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6800 Ultra rebooting issue

post #1 of 8
9/20/07 at 2:07pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, I've searched high and low and maybe I'm searching for the wrong information but here goes.

I've got an XPS Gen 2 laptop with a 6800 Ultra. Current driver is the XG 163.67 Forceware, 32-Bit XP. Clock speed is 450/1064. I have RivaTuner, nVTweak, and nVTray running. Most of which were installed last night and today for troubleshooting. Old clock speed for a long time was 475/1200, but I lowered it to attempt to keep the temp lower.

The problem is that the card when pushed would run up to 85-88C or sometimes higher without much of a hitch. The reboot threshold seemed to be about 95-96C according to I8KFanGUI. This was consistent since I got the laptop back when they weren't obsolete... As of yesterday, my laptop started rebooting around 75C. Definitely not a good thing for anyone that plays any kind of game, ever, with this card.

I seem to remember there being something, somewhere that would allow me to check and/or change the reboot threshold temperature, but I can't seem to find it now. Is there someone that either knows how to do that or may know why my video card suddenly started acting funny?

On a side note, I've already torn my laptop up to clean it out and it sits on a Cooler Master Notepad. Still, that wouldn't explain why it's suddenly rebooting nearly 20C before it should even be throttling down.

Thanks in advance, and I apologize if there is information on this and I just haven't found it.
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post #2 of 8
9/20/07 at 3:12pm
That has been a known error on the 6800ultra, but none good fixes has been found, the error that is well known is the white out of the screen then rebooting, and if it is so, you probably got a faulty card.
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post #3 of 8
9/20/07 at 4:03pm
Thread Starter 
Yea, I'm aware of that issue. This isn't however indicative of the symptoms involved in the white out reboot. I had that one too and managed to get a second card from Dell to fix it. Either way, I wasted the cash on a 7800 GTX off eBay today rather than play games with Dell. They wanted $390 for a 6800U and $590 for a 7800GTX. I got the 7800GTX for $320 including shipping off eBay. Let's just hope it works.
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post #4 of 8
9/20/07 at 4:36pm
You would have to change the temperature threshold in the video card bios as far as I know. I wouldn't recommend it though but if you must then by all means. Also, you can check the GPU control panel and there's a log that is generated that specifies the gpu's bitching almost every time there's an error.
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post #5 of 8
9/20/07 at 4:57pm
Yeah, that can be changed in Nibitor - but its not a setting I would ever recommend messing with. The cards BIOS won't change that value automatically, so if it's rebooting at a lower than threshold temperature - its likely to be due to faulty memory or even a faulty core... Try running AtiTool and scan for artifacts to see how long it lasts before rebooting. See if artifacts spring up well before the threshold temp... if this is the case, your card is likely damaged.
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post #6 of 8
9/20/07 at 5:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ligeia View Post
Yea, I'm aware of that issue. This isn't however indicative of the symptoms involved in the white out reboot. I had that one too and managed to get a second card from Dell to fix it. Either way, I wasted the cash on a 7800 GTX off eBay today rather than play games with Dell. They wanted $390 for a 6800U and $590 for a 7800GTX. I got the 7800GTX for $320 including shipping off eBay. Let's just hope it works.

I had a lot of problems with the 6800 ultra. The only thing that fixed it was to upgrade to the 7800GTX. You should be all set when you get that installed.
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post #7 of 8
9/20/07 at 5:21pm
My 6800 Ultra would cause a reboot when gaming as well. I believe it to have been caused by high overclocks. When I return the clock speeds to default, I've never had it reboot once. But you say you're not overclocked?
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post #8 of 8
9/20/07 at 5:36pm
It happened 2 or 3 times to me on stock clocks but it never happened with any of my newer cards even with rather exorbitant clocks.
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