Faulty XFX GeForce 6600GT 256 AGP card

[foxdelta]

Hi all,

My first post, so please excuse me if I don't quite get my problem across....

Last week my XFX GeForce 6600gt 256MB AGP8 grafix card started to act a little weird (3 year old card). I was playing Star Wars Galaxies when I opened up my Inventory (pulls up a box full of spinning pictures of your Inventory). As I did this, my PC froze and the screen went all 'fuzzy' and distorted. I first thought it was just a game crash and reset my system only the problem continued when I rebooted SWG. Other aspects of playing SWG were fine, just when I opened any box or inventory did it go funny. The other game it was going weird with was Battleknight (online game) after the log on screen it shows you a battleknight loading page. This was all distorted too! Dots and pixels all out of sorts. What baffles me is that the grafix card acts normal with internet pages and basic functions, it just freaks out when using it on SWG and Battleknight. I have tried to use the Ntune program that you get with the latest Nvidia drivers but that just freezes as it tries to check the card. I have taken out the card and given it a good celan using an air spray but it has no effect on my problem. The card cost me £190 brand new so I am a bit loathe to give up on it for the moment!
I have the latest Nvidia drivers loaded. I have checked that the fan is still working and it is. I have a 350W PSU which should be fine.
Is it on it's way out or can it be saved?
Thanks in advance for any ideas on how to fix.

My spec:
ASUS P4P800S-X mobo
1024MB 266Mhz RAM (PC2100)
350W PSU
Windows XP Pro SP3

 

[kimsland]

Oh specialized support!

I believe it's your video card itself
I have a 512Meg that even has issues sometimes

I think you're best to uninstall it fully
Turn off
Detach the card gain
If you have onboard video, start with that
Turn on
Then use Driver Sweeper to remove any leftovers
Actually even run CCleaner
Turn off
Install your (clean) Addon video card
Re-install the latest drivers again
Test

 

[foxdelta]

Thanks Kimsland for your quick reply and remedy (I hope)...

I will try it when I get home tonight and post to let you know how I got on.

Cheers

 

[foxdelta]

Sadly, I tried Kimsland's idea but my card is still producing the faults as described in my initial thread.

I have a feeling that it is a card fault - but I do not know enough about grafix cards to pin point it.

Anyone else had any experiences like this one?

 

[kimsland]

You know 350Watt is just about on par with what you have
But 350W also tells me, that it's basically the original one.
If you have the option to test with another please do. (And/or replace)

Also that gfx card, you really blew out all the dust near and under (or close to) the heatsink?

Just to prove it's not your actual system Ram. You might want to run Memtest for 7 passes ( ~ approx 4 hrs, on this boot CD)

 

[foxdelta]

Thanks again Kimsland for your reply.

I did indeed blow out the dust with a can of air. There was quite a bit but I think I got all. I honestly think it is something onboard that is playing up. What I really need to do is get me one of them small screwdriver sets so i can physically take the heatsink off and give it a deep clean and see how it runs then. My son is hoping that I get it to work so he can put it into his system lol. Of note, I did try the card in his system and got a repeat of the fault.

I have had a new grafix card (powercolor ATi X1650 Pro 512MB AGP 8) delivered today and it works like a dream. Exremely good price of £37 delivered overnight to my door.

I will post again when I can get the small screwdiver to investigate and clean further. Until then, thank you once again for trying to help me out. It is very much appreciated. This is a great site and you can rest assured I will be reading a lot more forums and taking it all in!

Cheers!

 

[kimsland]

If yoou remove the Heatsink, you will then need to re-apply thermal paste
Have a look here (although this discusses the computer CPU, it still shows the way to re-fit the HeatSink)
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm