Computer freezing with 24h stable Prime95

[stevozilik]

Hi guys,

I've bought a new gaming system:
e8500
GA-X48-DS4
ATI HD4870
2x2GB Crosair XMS2 Dominator 4-4-4-12 800 Mhz
780W Hiper PSU
Windows Vista 64 Ultimate

I've assembled it a installed Vista and apropriate uptodate drivers, everything done smoothly.
I wanted to run a few benchmark before overcloking to see the difference.

1. On stock settings run 3D Mark Vantage and get it through with about 7500 points.
2. Still on stock settings run 3D Mark 2006 and that froze.
3. I decided not to try to make the system stable on stock settings when I want to OC anyway, so I started with OC
4. Set CPU to 400x9.5 = 3.8 Ghz and start playing with Prime95 . I came to a setting with CPU Vcore = 1.34V and FSB = Base + 0.05V (that +0.05maybe not needed, needs further optimization). This run for 22 hours flawlesly. I'm not sure if I have to setup the Prime95 any different from default. I enabled the Round off Checking and run the Torture Test>Large FFTs.
5. After the 22 hours I was confident with the system beeing stable and I run the 3D Mark 2006 benchmark again. And it would freeze again 3/3 times. In the meantime, I had once graphics driver issues, the Vista was saying that there was a driver problem and for second or two the screen went blank . Even the 3D Mark 2006 would not proceed once saying something about 3D error. I have the latest Catalist drivers 8.512 from ATI website installed yesterday... Can graphics drivers/graphics card cause system freezing?
6. I'm running memtest86+ while I'm at work for 12 hours to see whether the RAM is not the problem.

Assuming that the RAM is ok when I get home, what should I do. What kind of tests can I take to see where is the problem? Graphics Card/Drivers | PSU | CPU/mobo voltages ???

please advice guys! thanks

 

[rtfm]

The drivers for the 4870 are still new so they could cause issues. My 4850 wouldn't run 3d mark 2006 until I downloaded the patch from the futuremark website.

Don't panic, download the crysis demo to cheer yourself up. Oh and grid, that's a pretty game too.

 

[ferencster]

I had the same problem if i overclocked my graphic card (ATI 4850 or the nv 9600 gt) screen went black for a few secs and then driver error displayed. This was on 32 bit vista business. I recommend checking your temps on that 4870 its pretty hot (try the fan speed fix for the 4800 series - my temps went down 20 C with that, and was able to achieve higher oc). Also have you tested the cpu with small ffts? If not do so

 

[stevozilik]

I haven't OC my GPU yet, I'll need to check the temperatures.
I haven't tested the cpu with small ffts . How long should I test it? 24h ?

 

[ferencster]

Large ffts stress ram and cpu, small ffts test cpu only to the max. After 8-10 hours it is considered stable, also you can run it for 24 hours just to be 200% sure. I dont think that the psu causing problem because i have quad core q9300 oced to 2.88 ghz ati 4850 and 4 gigs of corsair ddr2 with a p35 board and a thermaltake PSU 470 w, and i have no problems

 

[ferencster]

One quick question: have you plugged both power connectors in your 4870 card? It has 2 4 pin connectors. Have you installed the 8.7 Catalyst (latest)?

 

[stevozilik]

I've connected both connectors. I have installed latest (8.512) drivers . I've tried to run Vantage once, did not froze, temperatures were max 80 . When idle, temp is arounf 74-75. I have Rivatuner 2.09 but I don't know how to set the fan speeds. I'll try to run the 2006 benchmark to see if it freezes.

anyway RAM is ok - 22 times passed with 0 errors.

 

[stevozilik]

Is it posible that the cause would be that the GPU is taking power from 2 different rails?

anyway, now when running benchmarks, I noticed that every 3-4 secs there is a small twitch on the screen. I wondering why is that...

 

[rubix_1011]

I don't see the point of being so upset if you can run Prime95 for 22 hours stable, but something happens at 24 hours. At what point do you consider it stable? 5 months? By the time you get done running it through all that, it will be time for new hardware.

 

[stevozilik]

my point is why does my computer freeze 3 times in 20 minutes in 3D Mark2006 if it can run under heavy CPU load for 22 hours without any problems...

 

[rubix_1011]

3dmark is more GPU intensive and less CPU/memory in comparison; Prime is CPU/memory, no GPU in comparison.

Power to GPU, drivers, or GPU heat. Those would be where I would start...actually, you have some great benchmarks to indicate that.

 

[Guest]

because its not your cpu... please use your brain...

its clearly something else... its probably a corrupt file or a driver issue... probably the latter... update to the 8.7 catalyst drivers... not 8.5.... 8.5 is old update to at least 8.7 and then try it... also try completely... I mean completely remove 3dmark 06 from the system... uninstall it and then manually delete all remaining files... then RE-DOWNLOAD 3dmark 06 from a different source and reinstalling it

 

[MegaGamer3]

It's worth a shot to rule out the memory.

Download this http://www.hcidesign.com/memtest/download.html and see if it gives you any errors.

UPDATE TO 8.7

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista64/common-vista64

 

[rtfm]

I'll say again 3dmark 2006 wouldn't run on my 4850 until I installed the patch: http://www.futuremark.com/download/

You still havent told us if you can run any other 3d stuff without probs. Give it a try before you start panicing

 

[stevozilik]

first thanks for helping me guys.

I have the latest ATI drivers, if you actually go and look at the graphics driver version is 8.512 .

I haven't done any other intens gpu testing, I'll try some games and see.

memtest was running for 12 hours without any errors

 

[stevozilik]

guys I've installed Grid game and when playing, every 10 second my screen goes blank and back to normal. Windows says that the graphics driver has crashed and has recovered. wtf? I have installed the latest drivers...

 

[stevozilik]

after removing all ati drivers and catalist, I've installed the newest drivers again and that did not help , the game crashes . It is either bad drivers or bad GPU I think .

 

[aznguy0028]

just a suggestion

why not try ur setup on xp? if you have a copy laying around...maybe that'll narrow down some things

 

[roadrunner197069]

Try older drivers. New drivers arent always perfect.

 

[V3NOM]

is it a beta driver maybe?

 

[stevozilik]

I've tried to install 8.6 with hotfix, same problem. How far should I go with the drivers?

Is there a way to determine whether my PSU is giving enough power to the GPU ?

 

[aznguy0028]

8.512 is not a beta driver...

Radeon™ display driver 8.512 is what is included in the catalyst 8.7 which is the newest from ATI. and older drivers don't support the 48xx series.

that's why he is having problems. i still suggest trying your setup on XP to see if it works...if you have time, b/c i know that is pretty time consuming to install another OS. either that or wait for catalyst 8.8 are my guesses.

 

[stevozilik]

That's not a problem to install the XP's.... Actually my friend might test the GPU for me on a different system with XP's, that would help a lot.

 

[Tywald]

Stevozilik:

While my reply here won't help you out, i wanted to tell you that i have a similiar problem whit my system as well.

I'm using a Powercolor x1950Pro wich recieves power trought a Molex connection to my PSU (a 500+watt Hiper.)

Just like you, after several seconds up to minutes depending on the game, the graphics freeze, screen goes black and appears several secons later when the drivers restarts the GPU. In some games it doesn't freeze at all even after several hours.

I don't have the latest drivers yet but i know that after trying several of them the problem still doesn't go away.

I personally think it could be an heat issue and that the GPU doesn't get enought extra cooling from the case.
So i have ordered a new case as well as a HD4850 and will get them next week. Hopefully i just got a bad GPU, but i'm suspicious that it's the PSU that's causing the problems.

- Tywald

 

[stevozilik]

Tywald,

thats very interesting, thanks for sharing that. I have a Powercolor as well.

However I have the NXZT Temptest case and I seriously doubt that the cooling inside that case would be not sufficient. There are 3 exhaust fans and 3 fans blowing air into it, one directly on the GPU. I need to test that GPU in different system, especially different PSU.

I doubt this is a overheating issue , the only way how this could be overheating would be if the fan would be not kicking in when required. When running 3D Marks, the GPU temperature never exceeds 80 C.