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Have a HD9670 and sparkles all over.

RimBlock

RimBlock

RimBlock

Associate
Joined
10 Nov 2004
Posts
2,237
Location
Expat in Singapore
Hi,

I have just bought a second user 3 month old HD9670 and on plugging it in am seeing sparkles all over the screen on the desktop and in games. When first turned on it is very bad but after a reboot it becomes a few sparkles here and there always popping up and changing position. Again this is evident in games and desktop.

I am running at 1920x1200 and see the effect, moving down to 1920x1080 has a obvious instance of sparkles and moving one res lower (forget the actual res) the sparkles seem to disappear totally.

I have changed my PSU (coolermaster 550) to a coolermaster 750 as the 550 was the min spec and my PSU has been used for a while so may be a bit below par. No effect.

The only other thing I can think of is that my board is a MSI P41-C31 775 board with a PCIe gen 1 slot. Is this possibly causing an issue ?. I had no issues on this board with my GTX260 which this card is replacing.

Any other things to try before trying to RMA the card and hunting the seller down for a bit of a chat.

Thanks
RB
 
RimBlock said:
Hi,

I have just bought a second user 3 month old HD9670 and on plugging it in am seeing sparkles all over the screen on the desktop and in games. When first turned on it is very bad but after a reboot it becomes a few sparkles here and there always popping up and changing position. Again this is evident in games and desktop.

I am running at 1920x1200 and see the effect, moving down to 1920x1080 has a obvious instance of sparkles and moving one res lower (forget the actual res) the sparkles seem to disappear totally.

I have changed my PSU (coolermaster 550) to a coolermaster 750 as the 550 was the min spec and my PSU has been used for a while so may be a bit below par. No effect.

The only other thing I can think of is that my board is a MSI P41-C31 775 board with a PCIe gen 1 slot. Is this possibly causing an issue ?. I had no issues on this board with my GTX260 which this card is replacing.

Any other things to try before trying to RMA the card and hunting the seller down for a bit of a chat.

Thanks
RB
Click to expand...

Do you mean a 6970 mate
 
Have you tried benching the card with 3D Mark or Furmark? Does it hold up or crash?

Sounds like an RMA job unfortunately, possibly faulty memory.
 
RimBlock said:
:) yeah thats the one. Even have the box sitting on the desk next to me and still got it wrong :( :).
Click to expand...

LOL no worries just wanted to check , have you checked the temperature of the card using the CCC

also make sure the card is at stock clocks and not stuck in some sort of overclocked state.

i have seen this happen before when people have switched from nvidia to amd did you just replace the card and drivers or did you re-install windows.
 
Salsa said:
Have you tried benching the card with 3D Mark or Furmark? Does it hold up or crash?

Sounds like an RMA job unfortunately, possibly faulty memory.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I suspected as much.

I have the receipt and I believe the RMA centre is pretty close to my offices so I can RMA if the receipt is not dodgy and the card is not imported and has just had the box swapped for a local cards box to make the sale. It is possible but hopefully not the case.

Any differences I am likely to see moving from PCIe 1.0a to PCIe 2 as I have a Asus P8H67 board laying around but I would have to get a processor for it.

Thanks
RB
 
bigjimmyauk said:
LOL no worries just wanted to check , have you checked the temperature of the card using the CCC

also make sure the card is at stock clocks and not stuck in some sort of overclocked state.

i have seen this happen before when people have switched from nvidia to amd did you just replace the card and drivers or did you re-install windows.
Click to expand...

I uninstalled the Nvidia drivers and software, shut down, installed the new card (taking the old card out first of course ;)) then rebooted. The card was picked up straight away and then I loaded the latest Catalyst package (full install).

Looking at the command center to check the overclocking, mem and core were at stock speeds, fan was on auto at 25%. Whilst is it possible the card may have been overclocked (seller reported he was a gamer and was wanting to move up to a 6990) there seems to be no evidence that the card is still in an overclocked state. Underclocking the core made no difference (880 -> 600 for example). I cannot underclock the memory as stock is the lowest setting via the CCC.
 
RimBlock said:
Hmm, I suspected as much.

I have the receipt and I believe the RMA centre is pretty close to my offices so I can RMA if the receipt is not dodgy and the card is not imported and has just had the box swapped for a local cards box to make the sale. It is possible but hopefully not the case.

Any differences I am likely to see moving from PCIe 1.0a to PCIe 2 as I have a Asus P8H67 board laying around but I would have to get a processor for it.

Thanks
RB
Click to expand...

did you put the card in on a fresh windows install or just swapped it out for the nvidia
 
bigjimmyauk said:
did you put the card in on a fresh windows install or just swapped it out for the nvidia
Click to expand...

From post #7

I uninstalled the Nvidia drivers and software, shut down, installed the new card (taking the old card out first of course ;)) then rebooted. The card was picked up straight away and then I loaded the latest Catalyst package (full install).
Click to expand...

RB
 
bigjimmyauk said:
Do you have a spare HDD you could do a fresh install onto and try the card then , i have seen on some forums a while ago that sometimes it can happen when switching drivers. It's a long shot but for 30 minutes to install a OS it's worth a try
Click to expand...

Not really. Am installed on a 60GB SSD with some games and apps on my backup 1TB drive.

I could reinstall which would give me a chance to swap my Vertex2 for the newer vertex 3 I have in my server and upgrade to the i5 to get the sata3 connectors but would hate to have to download the Steam games again. Steam is on the 1TB drive so I hope I would be able to re link them with a fresh install.

RB
 
Had the seller on the phone today (he called me after I asked if he had any issues which is a good sign).

He had the card for around 3 months in a triple crossfire set-up. He reports no issues for him but suggests I try the other DVI connection (the card has two). Having just downloaded the manual, it seems that I have been connecting to the dual DVI connector rather than the single link. Is this likely to cause the problems I am seeing ?.

Will give this a go tonight.
 
RimBlock said:
Had the seller on the phone today (he called me after I asked if he had any issues which is a good sign).

He had the card for around 3 months in a triple crossfire set-up. He reports no issues for him but suggests I try the other DVI connection (the card has two). Having just downloaded the manual, it seems that I have been connecting to the dual DVI connector rather than the single link. Is this likely to cause the problems I am seeing ?.

Will give this a go tonight.
Click to expand...

It could be possible. When I have accidentally connected my DVI into the dual one I don't see any picture at all. I guess all you can do it test and see what happens. If no luck the RMA.
 
Swagger187 said:
It could be possible. When I have accidentally connected my DVI into the dual one I don't see any picture at all. I guess all you can do it test and see what happens. If no luck the RMA.
Click to expand...

Will give it a go tonight. Have bought the i5 as well so can swap out the MB and use the P8H67 with the PCIe v2 slots.

Lots to do tonight :(.

Thanks
RB
 
I wish you all the best.

Where did you buy the card second hand from?

I was actually thinking about getting a second hand 5850 off ebay but hearing stories like this always puts me off.
 
mattbuck said:
I wish you all the best.

Where did you buy the card second hand from?

I was actually thinking about getting a second hand 5850 off ebay but hearing stories like this always puts me off.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Have got all the crossable bits crossed :D.

I got it from an IT forum over here like OCUK.

Managed to get it for 190 quid which was pretty good considering it is 3 months old.

The other difference is that I have his mobile number, Singapore is fairly small and the police are happy to punish with more than a slap on the wrist. Adds a bit more security.

RB
 
I suggest installing some temperature monitoring for your card to ensure its not getting too hot, MSI Afterburner has some monitoring you could use.
 
Don't think it's been mentioned but is it worth checking for a BIOS update if you haven't already? And perhaps try a different PCIE power lead just in case.
 
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