MX 8800 Ultra "Driver crash"?

[MOONDOG]

Hi guys,

I've been going crazy over a new card i bought... the MX 8800 ultra by MSI. This thing is sooo beautiful in theory but it straight up crashes when it hits any heavy graphical load. If not a system hard crash to off, it freezes... the drivers are complete crap for this card. Heres my main components...

2.4 gig quad (intel)
Pn6 mobo MSI
4 gigs ddr2 800 mushkin ram
an 850 watt power supply

It seems like an overheating issue at times but i turned the fan to 100% speed using the nvidia ntune software (which takes it from 76c to bout 59c!) bcuz the thing comes stock overclocked, but the fan runs at 65% lol.
either way with the insane cooling i have going on it cant be heat... and 850 watts isn't underpowering anything...

I tried running the card in vista and xp with the last 3 drivers provided for each OS. In vista it noticed that the driver "stopped responding and has recovered" in xp a hardboot is the only way out =(. Same crash problem with all drivers and both OS's.

Im goin crazy tryin to figure it out. Is the card simply not supported as of yet? Or does some1 here have this card in perfect running order? Any help would be most appriciated! (P.S. I have 15 days left on the RMA so i need to make immediate decisions lol)

P.S. If the drivers are currently not working.. any1 have any suggestions to a working top of the line card? (price isnt an issue) Thx ahead of time =)

 

[mailpup]

When it hard crashes to off, does it restart or just stay off? What 850W power supply do you have? Can you do a quick check of your RAM by using only one module and swap out each one in turn to see if any problems appear?

 

[MOONDOG]

The crash in XP froze up the machine. The crash in Vista Just shut off the machine 50% of the time (and stayed off), otherwise it would just close the program and display "the driver has stopped working and has recovered". And here are my specs more specifically...
NEWEGG ITEM #
13-130-080 ... MB MSI P6N DIAMOND NF680I SLI 775
27-140-025 ... DVD BURN HP|DVD1040I LS RT
24-014-139 ... MNTR BENQ|LCD 22" 5MS FP222WH R
11-129-021 ... CASE ANTEC|NINE HUNDRED BK RT
14-127-288 ... VGA MSI|8800ULTRA-T2D768E-HD-OC R
20-146-691 ... MEM 2Gx2|MUSHKIN DII800 996564 R
17-182-072 ... PSU ROSEWILL|RX850-S-B 850W RT
19-115-017 ... CPU INTEL|C2Q Q6600 2.40G 775 8M R

I'm gonna test the ram more thoroughly

Edit - I tested each ram stick seperatley on all four slots, same problem.

and i just checked newegg.com on the rma...
"This item is non-refundable, and is therefore not eligible for a refund RMA" :dead: :dead: :dead: :hotouch: :blackeye: :hotouch:

I guess i neglected to notice that as i purchased it... looks like im in this for the long haul lmao/cry. I'm gonna call newegg.com tomorrow, normally all there stuff is warrenty'd

 

[kpo6969]

It sounds like the 4GB memory issue. Is your OS 32bit or 64bit. There a numerious senerios it could be.
Your psu shouldn't be the problem, you have 64amps.

 

[mailpup]

Is there more to the RMA message? It might say non-refundable but that doesn't necessarily mean you can't return it for replacement with the exact same item. Is it eligible for replacement?

 

[MOONDOG]

yes! I misunderstood the warranty, the replacement is on the way actually (it can be replced but not refunded). I spent 2 hours on the phone with an MSI tech and the call ended with a "go ahead and return the card" so i am... guess i gotta accept that i just got a bad card. As far as the memory goes, I am running 32 bit (it was just to try another OS) but I tested with only 2 gigs and came up with the same problem. As far as MSI stands, they say the card is in normal and perfect running order and that the drivers sould be working ok. Thanks for your interest and help guys =). Hopefully when the new card comes it will fly

 

[beef_jerky4104]

My advice: Next time you buy a video card make sure it's from eVGA.

 

[mailpup]

Regarding the driver for the ultra, for what it's worth, I have a PNY 8800 Ultra and the latest XP driver I downloaded from Nvidia's website works fine with it.

 

[MOONDOG]

Ya it was a toss up between getting an eVGA, but every1 has had their' bad experiences with hardware and certain companies, and I had a bad eVGA card in the past. I have a MSI mobo, so i decided to try the graphics with them as well; this is the 1st time MSI let me down I'll let you guys know how the new one does =)

 

[mailpup]

I've also had very good experiences with MSI motherboards although I haven't tried their graphics cards yet.

 

[nickc]

u and me both mailpup.

 

[MOONDOG]

UPDATE: Got my new card, and got it all tuned in very nicely... The thing rocks. I keep max settings constantly and the thing looks beautiful. My opinion of MSI has diminished slightly though, I talked to a buddy who purchased 20+ MSI motherboards for his company and 10 of them died... kinda shocking statistic+ my 1st DOA... Dont get me wrong, the card is in perfect working order and runs great, I'm just begining to question MSI. I have no reference point to another company's 8800 ultra, but this one is amazing.

 

[MOONDOG]

Update

Theres nothing wrong with MSI... except their complete lack of cooling in this product. I found in the second card i received that if the heat gets beyond ~80 degrees Celsius it causes this problem. It seems its been the problem all along. Now that I have the fan running at a constant 100% speed and monitoring the heat (and logging the info) I've noticed that 80c + will do the whole fry your card deal =D. So if you bought one of these... instantly get a program such as "rivatuner" or a third party app that will run your fan correctly at 100% constantly. Even at 100% fan speed if i game for more than 3 hours straight on max settings (im in college, 3 hrs is nothing lmao) on a warm day the card can and will exceed 80c... in summation, grab yourself a liquid cooling kit for the sucker or monitor it VERY well.