My leadtek (winfast a400 GT TDH) geforce 6800gt is doing crazy things

Just found this on Toms Hardware Guide

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/15/dual_graphics_platforms/page2.html

"How To Overclock The AMD Platform

Unlike Intel-based computers, an AMD system has no front side bus. Instead, HyperTransport is used to link the processor to the chipset. It has a system base clock of 200 MHz; a multiplier of 5 is applied in order to hit the 1,000 megatransfers per second for the HyperTransport protocol (which corresponds to 1,000 MHz here).

However, since the memory controller is part of the processor, there are fewer bandwidth requirements between the CPU and the chipset. A similar Intel Pentium 4 or Pentium D based system has to use the front side bus for every memory access, which adds latency to each operation. This all means that the resulting system or HyperTransport speed is far less important than one would believe with AMD based systems.

Despite this, a flexible overclocking range is still very important, in order to overclock either the CPU or the main memory, because the goal is to find the best performing combination of system speed, processor multiplier and memory clock speed. These tuning measures result in noticeable performance boosts."

and this

"Increasing The System Clock Speed

Every Athlon 64 motherboard other than the lowest cost models will offer you a BIOS option to alter the system clock speed. It defaults to 200 MHz with all Socket 939 processors, but clock speeds of almost 400 MHz can be reached today. However, this has more of an effect on other components than it has on performance, so be careful here.

Raising the system clock will automatically increase the HyperTransport speed as well, since as mentioned before, this is a multiple of the system clock speed. Look for an option called 'HTT Link' or similar. It should either be set to '1000 MHz' or to 5X, both of which mean that HyperTransport runs at five times the system clock speed. Possible options usually are 800 MHz (4x) and 600 MHz (3x). Whenever you overclock the system clock, make sure you reduce the HTT multiplier accordingly, because for the sake of system stability, you should not exceed the 1,000 MHz figure by much."

I had the BIOS setting in the A8V for overclocking set to AI originaly (which I think means just a little bit)
and then to None or Standard (for Standard speed) after the first card failure
I've not overclocked my CPU at all during the second fail which suggests that a design flaw in the card leaves it unable to handle the higher transfer rates that really it should be able to handle (assuming this is what caused my second failure)

I'm now planning to no-longer use the card and to get a A8N-SLI Premium instead with a 7800 PCI-E, and to re-use the old board with an older card as a server
I definitaly won't be getting a Leadtek card again, I think the Gigabyte ones may be the best at the moment though

Hello all. I joined to boards to post my experience with this card. I, like many of you, order this card from NewEgg. It was a refurb, and I got it on the 16th. I plugged it in, powered on, and low and behold had the exact same problems described here. I tried many, many different things to get it working (many of which were posted here by other members). I was just about to submit the RMA to NewEgg, but recalled that one person said the weight of the card may be causing problems with the contacts.

I didn't think that was the problem because I had even tried laying my PC sideways before powering on, so the weight of the card shouldn't have been a factor. I figured it couldn't hurt anything to give it one last try before RMAing it though, so I powered it on while holding the plastic part of the card up with my hand. Voilà, it worked perfectly. I went through my misc. electronics box to find something the right height, and it turned out a miniDV tape fit perfectly under the plastic edge of the card without blocking the fan to hold the card at the right angle for the contacts to be secure. The tape holds the card about 2cm higher than it would sag without the tape. If I take the tape out, all the problems come back. I put the tape back in and they go away.

For the past two days I have been running the card hard, and it has performed beautifully. It is just the gigantic size that caused the problem in my case. It is worth seeing if it will fix your problems as well.

Check out the attached photos for my solution. It actually is very secure in the case, but I put a couple pieces of packing tape on it to ensure it would stay put.

hmm it seems a valid reason why we have having trouble with this card. and its maybe why I started having problems when I tried the dvi plug (the ones who have read my first post will understand). I probably moved the card a bit just enough to impede the contact between the card and the agp slot.

I'll try smeg's solution when I receive my card in january..

Duff card

Hi there folks new to the board after searching for the very information this thread has provided me with - many thanks. Bought the said mentioned card of a mate who had no probs for about a year when I bought it from him. I hadn't used it until a month ago (waiting to build rest of rig). So I'm well pissed off with it considering I've only used it for about a total of 6hours in 1 month - hardly excessive and my mate who I bought it off didn't abuse it. Thought there could be a glimmer of hope with the minidv prop solution but I've got mine in a desktop case so it sits in square with no weight pulling it out. Oh well live and learn, now waiting for the XFX 6800GS 256MB extreme cards to ge to the UK so I can finally start using my machine.

graphic card

try it on another pc to confirm that the card is out of order. If the same occurs then take the card back to get it repair or replaced for free.

Try this, ........

This is from the page

http://www.mvktech.net/component/option,com_simpleboard/Itemid,34/func,view/id,2174/catid,10/

" I think all 6800's have a fan speed that is normally automatically controlled by the card. A lot of people are having problems with their Leadteks being unable to OC without artifacts and are having success when they use ExperTool to run their fans at full speed.
ExperTool seems to work with most cards, so the fan speed must be controllable on 6800's. But the speed isn't monitored so I guess the controller just controls the voltage to the fan."

Maybe changing the fan speed, or something with the called program Expertool, the problem will be solved

Or this...

http://hardware.mcse.ms/archive55-2005-9-231533.html

they say that Changing the Fast Writes in the bios , still dont know how but maybe you know how to do this

Most of us cant even get to windows with the card. Maybe you found the problem but how to resolve it if we are unable to read whats on the screen and if the comp reboots after 30 seconds

I talk to leadtek and they finally admit that they have some serious design flaws on all 6800xxx cards no matter if it is the PCi-EX or AGP. They cant find solutions, they said the change the big cooler on the card it lessen the RMA return to them but still even with small new heatsinks they still got the problem. They said this is a memory problem on the card which keep failing for they dont know whats the reason.

hmm that's not a good news... so all we can do is hope to receive a working card... maybe that we have 20% chance to receive one.. :suspicious:

Yes I think thats the only hope we would get. That the replacement card has a good and durable built. They also said that they found out that the 6800xx with big heat sinks usually already got damaged during the shipping due to vibration. I think the weight causes the heatsink that was stick to the memory to have problems with it. So basically the whole 6800 line is design flaw. I really dont think they would try to fix this problem since they already start shipping 7800xxx. I think they will just keep RMA'ing this card until all warranties run out. I would be expecting my replacement again next week. They said they would ship it out today. This is my 3rd replacement! Damn!

s

havent try this

leadtek 6800gt graphics corruption

hi guys and girls thanks to you i think i might have found a partial solution to some of the problems we are having. I was having exactly the same problem as many of you where you start an online game and get dumped straight bacm to desk top .. i have gone into the bios of my msi k8n neo2 and increased the agp voltage from 1.5v? upto 1.55v and now this card is as stable as i can get it have played bf2 for over 2 hours without any problems :wave:

My solution

I joined the forum to post this. I had all the same symptoms that are mentioned above, and my problem with this card turned out to be the weight. It's so heavy that some of the connections are not made, or it's straining the MB or something. I propped an old cell phone up under the card and it solved almost all of my problems, and not instantly but after a reboot. This is a ridiculous solution but it worked for me, so I hope this is useful to others experiencing these problems.

The memory controller on the cards is faulty. Either a design fault or a manufacturing problem. Sometimes on the cards due to heat & mech stress the copper tracks crack between the boards.

Replace the card. Do not buy refurbished goods in general unless you own a soldering iron & oscilloscope...

I also have a Leadtek Winfast A400 (6800GT).
I bought it 1 year and 10!! days ago. And now it started to behave strange (See images)

Boot:

Windows:


I mailed Leadtek and i also got a response where they said
"By Euopean law the seller has to give 2 year of warranty see link below
http://www.cedarrapids.org/_includes/fileblob.asp?I=16&table=content&ext=pdf
&name=European%20Union101501.pdf"

I went to the store where I bought it and they said that they give a one year warranty and they couldnt help me. I refered to Leadteks info and they said that if I as a customer can prove that the product was broken when i bought it they could help me.
But lets be realistic that wont happen.

So i mailed Leadtek support again explaining that the store wasnt willing to help me. I got this response:

"Hello,

Can you please send us a copy of the original invoice(bill) and reply this
e-mail when you send it by fax or postage?
You can send it by e-mail (just reply), by fax 0031 (0)20 4109111, or by
postage to:
Please when you do it by Fax/postage write RMA REQUEST on it
Please also the Serial number of the card

Is this how they started the "RMA process" with you?
I cant seem to find out what warranty Leadtek gives in Europe. I can only hope for 3 years.

It dont know if i have a bad card. I mean it worked fine for 1 year. I thought that the problem with the weight of the card sounded like a possible explenation. But i tried fiddling with the card in the AGP port with no result.

I also have a FX5200 which works fine. And when i try the Leadtek A400 in a friends computer he experiences the same problems.

Do any of these cards work?

I'm forced to get a replacement for this card (of course it is non-refundable!!!). Does anyone have an A400 that works? Oh god I hope so...

I got my replacement card today. They replace the big junk copper 2 slot heat sink with a single slot copper heat sink. Its lighter but I dont know if thats going to help. Im still thinking I might sell this instead of using it again since this is my 3rd stupid replacement.

Just warning to all that Leadtek admitted to me that it might be all of their 6800's has some issues similar to the memory problems. They recieve numerous issues of the said issues. As I said in my previous posts that the big junk heatsink is one of the reason to make it faulty according to them. So they decided to switch to the single slot. They also said that they still recieve some RMA on the single slot but not as much as the dual slot heat sinks. Many people warned at newegg that the single slot produce alot of heat. So Ive been thinking Ill just sell this replacement of mine and get me some other cards instead.

I hope this help you guys out.

Sorry for beeing stupid. Where can i find the serial# on the card?

Serial number is usual on the card it self at the back or anywhere around the card. It is usually very tiny and comes in long series of numbers in it.