- Jul 26, 2008
- 7
- 0
- 18,510
Hi there,
Hoping someone might be able to shed some light on these problems.
In January I purchased a PowerColor HD 7970. It has worked for 3 months without any issues what so ever. Then suddenly it started crashing. Initially in game in The Witcher 2 but then in other games and even on the desktop while the PC was doing nothing at all.
Typically the screen will go a funny colour with vertical lines and no error codes - here is a photo to explain what I mean.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/atkzrl54af5o91y/IMG_20120420_005129.jpg
The screen just freezes. I have seen it crash at 80 degrees, but also at 36 degrees with the GPU idle. I can sometimes go a few hours from a cold boot before it crashes (tho happens much sooner if gaming) but once the crashing starts it becomes more and more frequent until I cant even reach a games main menu.
On some occasions the screen will come back telling me the display driver stopped responding and had to be restarted. 99% of the time tho it just freezes the system. Windows reliability log says its a Video Hardware Error.
I've tried changing the driver, crashing persists on RC1, 12.3, 12.4. I have reformatted and the issue remains.
I replaced the graphics card with a very old 8800GT (horrible for 2560x1600 :S) and the system is stable. I haven't been able to game extensively but I haven't had any of those crashes which leads me to believe the 7970 is knackered. So I sent it back to Ebuyer (am in the UK) they sent it back and say it works fine, that they couldn't find any faults. Again I tested it, again it crashed over and over so again I sent it back once again for more extensive testing, again they claim the card is fine and wont replace it but it continues to be an extremely expensive paperweight to me.
It could be temperature - highest it hits is 80 degrees which shouldn't be an issue at all. However the system has crashed numerous times just on an empty desktop with the GPU at below 40.
It could be power supply - gaming would draw more power but as it does crash even when idle and as this generation draws next to no power when idle it makes me think its something else.
I don't know what power draw the 8800GT uses but I have been able to use 2 in SLI without any issues both running much hotter than the 7970 did.
Am using a 750w PSU if that info is needed.
I'm pulling my hair out over this. This issue has been going on over a month - prior to that I never had a single issue with the card, it just started randomly.
Anybody have any ideas at all?
Hoping someone might be able to shed some light on these problems.
In January I purchased a PowerColor HD 7970. It has worked for 3 months without any issues what so ever. Then suddenly it started crashing. Initially in game in The Witcher 2 but then in other games and even on the desktop while the PC was doing nothing at all.
Typically the screen will go a funny colour with vertical lines and no error codes - here is a photo to explain what I mean.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/atkzrl54af5o91y/IMG_20120420_005129.jpg
The screen just freezes. I have seen it crash at 80 degrees, but also at 36 degrees with the GPU idle. I can sometimes go a few hours from a cold boot before it crashes (tho happens much sooner if gaming) but once the crashing starts it becomes more and more frequent until I cant even reach a games main menu.
On some occasions the screen will come back telling me the display driver stopped responding and had to be restarted. 99% of the time tho it just freezes the system. Windows reliability log says its a Video Hardware Error.
I've tried changing the driver, crashing persists on RC1, 12.3, 12.4. I have reformatted and the issue remains.
I replaced the graphics card with a very old 8800GT (horrible for 2560x1600 :S) and the system is stable. I haven't been able to game extensively but I haven't had any of those crashes which leads me to believe the 7970 is knackered. So I sent it back to Ebuyer (am in the UK) they sent it back and say it works fine, that they couldn't find any faults. Again I tested it, again it crashed over and over so again I sent it back once again for more extensive testing, again they claim the card is fine and wont replace it but it continues to be an extremely expensive paperweight to me.
It could be temperature - highest it hits is 80 degrees which shouldn't be an issue at all. However the system has crashed numerous times just on an empty desktop with the GPU at below 40.
It could be power supply - gaming would draw more power but as it does crash even when idle and as this generation draws next to no power when idle it makes me think its something else.
I don't know what power draw the 8800GT uses but I have been able to use 2 in SLI without any issues both running much hotter than the 7970 did.
Am using a 750w PSU if that info is needed.
I'm pulling my hair out over this. This issue has been going on over a month - prior to that I never had a single issue with the card, it just started randomly.
Anybody have any ideas at all?
help plix
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