6870 - Having Big Problems

[nick_uk]

...to the point where I want to scream

My christmas present of my wife was an upgrade of my rig, which included the Powercolor 6870. (PowerColor HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Dual Mini DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card to be exact)

I reformatted and everything was fine until I went to install drivers for the card - as soon as it went to it's native resolution, I got weird glitches on screen or a black screen requiring a hard reboot. It did this wether I used the drivers on the disc, Windows Update, or the latest drivers from ATI. It was, like I say, fine during Windows installation when it was running at 800x600 - as soon as the juice was turned up, the fun began. I had both the power connectors plugged in, btw

I RMA'd the card once (to Ebuyer in the UK) - they sent it back saying it had tested fine.

I am currently using my old card (ASUS HD 4850 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card) with no issues, apart from occasional problems rebooting which hasn't happened before.

My first thought was that my PSU simply wasn't providing enough power - people I've asked seem to think it's up to the job. My PSU is a Antec Truepower Trio TP3-650 - there's a photo of it here which has all the details on it http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/27/sam0650xr.jpg/

To be quite honest, I'm not really knowledgeable enough about any of this to work out what's gone wrong - all I know is that it's very frustrating.

Any help MASSIVELY appreciated.

Thanks a lot

Nick

System spec:

Operating System
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 955 32 °C
Deneb 45nm Technology
RAM
8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 401MHz (6-6-6-15)
Motherboard
ASRock N68C-S UCC (CPUSocket) 33 °C
Graphics
VA2413wm (1920x1080@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (ASUStek Computer Inc) 42 °C
Hard Drives
488GB Seagate ST350041 8AS SCSI Disk Device (ATA)
156GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD160JJ SCSI Disk Device (ATA)
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22LP20 ATA Device
Optiarc DVD RW AD-5170A ATA Device

 

[esrever]

your psu looks good enough but you can never really know for sure.

is your ram really ddr3? cause its probably ddr2 by the frequency and timings.

try running driver sweeper to remove any old drivers and then installing the new drivers.

 

[nick_uk]

Hi, thanks for taking the time to reply.

The RAM I got was this - http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skill-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1600mhz-ripjawsx-memory-kit-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl is there an issue with the RAM I have / is it running as it should be?

Thing is, I was installing the 6870 off the back of a fresh Windows install, so there was no drivers to remove.

Thanks

Nick

 

[esrever]

oh well the ram should be fine, it just didn't match your original post.

you should try to make sure its not your psu.

still sounds like you have a bad card, might want to try it in another system if you can.

 

[nick_uk]

I had a go with the PSU by removing power cables from DVD drives / 2nd HDD and couldn't get it to boot at all beyond the pretty BIOS splash screen. Is there any other way I can check the PSU is working ok?

Will definitely try to see if I can find someone to test the card.

Thanks

Nick

 

[shrapnel92]

I have the same RAM, the same card, they're from the same supplier - and I have the same problem!

 

[nick_uk]

Hi. I eventually got this sorted after an initial RMA didn't find a problem with the card, I insisted on a re-RMA after a friend tested it and got the same results.

Ebuyer retested, found the fault and replaced the card which is now working absolutely fine.