My new Sapphire ATI Radeon 5850 HD Extreme won't work

[Ginnyfizz]

I have a gaming rig with ASUS M3A32-MVP deluxe MOBO, 4GB RAM, Phenom Quad Core Processor, Zalman 1000W PSU. Current card is an ATI Radeon 4850. And it's running fine. I decided I wanted to upgrade to a DX11 card and ordered this one

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-SP

An ATI Radeon 5850 HD Extreme.

Followed instructions to the letter. Uninstalled drivers. Powered off and unplugged. Removed existing card. Very carefully seated the new card, pushing into MOBO until hearing a soft click. (It fitted easily). Plugged in both 6 pin connectors from the card to the PSU. Powered back on and whereas the PC booted and I even got the Windows tinkly music, I had no display. Tried several times. No success.

Replaced the old card and everything is working. Do you think this is just a faulty card? I have arranged for return and asked for refund as these cards are pretty rubbish IMHO.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

did you plug the monitor in? The only time ive seen pc's boot into windows but not show display the whole time is when the monitor/cable is faulty. "these cards are pretty rubbish IMHO." you base this from 1 bad experience? Every model of every brand will have some faulty ones, you are just unlucky.

 

[shiftstealth]

I had this problem earlier today when i powered the monitor on before my pc and didn't get display. I had to turn the monitor off then back on and it was fine.

 

[Ginnyfizz]

Yes, of course I had plugged the monitor in. I tried reseating the cables and the card several times. And I doubt there can be issue with my monitor or cable, because as soon as I replaced my old card and powered up, I got the normal motherboard/bios screen followed by all the Windows start stuff and the usual great display. My monitor is a Samsung SyncMaster P2250.

If it was just me having issues it would be one thing, but there is this thread over at the Overclockers.co.uk forums

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18260756

Which suggests that I am not on my own in my opinion.

 

[eddys556]

Sounds as though you may have a driver issue here, since it is loading your BIOS and your Windows Start. If you click on this link http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/downloads/download_index_01.aspx?psn=0006, on option 3 select the 5850 Xtreme driver and option 4 the OS you are running.

Hope this helps.

 

[jyjjy]

If it was just me having issues it would be one thing, but there is this thread over at the Overclockers.co.uk forums

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18260756

Which suggests that I am not on my own in my opinion.

I believe I counted 4 people in that thread saying they had issues with the card(including you) and one of them came back later and said it was problem with their PSU and not the card. This is amongst many people leaving positive feedback and people are several times more likely to post feedback when there is something to complain about. I'm sorry you got a bad card but nothing in that thread indicates this model has a notably higher failure rate than normal.

 

[jyjjy]

Sounds as though you may have a driver issue here, since it is loading your BIOS and your Windows Start. If you click on this link http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/downloads/download_index_01.aspx?psn=0006, on option 3 select the 5850 Xtreme driver and option 4 the OS you are running.

Hope this helps.

I believe he is saying that he gets no display at all but hears the Windows start up noise. This would indicate it's not a driver issue because if so all the pre-Windows start up screens would be displayed.

 

[Ginnyfizz]

She isn't getting a display at all...or rather she wasn't.

Well, Overclockers took the card back for testing, reckoned it was OK and sent it back, I tried it again, no pictures. Called my system builder and he tried it with the same result, at which point he had my rig apart and tested all the other hardware, which was fine. Put it back together with the old card in and I got video right away.

The card has duly gone back AGAIN and this time they are refunding me.

I just wonder if I need to rebuild or if I could try another brand of the same card in my current set up.

 

[jyjjy]

If the card isn't working in another system as well then it is safe to assume it is the specific card you received that is the problem.

 

[keithyboyfrance]

So sorry to Add to this thread guys BUT I had the same trouble installing my ATI 5850 xtream. the computer would boot in to windows but there was no display just blackness . I have a deadecated ,Thermaltake 300w pcie Power Express power supply with only 2x 6 pin pcie leads this is used just for your graphics cards and with these conected it was just black .

So i pluged my old 8800gt and the display was fine . Then I tryed the 5850 again in my wifes computer which has a 4830 in it and it worked fine there ,so i know it wasnt the card .

This time I reinstaled the drivers to latest 11.4 and conected it to my normal power supply using the leads that came with it, the D plug converters and pluged them into the same line from my normal psu and it worked streight away. {it does say on the static bag must be pluged into your psu }
So may be there is some-thing about how it recives its power for this card ,as it would not work with a 300w dedcated pcie power supply made for pcie graphics cards only

 

[Ginnyfizz]

Aha, now then keithyboyfrance, I connected to my PSU using the 6 pin leads from the PSU.

I have only the one PSU in there. Believe me it is so huge there is no room for anotherl.

I am a bit noob, what are D plug converters? And do I understand that you installed the card with the drivers already installed? Because I thought that you had to uninstall drivers first.

 

[keithyboyfrance]

Ok heres a up date came down this morning and everything was working fine when i shut it down last night touched nothing and the card wasnt found again this morning ,so iam back to square one too now buddy ,

The D plug converters are the leads that come with the card the are black and they plug in to the normal white leads from ya power supply,and have the 6 pin plugs that go into the graphics card on the ends.

Ihope this helps you, but for me its back to the drawing board lol.
The graphic card should show a display even with out drives installed .but it looks like crap untill ya install the ati drivers.
I bet you have a Asus p5n-e sli/pb mother board with a nvidia chipset .There are loads of people in the same boat so untill we find out whot the heck is going on i am runnning out of idears . Mine now takes so long to boot that the monitor goes in to standby before it get to load the drivers so Ati whis i had got a nvidia now these 5850 card are too much of a dam headache Good luck ya going to need it

 

[Ginnyfizz]

My MOBO is an ASUS M3A32-MVP deluxe, and has an ATI Chipset. Seems these 5850's can be temperamental.

 

[Dyjon54]

going to return mine to newegg. I am having the same issues I thought it was the power but now I am thinking it was just the card.

 

[Ginnyfizz]

Was yours a Sapphire as well? See I am wondering if I tried another make of the 5850 Xtreme if it might work for me.

 

[Dyjon54]

Was yours a Sapphire as well? See I am wondering if I tried another make of the 5850 Xtreme if it might work for me.

Yes I have the exact same card.