So here's the deal:
I had an old AMD PC with a Gainward 8800GT running Windows 7 fine...albeit it slow and bloody noisily. So I finally decided to upgrade and bought the following:
Intel DP45SG motherboard
Intel E8400 CPU
Corsair DDR3 2GB x 2

Put the PC together with an old 6600 video card and everything was workng fine. Then got home and put in the 8800 and now the system completely freezes randomly after a few minutes uptime.

Replacing the 6600 makes it run fine.

The mboard has two vid card slots and if I put the 8800 in the secondary slot the crashes don't occur...but it runs at 8x not 16x and the performance seemed terrible and the sound in games had problems....so I don't think running it in the secondary slot is a solution (The Intel manual even says not to do this as it won't perform as well).

Here is what I've tried to get the 8800 to work:
Three different drivers
Reseat (many times)
Two different PSUs - Antec Earthwatts 500 and a Thermaltake Tough Power 600

Am about to try the following:
Try different higher end video card (at least 8800GT) to see if this also crashes
Completely uninstalling vid card drivers then reinstalling latest

I unfortunately don't have too much faith that these will work. Does anyone else have any ideas for troubleshooting? Or seen this sort of thing before?

Ta.

oh also the 8800 works fine in safe mode

sounds to me like power issues, ie not enough power

should a 600w good quality PSU not be enough?

if everything is working correctly, yer that should be plenty;

have you also done all your bios updates for your mobo?

yep...sorry was up till about 4.30am trying to get it going...forget all the things I tried.

Assuming the card has enough power, is it possible the new setup has made the case hotter. Overheating card?

Take the case's side off and point a fan at it -OR- if you can, use the drivers to tell the card's fan to run at 100%.

Run OCCT (overclock checking tool) to stress the card and see it's temp. If you want (recommended) run Sensors View with it to see CPU and other temps there too.

If that doesn't identify/rectify the issue, maybe you could see if your card has a new bios to flash with (had a quick look, didn't immediately see one).

I don't think it's a heat issue....problem happens even just browsing web. Touching the heatsink on video card it doesn't feel overly hot at all. Theres a big 12cm (I think) fan directly above the vid card venting the case (An Antec Silent 2 or whatever).

The card ran fine in old Win 7 system even in games.

Just tried vid card in another Win 7 PC and same problem. That PC runs fine with an 8800GTS. That PC has similar Intel chipset...but on an Asus board...not sure exactly which one but it is either G31,G33 or P35. It has an E6300 CPU. My new PC is a P45 on an Intel board with an E8400 CPU.

Put my 8800 back in an old WinXP system it used to be in and works fine...even running games. So evidently not a problem with the card.

Could it be a combination of the Intel chipsets not working with this particular model of 8800 under Win7?

I have to manually kickstart the fan on my 8800gt everytime I turn the computer on otherwise it s***s the bed once things get hot. Pretty awesome.
carry on

card might not be compatible with the mobo.

it happens :(

Flash the bios ???

not sure exactly which one but it is either G31,G33 or P35.

I'm pretty sure all the G?? chipsets have integrated graphics and one PCI-E x16 slot, P?? just have one PCI-E x16 slot, and X?? have two PCI-E x16 slots.

Um, have you tried uninstalling the driver and reinstalling the driver? Its probably unlikely but you know maybe its trying to use the 6600 set on the 9800?

ring Ed

card might not be compatible with the mobo.

- but tried in two different mobos - Intel (mine) and Asus my (brothers)...with two different Intel chipsets.

Flash the bios ???

Yep updated my Intel mobo BIOS. Cannot see an update for video card.

I'm pretty sure all the G?? chipsets have integrated graphics and one PCI-E x16 slot, P?? just have one PCI-E x16 slot, and X?? have two PCI-E x16 slots.

Was just trying to point out that my brother's Asus board has a different Intel chipset to mine which is a P45...and has...get this...two PCI-E 16x slots...but only way to get 16x is using the primary slot by itself. With a card in secondary slot or one in both it goes back to 8x.....

Um, have you tried uninstalling the driver and reinstalling the driver? Its probably unlikely but you know maybe its trying to use the 6600 set on the 9800?

Yep used the Win7 uninstall driver thingo (i.e in device manager tell it to uninstall device and remove driver) then reinstalled. Is there a better way to do it?

Thanks for everyone's suggestions so far.

Hahah koopz, couldn't stop laughing. Well made clip, that.

On to the OP, sounds like a real nightmare mate. Did you look into motherboard vs. 8800 compatibility? As mentioned above, unfortunately some vid cards don't work in some mobos - even in this day and age where you would just expect it to.

Honestly, from my quick Google, really bad choice of mobo. Read this:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1348503/intel_motherboard_dp45sg_review_problems.html?cat=15

Did you look into motherboard vs. 8800 compatibility? As mentioned above, unfortunately some vid cards don't work in some mobos - even in this day and age where you would just expect it to.

Honestly, from my quick Google, really bad choice of mobo. Read this

Yeah unfortunately gone are the days that I have the patience to spend hours reviewing every part of a new PC to find the perfect combo....I just go to Umart and look for the name brand parts with the highest numbers in the spec section and the lowest number in the price section.

Appears that it is not to do with the motherboard though as the exact same problem occurs in a completely different Asus motherboard.