Help! ATI HD5870 stuck at 640x480!

[Ease]

So last night I discovered MSI Afterburner and Kombuster. I had some joy overclocking my HD5870 to 900/1300, and ran Kombuster. It ran fine for about two minutes, with the temperature slowly rising, before bugging out at about 90C. After restarting, the computer still ran fine. I overclocked to 825/1250 and it ran for a good hour without breaching 83C. At neither point did I overvolt.

I then used the computer this morning, and it still ran fine. However, having just got back from work, I turned on my computer, and was greeted with a completely blank screen. After about a minute (longer than normal start up time) the regular Windows 7 login screen appeared, but in 640x480, and now I can't change it back! I have just installed the 10.3 drivers in hope that they would fix it, but to no avail. Please help!

 

[AMG]

did you uninstall the drivers? if so try another set like 10-2s

if that don't work just reset the card/ check cables inc monitor cable. if still no take the card out and try it in another PC if you can.

 

[Ease]

Just uninstalled the drivers... not entirely sure how to reinstall them now that I can't see anything on the screen... unfortunately I don't have another PC, only this laptop. I took the graphics card out, tried unplugging and replugging all of the cables. Also; my motherboard makes less "beeps" when turning on than normal.

 

[AMG]

I would suggest taking your overclock off as well, for the moment while you trouble shoot the issue


all you do is just uninstall the drivers ethoir by add/remove programs let it do that than restart than install 10-2. when you click on the CCC package anyway to install them it will give the option to uninstall

 

[Ease]

I have uninstalled the drivers, but that caused the screen to be completely blank. Oh, and my motherboard doesn't have onboard graphics. I took off the overclock first thing.

 

[AMG]

that does happen or it can do turn your screen off and back on. mine does that. never known CRT to do it through

 

[Ease]

Thanky! Got the screen back by turning it off and on. Now installed 10.2, and just restarting. I'm not very hopeful though, as the motherboard still didn't make it's normal array of beeps.

<edit> Indeed it didn't fix the problem =( </edit>

 

[Marine-RX179]

Just uninstalled the drivers... not entirely sure how to reinstall them now that I can't see anything on the screen...

Even with the display driver uninstall, you 'should' still be able to go into Windows and see things with the graphic card as a 'VGA display card' or something...

If it really is nothing shows up as you say, then I honestly have no idea why that is the case...

By the way, how did you actually uninstall the driver? I hope no driver sweeper was involve...

 

[Ease]

I just had to turn the screen off and on. I can now see stuff. I uninstalled the driver by going into the "view hardware" bit of "System Properties" and uninstalling the driver for the 5870. I then uninstalled CCC from Add/Remove Programs.

 

[Ease]

Okay, so I reset the BIOS, thinking "what's the worse that could happen?" and now not only does it not POST but it doesn't even display anything on the screen. All that happens is that all the fans go on (including the graphics card fan, which actually seems to be running a lot faster than normal) and a few lights blip on the motherboard. This is really beginning to scare me; I can't afford to have broken this machine!

 

[skotish|]

try sticking another card in your machine

 

[rubin1961]

try a eariler driver and then a more recent driver over the top

 

[Ease]

@skotish: I don't have any other card

@rubin:

and now not only does it not POST but it doesn't even display anything on the screen.

 

[Ease]

What really puzzles me is the fact it ran fine all of this morning, and booted fine after the one and only freeze-up. Plus, graphics cards are always "known" to be more "high-temperature friendly" than CPUs, and this one only hit 90C for a brief amount of time. I don't see any reason for this failure in the first place!

 

[And]

Motherboard should make 1 beep for normal startup, motherboard manual will decipher different beep patterns though I'm guessing goiogle will also be your friend for that.

Sounds like your gfx card has given up, had a (BFG) 6800GT do the same with me once over, bought a new card, problem gone.

cheers
A

 

[Ease]

Motherboard should make 1 beep for normal startup, motherboard manual will decipher different beep patterns though I'm guessing goiogle will also be your friend for that.

Sounds like your gfx card has given up, had a (BFG) 6800GT do the same with me once over, bought a new card, problem gone.

cheers
A

Yeah I thought that hinted at something peculiar. I really hope I don't need to buy a new card, I really can't afford £370! (Wow, this card has gone up by over 20% since release! Not cool!) I have made an enquiry about RMA, but have just now realised that I bought from another eTailer due to release day "confusions" ...

 

[AMG]

okay, you treid to reset the card as a last ditch attempt if that fails to work, it sounds like a RMA job

and most mobo do make one beep to say that, only if you tell it to on some of them some will do it anyway

 

[Ease]

Do you think they will refuse my RMA because I overclocked it? I only used the ATI CCC to overclock it; I just used the MSI stuff for benchmarking/stress-testing. If I have to get a new card I think I'm going to settle for a 2nd hand HD4850 or HD4830... which will be a severe step down

 

[kitch9]

I'd got out and buy a cheap 20 quid video card to both test the fault and to keep as a spare just in case.

It's always handy at times like this.

 

[DavieJG]

I'd got out and buy a cheap 20 quid video card to both test the fault and to keep as a spare just in case.

It's always handy at times like this.

i agree. wen i had gfx card troubles the IT department at work leant me an archaic s3 trio. it had 256 colours and everything!

did the job tho to test the system.