Think my card just karked it.

[PaoloUK]

Had a 4850 for almost 2 years now and it was running on 9.11 for ages. The other day I decided to try 10.3 and it installed fine but then kept hanging, managed to remove 10.3 and move to 10.2, same problem with the hanging so I just did a system restore to back when I had 9.11.

It's been fine since, till today. I restarted my system after installing something else and since it just keeps hanging and there's nothing I can do, I go to download another driver, like 10.1 and I just about open firefox before it hangs.

Is there anything I can do or is it the end of the line for it?

 

[alex24]

Why do you think it's the card?

I'd try testing with another gfx if you have one. Also try some sort of driver cleaner if you can. Can you work in safe mode OK?

 

[PaoloUK]

I think it's the card cause the screen gets the horizontal lines of colour that I've always been led to believe is GFX related, if the screen just froze as it was I wouldn't be so sure but as it is, it's like any other GFX problem I've had in the past.

I don't have another GFX card to hand to test with, I'll have to try safe mode, would have to download any driver cleaner on my laptop and put it on a memory stick.

 

[matthab]

Safe mode?

 

[alex24]

I think it's the card cause the screen gets the horizontal lines of colour that I've always been led to believe is GFX related, if the screen just froze as it was I wouldn't be so sure but as it is, it's like any other GFX problem I've had in the past.

I don't have another GFX card to hand to test with, I'll have to try safe mode, would have to download any driver cleaner on my laptop and put it on a memory stick.

Ah, an important piece of information you neglected to include in the first post! That certainly changes things. If you're seeing artifacts/screen corruption, then you almost certainly have a gfx problem. Contact the manufacturer if in warranty, otherwise I would recommend reseating the card and applying some fresh thermal paste, along with new thermal pads for the memory contact on the heatsink, which may solve any overheating issues if present. Give the thing a good clean too. If that doesn't solve the problem it's most likely too far gone, and you'll get some money back on auction sites for it. People love to buy up this sort of stuff thinking they can fix it.

You could try a reflow method, though they are more often than not a temporary fix. Such methods include baking the PCB in the oven!

 

[PaoloUK]

Aye, my bad.

It's definitely not overheating as I got enough time to bring that info up and it was still normal temps and I cleaned it out last week when the other other drivers had problems, so thats them 2 out. I'll give reseating it a try now and see if that helps.

It's typical timing too, I was looking at a new PC set up or switching to a Mac Pro but was waiting on them getting their next update as it's due. Now I'm up that certain creek with a hole in my boat!

 

[kylew]

My Powercolor 4850s appear to be failing, I keep getting crashing, crossfire doesn't seem to work properly and I've had various artifacting that point to it being the GPU on one and the RAM on the other.

I'm gonna have to get in touch with OCUK tomorrow.

 

[EnderXi]

are you sure its not the old grey screen issue, i have seen others with older cards posting that they had this, whichever it is you need to RMA the card, i sent mine back for RMA and the new one is perfect no errors at all.

 

[Orcvader]

You could try test the card in another system, but from what you described it really does seem like the GPU is dying.

 

[blister]

one of mine did something similar a while back , you said you installed something else ?

 

[PaoloUK]

Only a new version of Sony Vegas.

I'm going to give starting in safe mode a go, see if I cant run a driver cleaner and then install 10.1.

Anyone got a cleaner they recommend?

 

[PaoloUK]

Fixed.

Removed the driver, then used the cleaner and installed 10.3 and no crashes yet. Not tried a game yet but think it'll be OK.