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4870 1GB causing loss of signal on computer (need help!)

hughythomas

hughythomas

hughythomas

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Joined
11 Oct 2006
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1,404
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Reigate
Hi guys!

I bought a 1GB Asus 4870 last week off some dude on a certain auction site and am having problems with the card losing signal randomly (be it in a game or simply watching youtube) every so often. I bought the card as an upgrade from a 4850 512MB and NOTHING ELSE IN THE SYSTEM HAS CHANGED. Also, I should stress that it can't be heat as today on a fresh boot within 5 mins of starting the system and trying to watch some youtube, it reared its ugly head, but the things is, I can play games for hours and its FINE - just every 2 or 3 days this happens :(

The annoying thing is once it loses signal I have to hard turn off the computer only for it not to boot again. When I turn it on aftre this has happened, sometimes the gfx card fan does not even switch on OR the fan will spin up, spin down, spin up, spin down etc in a constant loop without ever getting past POST.

In order to fix this, I have to physically reseat the card (and the 2x 6pin from the PSU) AND reset CMOS. It seems that reseating seems to fix it whereas the other 2 methods here do not but I know a combo of the 3 def does. I havent had enough gos at this to determine which one of the 3 does the trick (or if it is indeed a combination of all 3!).

Anyhow here are the specs:

Silverstone Sugo SG01
Silverstone 500W Element ST50EF-PLUS (might this be the problem?)
ASUS P5KVM Micro-ATX Mobo
Intel Core2Duo Wolfdale E7400 @ 3.7 (10x370, 1.325v) Silverstone NT-06 Lite cooler
4GB OCZ Reaper 8500 DDR2 RAM @ 986?mhz
ASUS EAH4870 1GB @ stock
DVD Drive
Some Seagate HD (cant remember)

Any help here guys would be MOST appreciated - let me stress that the 4850 before it had NO issues in this rig. So my thoughts are that either a) its a faulty 4870 or b) the PSU isn't beefy enough for it.

Tom
 
I always had this problem with ATI cards with the screen going blank like it was changing res I never had to resort to rebooting though, could it be the card shutting down to prevent damage, heat maybe?
 
Thats what I'm saying man dont think it's heat cos it did it within 5 mins of a cold boot just looking at youtube.

Also, I've been playing company of heroes for HOURS with no issues. It just decides to do it randomly sometimes. Every 2-3 days.

Tom
 
Hey hughythomas,

these elusive niggles are a right pain as it takes days for you to see if the problem is fixed or not betwen adjustments!

If your system was working A1-tip-top before you swapped out graphic cards it does point to one of these . . .

  • The HD4870 maybe faulty?
  • The HD4870 maybe overheating?
  • The Motherboards Northbridge is overheating?
  • The PSU may be faulty or strugging?

In your situation I think the next move should be to swap-out graphics cards if you still have your original HD4850? (maybe u sold it already) as that may help isolate the problem, I'd also install the auction-HD4870 in another machine but that may not be possible as a lot of folks have just the one PC or perhaps don't have a friend willing to install the card for testing! :(

If you don't have the old card and no access to a 2nd machine then your options are limited, I would take the case cover off and open windows, add fans etc to do anything to drive down the system temps for trouble-shooting purposes, it may seem unlikely that this is a heat issue but you can't rule it out until you have tested again with an ultra-cooled rig. :)

Apart from that I would maybe consider a reset of the system to see if the problem persists when running everything at stock, yes I know you mentioned that everything worked great with the previous card and same settings but again its just a matter of slowly removing suspects from the lineup until you solve the crime! :p

Last thought have you done a proper driver uninstall, clean and fresh installation of the latest cats? . . . It's not that likely this is a driver issue but in the pursuit of thorough trouble-shooting you have to take it step by step, keep a cool head and remain patient! :cool:
 
Big.Wayne said:
Hey hughythomas,

these elusive niggles are a right pain as it takes days for you to see if the problem is fixed or not betwen adjustments!

If your system was working A1-tip-top before you swapped out graphic cards it does point to one of these . . .

  • The HD4870 maybe faulty?
  • The HD4870 maybe overheating?
  • The Motherboards Northbridge is overheating?
  • The PSU may be faulty or strugging?

In your situation I think the next move should be to swap-out graphics cards if you still have your original HD4850? (maybe u sold it already) as that may help isolate the problem, I'd also install the auction-HD4870 in another machine but that may not be possible as a lot of folks have just the one PC or perhaps don't have a friend willing to install the card for testing! :(

If you don't have the old card and no access to a 2nd machine then your options are limited, I would take the case cover off and open windows, add fans etc to do anything to drive down the system temps for trouble-shooting purposes, it may seem unlikely that this is a heat issue but you can't rule it out until you have tested again with an ultra-cooled rig. :)

Apart from that I would maybe consider a reset of the system to see if the problem persists when running everything at stock, yes I know you mentioned that everything worked great with the previous card and same settings but again its just a matter of slowly removing suspects from the lineup until you solve the crime! :p

Last thought have you done a proper driver uninstall, clean and fresh installation of the latest cats? . . . It's not that likely this is a driver issue but in the pursuit of thorough trouble-shooting you have to take it step by step, keep a cool head and remain patient! :cool:
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks for the post mate that was really informative.

Luckily enough, my ma has a computer with similiar specs (albeit luckily with a beefier PSU) so I will pop this 4870 into hers and nab her 4850 for the time being! No doubt I'll be public enemy no. 1 for a week or 2 ;)

Does anyone know what options I have availible to me if:

1. The card is faulty
2. The 500W in my Sugo isn't powerful enough

Obviously I bought the silverstone PSU designed specifically for this case. Are there other PSUs with 'short' editions? It's already a bit of a mess inside there...
 
Hey no problem! :)

Although the Silverstone PSU *may* be struggling if I was a betting man I would put higher odds on the system having a heat issue or maybe a problem with the auction-HD4870. It's a pity you don't have (or have access to) a PSU tester as that would speed up the trouble-shooting process!

How old is the PSU?

Any chance you can post some pictures of your machine and how its set-up, I am imagining a small *OVEN* situation going on! :D
 
Last edited:
Sorry the only reason I did was cos I kept forgetting what you had written haha! if I quoted it I could at least see your points and reply in order ;)

A PSU tester you say? What is this? So I can test the ampage on each rail or summit? Make sure the gfx card is getting the right amount?

The thing is, my PSU has two dedicated 6 pins so one can only assume they designed the thing with gfx future proofing in mind. I have sent the seller an email just asking him to be as honest as possible with any issues he might have had which were similiar. I can only hope he will be up front aboot anything!
 
A PSU tester is a handy thing but as it costs £10-£15 pound not a lot of people buy them, it's similar to a Multi-Meter but easier to use, you just plug in the ATX Cables and PCI-E cables and switch the PSU on from the back, if there is a fault the PSU Tester will beep and flash and make it obvious, if the problem is really bad the PSU tester won't actually switch on.

This same task can be achieved with a Multimeter but I personally don't know how to use one, if you do then great and if not a PSU tester is the Layman option.

You have a few options now so hopefully a fix arrives soon, I've bought and sold countless used hardware and never had any faults so try not to zoom in on the problem being an unscrouplous seller flogging you a duff card!

I think it's an overheating problem, or PSU flagging, or perhaps something to do with your system being overclocked?

Have you tested using the system at stock?
 
First stop would be to see how hot the GPU is getting, sounds like it's getting to hot and just crapping out. Something like GPUZ or rivtuner etc will log its temp whilst you're gaming :)

I would also be amazed if the PSU wasn't up to it, what are the amps on the 12v rails?
 
Cool I appreciate the comments aboot heat but remember today it died within 5 mins of turning the computer on from a fresh boot (ie. I had not used it since last night).

A PSU tester sounds handy.

The card loads at 70c and idles at 42c. Within normal temps I would imagine for this series?

I have reduced my overclock to 3.7 now (it was 3.8 before) so I'll just wait patiently for it to happen again I guess haha!

Tom
 
Well those temps are good, so that would rule that out. Your PSU has 36a on the 12v rails which is plenty :(

Looks like it's time to test it in a different PC.
 
Arg. I hope it aint a faulty card! I'll stick it in my mums for a couple of days and see what happens. Cheers for the advice guys I'll find this thread as soon as I see some sort of result (be it good or bad!).
 
Just an update...

Got back from the gym and turned my sugo on only for it to be problematic again. No screen output and the fan on the gfx card would not spin, then it would spin on, spin off, spin on etc in an endless cycle.

Anyhow, I put the 4870 in my mums and it seems fine and booted straight off. I am now using her 4850 and have downclocked my cpu to 3.6.

The only prob is this 4850 idles at 56c lol!!! The cooler isnt nearly as good as on the ASUS.

What ya guys reckon? Assuming me mams computer is ok could my sugo just be oced to hard?

Tom
 
What mobo is running in your sugo, if it has another PCIe x8/16 then try the card in there. But defiantly try running system 100% stock and see what happens.

Suppose that's good news, not a broken card :)
 
See OP for Sugo spec bro!

It's an Asus P5KVM iirc. Obviously a mirco-ATX board. Probably not meant for serious overclocking. I think I'll leave the 4870 in me mam's for a couple of days before popping it back into me sugo just to make sure it works fine.

Also, the seller contacted me and claims that it was 100% working (along with another 4870 in Crossfire) in his rig. He has an ASUS P5K-E.

So, presumably its the overclock.

One other thing which I noticed which may support this assumption is that tonight when I booted my sugo up for the first time with mum's 4850 my overclock had reset to normal with a message saying "Overclock failed - Please hit F1 to run Setup". Bear in mind that all I did was exchange the cards, I DID NOT touch the CMOS...

Most likely everything is overheating in that 'oven' of mine!
 
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