Gigabyte HD7850 freezing, audio looping, crashing- what's next?

McWeaksauce

Honorable
Sep 10, 2013
3
0
10,510
Hi guys. Been lurking for a while, I've searched pretty extensively and seen some similar issues, but nothing exact- and no real solutions that blanket the issue.

Thank you in advance.

I bought a Gigabyte HD5750 from a brick and mortar store, and after the 30 day period (of course, right?) of an allowed return, I started experiencing problems.

I fidgeted around for a while, trying to solve it myself, and also trying to narrow down the issue (I put in another 8GB of RAM, and a new CPU at the same time) Eventually, after getting to the card, I switched it out for my old HD5750 and had no problems for about seven days- at which point I initiated an RMA.

After a lengthy waiting process, I was told by a customer service agent that the card was run through tests for 12 hours per test with no problems found. (3DMark, FurMark, and PassMark)

The card was then shipped back.

I uninstalled my old 5750 drivers (completely, using AMDs Uninstall Tool) and reinstalled the 7850 drivers fresh, rebooted, and started up Chivalry: Medieval Warfare on High settings.

The same problem I initially sent the card in for occurred again less than 1 minute into the loading screen of the game:

1. The system freezes completely.
2. The last split second of audio is repeated infinitely, to the effect of a buzzing sound.
3a. I lose complete control of the system about 50% of the time, requiring a hard reboot.
OR
3b. I can control the mouse at the rate of <1 frame per second but the system never recovers- and the sound continues it's fast loop.


This problem occurs sporadically and cannot be replicated. It sometimes happens after 2-3 hours, but it can and has happened just as windows starts.

I have tried reformatting HDDs, and reinstalling both Windows 8 and Windows 7, the problem persists.

I have upgraded PSUs from 500w to 850w, the problem persists.

I have disconnected all non-critical USB devices, the problem persists.

The only thing that fixed the problem 100% of the time (The error occurred 0 times in 30+ days during the RMA period) was switching back to my ATI RADEON HD5750 1024MB DDR5 TB1RT.

Any help is appreciated, I'm running out of ideas!

Specs
VGA Card: GIGABYTE HD 7850
Model Name : GV-R787OC-2GD
Driver Ver : 8.982
Motherboard Brand : Asus
Model : M4A89GTD
Operation System : Win 7 64-bit
Others:
2GB DDR3 x 2
4GB DDR3 x 2
AMD FX-4130 Quad Core 3.80GHz CPU
COOLMAX RM-850B 850W PSU (18A/12v Rail)
2 DVD-RW Drives
1 7200RPM 3.5" HDD
1 21.5" LCD Monitor
1 21.5" LED Monitor
 

McWeaksauce

Honorable
Sep 10, 2013
3
0
10,510


Thank you for your reply. I actually have RMA'd twice, my post was longwinded, but it was in there. I have updated the card to the most recent bios, but to no avail- also set back to original to no avail.

What I did that has seemingly solved the issue (so far, about 6 hours no problems) was remove the VGA Switch Card that came with my ASUS motherboard. The card is supposed to allow full 16x. Without it, documentation states the card should be running at 8x since it expects something else in the other slot- but I'm getting 16x according to GPU-Z.

Seems stable enough for now. Will update if there's any change, but for anyone else with this problem and a VGA Switch Card, remove it and see if it solves the instability.