Games freeze w/ EP45-DS3R and nVidia 9800 gtx+

[smacmanus3]

Hey all, new to the forum. Just got a new system (specs below). Love the 9800 gtx+, but some of the newer (and some not so new) games freeze up and I get the "driver not responding error." Have used drive sweeper, reinstalled driver, etc. with no luck. For example, Brothers in Arms 2 runs fine, the original FEAR runs fine, but COD 2, Company of Heroes, Civilization IV: Colonization, et al. are freezing up after about 30 secs or so. Sometimes I get the "driver not responding" error and sometimes not. Any ideas? Do not believe it is a temp issue (card not above 55C during games). Everything not game-related runs fine. I am running Windows XP SP3, with everything running at stock (no overclocking). I updated all drivers and flashed BIOS to F10. Thanks.

BFG TECH, BFGR800WPSU 800W Power Supply, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Quad +12V, Retail GIGABYTE, GA-EP45-DS3R, LGA775, Intel® P45 Motherboard Core™ 2 Duo E8400 Dual-Core, 3.0GHz ARCTIC COOLING, Freezer 7 Pro Quiet CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink, Socket 775, Ceramic Bearing, Retail CORSAIR, 2GB (2 x 1GB) XMS2 Xtreme PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz CL4 (4-4-4-12) 2.1V SDRAM 240-pin DIMM, Non-ECC, w/ Heat Spreader eVGA, e-GeForce® 9800 GTX+ 738MHz, 512MB GDDR3 2200MHzl

[gameguru1360]

are you running xp or vista??

[Lsdmeasap]

You may just need more ram for those games? I don't game so I could not say for sure.

What I would do though for sure is manually set the specified voltage for your ram, you may not need 2.1 but then again Auto may not give you enough

Have you ran memtest86+ on your ram? If not please do, and you will need the latest version 2.01 for your board >>>
Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Hey, You do have the latest chipset drivers installed right? Just have to ask because some users do not install them

[smacmanus3]

Thanks for the advice. Have not run memtest yet. Don't have any experience with overclocking/manual adjustments and can't afford to screw anything up. But, will run memtest. I have installed the latest chipset drivers. Thanks.

[Lsdmeasap]

Let us know how you get along for sure

[smacmanus3]

Ran memtest. Everything fine. Still have games locking up or going into sound loops and freezing. Have tried numerous drivers from 175 up to 178.13. Can run FEAR, COD 2, and BOA (1 and 2), but cannot run World in Conflict, Comp. of Heroes, Medieval TW 2, or Civ IV: Colonization. Running out of patience. Any further suggestions?

[markourn]

Ran memtest. Everything fine. Still have games locking up or going into sound loops and freezing. Have tried numerous drivers from 175 up to 178.13. Can run FEAR, COD 2, and BOA (1 and 2), but cannot run World in Conflict, Comp. of Heroes, Medieval TW 2, or Civ IV: Colonization. Running out of patience. Any further suggestions?

join the club

[Lsdmeasap]

Ya, since you ram test out fine I think this is a Driver only issue. Have you made some threads on the nvidia forums? Have you added ICH Voltages?

[smacmanus3]

Everything seemed to be going well, except for MTW II, but then today we started crashing again. Ouch. Must be a driver issue. I am going to take a look at RAM voltages, but am not real confident tinkering with that. Anywhere I can find an easy-to-understand guide for that? Also, just ordered 2 more GB of RAM (even though XP will only recognize up to ~3gb). Maybe that will help.

[Lsdmeasap]

So it is just that one game then? If so it is likely just a driver issue, that is often why GFX drivers get updates so frequently to fix issues with certain games. So you may just have to one let nvidia kow of the issues with this game, and two wait for their fix for it to be added to a future driver.

Ram voltage is simple, you set it to what you see on the stick which is the warrantied voltage. Then you simply lower it and test until it fails, then raise it back up a bit. So you would set 2.1V, then maybe try 2.0 to see if it is ok. 1.9 may work, but may not

Memory guide I wrote up is here, incase you had not noticed it, mostly timing info >>>
http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/memo...vs-bios-27283/

Not much said about voltages except with 4GB of ram, but the overclock guide has some notes about memory voltage >>
http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/giga...g-guide-26112/