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Graphic card problems .

anthony566 said:
could be PSU but have you loaded latest BIOS update for you M/B ?
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I have'nt done that , would need pointing in the right direction if thats okay .

Got the comp back and this is what they said " It's world of warcraft , read on the forums that people are having trouble with freezing since the 5.2 patch ." ?

Yeah maybe lots of lag and freezing but not my specific problem .

Anyway , loaded up Diablo 3 to try a different game , 2 mins later freeze/blackscreen , 20 mins later same again , alt tabbed out and my desktop was full of nice blue /green squares .

I'm lost guys , seriously fed up with the backwards and forwards to the shop .

If you could help out with the bios I'll try that , cheers .

I found this page but pretty much lost after that http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/download-center.aspx?ck=2 is mine rev 1.0 or rev 2.0 looking at the msinfo it says BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. F5, 11/03/2010
Then underneath it says SMBIOS Version 2.4
 
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Install a program called CPU Z - that should tell you what your BIOS version is and what motherboard revision you have. If it doesn't tell you what version your motherboard is you'll have to take the side of the case and physically check the motherboard, because it should say somewhere on it. It can be hard to see though so check every inch of the board.

Then go back to the Gigabyte website and select whichever motherboard revision you have and look for 'support and downloads'. Underneath it will say 'download type', so you'll want to select 'BIOS' from the drop-down menu.

The top BIOS will be the latest, and if a newer BIOS needs to be flashed you'll also want to download the program that will actually update the BIOS, which is called @BIOS. Unless someone knows of a better program of course. Basically, with the new BIOS downloaded to your machine, you browse to its location from within @BIOS and then the update will be applied from within Windows.

Be careful though because updating the BIOS always has an element of risk - especially if your rig ends up blue screening during the update process.

With regards to the spanners in the PC shop: did they even bother testing your power supply? Go into the BIOS and look for the stated voltage levels for 3.3v, 5v and 12v - let us know what they are.
 
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Hey folks , just an update to what is going on .

The PC has been to another shop , one highly recommended . They did every test on every piece over 5 days , they even flashed the bios .

I get an apology because they could'nt find a thing wrong , nor actually get the errors I was getting .

Got the PC home started gaming and within 20 mins freeze / blackscreen , so just the same .

Today within 10 minutes , four freeze / blackscreen and 2 freeze / blackscreen /BSOD . Yesterday I had a few blackscreens , so it's different on a day to day basis , tried out borderlands 2 after reinstalling steam today and within 5 minutes freeze / blackscreen .

I just don't know what to do . The guy even told me to check my broadband because that's the only thing different . I've never known that sort of issue though , usually you get lag etc but not BSOD's .

Yeah I asked about the power supply and they say it was checked . Mind you the second shop rang me to say while checking the RAM did I know it was 18 gb and the board would only run 6 . No I did'nt , so when OC built the machine they must have accidentally put in 3 x 6 gb ram sticks . First shop did'nt pick up on that .

I'm lost atm , why does this only happen gaming and why cant the fault be found , grrr .
 
Are you still running the 5850? and if so have you checked it's nice and clean (accumulated muck and dust can cause issues) - if it needs a clean, take it out and give it a good blow out with a can of compressed air. + check the gpu fan(s) is/are working.

Check to see which gpu drivers you are using (GPU-z) and double check that you haven't got anything there that should not be there e.g nvidia drivers
 
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Yeah I read the motherboard and got " 6 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 24 GB of system memory" so maybe the guy in the shop was wrong , dont understand that . Only three sockets are being used .

The graphics card is clean , its been in and out so many times int he shops , it looks new :)

Its had 2 fresh windows install , last one the ati drivers alone went on so there wont be any others .

Cheers .
 
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Do you think I should put this in another section , I don't know where to turn now , this Atikmpag.sys has been going for a few years according to google , I've trawled through hundreds of posts and came up blank , there are so many different thoughts and ideas about it .

I was so fed up not being able to game that yesterday I tried out minecraft .....freeze / blackscreen , absolutely ridiculous now . Just put wow on , hearthed / rode for 30 seconds , dismounted , freeze / blackscreen , that was within a minute or two :/
 
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I appreciate that you have been trying to find the fault and what one would look at has already been tested and the hated (for me anyway)/last resort of fresh install of windows did not provide the solution.

Imo the likely order of fault remains:-

Gpu (core or ram) - but swapped and the new one developed the same issue so ....

Ram - but this has allegedly been tested with no errors showing and if correct then it's not this.

PSu - but see above ref Ram.

Motherboard.

BUT before suggesting a very expensive and possibly unnecessary change do you happen to know if the new gpu card they tried was Amd or nvidia - might be worth giving it a go with a nvidia card instead of amd just in case it's some type of weird driver issue which could be resolved by swapping driver and card.

I am not a technical expert so cannot rationalise why it might work but if you could borrow a nvidia card from a mate , clean off the amd drivers , install etc you might be lucky :)
 
I'd also suggest trying an nvidia card after completely cleanly uninstalling anything amd related in your system. Sell the amd card if this fixes things or sell the nvidia card if the problem remains. Either way you will eliminate GPU issues.

How did they test your ram? Memtest86?

PSU - could be.

Motherboard - could be but unlikely.

This sort of thing happened to me once before and I got so fed up of replacing things, I just ended up building a new system in the end.
 
Nodders said:
Hey folks , just an update to what is going on .

The PC has been to another shop , one highly recommended . They did every test on every piece over 5 days , they even flashed the bios .

I get an apology because they could'nt find a thing wrong , nor actually get the errors I was getting .

Got the PC home started gaming and within 20 mins freeze / blackscreen , so just the same .

Today within 10 minutes , four freeze / blackscreen and 2 freeze / blackscreen /BSOD . Yesterday I had a few blackscreens , so it's different on a day to day basis , tried out borderlands 2 after reinstalling steam today and within 5 minutes freeze / blackscreen .

I just don't know what to do . The guy even told me to check my broadband because that's the only thing different . I've never known that sort of issue though , usually you get lag etc but not BSOD's .

Yeah I asked about the power supply and they say it was checked . Mind you the second shop rang me to say while checking the RAM did I know it was 18 gb and the board would only run 6 . No I did'nt , so when OC built the machine they must have accidentally put in 3 x 6 gb ram sticks . First shop did'nt pick up on that .

I'm lost atm , why does this only happen gaming and why cant the fault be found , grrr .
Click to expand...

So these guys were basically testing your machine for 5 days and they couldn't replicate any of your problems? As soon as you brought it home it started malfunctioning? Did they try any games? If it works fine at the shop but causes problems in your house could it be a coincidence? Could there be a fault with the electric socket you plug your computer in or the electric wiring of your house by any chance? It might be a bit silly but have you tried the computer in a different environment yourself?
 
can you list your pc components? if you know them

if its locking up like your saying its usually memory or graphic card memory related,im not ruling out psu either but more likely a memory issue

you can also test the gpu by downclocking the memory in ccc by 200mhz and then test to see if its stable or still the same
 
Puppetmaster said:
Where abouts are you located in the country?
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I'm in the North East , Jarrow .

AgedIdiot said:
I appreciate that you have been trying to find the fault and what one would look at has already been tested and the hated (for me anyway)/last resort of fresh install of windows did not provide the solution.

Imo the likely order of fault remains:-

Gpu (core or ram) - but swapped and the new one developed the same issue so ....

Ram - but this has allegedly been tested with no errors showing and if correct then it's not this.

PSu - but see above ref Ram.

Motherboard.

BUT before suggesting a very expensive and possibly unnecessary change do you happen to know if the new gpu card they tried was Amd or nvidia - might be worth giving it a go with a nvidia card instead of amd just in case it's some type of weird driver issue which could be resolved by swapping driver and card.

I am not a technical expert so cannot rationalise why it might work but if you could borrow a nvidia card from a mate , clean off the amd drivers , install etc you might be lucky :)
Click to expand...

The first shop were trying Nvidia .

alex_123_fra said:
I'd also suggest trying an nvidia card after completely cleanly uninstalling anything amd related in your system. Sell the amd card if this fixes things or sell the nvidia card if the problem remains. Either way you will eliminate GPU issues.

How did they test your ram? Memtest86?

PSU - could be.

Motherboard - could be but unlikely.

This sort of thing happened to me once before and I got so fed up of replacing things, I just ended up building a new system in the end.
Click to expand...

Yeah in the first shop it was an Nvidia card , but said after replacing it they started up on a fresh windows install and the pc just bluescreened so put my old card back in .

The second shop basically said don't throw any cash at it and buy a brand new PC but that's out of the question , I just don't have that sort of cash handy .

They also said the only difference between shop 1 , shop 2 and my place is different broadband , maybe it's that , but I can't see broadband freezing / blackscreening while gaming ?

Cheers

I cant multi quote all replies so @ Reaper123 yeah they tried out my games and could not replicate my problems , if it was the electrics surely it would affect the PC while I was surfing / youtube / watching movies etc but it has never shown any problem at all .

@ wazza300 processor is i7 930 @ 2.8Ghz / 6GB ram / 650 watt corsair PSU / Radeon 5850 graphics card . Motherboard is http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3449#sp .

In ccc the high performance GPU clock settings is 850 Mhz and the high performance memory clock settings is 1200 Mhz , it's the second one I should change yeah ?

Okay , knocked it down by 200mhz , went on wow and froze / blackscreened while on a flightpath .
Cheers
 
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you need to see howmuch qpi/vtt voltage your using in the bios

if its on auto it nearly always uses too little,id set to 1.315v and retset with gaming
 
wazza300 said:
you need to see howmuch qpi/vtt voltage your using in the bios

if its on auto it nearly always uses too little,id set to 1.315v and retset with gaming
Click to expand...

I'll see if I can do that , is that exactly what its called when I peer in there ?

arc@css said:
I think your card has seen better days.
Click to expand...

It certainly has but tests in the shop showed there was nothing wrong with it .

I'm going to have to a) bite the bullet and buy an nvidia card . or b) put up posters offering a reward for a fix ..

@Wazza just taken a look and it is on auto qpi/vtt 1.175v , I will change that , why would that help , have to ask because it must have been on auto the past few years with no probs .

Cheers .
 
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yeah qpi/vtt and its in the m.i.t section

it will do exactly wht your describing if qpi/vtt is too low,i ran my 920 at that for 3 years just fine
 
Okey doke , tried it last night and played for an hour , now on rare occasions I can go for that , so fingers crossed me trying today .

Played today and at 45 minutes I got the screen freeze / blackscreen , this happened a few more times while playing , so back to the drawing board .

Thanks for the suggestion though :)
 
Nodders said:
Okey doke , tried it last night and played for an hour , now on rare occasions I can go for that , so fingers crossed me trying today .

Played today and at 45 minutes I got the screen freeze / blackscreen , this happened a few more times while playing
Click to expand...

Harsh :eek:

Solution - beyond my knowledge I am afraid :( ; Good Luck:)
 
So this seems the impossible fix , I'm going to bite the bullet and buy a graphics card , fingers crossed thats all it is . I am going back to Nvidia , so couple of questions please .

I need to remove the ati drivers and ccc , which order ?

Any ideas on which card to go for , been running ati for the last 3 years so no ideas on Nvidia .

I want an upgrade at least from my hd 5850 and have at most £150 .

Thanks a lot guys for all previous help , much appreciated :)
 
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