my primary rig that I'm sure things get messed up in the process.

 

Believe it or not, my current rig has been the most bullet proof when recovering from errors. I've done stuff to this rig that would have totally rendered my older NF4 rigs totally useless without a fresh install.

 

In fact, I may be going on a personal record for not reinstalling the OS with this rig here. I may not even have to call MS for a new activation code the next time I install my copy of XP Pro

[Voltes-5]

Yeah, I hear ya. Its one of the reasonw why I have not gone and get me that Vista. As I weigh my options, all I want it for is to see the improvement on DX10 games, thats all and I guess to be able to use my 4GB Ballistix on it. That does not justify the headaches I see a lot of users here are dealing with. I hope that it will get better soon though.

[Guy BlueSummers]

Ok,

 

Now for the fun part

 

Download the latest nVidia nForce drivers from here;

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_win2k_6.86.html

 

Use the Windows Add/Remove Programs utility to remove your existing nForce drivers (careful not to uninstall your video card driver or RAID driver)

 

Reboot, defrag and then install the latest driver pack that you downloaded in the step above.

 

Reboot when prompted.

 

Uninstall and reinstall 3DMark just to make sure that program isn't corrupted.

 

I'm kind of worried about your whole installation at this point with the huge number of errors in Memtest on that one stick.

 

Another hard medicine pill to swallow - if this were my rig, once I confirmed I was Memtest stable with that one good stick - I'd reformat my hard drives and install a fresh copy of Windows. But I'm kind of anal that way. I'll leave the final choice to you, but I'd recommend that course of action highly. If you decided to go that route of course you could forego the uninstall routine on your current chipset drivers and 3DMark.

 

I'll follow your advice with regards to the NF4 drivers. Luckily, I forsaw the day I would have to reinstall, and have most of my critical data on other drives (i.e. music, documents, programs with cfg files, etc).

 

More to follow!

 

**EDIT**

OCZ Approved my RMA. I <3 them.

[AnUnknownSource]

Gratz GBS, glad you got the issue somewhat resolved!

 

post how things are when you have a fresh install up and running, letting us knw how 3D mark runs. Don't forget to install the chipset drivers first, followed by graphics, windows update and so on..