4890 destined for the trash can

Sounds like you have driver conflicts somewhere....kind of goes without saying but you did uninstall all your old drivers first, right? Especially if you were runing an nVida card?

fresh install. it is all new hardware. i did however reformat and re-install thinking maybe something was corrupt. i am puzzled.

i have a 4850, have had problems with the most recent of releases for the last 3. I never install the newest. If I do, i get BSOD's, etc, and then it corrupts my win32k.sys file, requiring an XP repair install.

If possible, find someone who has a computer with a working ATI card installed and try your present card in it. If your card works in the other computer, its not the card, so you need to look to different problems. However, if your card doesn't work in the other computer, then RMA your card as its got a problem. As to the drivers, I tried 9.7 and it was troublesome, so I went back to 9.6.

In the past, I found DFI boards sometimes present problems of their own, as too many things are left to the person setting up the board and sometimes what you think is there, isn't. Since this appears to be a new build (all new hardware), I'd check through the BIOS carefully to see if anything either wasn't installed that should have been, or was installed when it should have been left out. I know that one time years ago I installed a board and somewhat mindlessly installed everything off the installation disk. Turned out I installed an Nvidia driver without realizing it, which then caused havoc with my ATI card. Re-installing the BIOS and drivers straightened everything out.

At the moment, I see two major possibilities, a bad video card or a bad motherboard. Check the video in someone else's computer, as I mentioned above to confirm or eliminate it as a problem. Then, if the video card is good, look to motherboard for problems.

I forgot to add, mine is also a VisionTek card.

thanks for pointing that out jdj. yes, i did install it because that put me in the dirt when the 4870x2's first came out.
it was a fkn train wreck with the new cats but 9.6 i thought i was home free. WRONG lol

i will keep a positive outlook and hope the next one is fine. i have never ever had to RMA a video card in all the years i have been working on pc's and that makes 2 within a month. one ATI and one Nvidia.

Visiontek is a company i havent messed with since they were Nvidia partners. they used to be awesome. i would imagine you are referring to customer service as most all of these are reference cards with different decals on the plastic shrouds.

Don't blame ATI for Visiontech...

I owned ATI cards made by ATI in the pass, and they were way better than NVIDIA self own made cards.

My 9800 pro was probably the best card I ever owned... never got a problem with it.

Right now, the graphic card market is in a big mess due to ATI and NVidia partnerships with companies like that. For example, Asus scrapped the 48XX series. Just check on newegg what they say about the EAH4850... just a damn joke.

Don't think it only happens to ATI cards, my BFG 8800GTX OC died after a year of use and it was a damn joke to run. 32A per rail? Who the hell designed that thing?

Next time go with XFX and leave your worries behind.....

listen to Ovrclkr he knows well !!

I try, I just hate to see peeps spend good money on their video cards and in less than a 6 month timeframe they end up having to RMA the card.... It's just not fair, these companies like VisionTek, Powercolor, Sparkle, they just cannot compete with the XFX, Sapphire, HIS, etc....

This is the reason I ony buy from XFX (Ati) or BFG / XFX (Nvidia).... I refuse to spend money on a GPU that is not fully backed by thier company..... I have had GPU's die on me after their warranty has expired and I know what it feels like to have a dead card and no support from the manufacturer...

Is Power Color really that bad?

Sapphire is one of the cheaper brands where I am, I hardly ever see XFX cards around these parts though.

Yes but also the cheaper or less trustable brands have lower quality Cooling solutions.

And usually do not overclock as well.

I have used Sapphire in the past, but am very happy with XFX now (bought for the double lifetime warranty) which unfortunately, conked out a little over a month after I got it, well, one GPU did, anyhow. Fortunately, I chose XFX, and was pleasently surprised with their lack of questioning and fairly speedy RMA time (9 business days on cheapest to-them shipping option). My replacement is a champ.

I have never had a Sapphire card give me a single issue. My previous 3 cards are all still alive and running well in friend's boxes. I just switched to XFX for the warranty.