XFX 4770 Brand New is Crashing

[lancelot712]

I have a HD 4770 750M 512MB DDR5 DUAL DVI TV PCI-E and am experiencing a crash that it seems several others are too. I play age of empires 3 (a 5 year old game btw (and it also crashes with other games too)) a game that should give the 4770 no problems graphically. I have crashed in menu screens and in game. Last night I played around ten games straight with only a couple crashes, today I can't even finish one game without it crashing constantly. This is my second card the first I had to RMA because it experienced the same exact problem.

It first lags but I can still hear sound and move my mouse, then the screen and my mouse freezes, and the sound freaks out and plays the same sound over with a horrible loud buzzing noise. Next, the screen turns to a gray screen for just a second (sort of has little pixel grey lines) and then immediately after the screen goes black and I have to hit the restart button on the tower. I've tried working with XFX over the phone but they blame something in my system and not the card because they say its almost impossible for me to receive two bad cards (which I disagree with because I believe others have gotten a faulty card back as well). It crashes randomly it seems but only when running a game.

I have a very new build of good quality products so I don't know what the problem could be.

What I am running:
I have upgraded drivers to 10.3 on the 4770 graphics card.
I am running Windows 7 64-bit
AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana 2.9GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cach
ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
and I have a DVI cable.
(nothing in my system is OC all is stock and I have upgraded all drivers)

Previously I had been using a 7950 which never crashed like this. I am thinking of preferably getting a fix for this card or if not returning it and going with Nvidia 9800 GTX+. It was very frustrating to buy a new card and have these kind of problems, any help would be appreciated. Thanks in Advance.

 

[shadow187]

Temps are ok?

 

[lancelot712]

Yes I have three fans in my system keeping it very cool! Also sometimes the crash occurs right when I turn on my computer go into the game and in the menu screen before even playing I experience the crash I described. It would be hard to believe the temperature would have an effect...I mean if I had been gaming for hours and then it crashed different story.

 

[notty22]

Have you tried running prime 95 to test your memory ? Or some other memory test.
What speed are you running your memory at ? Did you set to the specified voltage.
3dgaming can expose memory errors, sometimes thats the most intensive cpu/memory tasks some systems might see. You have a new system, it never ran before with another video card correct. It does not have a IGP, so it might not be the video card ?

 

[lancelot712]

"Previously I had been using a 7950 which never crashed like this."

I replaced it because it had a bad heat sink since it was an older used card from my friend but it never crashed my system like the 4770 does.

 

[lancelot712]

Have you tried running prime 95 to test your memory ? Or some other memory test.
What speed are you running your memory at ? Did you set to the specified voltage.
3dgaming can expose memory errors, sometimes thats the most intensive cpu/memory tasks some systems might see. You have a new system, it never ran before with another video card correct. It does not have a IGP, so it might not be the video card ?

My Knowledge of this stuff isn't that great but I definitely want to try what you suggested with my Ram. Can you please link me to the test your talking about. I didn't know you could set the speed of your memory I thought it was what it was which in my case would be 1600. And I also didn't know you could or how to set voltage.

 

[Shadow703793]

1. Download OCCT and run the GPU burn in test. Also run the CPU burn in test.

2. Post temps.

3. 6 pin PICIe plugged in?

4. Correct RAM voltage?

5. Download and run Memtest86+ and Prime 95 "Blend" test to check for RAM problems.

 

[Shadow703793]

My Knowledge of this stuff isn't that great but I definitely want to try what you suggested with my Ram. Can you please link me to the test your talking about. I didn't know you could set the speed of your memory I thought it was what it was which in my case would be 1600. And I also didn't know you could or how to set voltage.

Prime 95 x64: http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=205

Under "Advanced" make sure "Round off Checking" is checked. Then go to "Options">"Torture Test"> select "Blend".

As for setting voltage, look in your Manual for more info and/or BIOS.

 

[DarkMantle]

"Previously I had been using a 7950 which never crashed like this."

If you haven't used Driver Sweeper to wipe the Nvidia drivers before installing the ATI drivers I strongly recommend you do.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

Use the official uninstaller of the driver you want to uninstall.
Reboot your PC in Safe Mode.
Run Driver Sweeper and select what to clean.
Reboot your PC and install latest ATI drivers.

If you reinstalled Windows after changing the Video Card then drivers are not your problem and you can ignore my post.

 

[shadow187]

Oh duh, you said you were using an old nViddy card. Make sure you run programs such as Driver Sweeper to COMPLETELY uninstall every graphics driver, then reinstall ATI drivers.

 

[Shadow703793]

"Previously I had been using a 7950 which never crashed like this."

If you haven't used Driver Sweeper to wipe the Nvidia drivers before installing the ATI drivers I strongly recommend you do.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

Use the official uninstaller of the driver you want to uninstall.
Reboot your PC in Safe Mode.
Run Driver Sweeper and select what to clean.
Reboot your PC and install latest ATI drivers.

If you reinstalled Windows after changing the Video Card then drivers are not your problem and you can ignore my post.

Nice catch. +1.

 

[lancelot712]

I did this over the phone with XFX support and completely removed my nvidia drivers but the problem still existed so I sent the card back and stuck my 7950 back in. Then I got the new card back but didn't use driver sweeper so I will try that now but last time it didn't solve it =(

 

[lancelot712]

I used driver sweeper removed ATI and Nvidia Drivers then reinstalled ATI drivers still crashing =(

 

[lancelot712]

1. Download OCCT and run the GPU burn in test. Also run the CPU burn in test.

2. Post temps.

3. 6 pin PICIe plugged in?

4. Correct RAM voltage?

5. Download and run Memtest86+ and Prime 95 "Blend" test to check for RAM problems.

Okay I downloaded the stuff you told me to but I am a little confused as to what to do. For the GPU test it says to run it for an hour do I adjust the resolution....Do I just leave my computer on for that time and walk away, do I attempt to play the game etc.?

 

[Lmeow]

Make sure your 6-pin PCI-e connector is connected to the graphics card. If it is, then I'd recommend installing the Catalyst 10.1 drivers - I've got the exact same card as you (exact) and when I tried running 10.2, it crashed my computer, but on 10.1 I'm playing F.E.A.R. and MW2 just fine.

 

[lancelot712]

Isn't 10.3 the latest? That is what I am using right now. Could you link me to 10.1. When I got the last card before this one that I had to RMA I was using 10.2 since 10.3 wasn't out yet and that one crashed it too.

 

[lancelot712]

Okay so in game I turned AA completely off I turned my shader and shadow very low and am not experiencing a crash but that seems absurd since a 4770 should be able to handle aoe3 with ease on full...I'm baffled.

 

[shadow187]

OC the card's core clock some, then try to play.

 

[lancelot712]

I would have no idea how to do that my tech knowledge is pretty low....I was thinking of returning the card if I can't get it to work....Also I notice the fan speed doesn't fluctuate as much with the lower setting on in game perhaps that has something to do with it

 

[Lmeow]

10.1 can be found in previous drivers/releases category or something similar, IIRC. I can't seem to check right now, my internet is sucking right now. Your video card fan speed probably fluctuates less because it doesn't need to spin the fan as fast at different times because there is less stress on the GPU.

 

[Guest]

I also have a 4770 by XFX and it is having this exact problem. I've been seeing loads of complaints about this same problem for the card. I don't know what to do as I bought it several months ago, at this point id be happy to take a lesser card replacement...

 

[lancelot712]

I also have a 4770 by XFX and it is having this exact problem. I've been seeing loads of complaints about this same problem for the card. I don't know what to do as I bought it several months ago, at this point id be happy to take a lesser card replacement...

Yea XFX blames my other components but I don't believe them as my older 7950 worked fine. What system specs are you using in your system?

 

[adiacone]

I have the exact same issue. I initially thought it's just a Mass Effect issue, but the problem started to show up in The Witcher, Trine, MW2 Multiplayer Demo. FIFA10 doesn't have this issue (only messy textures that make the game unplayable, from time to time) and Red Faction Guerrilla works perfectly fine.

I'm running Win 7 32-bit, no OC, latest ATI drivers and CCC (10.3). On XP I have the same issue, but VPU recovery pops up and I can resume the game. But it last just 2 sec and then it freezes again.

My system is:

AMD Athlon II X4 620 2.60GHz AM3 box
XFX Radeon HD4770 512MB DDR5 128-bit
Zeppelin 2GB DDR2 800MHz
Gigabyte GA-MA770-US3
Enermax ECB701-B Spider (Case with 405W PSU)
Samsung 250GB SATA-II 7200 rpm 16MB SpinPoint F1

Hope someone finds a solution, cause it so, so frustrating! A friend will borrow a PCI-E card later today, I'll see if that helps.

 

[adiacone]

My friend got me an NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400 card. The games are laggy even at low settings (low end card I guess), but they don't freeze. None of them!

But now I'm faced with a puzzle: is it the 4770, or maybe my 405W PSU just doesn't cut it? Any idea what I can turn off to save some juice and see if the PSU is the problem?

 

[lancelot712]

Thanks for the reply it helped me a lot! It is definitely the card. I have a 650 W Corsair Power Supply (one of the best most reliable brands you can buy) and that terrible card crashes age of empires 3 (a five year old game).

Important notes:

The full system crash happens in both 32 bit and 64 bit windows 7.

This is my second 4770 the first I had to RMA because it had the same exact issue...could it be a bad batch of cards they made...But then again many other radeon 4 and 5 series users are getting crashes too.

Its definitely the card because your older card from your friend worked fine and I also used a 7950 in mine and it worked fine too.

The issue has nothing to do with graphics because aoe3 is extremely undemanding.

I have installed drivers 10.3, 10.2, 10.1, and even 9.6.....They all crash meaning it is unrelated to drivers.

It has nothing to do with the power supply because the card is suppose to be not very power hungry and have a 650 W PSU.

We have completely different component in our computer except for the card. Which point to only one thing....

The cards themselves are bad (or possibly a large number of the ones they send out or a bad batch). And since no one can come up with a solution XFX just blames my other components which is wrong because you have the same issue with much different hardware.

Since no one has come up with any solution ATI is not apologizing and fessing up to the fact that horrible cards are being made. I am going to RMA my card and get an Nvidia 9800 GTX+ I am very upset with ATI and XFX for how they are dealing with this problem and will never shop with them again.