Vertical Lines of Death

[dcarpenter85]

Greetings, this is my first post on these forums. I decided to come here with my problem because this community seems to be one of the most knowledgeable when it comes to GPUs so here is my problem.

I recently built a system (parts listed below) and while it has been running great for the most part, when I am playing some (not all) games I get a vertical stripe lock up and I am forced to hard reboot the system. I have an XFX RadeonHD 5770 XXX edition (875/1300 clocks). I have read that this may be caused by the stock clocks being too high, so I clocked them back to the reference 850/1200 and was still getting the vertical line crash. The weird thing about it is is that I can play some games for hours on end with no crashes at all. World of Warcraft, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, Burnout Paradise and and Team Fortress 2 have never produced the crash and those are the games I have spent the most time playing since building the system. Games that seem to be more prone to causing it are Left 4 Dead, Crysis Warhead, Lord of the Rings Online, and Modern Warfare 2. There are a few other games that the crash has occurred in once or twice but has never happened again.

Something else that is odd, if I am using Skype to voice chat with someone while playing a game and I get the vertical stripe lock up, I can continue to talk to them even though I am locked out of my PC. Meaning I have vertical stripes on my monitor yet I can still hear the game sound and I can still communicate both ways via Skype.

I am not overclocking my system at all, everything is stock. Memtest86+ after multiple passes shows no errors, and prime95 after running for 6 hours showed no problems as well. My card runs Furmark flawlessly, no crashes. I am really at a loss as to what is causing this problem. If anyone has a clue as to what is wrong or suggestions on how to fix it I would greatly appreciate it. I should add that I have tried Catalyst 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 and now 10.7 and the problem occurs with the same frequency regardless of driver.

System Specs:
Gigabyte P55A-UD3 w/ latest bios + drivers
Core i5 750
XFX RadeonHD 5770 XXX Edition w/ Catalyst 10.7
4gb G.Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1600 @ 1333 9-9-9-24-1T
650 Watt Antec EarthWatts PSU

 

[JATownes]

Try the Catalyst 10.4 drivers.

 

[dcarpenter85]

Try the Catalyst 10.4 drivers.

Sorry, I should have added that I have tried Catalyst 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 and now 10.7

Problem occurred with the same frequency regardless of driver.

 

[JATownes]

try underclocking the memory...but it sounds like an RMA situation, but Furmark works. Weird.

 

[dcarpenter85]

try underclocking the memory...but it sounds like an RMA situation, but Furmark works. Weird.

How far should I underclock? As I mentioned I already tried clocking it back to 1200mhz and still got the crash..should I go further?

 

[r9]

I have seen couple LCD monitors that can cover the display with vertical lines that look a lot like a artifacting but they are not. If you can find other monitor use it to rule out the monitor. Because if the card is artifacting that bad the computer would freeze or BSD and in your case the computer is working fine in background.

 

[JATownes]

drop it 100mhz just to test. But it sounds like RMA.

I have seen couple LCD monitors that can cover the display with vertical lines that look a lot like a artifacting but they are not. If you can find other monitor use it to rule out the monitor. Because if the card is artifacting that bad the computer would freeze or BSD and in your case the computer is working fine in background.

+1 to this. It is a VERY odd situation that Furmark (which pushes the hell out of the card) runs fine and everything else appears to be fine. You may also try updating DirectX, that may help the situation, as it appears to be game related.

 

[dcarpenter85]

I've used this monitor with my old graphics card for years and never had the problem. Same DVI connection. Does this rule out the monitor? Problem didn't occur until I built my new system, and the lines only occur during 3d gaming..the desktop has never crashed or artifacted in anyway.

Also DirectX is updated to the most recent available.

 

[dcarpenter85]

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B2...ZWY3YmQ5MDZjZmY3&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

I uploaded my GPU-Z sensor log to google docs so you guys can take a look at it, nothing out of the ordinary seems to be happening when the card locks up. The last entry in the log is when the card locked.

 

[dcarpenter85]

So just an update, I tried downclocking the memory even further to 1150 and the vertical lines still appeared. I also upped the voltage to 1.2 and was actually able to play Crysis Warhead for about 2 hours before it Vertical striped on me. Maybe just a lucky coincidence but I am not sure. I am just going to RMA the card and cross my fingers

 

[Chew]

Maybe related, or not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnxNSi8YTZ0
http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/02/01/ati-grey-screen-death-fix-coming-soon/

I have had issues like these. Very random though.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Might seem a bit obvious, but have you tried blowing out the plugs on the monitor cable, card, and monitor itself? or just making sure they're tight? Once or twice now I've tried to help clients fix issues like this and you'd be surprised how often it turns out to be a loose connection.

 

[JATownes]

Might seem a bit obvious, but have you tried blowing out the plugs on the monitor cable, card, and monitor itself? or just making sure they're tight? Once or twice now I've tried to help clients fix issues like this and you'd be surprised how often it turns out to be a loose connection.

For some reason we always look for a "technical" problem. This is a really good idea to check.

 

[Mussels]

Greetings, this is my first post on these forums. I decided to come here with my problem because this community seems to be one of the most knowledgeable when it comes to GPUs so here is my problem.

I recently built a system (parts listed below) and while it has been running great for the most part, when I am playing some (not all) games I get a vertical stripe lock up and I am forced to hard reboot the system. I have an XFX RadeonHD 5770 XXX edition (875/1300 clocks). I have read that this may be caused by the stock clocks being too high, so I clocked them back to the reference 850/1200 and was still getting the vertical line crash. The weird thing about it is is that I can play some games for hours on end with no crashes at all. World of Warcraft, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, Burnout Paradise and and Team Fortress 2 have never produced the crash and those are the games I have spent the most time playing since building the system. Games that seem to be more prone to causing it are Left 4 Dead, Crysis Warhead, Lord of the Rings Online, and Modern Warfare 2. There are a few other games that the crash has occurred in once or twice but has never happened again.

Something else that is odd, if I am using Skype to voice chat with someone while playing a game and I get the vertical stripe lock up, I can continue to talk to them even though I am locked out of my PC. Meaning I have vertical stripes on my monitor yet I can still hear the game sound and I can still communicate both ways via Skype.

I am not overclocking my system at all, everything is stock. Memtest86+ after multiple passes shows no errors, and prime95 after running for 6 hours showed no problems as well. My card runs Furmark flawlessly, no crashes. I am really at a loss as to what is causing this problem. If anyone has a clue as to what is wrong or suggestions on how to fix it I would greatly appreciate it. I should add that I have tried Catalyst 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 and now 10.7 and the problem occurs with the same frequency regardless of driver.

System Specs:
Gigabyte P55A-UD3 w/ latest bios + drivers
Core i5 750
XFX RadeonHD 5770 XXX Edition w/ Catalyst 10.7
4gb G.Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1600 @ 1333 9-9-9-24-1T
650 Watt Antec EarthWatts PSU

i too have heard of problems like this, one of our members (who is now banned) had the same problems.

Unfortunately, XFX 5770's seem to be trouble. You can try updating the BIOS if you can find a newer one that is comaptible with the cards, and you can try fiddling with the clocks (as you already have) - but warranty may be your only option.

For some reason we always look for a "technical" problem. This is a really good idea to check.

human psychology. give a man a hammer and he tries to hit all his problems on the head. (read: if one tool solves one problem, try the same tool on every problem).

In this case is definitely a hardware problem, because a problem with the monitor, cables, or outputs of the card wouldnt lock the system causing him to need to hard reset - the system would just run with a corrupted (or no) video signal.