4870 x 2 problems

[cookiemonster]

Hi my daughter was having bother with her system when playing games, crashing blue screen and then booting back to desktop, so I thought I would format it and put a clean install of win 7 64bit as she had 32bit before, so everything went ok all updates and new drivers and programs in so I thought I would install Metro Last Light after starting it went through to the options and then the fan on the graphics card went ballistic and the system crashed I got a blue screen and then it booted back to the desktop, so I thought I would try Bioshock Infinite and the same thing happened, it only happens so far when I tried the two games is the 4870 x 2 on the way out.

NZXT Lexa
Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H (rev 2.0) motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, Deneb Core, S AM3, 3.8GHz
Zalman 9500 CPU Cooler
4gb Crucial Ballistic DDR3 1333mhz/PC3-10600 (7-7-7-24) 1.65v
XFX HD 4870 X2, PCI-E 2.0, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU
Seagate Baracuda 500gb, 32mb cache (main drive)
Western Digital WD6402AAEX 640GB Hard Drive SATA111 7200rpm 64MB Cache-OEM Caviar Black. (Storage)
Corsair 650 PSU
Liteon DVD Writer
Windows 7 64bit

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Correct me if im wrong but didn't you already make a thread about this a few weeks ago?

 

[cookiemonster]

Yes you are correct but I was told by my daughter that it was happening when she started up the PC but after I formatted and put in win7 64bit there was no problem when booting up.

 

[Xenturion]

I always recommend getting MSI Afterburner and enabling the On-Screen Display functionality. When you're in a game, you'll be able to see the GPU usage, temperature, and fan speed. It should give you and idea if the card is actually overheating and show you what's going on when the fan ramps up.

 

[Ketxxx]

Its more than likely the card needs a bloody good clean, so take it out, take the cooler off and clean it of dust, clean up the old TIM, put some new TIM on then remount the cooler.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Did you try testing (or swapping out) the ram or swapping out the PSU like some of the members suggest in the previous thread??

 

[Ketxxx]

Its unlikely to be a memory issue otherwise BSODs would be encountered in other tasks as well.

 

[cookiemonster]

I might have a go at cleaning it,what have I got to lose.

 

[kn00tcn]

you should REALLY be monitoring temps, not just the gpu core, but the vrms

i've modded my bios to idle at 38% fan speed, if the primary gpu's idle temp at this fan speed is over 50 at this time, it's time to blast air into the exhaust of the card (well summertime is approaching so make that 55 degrees)

i have an important consideration though... metro last light? bioshock infinite? can you try older games instead, ones made before the legacy drivers were released or ones that don't have very specific optimizations in the CAPs

how about tribes ascend, stalker clear sky benchmark, unigine heaven benchmark, hawken (it's newer than the drivers, but i personally played it)... these are all free so you can test them right away

have a monitor open, i use rivatuner for years, makes very nice graphs & helped me become very intimate with my 4870x2

gpuz is locking up my whole system, but i think that might be something else on my end

 

[Ketxxx]

The VRMs are likely being cooled with a thermal pad on the heatsink, those things tend to last a good 7 years in most cases so VRMs shouldn't be overheating, besides, if the VRMs are digital he will need to buy a new thermal pad, digital VRMs don't like non conductive thermal paste, I've tried it on the digital VRMs of my Vapor-X the card simply stopped the entire system from booting.

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi I have an Artic cooler I was going to put on it years ago so I can use the thermal pads from that, the reason I cannot put it on now is the case is to small and I don't think it's worth the bother buying a new case, now I have the card here I am going to try it in my system to see what happens.

 

[cdawall]

Its unlikely to be a memory issue otherwise BSODs would be encountered in other tasks as well.

Not entirely true I have zero BSOD's in any task other than games and it was purely due to memory. Fixed the one incorrect timing and problem went away. He has a Phenom II so there is also a chance NB volts (IMC) are to low.

 

[cookiemonster]

It didn't even boot in to windows in my system the fan is going round but the monitor is blank, tried my card and it booted in to windows with no problems.

 

[cookiemonster]

CPU clock ratio x19. - 3800Mhz.

NB Voltage Control (normal). 1.500v

It booted into windows in their system.

just ran who crashed and got this,

crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\060313-34413-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: hal.dll (hal+0x12A3B)
Bugcheck code: 0x124 (0x0, 0xFFFFFA800826F028, 0xB60F2000, 0x135)
Error: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\hal.dll
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Hardware Abstraction Layer DLL
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).
This is likely to be caused by a hardware problem problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time.

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi I cleaned it out and it needed it put it all back together with new heat pads and Artic cooling MX-4, tried it and it certainly sounded quitter but the same thing happened so I turned everything down or off in the options of Metro Last Light and it played but the temps were starting to rise, I think for the games now she needs a better card so she has decided to hit the plastic and go for a directx 11 card, I was looking at these,

EXDISPLAY Gigabyte HD 7850 OC Windforce X2 975MHz....

XFX HD 7850 Core Edition 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI D...

 

[m&m's]

Well, HD 7850 are overpriced currently. A GTX 650 Ti Boost perform better and cost less.
Palit GTX 650 Ti BOOST OC

These 2 are also good choices if you/she are/is willing to pay £10-15 more.
Gainward GTX 660 Golden Sample
EXDISPLAY PowerColor HD 7870 Myst PCS+ <---Tahiti LE (about 8% more powerfull than Pitcairn)

From latest review

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi m&m's thanks for pointing those cards out I am afraid I will be suggesting the NVidia cards the GTX 650 ti is equal to my 6970 and that GTX 660 looks very good any pros or cons about them before I let her choose.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

the 660 should come with a decent game bundle which might or should include Metro:LL - That game alone is reason enough to go for the 660.

the 660 is a solid mid range performer.

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi she wants the Gainward GTX 660 Golden Sample 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI will there be any problems with her processor or any other part of her system. I hope to order it today.

NZXT Lexa
Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H (rev 2.0) motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, Deneb Core, S AM3, 3.8GHz
Zalman 9500 CPU Cooler
4gb Crucial Ballistic DDR3 1333mhz/PC3-10600 (7-7-7-24) 1.65v
XFX HD 4870 X2, PCI-E 2.0, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU
Seagate Baracuda 500gb, 32mb cache (main drive)
Western Digital WD6402AAEX 640GB Hard Drive SATA111 7200rpm 64MB Cache-OEM Caviar Black. (Storage)
Corsair 650 PSU
Liteon DVD Writer
Windows 7 64bit

 

[m&m's]

Everything is fine and don't forget to delete the old drivers!

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi well that's my daughters PC all updated and ready to go back to her with a very nice Gainward 660 in it, I must admit being a slight bit jealous as it is a very small compact card compared to my own amd 6970.