8800gts 320mb consistantly crashing

[ideophobia]

I recently made the hasty decision to buy the XFX 8800gts 320mb XXX edition. After using it for two days i have seen every game i play crash at random points, either prior to loading, during splash screens, or in mid-gameplay. the games include Supreme Commander, GRAW, COD2, FEAR, and Enemy territory. and yes i download the latest drivers from the nvidia website.

I figured maybe the games weren't all too compatible with the new structure of the 8800's so i went through and patched all my games to as new as i could find. This seemingly alleviated the problem, but it came back a few hours later. Also in dxdiag, my direct3d test failed.

This was supposed to be a hefty upgrade from my 7600gt KO, but its turning into a nightmare. I've had more crashes in 2 days then i've had since i built my rig 2 months ago. If i cant fix this i'm gonna have to send it back. The dissapointment alone will be enough to send me back to the ATI fanboi club.

specs:
e6600
p5n-e sli mobo
A-Data 2gb @ 6400
Hiper HPU modular type R 580W
xfx 8800gts 320mb XXX
seagate 120


help me.

[FLG]

Its possible its the PSU (though i believe Hiper is on the OK list), but lets narrow it down first. Remove the drivers and software and run Driver Cleaner Pro

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745

Make sure you follow the directions.

Edit: Also, how are your temps?

[Brown Hornet]

try updating the driver's for your sound card. i had game's crash until i updated the driver's for my sound card.

[ideophobia]

I ran driver cleaner pro and checked multiple times that the most up to drivers are installed (97.92). I havent had much of a chance to test it, but GRAW worked fine, but ET crashed 10 seconds into the game. Temps are around 65C idle 75-80 on load. checked sound card drivers and they're up to date. Some of the errors have specifically stated "directx error" "display driver error" and so on, so the best i can figure is it has to do with the drivers, but i don't know how to get around it. i may just have to RMA.

[glc]

It could be a motherboard driver/chipset issue - the Nvidia boards for Intel processors aren't exactly very stable or bug free.