4870 Installation problem

[stamfordjim]

hello all,

I'm moderately technical but not exteme tech. Just built a new system based on a semi-annual article at http://arstechnica.com/hardware/guides/2008/09/guide-200809.ars/3

ANTEC SOLO ATX mini tower
SeaSonic S12 II SS-380GB 380W
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L intel p45 chipset w/sound, ethernet
INTEL Core 2 Duo e8500
2 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 - 8GB total
Maxtor 6L300S0 7200RPM SATA
LITEON iHAS120 DVD
VisionTek Radeon HD 4870

Intended to be pretty good performance, 'green', low power capable of over-clocking but still reasonably priced. ($754 total for components + existing maxtor and liteon). No overclocking, 'safe' setting used. Vista 64 Ultimate. BIOS and all mb drivers updated from Gigabyte; OS is completely updated.

With the Radeon 4870 installed the system freezes up very quickly - sometimes before the boot/login process completes, always within minutes. Could not immediately acquire the Visiontek card so I tried a 4870 from Sapphire which also froze. I returned it and ordered the recommended Visiontek.

With an old ATI Radeon X800 card the system is very stable; so has to be the 4870. Vista automatically installs 4870 drivers. Tried installing the ATI Catalyst center - have not been able to fully complete without freezing.

I know the Seasonic looks small but based on the source article and the following notes on power consumption it should be more than adequate - especially since I'm not trying to make the video do much more than display the desktop before it freezes.

Radeon 130W (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd4870-x2_6.html#sect0)
CPU 65W (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/intel-wolfdale_11.html#sect0)
HD 10 - 20W (?) (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/hdd-power-cons_4.html)
DVD <5W (http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/dvd-playback-power-consumption-analysis/)

Before each attempt to install I have used a driver sweeper to remove any ATI drivers, set the video driver to default VGA 640x480.

No idea how to troubleshoot - no log files, events that seem relevant and apparently Vista 64 doesn't offer the handy 'try to find solution to unplanned shutdown'.

Could try replacing the psu but feels like throwing money at the problem with low probability of success. Since both Sapphire and Visiontek exhibit same behavior I'm assuming not just a bad board.

Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated.

 

[xxcoop42xx]

dude a 4870 requires at least 500w psu

ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 System Requirements
PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products

 

[stamfordjim]

so, installed an Antec 650W today, removed existing X800 driver, installed latest 64 bit CCC from ATI site. Install the Visiontek Radeon 4870. Identical symptoms - can install drivers, operate for 1 to several minutes and then freezes up. This is a pretty bare bones and 'green' system - other than the 4870 it shouldn't be consuming much more than 100 watts and I'm not stressing the video

 

[sylwester]

at least u got the thing runnin i got 3 led nightmares i cant even get the monitor to turn on

 

[stamfordjim]

at least u got the thing runnin i got 3 led nightmares i cant even get the monitor to turn on

Here's what finally worked for me (and here is the link for a different forum: (http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ep45-ds3l-system-freezing-30606/#post285515)

I'm now able to run the prime95 stress test no problems, not able to crash. Now can maybe tweak! - a little. Here's what worked:

MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)
Robust Graphics Booster ...............: Auto
CPU Clock Ratio ..........................: 9
Fine CPU Clock Ratio.....................: +0.5
CPU Frequency ...........................: 3.16 GHz (333x9.5)
Clock Chip Control
Standard Clock Control
CPU Host Clock Control..................: [Disabled]
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) ............: 333Mhz
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) .........: 100
C.I.A.2 .................................: [Disabled]
Advanced Clock Control [press Enter]
CPU Clock Drive..................: 800
PCI Express Clock Drive.................: 900
CPU Clock Skew (ps)....................: 0
MCH Clock Skew (ps)...................: 0
DRAM Performance Control
Performance Enhance...................: [STANDARD]
(G)MCH Frequency Latch...............: [Auto]
System Memory Multiplier ..............: 2.40B
Memory Frequency (Mhz) ..............: 800
DRAM Timing Selectable ................: [Manual]
Standard Timing Control
CAS Latency Time........................ 5
tRCD ......................................... 5
tRP'........................................... 5
tRAS.......................................... 15 (tried 18, n.g.)
Advanced Timing Control
tRRD........................................... 3 4
tWTR.......................................... 3 6
tWR............................................ 6 6
tRFC........................................... 52 80 (tried 75, n.g.)
tRTP........................................... 3 7
Command Rate (CMD) .................. 0 2
Channel A
Static tRead Value.........................: 7 10
tRD Phase0 Adjustment...................: 0 Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................: 0 Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................: 0 Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................: 0 Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank....................: 6 Auto
Twr2wr(Different Rank)...................: 6 Auto
Twr2rd(Different Rank)...................: 5 Auto
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)..................: 8 Auto
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...............: Auto
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...............: Auto
DDR Write Training...................... Auto
Driving Settings - all auto
Channel B
Static tRead Value.........................: 7 10
tRD Phase0 Adjustment...................: 0 Auto
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................: 0 Auto
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................: 0 Auto
tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................: 0 Auto
Trd2rd(Different Rank....................: 6 Auto
Twr2wr(Different Rank)...................: 6 Auto
Twr2rd(Different Rank)...................: 5 Auto
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)..................: 8 Auto
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...............: Auto
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...............: Auto
DDR Write Training...................... Auto
Driving Settings - all auto
Motherboard Voltage Control
CPU Vcore….……….........................: 1.250V Auto not 1.20
CPU Termination.......................... 1.200V 1.34 not 1.10
CPU PLL.................................. 1.550V 1.550V not AUto
CPU Reference............................ 0.805v Auto not .721
MCH/ICH
MCH Core……………........................... 1.100V 1.05v not 1.20
MCH Reference........................... 0.760v [Auto]
ICH I/O................................. 1.550v 1.550v
DRAM
DRAM Voltage ……................: 1.800v 1.820v