6800 Ultra Issues in BattleField2

[JFJohnny5]

I recently upgraded to the Leadtek A400 GeForce 6800 Ultra. I popped it in, loaded up BF2, cranked up the settings and away we go...well sort of. It was wierd. It would run beautifully (looked awesome, great framerate) for like 10-30 seconds, then lock up for like 3 seconds. I noticed that right as it got freed from the lockup, the hard drive light would start crunching away. For the life of me I can't figure out what it's trying to access that keeps jamming it up like that. This happened both single and multiplayer.

Now the really wierd thing is when I cranked it down to medium settings...it got worse! At this point I read the card's manual more closely and noticed that the two power connections it needs (yes two) should be from a dedicated line, not shared with other components. So I switched the power around. I also noticed what BF2 called the "latest drivers" weren't. So I updated from Nvidia as well. This seemed to have cleared up the problem with medium settings being worse. Medium settings run fine now. However, still getting the wierd, random, short lockups on high settings. And it's still accessing the hard drive right after it unfreezes. I was going to start enabling high detail on individual settings systematically, but it was near midnight so I called it quits.

Now I haven't had time to run any diagnostics yet. (Anyone know of any?) The only "test" I've run was 3DMark '05. I got a score of 5194. Which is pretty darn good for '05. My brother only got in the 3000's and he can run BF2 on High no problem. Now there is one difference between his rig and mine that might not be affected by 3DMark. He has 2Gb system RAM. I only have 1Gb. Anyway, when I get home tonight I would like to run some diagnostics to make sure the card is running fine. So if anyone can recommend some, I'd appreciate it. Barring that, I'm going to try systematically enabling video settings.

If anyone has any thoughts, info, similar experiences...whatever. Please let me know. Thanks!

Here are my basic specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
1Gb RAM
GeForce 6800 Ultra w/ 256Mb onboard (AGP 8x)
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Audio
Primary HD: Seagate 120Gb 7200rpm w/ 8Mb cache
450W PSU (both molex connectors on a sinlge dedicated cable)

 

[SOcRatEs]

Welcome to TechSpot

If anyone has any thoughts, info, similar experiences...whatever. Please let me know. Thanks!
Here are my basic specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
1Gb RAM
GeForce 6800 Ultra w/ 256Mb onboard (AGP 8x)
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Audio
Primary HD: Seagate 120Gb 7200rpm w/ 8Mb cache
450W PSU (both molex connectors on a sinlge dedicated cable)

What mothrboard are you using?
There are new set of drivers from nVidia:
Version: 77.72
Release Date: June 22, 2005
WHQL Certified
Checkout this article Here
Also for various utls. you're asking for, try Here
G'Luck

 

[JFJohnny5]

Thanks for the tips! Now for an update...

K so last night I tried firing up Half Life 2 (which always ran beautifully) and sure enough, the pause/lockup problem was still there. I then ran BF2 on medium settings again to verify that the problem did creep up...it did. So next I swapped out the 6800 Ultra for my previous card, a FX 5700 Ultra. BF2 ran a bit choppy on medium due to the card's processing limit, but never paused or locked up on me. So that rules out RAM, software, or Hard Disk issues as the same data (medium settings both times) transferred fine with the less power intensive card...right?

At any rate, is this seeming like a power problem? The guy at Leadtek said "no" but almost every website recommends at least 480W. Also, the Leadtek website recommends that each molex connector on the card have a dedicated line to the PSU. Anyone have experience with this card?

 

[JFJohnny5]

Update:

I installed a new 500W power supply last night. I then loaded up BF2 on high settings. I was thrilled when it seemes to be playing fine. Then about 3 or 4 minutes later...I had a pause/lockup. As I continued playing, the lockups were happening more and more frequently.

So...why would more power diminish, but not eliminate the problem? And why does the issue seem to build as I continue playing? This just isn't making any sense...suggestions? thoughts?

 

[Merc14]

What kind of PSU did you installl and how many amps does it put out on the 12v side? Does it have dual 12V rails? What about temperatures

 

[JFJohnny5]

After some research I went with the Ultra X-Connect. I read nothing but good reviews, and with its modular design, it was the only was I could find to get "dedicated" molex connections to each jack on the card and still power my other drives.

The manual says it puts put 34A at +12V.

I'm not sure what a double 12V rail would be. Couldn't find it in the manual.

And what would I use to check temperatures?

 

[Merc14]

That is a great PSU and can more than handle the load. You can check temps by opening the Nvidia Utility (right click on desktop and open Nvidia Display and click on temperature settings.

 

[JFJohnny5]

K I monitored the temp. At resting it was like upper 50's core. During game I kept checking. Never saw it go above 72. And at the points when the game would pause/lockup on me, the temp varied from 68 to 71. So I don't see a correlation to the issue there...

I've basically ruled out the PSU at this point. I popped the card in my brother's old machine using my old PSU and the card seemed to run ok. And it's worth noting my brother's old box only has 512 RAM to my 1 gig. As a result of less RAM I wasn't able to load large texture maps, but otherwise I ran all settings on High and it never paused or locked up.

So, I'm thinking a mobo conflict maybe? I feel I have now ruled out the PSU, RAM, or a defective GPU. Another friend of mine suggested shared IRQ conflicts. IRQ...man that takes me back. Any thoughts?

 

[Merc14]

Yeah, those temps are well within limits. Assuming your BIOS is up to date here is a trick that I figured out the hard way. I have had problems with Nvidia drivers in the past not clearing out completely when removed and causing conflicts as more and more clutter built up. Solution was to download DrivercleanerPRO (google it) and then remove your Nvidia Nview driver with windows add/remove program function. After carefully reading Drivercleaner instructions run it (the proper one to run just says Nvidia). Reload the latest Nview driver again and see if that helps. It cleared up some odd problems I was having with my 6800GT's and now I run drivercleaner everytime I change drivers.

 

[tbwpilot]

Cleaning the drivers out was what I was going to say that and HD defrag. Guess that must have did it since no more has been heard from this person.

 

[rotaidem]

I recently upgraded to the Leadtek A400 GeForce 6800 Ultra. I popped it in, loaded up BF2, cranked up the settings and away we go...well sort of. It was wierd. It would run beautifully (looked awesome, great framerate) for like 10-30 seconds, then lock up for like 3 seconds. I noticed that right as it got freed from the lockup, the hard drive light would start crunching away. For the life of me I can't figure out what it's trying to access that keeps jamming it up like that. This happened both single and multiplayer.

Now the really wierd thing is when I cranked it down to medium settings...it got worse! At this point I read the card's manual more closely and noticed that the two power connections it needs (yes two) should be from a dedicated line, not shared with other components. So I switched the power around. I also noticed what BF2 called the "latest drivers" weren't. So I updated from Nvidia as well. This seemed to have cleared up the problem with medium settings being worse. Medium settings run fine now. However, still getting the wierd, random, short lockups on high settings. And it's still accessing the hard drive right after it unfreezes. I was going to start enabling high detail on individual settings systematically, but it was near midnight so I called it quits.

Now I haven't had time to run any diagnostics yet. (Anyone know of any?) The only "test" I've run was 3DMark '05. I got a score of 5194. Which is pretty darn good for '05. My brother only got in the 3000's and he can run BF2 on High no problem. Now there is one difference between his rig and mine that might not be affected by 3DMark. He has 2Gb system RAM. I only have 1Gb. Anyway, when I get home tonight I would like to run some diagnostics to make sure the card is running fine. So if anyone can recommend some, I'd appreciate it. Barring that, I'm going to try systematically enabling video settings.

If anyone has any thoughts, info, similar experiences...whatever. Please let me know. Thanks!

Here are my basic specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
1Gb RAM
GeForce 6800 Ultra w/ 256Mb onboard (AGP 8x)
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Audio
Primary HD: Seagate 120Gb 7200rpm w/ 8Mb cache
450W PSU (both molex connectors on a sinlge dedicated cable)

wow. I am having this issue as well. I just built my system
- leadtek 6800 ultra
- gigbyte board
- athlon 4000 san diego core
- 2 gb Corsair XMS pc3200
- two Western Digital 74gb Raptors in RAID0
- Ultra Xconnect 500w

I have newest drivers 77.77, latest patches from EA. Like JFJohnny said back in July, I run bf2 at 1280x1024. It runs fine initially then it starts jerking and sometimes pausing for 3-5secs. CPU temp is no more than 35c GPU says it is no more than 50c's I really think mine is either a power issue or bios on the video card. Has there been anything figured out on this ?
thx
ROT