What could be wrong with my GPU and is there any hope of fixing it?

[Akagi]

Hi there, I have a reference model ATI Radeon HD5870 which was completely and utterly screwed when it was given to me. Basically my friend's GPU (the card in question) became faulty outside of warranty so he bought a GTX570 to replace it and gave me the HD5870 in case I could fix it, in which case he said I could keep it.

The fan bearings were completely screwed and were making an obscene amount of noise, so first off I remedied this by dis-assembling the fan and re lubricating the bearings.

The card worked absolutely fine prior to the driver instalation, perfect picture for general desktop usage etc, but after installing the drivers I get a BSOD on startup. I have tried various versions of the graphics drivers, cleaning all old drivers from the system, re-installing the OS, trying a different HDD etc. The card does work in safe mode however.

Also, the GPU runs at 60°C idle (cant test at load because of lack of drivers, but it would probably be obscenely hot) and the fan is running fairly quickly chucking quite a lot of heat out the back.

I have tried multiple reseats, even a re-flow, and I am close to giving up hope.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could do? Any quick tricks, or long complicated and tedious processes, anything will do. I have made repairing this card my mission now, though I am aware that the likely outcome will be chucking it, turning the GPU chip into a keyring, or selling it for spares.

 

[KompuKare]

60°C at idle even after reseats (I assume with new thermal paste), sounds way to hot. Looking back at some 5870 reviews, idle temps should be around 34°C to 46°C with load around 76°C to 89°C.

But without the drivers, are you sure it's reporting the correct temperature? Maybe it's reading the VRM or something? About the only other thing I can think of is that the core is getting the wrong voltage. Maybe someone flashed a custom BIOS and upped the voltage?

HD5870 were very popular for bitmining and the card may have suffered some 24/7 full load abuse - but bitminers are more likely to have flashed the BIOS to undervolt and underclock the memory. Although, maybe it still was a miner and once they upgraded to an 7970 they reflashed the 5870 before getting rid of it and messed up the BIOS settings?

One thing you can try is to grab the TechPowerUp rbe (Radeon BIOS Editor) and make your own BIOS with everything downclocked to 50% or something. Nothing much to lose so worth a go.

 

[Akagi]

60°C at idle even after reseats (I assume with new thermal paste), sounds way to hot. Looking back at some 5870 reviews, idle temps should be around 34°C to 46°C with load around 76°C to 89°C.

But without the drivers, are you sure it's reporting the correct temperature? Maybe it's reading the VRM or something? About the only other thing I can think of is that the core is getting the wrong voltage. Maybe someone flashed a custom BIOS and upped the voltage?

HD5870 were very popular for bitmining and the card may have suffered some 24/7 full load abuse - but bitminers are more likely to have flashed the BIOS to undervolt and underclock the memory. Although, maybe it still was a miner and once they upgraded to an 7970 they reflashed the 5870 before getting rid of it and messed up the BIOS settings?

One thing you can try is to grab the TechPowerUp rbe (Radeon BIOS Editor) and make your own BIOS with everything downclocked to 50% or something. Nothing much to lose so worth a go.

I reseated with Arctic silver 5 each time, and I am pretty sure the temperature reading is correct because the fan spins quite fast and I can feel all the hot air getting chucked out the back.

I'll have a look into the BIOS settings, thanks for the recommendation but I am wary that editing them could brick the card. If i brick it, the spares or repairs value could go down.

It may have been used for bitmining I'm not really sure. Though 24/7 usage should be fine if the temperatures are acceptable.

I probably won't bother downclocking the card, if it comes to that I will get rid of it. I have no use for it if it doesn't perform better than an HD5770.

Will the RBE allow me to put the voltages back to stock if they have been changed..?

 

[KompuKare]

Will the RBE allow me to put the voltages back to stock if they have been changed..?

I think so, I have used it with my 5770 so I have the program 'installed' (it's portable) and I just grabbed the 5870 BIOS from the techpowerup database: it certainly lets you you change core clock, memory clock and voltage (it also lets you assign custom fan profiles but that's more complex AFAIR).

What you can do is dump your current BIOS and compare it to one from the database / reviews and see if any of the settings are obviously off.

 

[Akagi]

I think so, I have used it with my 5770 so I have the program 'installed' (it's portable) and I just grabbed the 5870 BIOS from the techpowerup database: it certainly lets you you change core clock, memory clock and voltage (it also lets you assign custom fan profiles but that's more complex AFAIR).

What you can do is dump your current BIOS and compare it to one from the database / reviews and see if any of the settings are obviously off.

So will it only affect the BIOS on the computer it is installed to, when the program is open? Or does it permanently change the BIOS on the card so the settings will be how I program them on whichever PC the card is in?

If it is the former then it would not remedy the problem as I can't even get into the OS before the BSOD.

 

[JonSmith]

So will it only affect the BIOS on the computer it is installed to, when the program is open? Or does it permanently change the BIOS on the card so the settings will be how I program them on whichever PC the card is in?

If it is the former then it would not remedy the problem as I can't even get into the OS before the BSOD.

You should be able to do it from safe mode or in windows without graphics drivers installed.

 

[KompuKare]

So will it only affect the BIOS on the computer it is installed to, when the program is open? Or does it permanently change the BIOS on the card so the settings will be how I program them on whichever PC the card is in?

If it is the former then it would not remedy the problem as I can't even get into the OS before the BSOD.

Yes, it's the card's own BIOS (nothing to do with the motherboard's). Not even sure if you can read or flash in safe mode. Are you able to read the BSOD error code (although not sure if that would be useful)?

But if an unstable machine the last thing you want to do is flash it with a high chance of it crashing during the flash: that would most likely brick the card.

Wonder if disabling the 5870 in device manager in safe mode and then using the 2500K's onboard would allow you to run some diagnostic stuff on the card? (But unlikely since if the card is disabled it shouldn't show up anywhere.)

 

[Akagi]

Yes, it's the card's own BIOS (nothing to do with the motherboard's). Not even sure if you can read or flash in safe mode. Are you able to read the BSOD error code (although not sure if that would be useful)?

But if an unstable machine the last thing you want to do is flash it with a high chance of it crashing during the flash: that would most likely brick the card.

Wonder if disabling the 5870 in device manager in safe mode and then using the 2500K's onboard would allow you to run some diagnostic stuff on the card? (But unlikely since if the card is disabled it shouldn't show up anywhere.)

The BSOD is a common one. Caused by 'atihfpac.sys' which can be anything ranging from dodgy drivers to a faulty card.

I'm not using this card in my primary PC so no onboard GFX unfortunately.

The specs of the computer in question are:

Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66GHz
4GB DDR3 1066MHz
Gigabyte G41P-D3
250GB Barracuda 7200
CoreXtreme 500W

and usually an 8800GTS G80 OC, but obviously for these tests, the HD5870 instead.

My folding PC / LAN PC / server.

 

[Akagi]

You should be able to do it from safe mode or in windows without graphics drivers installed.

Oh..? In that case I would probably be able to do it.

 

[wazza300]

I had a 5870,idle temps should be around 38c,idle voltages around 0.9v,load gpu-z to see,remember it runs at full load clocks without drivers so temps will be high,tested with a clean windows install? Changing graphic cards to different model sometimes screws up the OS

 

[Akagi]

I had a 5870,idle temps should be around 38c,idle voltages around 0.9v,load gpu-z to see,remember it runs at full load clocks without drivers so temps will be high,tested with a clean windows install? Changing graphic cards to different model sometimes screws up the OS

I'll try another OS install (already tried once, but back on the old one again now) just need to find a spare HDD to use.

This PC has been fine with graphics card swaps before. On the same install it has run an x1800xl, a 2600xt, an HD5450 and an 8800GTS without any gripes.

 

[wazza300]

Might be,I've just switched a 5770 to a 7850 and no matter what I did I couldnt get sleeping dogs to load,new windows install cured it

So its worth a shot

 

[Akagi]

Might be,I've just switched a 5770 to a 7850 and no matter what I did I couldnt get sleeping dogs to load,new windows install cured it

So its worth a shot

But the idle temperature :L surely that can't be normal even without drivers?

 

[wazza300]

Could be as its running at full clocks,it only enters power saving clocks/voltages when the drivers are installed

 

[Akagi]

Could be as its running at full clocks,it only enters power saving clocks/voltages when the drivers are installed

OK Thanks, this has restored hope to a certain degree. I'll test out a few things later. Watch this space.

 

[Akagi]

OK so I installed another copy of windows 7 on a seperate drive partition and downloaded the drivers etc, and the same thing occurred, BSOD on startup, same error code. So now I am downloading the RBE and checking the settings... If this doesnt work, it looks like it's game over for this poor old 5870 :/

 

[KompuKare]

Well you know it's possible that the card has something wrong with it: the most likely thing is memory chips although your temps suggest the GPU chip itself or even the VRM (i.e. if it's gone faulty it may be supplying more voltage than it should).

 

[Jakus]

You need a digital volt meter to check the voltage at the GPU until you can rectify the hot running at idle you have little hope of progressing further

 

[Jakus]

Another thought, copy the cards bios and edit the power states right down..re flash and see if the card responds. If it does not it's a gonna !

 

[itchy]

If all else fails bake it !!! throw it in the oven for half an hour!!!

Could be that you have loose solder joints!!! When drivers are installed they make the card operate as intended, safe mode only runs the card at basic level same with 1 st installation of windows although thats a little more advanced than safe as windows areo is running usually.

Just an idea!