Monitors losing signal from 5850

I'm having a problem with my system and my Asus EAH5850 Direct CU.

A few weeks ago my system started to freeze during games and benchmarks. I was playing Fallout3 GOTY, Metro 2033, and running Vantage every now and then. It seemed that randomly during 3D use the system would freeze.

Symptoms:

Both monitors lose signal and go in to power save
keyboard lights stay on but is non responsive
hdd light indicates activity
power button has no affect
all fans spin normally

I'd end up holding the power button down or using the reset button, and Windows would always report "the last shutdown was unexpected" but never have any other info or errors in the logs.

I swapped the card with a Visiontek 3870 OC I had left over from the last GPU setup and I used the system for 2 weeks or so while I had the 5850 sent in for repair and I never had an issue.
I got the card back on Monday and yesterday the issue happened again 3 times, with the last time the system actually shut down softly when I pressed the power button. This time the issue happened when I was working in Windows, either just watching a movie or copying files. I successfully played Dragon Age Origins for an hour or so without issue.

Troubleshooting I've tried:

Uninstalled drivers using driver sweeper in safe mode and re-installing both the Asus and AMD drivers several times before RMA.
reverted back to stock clocks on system and GPU
Uninstalled all other hardware
Uninstalled all "non critical" software

I was thinking it may be a power supply issue, but I haven't found a spare power supply with the necessary connections for the system.

Note: I had a power surge that fried a lot of equipment in my house around the time this all started, including all network equipment on every PC in the house. My mobo has 2 NICS, the connected one at the time was fried. I switched to the other NIC and all is fine without the 5850. I'm connected to a 600 watt UPS.

Here is the output from the bug check. I have not found any pertinent info about "WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)".


*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)
A fatal hardware error has occurred. Parameter 1 identifies the type of error
source that reported the error. Parameter 2 holds the address of the
WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure that describes the error conditon.
Arguments:
Arg1: 00000000, Machine Check Exception
Arg2: 874db4bc, Address of the WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure.
Arg3: 00000000, High order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.
Arg4: 00000000, Low order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.

Debugging Details:
------------------


BUGCHECK_STR: 0x124_GenuineIntel

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

PROCESS_NAME: System

CURRENT_IRQL: 0

STACK_TEXT:
8e392cc4 83105fc5 874db4a0 8319ec28 8319ec20 nt!WheapCreateTriageDumpFromPreviousSession+0x32
8e392ce4 83106def 8319ec20 874db4a0 8319ec50 nt!WheapProcessWorkQueueItem+0x56
8e392d00 830a4f3b 8319ec20 00000000 85bb4d48 nt!WheapWorkQueueWorkerRoutine+0x1f
8e392d50 832456d3 00000001 b8cf1ee3 00000000 nt!ExpWorkerThread+0x10d
8e392d90 830f70f9 830a4e2e 00000001 00000000 nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x9e
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 nt!KiThreadStartup+0x19


STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: hardware

IMAGE_NAME: hardware

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 0

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x124_GenuineIntel_PROCESSOR_BUS_PRV

BUCKET_ID: 0x124_GenuineIntel_PROCESSOR_BUS_PRV

Followup: MachineOwner

Hi Firebird,
I've been experiencing the exact same issue with my computer. Random loss of video signal to monitor. I've switched out my PSU and the problem persists.. I'm currently in the process of RMA'in my card but from what I'm reading here is it didn't solve the issue for you. Can you let me know your computer specs so we can compare what we have in similar and such

mobo- p6x58d premium
cpu- i7 920
gpu- ati 5970
ram- 6gig redline mushkin
psu- 850 hx corsair

Try testing your RAM with memtest. If necessary, underclock your CPU or use higher voltages. If the HD 5850 runs fine on another system, then clearly something is wrong with the hardware in the other (unless you're really unlucky with installing drivers). Since the system was able to run a card that takes lesser power, then maybe you have a faulty PSU. Have you tried running the card in the other PCIe slot?

The brand is Diamond. I have tried nearly every driver since 10.4 and till recent 10.9. I ran driver sweeper every time in safe mode etc. I to have ran memtest and all passed. What really gets me about this issue is that i can't repeat the problem on demand.. It is so random. It can happen when I'm doing something simple like browsing the internet or typing up my research paper for 2 hours *face palm*. Then it would run fine for a few days to a week then start up again. I do a lot of gaming also and sometimes able to go on for hours without a hitch. There is nothing in event viewer log that indicates a problem either except for when i do the hard shut downs. I've switched out my PSU 3 times and that didn't resolve the issue. I did have one weird experience once when the monitor lost signal. The video card fan jumped up to 100 percent fan speed which i thought was really unusual. Has that ever happen to you? (i don't believe its an over heating issue either cause ccc and gpuz is telling me the temps are idling at 50c when this occurs)

also, when this issue occurs do you still hear music or your video playing in the back? I was even watching a live stream and heard the guy talking for quite a while after i lost the signal so it doesn't appear my whole system is locking up right away or if at all.

Send it back in and tell them that they didn't fix anything. Ask for a replacement.

well, I'm going to rma my card in tomorrow. Not sure how long Diamond's turn around time is but as soon as i get it back i'll report back here to let you know if it did the trick or not. Can you let me know if you find any resolution in the meantime as I too want to get this dreaded issue resolved

I just finished running a 30 min. test of Fur Mark without issue.
I will install more stuff and post again after running for a while.

After I ran Fur Mark I re-installed a few apps and tested again....

3D Mark Vantage caused the issue after it's 2nd or 3rd loop.

I had just installed Vantage and the latetest version of PhysX (513) when the issue happened. I un-installed that version of PhysX and installed the version that comes with Metro 2033, but that caused the issue as well. So, I un-installed that version of PhysX and then re-installed Dragon Age and let it install PhysX. My thinking there was that my issues started around the time I installed Metro 2033 and a began experimenting with hybrid PhysX by running an 8800 GTS with my 5850 ( I abandoned it after I started getting the crashing. That was the first time I installed the newer versions of PhysX right from Nvidia's site.)

So this morning and last night I played some Dragon Age and didn't have an issue, but I didn't play long enough to know for sure. I have yet to have a problem under normal desktop use, but I don't have all my apps installed yet and haven't done any of my usual day-to-day stuff.

<sigh> Looks like I won't know for another day or so.

I did see that in a post as well, that the ATX extension cable was the culprit. I don't believe mine has an extension, but I'll mess with that and the power settings as well if I have the issues tonight.

Seems strange that Fur Mark doesn't cause the issue but Vantage does. Maybe it's OpenGL or the fact that only 1 core gets stressed with Fur Mark....

I have a fan in the side window of the case that blocks most of the view to the inside and I've never noticed the red led. Maybe I'll position the case so I can see the card.

So I decided to let my local PC shop have at it and see if they could figure out what was wrong. They called me back after a few hours and said that there were able to get the PC stable through multiple Vantage runs (which wasn't possible before) by lowering the core to 699 MHZ and droping the vcore to .98 V.

I told them they could play with it all weekend as I'll be out of town, but it really seems like the card is bad and Asus didn't fix anything. Unless they call me back with different news, I will be demanding a NEW card.

Heya Firebirdm
I Just wanted to conclude that i think my issue was dude to that atx cable connecting to the mobo being defective.. I haven't ran into the issue again after replacing that cable. I was wondering how your progress is going so far and if it indeed was the video card for sure?

Hey guys I hope things work out for you but just my thoughts...
firebird, try removing the 8800GTS from the PC. Might be sucking up too much juice for the PSU.

How were you enabling hybrid PhysX? GenL? I've had zero issues with his patch.

At one point I randomly had my monitor go into sleep mode when the login screen would appear. It was fine up to the windows loading splash screen, then go blank as soon as the login screen would appear. Sound still worked through my speakers. I typed in my password and I heard it login, but still no video. If I booted into safe mode I could get in and deleting my drivers would allow me to reboot normally. Then, reinstalling the ATI drivers and rebooting, and again blank screen. I tried a couple different versions of the drivers, always booting into safe, running driver sweeper, rebooting normally and installing and every single time it would blank screen on the next boot after the driver install.

I ended up reinstalling Windows 7 64bit fresh, and haven't had any issues since. Don't know what caused it but a fresh install fixed it.

You might consider partitioning your drive and setting a windows backup on it, then format and reinstall windows on the main drive and see what happens. If it works try restoring the backup and see what happens.

Oh damn so no go in either case... Huh..

You may want to try flashing the 5850 with a different VBIOS and see what happens. I can maybe email you my reference model Sapphire 5850 BIOS.

Hmm... I know this is a little far fetched but have you tried bypassing the UPS to see if that helps at all? Maybe it got damaged in that black out? I'm also thinking this is power related too cause you and I were having identical problems. I know I mentioned this before but i would just go through every cable in your PC to make sure all cables are plugged in tightly so that it clicks in.. The best test tho would be to see if you can find another PSU to test the system on.


-Edit- Did the PC shop try testing the GPU card in a different system and run vantage? Cause if it was stable on a different system that would let us know that the gpu isn't the problem.

They did test it separately, but then had me bring my PC in because they only had a single core P4 system to test with (so sad) and they didn't have any software to stress it with.

More and more seems to point to my system.....

Went to a little LAN party this past weekend and put the 5850 in another PC. It ran @850-1200 (was using the timings from the 5870 that was in the system). and gamed without issue for several hours.

I have a new Seasonic 650x power supply in my PC and that doesn't help either.

I guess it's the mobo....(runs with a 3870 just fine though)

Well, I finally have a working computer now. I ended up adding my PC to my claim for the lightning/power issue that took out a lot of electronics in the house (and in the area from what the insurance company said).

I replaced my mobo, cpu, memory, and added a 2nd Asus EAH5850 Direct Cu. I went with an Asus Rampage 3 Formula, i7950 with Scythe Mugen R2, 6 GB Mushkin Blackline memory 1600 MHZ.

I finished running all benches last night and using the same HDDs and power supply as on the other board I've been rock stable.

So I'm going to chalk this one up to a bad motherboard (it was very unstable yesterday before I got the new parts....)

I guess a moderator can close this now, and I can't choose a best answer because nobody mentioned a motherboard and I can't select my own answers