HD 6950 Refuses to Work with Any OS

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NullCoding

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Aug 12, 2013
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I recognize the title may be a bit confusing, so allow me to elaborate:

I have built two custom machines and am currently accruing parts for a third. I also work as a professional computer repair technician and have for several years now. I'd like to say I know what I'm doing...but right at this moment, I kinda don't anymore.

I have an XFX HD-695A-CNFC HD Radeon 6950 I got as a gift at the end of 2011. It worked great until one of the 250mm side fans in its surrounding case died and I de-commissioned it for fear it would overheat. The second 250mm fan died a week later (don't buy XClio I guess?) and I am just going to sell the case for scrap now.

I also have two Gigabyte HD 6850s that run considerably cooler. I had them CrossFire'd in my second build until the PSU quite literally blew up after two months and the manufacturer generously replaced it for only half the original cost. I smartly removed the two GPUs and replaced them with the single 6950 that still draws much less power than two cards!

This machine runs Windows 7 Home Premium x64, or at least it's meant to. It will only boot to Safe Mode. I initially blamed drivers, but after much fussing and fighting with stupid automatic driver installations, I managed to get the latest Catalyst installed only to have the machine BSOD after the Windows splash screen just as it did every time I tried to boot anything but Safe Mode.

Tried to install Ubuntu onto another HDD. Couldn't even get past GRUB - apparently Linux + Radeon = lol black screen nice try though. No onboard graphics on this Phenom II X4 965 or the motherboard itself, so that experiment ended fast.

Tried to install Windows 8 on yet another HDD and it failed horribly. Screen glitches and artifacts up and to add insult to injury, "the installation could not be completed, please restart installation." The graphics card is causing some sort of fatal error. But why?!

I'm asking on this site in particular because I have reluctantly re-introduced "hardware issue" to my list of potential causes. Since there are no artifacts or screen glitches or discolorations or anything in Windows 7 Safe Mode or the ASUS UEFI BIOS (visual BIOS, advanced mode or otherwise), I can't quite see how it could be a hardware problem at all. It's been sitting on the BIOS landing screen stably for going on fifteen minutes right now as I check voltages and temperatures, and it's all very normal.

What exactly is going on here? I'm literally about to just get rid of this build entirely, as it's been nothing but trouble. Thing is, I have heard it is difficult to deal with XFX support, and I'm not really up for that, but nor do I want to be out $249 or so. It is registered and also still under warranty, but I don't even know what to tell them is the problem, to be quite honest.

Any thoughts or insight greatly appreciated. Thanks much.

Other build parts:

ASUS M5A97-LE R2,0
AMD Phenom II X4 965T reading 3717MHz
8GB PNY XLR8 PC3-12800 SDRAM
Antec Three Hundred case with four total fans
RaidMax RX-630SS semi-modular 630W PSU
some old Toshiba hard drives because I didn't buy a SSD for some reason (one Win 7, one blank NTFS)
a Seagate hard drive (now with corrupted Win 8 partially present, hooray)
 
Solution
Martell1977
Glad you got it figured out. I strongly suggest replacing your PSU ASAP, would hate for this to happen again. Corsair and OCZ have some good and not too expensive PSU's available. Just be sure its at lease 80+ certified, anything above that (Bronze etc. is gravy :) If/when you replace the PSU, get a big enough one and you can go back to crossfire if you like.
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smeezekitty

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It does sound like a hardware problem to me.
Raidmax isn't very good for PSUs either.

When in UEFI or safe mode, it uses the card as a VESA device using only alittle of its functionality.

It is certainly possible for it to act up once the drivers are initialized.
 
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jossrik

jossrik

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The only time I had to deal with XfX customer support, they were great, I've heard horror stories about them, but if the card is messed up, they will replace it without trouble. You're responsible for getting it to them, they pay to get it back to you, first, open a ticket with support, can all be done through email. Explain EVERYTHING you've done, they'll probably tell you to send it in and get it replaced. From what you've said, it sounds like the card is shot. Sounds like it's handling 2d all right but when you start adding in 3d elements you have trouble. I have no xperience with Linux, but win 7 + 8 will give you trouble if the cards not up to snuff. Maybe you can try Win XP if you've got an old disc lyin around, that might let you install windows and get more diagnostics on the card. Normally fixin' computers is easy, but every now and again something will crop up where it's good to hear from people who have had similar problems. I'm real big on buying with good warranties from trusted companies and at first signs of issues will RMA a part rather than try my best to fix the problem myself. If the new piece does the same thing, then I try and find a what am I doing wrong. Chances are, you know what you're doing, don't second guess yourself, replace the card and move on.
 
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Martell1977

Martell1977

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Oct 26, 2010
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Are you getting errors that are specific to the GPU? Have you tried installing Windows 7 and the others with a single 6850?

I ask because what you describe would lead me to look at the RAM. If this is the same RAM that was in the system when the PSU popped, it may have taken your RAM with it. I assume the 8gb is 2x4gb?
 
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NullCoding

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Aug 12, 2013
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Yes - sorry forgot to add in that the BSOD specifically names atikmpag.sys as the culprit. "Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed."

I did think about trying with a single 6850 but haven't yet. I probably should.

It is indeed 2x4GB and has given me no problems...yet. Interesting idea. I will probably run PCC or memtest when I've got the chance, just to be sure. I also have another 8GB set lying around, but it's DDR3-1333 instead of DDR3-1600, so I can't mix em but I might try replacing just to see.

smeezekitty, no, Raidmax is really not good for PSUs. Unfortunately I am on a tight budget and my purchasing decisions often come back to bite me. All I can say is that their RMA process is pretty painless as they likely have a lot to deal with. I can't really blame them for the cost of shipping, since a PSU is kinda heavy and they are on the other side of the country.

jossrik, thanks for the advice. I will try a couple more ideas here - like using a single 6850 - and possibly try with XP as I do have plenty of discs :p I have no experience with Linux on the hardware front either. The only Linux system I use is my webserver and that's all Xen virtualised stuff in a datacenter somewhere. XD

I will probably contact XFX after work today (or sometime tomorrow) and see where that leads me!
 
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smeezekitty

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Linux has alot of kernel drivers so it usually "just works" - and if it doesn't you will probably have nearly no support.

I found the open source Linux Radeon driver works decently in 2d, stutters in 3d games and artifacts a bit in the unigine benchmarks.
But if it is giving a black screen only, it points back to hardware.
 
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NullCoding

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Aug 12, 2013
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So I swapped out the 6950 for a single 6850 and put the hard drives back to their original configuration. System boots normally, albeit slowly as I just figured out the primary HDD is actually SATA 150 but that's for another time.

I guess this is indeed a hardware issue with the HD 6950, and I've certainly done a lot of troubleshooting thus far and based on the replies I've gotten, hardware issue seems about right. *sigh* okay, I suppose I shall start an e-mail conversation with XFX now and see where that gets me. Perhaps I'll just ask for credit towards a 7970 GHz ed. ;)

Thanks for the help, all!
 
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Martell1977

Martell1977

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Oct 26, 2010
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Glad you got it figured out. I strongly suggest replacing your PSU ASAP, would hate for this to happen again. Corsair and OCZ have some good and not too expensive PSU's available. Just be sure its at lease 80+ certified, anything above that (Bronze etc. is gravy :) If/when you replace the PSU, get a big enough one and you can go back to crossfire if you like.
 
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NullCoding

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Aug 12, 2013
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10,510
I have a Corsair CX600M here new in-box and haven't so much as removed the plastic yet :p I can get certain PSUs (mostly Thermaltakes and less extreme Corsairs) for what I believe is under retail price, so there's that.

 
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