Ad
News

Sapphire To Launch LCD Displays

Published on June 05, 2008

When any business relies solely on a struggling partner, it’s often wise to diversify one’s product line. Sapphire Technologies, known for its AMD powered graphics cards, is jumping into the display business. At this year’s Computex, Sapphire showed off Read more

MSI And GeCube Unveil ATI Radeon HD 4870-based Graphics Cards

Published on June 27, 2008

MSI and GeCube have unveiled ATI Radeon HD 4870-series graphics cards. Read more

AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 Ready By August

Published on July 03, 2008

Following the recent launch of the ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 GPUs, AMD plans to introduce the high-end dual-GPU HD 4870 X2 by the end of July, according to sources at graphics card vendors. Read more

Sapphire launches AGP version of X1600Pro graphics card

Published on January 20, 2006

Sapphire Technology is now shipping the AGP version of its latest graphics card offering based on the ATI Radeon X1600 Pro graphics chip, which offers complete support for DirectX 9.0 and Shader Model 3.0 and utilizes ATI's Avivo Technology. Read more

Latest Reviews & Articles

System Builder Marathon: $500 Gaming PC

Published on October 30, 2008

On this, the second to last day of our System Builder Marathon series, we add a $500 gaming PC to the mix. It's not going to be as quick as our other two builds, but we think Paul was able to get some serious value from this thing. Read more

Tom's SBM: The $1,500 Mainstream PC

Published on October 29, 2008

We're following up yesterday's $4,500 behemoth with a more affordable $1,500 mid-range build. Let's see what sort of performance (and overclocking headroom) you can get when you spend one third of the money. Read more

System Builder Marathon: The $4,500 Super PC

Published on October 28, 2008

This month's System Builder Marathon spreads the system prices out even further to $4,500, $1,500, and $500. Is today’s $4,500 system really worth three times as much as an upper-mainstream performance machine? Read more

Can Your Old Athlon 64 Still Game?

Published on October 24, 2008

We'd all love to upgrade every time a new piece of gaming hardware drops, but that's an expensive proposition. You think your Athlon 64 system is fairly quick--any chance a simple graphics upgrade can bring it up speed? We're aiming to find out. Read more

  Tom's Hardware Forums » Graphic & Displays » ATI » Sapphire 4870 issues - no display
 

Sapphire 4870 issues - no display




Word :   Username :  
 
Bottom
Author
 Thread : Sapphire 4870 issues - no display
 
Profile: stranger
More Information

I bought a shiny new 512MB Sapphire HD4870 to replace my (slightly) aging 8800GTS 320MB, and I can't get it to display anything. What's worse is that I can't get it display anything even after reinserting the 8800.

Here's what I've done:
- Removed 8800GTS
- Put in 4870, including 2 6-pin power cables coming direct from PSU
- No display from either output - tried a combination of naked DVI and DVI->D-Sub adapters, and different ports on two different monitors, both of which I know work
- Tried taking power from molex power connectors instead, using molex->PCI-E adaptors that came with the 4870 - no display
- Removed 4870, reinserted 8800GTS, plugged in original PCI-E power connector direct from PSU, as it was before - no display
- Detached or removed all components (HDs, DVD-RW, sound card, USB connector, RAM, extra 6-pin PCI-E power connector) - still no display
- Tried removing CMOS battery for several minutes (to reset CPU OC from before) - still no display


Specs:
Antec Neo 550W PSU
Core 2 Duo E6400 CPU (w/ Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme)
Gigabyte 965P-DS3 MoBo
OCZ Platinum 6400 EL XTC R2 DDR2 2x1GB RAM
Audigy Xtremegamer sound card


When I turn the machine on with the 4870 connected, three lights come on. From extensive Googling, this appears to be normal.

It's bizarre that the 8800 is failing to work now. My guess, based on the fact that all the fans come on (3*Antec TriCool, 1 OEM fan on the Ultra-120, plus the ones on the gfx cards), is that I've screwed up the motherboard somehow. What do you folks think?

Any help is much appreciated!

Related Product

Register or log in to remove.

Profile: journeyman
More Information

Are those three lights on your card cause if they thats not good. I built a system recently with a sapphire 4870 and when I first started it up the card showed three lights and nothing showed on the screen. I actually had some cables wrong but when I fixed it still had one light on, so I returned it and the new one works great. So you might have a DOA card, but I have no idea why your 8800 doesn't work now.

Profile: stranger
More Information

The three (red) lights on the 4870 only flash momentarily - from what I've read, this is some sort of standard self-test, and nothing to worry about.

But yeah, if the card is DOA, is it possible it could freak out my motherboard and cause the PCI-E slot to die? Or is there something else going on?

Thanks for your help :)

Profile: journeyman
More Information

Ohh thats good about the lights. I don't think a DOA card could cause the PCI-E slot to die, at least it didn't for me....but I'm not really sure. Also, just a random thought....maybe your PSU is alittle weak. I'm not very experienced but I'll try to help.

Good luck ;)

Stuff Happens
Profile: old hand
More Information

Did you uninstall the old drivers?

Profile: stranger
More Information

Shadow of Dawn: the PSU should be fine for a single 4870. I've tried disconnecting all other devices and it still doesn't work. Also, the 8800 worked before but doesn't now, so unless the PSU has weakened between removing and then reinserting the 8800, I don't think that's the issue. Cheers for your help, though!

Gamerk316: Yep, I uninstalled them and then used Driver Cleaner in Safe Mode. That said, I'm not even getting a display during POST/BIOS, so the drivers can't be the issue. Thanks for the suggestion :)

Profile: stranger
More Information

Some updates:
- I know the 4870 works (tried it in another box).
- I tried an old-school PCI video card (which I also know is functional) in it and that didn't work either - same symptoms.
- I found a PC speaker (which I also know is functional) and attached that to the mobo, and I can't get any beeps out of it.
- I went out and bought a Gigabyte EP45-DS3, installed the CPU, plugged in the motherboard power, CPU power, CPU cooler power, 1 stick of RAM and the 4870 - and it still doesn't work, but in an interesting new way: it powers on for around 10 seconds, then it turns off for a few, then in turns on for 10 or so seconds, etc. At no stage do I get video output.
- Stuffed around with different RAM sticks, different slots, different graphics card. Same symptom as above.

I'm thinking I might try with a different PSU.

Any other ideas?

Profile: journeyman
More Information

I think trying a different PSU is a good idea, idk what else the problem could be.

Profile: stranger
More Information

Yup, tried a different PSU - same deal.

The only components I haven't substituted are the CPU and the case.

I've bitten the bullet and taken it in for repairs at the place where I bought the new MoBo. I'll post again when I get it back, and when I have an explanation of WTF is wrong.

Thanks to all who offered their advice, particularly Shadow of Dawn! :)

Profile: journeyman
More Information

Huh?!?! thats really weird hopefully they can fix it without too much trouble, and def post what was wrong I want to know.

Ohh, and I don't think I really helped that much.

Profile: stranger
More Information

So it turns out that I'm an incompetent #&*%wad, and I mustn't have tested the RAM properly, because the shop said the memory was faulty. I thought I tested both sticks in a variety of slots, but either I didn't do it thoroughly enough or both sticks of RAM died simultaneously...

So now I'm sitting on 4GB of OCZ Reaper 8500 :)

Thanks again for the help!


  Tom's Hardware Forums » Graphic & Displays » ATI » Sapphire 4870 issues - no display

Go to:
 

Google Ads