• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Problem with either 4870 or psu...ideas?

Soldato
Joined
9 Jan 2007
Posts
2,760
Location
Gibraltar
Lo lads,

Quick question, not sure which (or both) are causing this issue i've been having with my PC.

Been running my setup for well over a year with no problems, however last few weeks my PC sometimes does not boot up, with 3 red LED's lit up on the 4870. There are 4 LEDs, and, 1st is lit, 2nd is not, 3rd and 4th are lit.

Repeatedly switching off the PC (5 sec switch off) and powering it back on...after maybe anything between 3-10 power up's it will boot up normally and...be absolutely fine.

PSU is a generic 650w, 4870 512mb (asus), Asus Mobo (forget the exact model), Q6600 (testing it as standard ghz for now, can run at 3.2ghz), 6gb ram, 1 HD, 1 Blu-Ray player, one n/w card.

Any ideas, i'd wager its the graphics card, yet once it does power up it is fine, which maybe might indicate the PSU is on it's way out?

Last night I dissasembled and re-assembled everything, made sure everthing was seated properly in their respective slots, recoated both the CPU and Graphics card with thermal paste, all heatsinks are tightly set. Took a couple of tries until it booted up and ran fine for 3/4 hours...all power connectors are obviously connected up and checked.

Would appreciate any pointers as to what it could be....
 
Well if you confidant it's the video card or PSU then I suggest you buy a cheap, working, PCI-E video card and see if you get the same problems failing that try running your video card in another PC.
 
Noted. I've purchased an 800w PSU in any case in order to explore that avenue. Existing no-name 650w sounded more like a server than a PC...was always on the back of my mind to upgrade it anyways.

Will try the 4870 in another PC at home as suggested. Other PC actually has a 500w supply (rest of specs similar, except its a dual core, and an old 8600gts), which although less, should be sufficient to power it?
 
yeah, thats the GPU, same happened to me. i sold mine on on a online auction as slightly faulty with whats wrong with it, i got around £40 for it.
 
If it's an old PSU it could have suffered from capacitor ageing, so it can't deliver the same amount of power as if it was new. Try getting a cheap dual PSU adapter and running dual PSU's and using a secondary PSU to take the load off the first one. eg. connect the GPU to the secondary one.
 
check the labelling of the leds as for generic HD4870 LEDs

D1601 - Red LED On, shows critical temperature fault

D1602 - Red LED On, shows External power connector A was removed

D1603 - Red LED On, shows External power connector B was removed

D601 - Red LED On, shows critical Core power fault

depending on the order on your board the gpu seems to think one external power connector has been removed, either psu not delivering, connector not making good contact or card failing on that power circuit.

Swapping power connectors round might indicate if one feed is good and the other not if differnt leds light.

I have had similar issues with connectors oxidising or arcing reducing volatage especially when using molex adapters so it may not be the card
 
Thanks for the info lads. Had checked the LED light labelling on a website. Lights 1601,1603 and 601 (thats lights 1,3 and 4 as you see it) were on.

Got a BeQuiet 750w modular to install tonight. PSU aint exactly old, around 2 years iirc. 4870 is around the same age, slightly less. If that doesnt work, will test the GPU on my other PC.

Busy night ahead methinks.
 
Does the fan ramp up to 100% when it fails to boot btw?
If it does I'd say the cards a gonner - happened to my original 512mb Sapphire 4870 a long time ago.
 
Aaah, much easier than expected.

Ripped out the "Epsilon 80PLUS 600" of failage, replaced with the Bequiet!...all is good. Switched the PC off around 50 times, never fails to start.

Thanks for the help peeps!
 
Epsilon 80PLUS 600 is not that bad made by fsp who supply lots of computer manufacturers not the worst

maybe it was hitting its limit or something is failing
 
Back
Top Bottom