6950 Brand new Artifacting

[1Kurgan1]

A friend just picked up a Sapphire Dirt 3 6950, it showed up on Monday. He played some BF3 with it on Monday night / Tuesday morning with it for quite a few hours with no issues, running 11.3 Preview 3 drivers. Then I had a BF3 LAN Party on Tuesday night, he came over and when he started it up right away and it looked like a bad PSU. He start bar split and the top icons would shift over, then some purple/blueish boxes appeared. So he turned it off. We tried his 6950 in my comp, it worked great. I tried my 6950 in his comp and it worked great, also tried a 5850 in his comp without any issue. Tried a different PSU with a bit more wattage, but a bit less amps with his 6950 and that had no problem as well.

At this point I was confused as everything worked, just in different locations. He had a 5770 before and my advice to him was to do a complete driver sweep and try the Dirt 3 6950 again. But he tossed back in his card (this was at about 3pm Tuesday) and it worked fine. So he didn't bother doing drivers, we then played BF3 till 4am this morning (Wensday), so over 12 hours of BF3 straight. And his computer didn't throw a single fit. So he packed up and took it home, but when he started it there this morning, the problem is back. My guess is PSU or Videocard, Videocard is 2 days old, PSU is 3 weeks old, and both seem to work fine with other hardware?

He is also running a Athlon II setup.

[cadaveca]

Perhaps bad power cable, as your's worked fine? Weird for sure, really just posting to subscribe, as I wanna see how this pans out.

[jasper1605]

At first read, it sounded like the problems were right after he moved his rig correct?

Could it be that it's just the card getting not properly seated in the slot and going through all the changing stoofles just essentially 'resets' it?

[1Kurgan1]

Doesn't seem to be it being moved around. He's reseated the card at home, restarted had no problems, reinstalled new drivers then restarted, then it had problems. Seems to almost be random. He's just going to RMA the card to Amazon and test his luck with another. He's had some bad luck lately. He bought a brand new PSU 3 months ago, got killed by lighting, now buys a new vid card and seems to be dead as well. Hopefully it just ends up being the card and not the PSU again, or he will have had 2 brand new PSU's die within 3 months.

[ufgy20]

Hello TPU. Its Ufgy the one this thread is about. i got my new replacement card in the mail today opened her up shut the tower down hooked the new one in and made sure it was all set to go.. i turn on my tower still using the 5770 drivers but my computer starts up in normal 1920x1080 resolution and after about 1 minute at the desktop screen getting all warmed up and all. it starts to artifact again.. so im starting to think its not my luck with cards... so what else could we be looking at here? i would really like to use my paperweight for something more then holding down paper.

[Batou1986]

try doing complete driver removal then run driversweeper then reboot and install fresh drivers

[PopcornMachine]

I'm would like to help, but confused.

Were talking about a 6950, right? But you say you are using 5770 drivers?

I think first thing to try would be uninstalling catalyst and putting on the latest version.

Hopefully something simple like that.

EDIT: Batou beat me to it.

[ufgy20]

well i had my old 5770 installed and when i put in new card it had those drivers.. plus i do not know how to do a driver sweep im not a computer guy really i just put money into things Kurgan tells me to buy lol. if anybody can tell me how to do a complete wipe of drivers id love to know how

[PopcornMachine]

You can either do it from the Windows uninstall software menu in the control panel. Just select all Catalyst related stuff.

Easier way is to start the Catalyst install, and there is an option to uninstall first. Select everything.

After a reboot, then do the install.

[ufgy20]

yea i tried that with my last card.. had the 5770 in unistalled drivers.. shut off computer and put in new card.. installed drivers seemed fine.. i restart computer cos drivers says so.. when restarted it artifacts again after a minute at the desktop... im wondering if it may be my motherboard/pci slot power supply or maybe just two bunk cards.

[PopcornMachine]

Since your card worked in the other system ok, I'm thinking the motherboard or psu.

But that really is just a guess.

[mediasorcerer]

im thinking drivers really,you can use free programs like,drive sweeper and cc cleaner/registry clean,then reboot in 'safe mode'-f8 f7 on restart i think,,and check again with both programs,sometimes some reg files get left over,
then install ccc 11.9 and see if stable,try switching bios switch? [if it has one] im no expert but thats where id be starting anyway.run "winsat formal "-thru cmd prompt [as admin] too once drivers updated.

[Derek12]

Maybe his home has bad power mains voltage?

[mediasorcerer]

the other cards worked ok tho that he tried,from what i can gather?

[95Viper]

Originally Posted by Derek12

Maybe his home has bad power mains voltage?

Highly unlikely; unless, both houses have the same problem and it would, more than likely, cause problems for 1Kurgan1, too.

@ufgy20 and op> You may want to:

1. Check the MB standoffs and be sure they are secure
2. Check all power connections
3. Re-seat the ram(dimms) and run a memory test on them
4. Look for any loose parts (screws, metal pieces, etc.)
5. Check the DVI, HDMI, or whatever cable is used from the card to the display
6. Might be me, but, every time I used DriverSweeper (hopefully, they have improved it, by now), it seems to screw something up and I ended up having to clean everything out manually.
Just un-install the AMD/ATi driver, re-boot and re-install the driver you wish.
7. How is your air flow in the case? Run GPUz and see what the cards temps are when pushed. Any cables or other objects near the cards fan that can stop or impede air flow?

Just tossing out a few ideas for ya.

[Derek12]

Originally Posted by 95Viper

Highly unlikely; unless, both houses have the same problem and it would, more than likely, cause problems for 1Kurgan1, too.

Ah OK, maybe I misunderstood him (Kurgan), I though that because of this sentence "So he packed up and took it home, but when he started it there this morning, the problem is back."

[ufgy20]

Alright so here is what i found out in what little time i have to look at my computer.. there is a time when i start my computer that my cpu usage spikes to above 90% its during this time when my new 6950 kicks in the good ole' Artifacting trip... i get blue red a green squares where my cpu gadget would appear and a few other set locations then it gets random and i turn off the tower... im now thinking its time i buy a new CPU starting to think thats whats causing these issues.. i bought a lower end tri core a few years back so its a bit dated and under power in comparison to my new card.. either that or my luck with PSU is just Sh*T