I figured this is the best place as the system is homebuilt.
So I'll start with my specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6700 2.67ghz
5GBs DDR2
Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit
ATI 2900XT 512MB
Asus P5W DH Deluxe Motherboard
Now then, on to the problem:
My system has been running fine for the past year and a half, I recently did a system reformat (complete wipe). I had Windows Vista Ultimate previously, but decided to finally break down and buy the 64 bit version of Vista; but I decided to get Home since Ultimate had more features than I needed (and my version was an upgrade and 32bit).
So I did a complete reformat of all hard drives, installed a new 1terabyte Seagate along with 2x2GB DDR2 sticks (to go along with 2x512 sticks.
Installed vista, updated all my drivers with the proper 64 bit ones and away I went.
Just yesterday, I came home and woke the computer up out of sleep. Following the mouse cursor were some odd dots. It was almost like a grid of them about 6x6. I decided to restart.
When I restarted, the Motherboard POST splash screen was filled with artifacts. Dots were essentially covering the screen. The computer continued to boot up until it hit windows. Upon loading windows, the computer screen began flashing on and off. In the few seconds it was on, I could see a popup saying my video card had recovered from a VPU failure. After about the 4th flicker, I got a BSOD, memory dump and reboot.
This continued each time I attempted to restart it.
Now, I've done some testing and checking, and this is what I've determined so far:
The Motherboard POST screen and BIOS both display artifacts, yet Windows is fine (when it works, more on this below).
Windows will ONLY boot up if I first boot to safe mode, uninstall my catalyst drivers, then restart as normal. After this, I can load windows and everything works ok, except for the fact that I can't play any games/watch movies since the graphics card has no drivers.
If I reinstall the catalyst drivers (after doing several clean wipes, including Driver Sweeper) it goes back to square one with the VPU errors.
I tried 8.7 and 8.8 catalyst drivers with both the control console and without.
I ran Memtest and it said the memory was fine. I then physically did some memory swapping with different combinations and everything was consistent (VPU errors and artifacts no matter what the memory combo). I even tried some spare DDR2 I had laying around and same results.
Anyway, after I did some searching, it looks like the most PROBABLE cause is the 2900's ram is cooked. This would explain the VPU errors, I suppose and I'm guessing it could be why the post and BIOS screens display the artifacts.
Before I go and shell out money to get a new card (this one is beyond RMA); I was hoping to get a second opinion. The only thing I haven't done yet is flash the BIOS and I hear it's a little harder to do with a 64 bit system, so I'd rather leave it if it's not going to do anything. Any help? Ideas? (And before you suggest, I do not have a second system to test the card in, HOWEVER - I'm going to ask IT at work tomorrow if I can borrow a spare PCI-e card to try since we have loads).
So I'll start with my specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6700 2.67ghz
5GBs DDR2
Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit
ATI 2900XT 512MB
Asus P5W DH Deluxe Motherboard
Now then, on to the problem:
My system has been running fine for the past year and a half, I recently did a system reformat (complete wipe). I had Windows Vista Ultimate previously, but decided to finally break down and buy the 64 bit version of Vista; but I decided to get Home since Ultimate had more features than I needed (and my version was an upgrade and 32bit).
So I did a complete reformat of all hard drives, installed a new 1terabyte Seagate along with 2x2GB DDR2 sticks (to go along with 2x512 sticks.
Installed vista, updated all my drivers with the proper 64 bit ones and away I went.
Just yesterday, I came home and woke the computer up out of sleep. Following the mouse cursor were some odd dots. It was almost like a grid of them about 6x6. I decided to restart.
When I restarted, the Motherboard POST splash screen was filled with artifacts. Dots were essentially covering the screen. The computer continued to boot up until it hit windows. Upon loading windows, the computer screen began flashing on and off. In the few seconds it was on, I could see a popup saying my video card had recovered from a VPU failure. After about the 4th flicker, I got a BSOD, memory dump and reboot.
This continued each time I attempted to restart it.
Now, I've done some testing and checking, and this is what I've determined so far:
The Motherboard POST screen and BIOS both display artifacts, yet Windows is fine (when it works, more on this below).
Windows will ONLY boot up if I first boot to safe mode, uninstall my catalyst drivers, then restart as normal. After this, I can load windows and everything works ok, except for the fact that I can't play any games/watch movies since the graphics card has no drivers.
If I reinstall the catalyst drivers (after doing several clean wipes, including Driver Sweeper) it goes back to square one with the VPU errors.
I tried 8.7 and 8.8 catalyst drivers with both the control console and without.
I ran Memtest and it said the memory was fine. I then physically did some memory swapping with different combinations and everything was consistent (VPU errors and artifacts no matter what the memory combo). I even tried some spare DDR2 I had laying around and same results.
Anyway, after I did some searching, it looks like the most PROBABLE cause is the 2900's ram is cooked. This would explain the VPU errors, I suppose and I'm guessing it could be why the post and BIOS screens display the artifacts.
Before I go and shell out money to get a new card (this one is beyond RMA); I was hoping to get a second opinion. The only thing I haven't done yet is flash the BIOS and I hear it's a little harder to do with a 64 bit system, so I'd rather leave it if it's not going to do anything. Any help? Ideas? (And before you suggest, I do not have a second system to test the card in, HOWEVER - I'm going to ask IT at work tomorrow if I can borrow a spare PCI-e card to try since we have loads).
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