Help: Asus 5870 V2 crashes under load (blank screen/100% fan)

[pintycar]

Hello techPowerUp people,

I'm pintycar and I'm kindly requesting your help. I will try to describe the problem as well as I can: I have an Asus 5870 v2 (I've had it for almost two years now) that crashes when subject to full load (so 3D clocks 850/1200 and more than 90% usage). It is fine in the desktop (157/300) or watching movies.

Details about my problem:

The crashing:

Blank screen (monitor/TV goes into sleep mode so no signal) and the fan spins at maximum speed. This happens for a few seconds and then the computer restarts. The error logs are inconclusive and only show a crash of the application that was running at the time.

Repeatability:

The same thing happens in two different systems. It was originally in a system powered by a Be Quiet dark power pro 750w together with another 5870 and used for mining at 930/180 with stock voltage and very confortable 70ºC temperatures (including VRM's). And now I've brought it home and tested it in a phenom 2 955 system with an "el cheapo" 750w psu which works perfectly fine with a gigabyte 5870 so PSU's are not the problem. I did a clean install of windows 7 so software/drivers are not the problem either.

I've seen a few threads : this or this one or this other one but they are all 2years old and have no/inconclusive/very varied answers.

So I'm asking you, do you think it's definitely the card? Is there anything I should try before I try to RMA it? Anyone has any experience with Asus RMA in europe? I bought this card like 22 months ago from eBay new. I've heard that ASUS has a 3yr warranty on graphics cards and that they calculate it by summing 3 months to the release date of the card to account for shelf time and they don't even check sales receipts. Is that true?

Thank you all for your time and I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

[theoneandonlymrk]

one thing to try iss to up the core volts, mine have both gotten old and need a bit more core V for stability plus now and again a game comes along that needs more volts, wierd but true

[Asylum]

Have you tired different driver versions to see if that sorts it?

[pintycar]

Hello Asylum and thank you for replying. To be completely honest no I haven't, all I've tried is the latest catalyst for win7 x64 and win8 cp x64. My other 5870's work just fine but then again none of them are this particular model. I am going to try now with some 2011 catalyst and will report back.

Thank you.

[OneMoar]

temps ?????????
add some voltage
use msi after burner to setup a 3d profile and add a bit of voltage
keep it under 1.3v total tho ...

[pintycar]

Temps are 50-60 for the core and the other three reported by GPU-z

To be honest the problem happens regardless of the fan setting..

I would very happily try that but:

1) card is already abundantly voltaged (1.2125) and 2) MSI AB will not let me change the voltages even with the config file mod

(ironic that this card was advertised as super voltage tweak and stuff)

I can however change the voltage (to any of the three valid registers) with CGMiner (a bitcoin mining tool) and it is interesting that it will reach around 700MHz on the core at 1.062 (min voltage for this card) but it will crash at around 550Mhz at 1.212v (stock 3d voltage).

[OneMoar]

EnableUnofficialOverclocking= 1
UnlockVoltageControl= 1
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod = 0

To enable VRM detection on a EAH5870V2 add the following text to your hardware profile file (.\Profiles\ VEN_1002&DEV_6899&SUBSYS_034E1043&REV_00&BUS_1&DEV _0&FN_0.cfg):

[Settings]
uP6208_Detection = 1

Shut down / Restart Afterburner and you should see +12 for core voltage. +12 equals 1.212v stock voltage. When you increase past+12 it will add an additional % to your stock voltage.
example: +18 equals 1.218v 3d
^this may or may not work with recent versions try a older version if you can find it
Use GPUZ 0.4.3 to monitor voltage" (from [H])
also try disabling power play/ ULPS

[pintycar]

Hmmmm... that's very usefull OneMoar. I didn't know that. Thank you! I will report back

[OneMoar]

you could also try backing the core clock down to 830
backing the clock speed down a bit isn't gonna hurt performance

[m1dg3t]

Welcome to TPU! Never had any issues like that with my card, have you tried to roll back to a known good driver as of yet? Never had any driver issues myself either but ya never know Are the contact's clean, the pciEx lane's? Fingerprint's have caused me grief before. I would also pull the cooler and clean/reapply the TIM. You could also try downclocking it a bit to see if that help's, if it does the card is prolly on it's way out

For that card you're gonna need Asus' GgamerOSD/Smart doctor software that can be had here http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/A...D5V2/#download that will enable the voltage tweak's for you but i wouldn't be throwing any volt's at it just yet, that would be like taking your car to a mechanic because of a knocking sound and he tell's you not to worry just rev it higher That doesn't mean that volt's wont fix the problem but they should be lower on the "to do list" IMHO. I'm not saying that software is the best but it does work, for the most part

Some people suggest baking the card but i'm not sure how the recipe goes so i wont comment further on that.

Asus' support is SHIT. I will never buy anything Asus again.

Good Luck!

[pintycar]

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

Welcome to TPU!

Thank you! I'm glad I finally created an account after so much reading hehe

Originally Posted by m1dg3t

..
For that card you're gonna need Asus' GgamerOSD/Smart doctor software that can be had here http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/A...D5V2/#download that will enable the voltage tweak's for you ..

It's funny that you say that because I got a reply from Asus tech service saying this (note the irony in the recommendation coming from a Asus person):

Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.
Please remove the GamerOSD and SmartDoctor for this problem.




For more information feel free to refer to our self-help pages by clicking
the links below:
Troubleshooting -
http://support.asus.com/troubleshoot...Language=en-us
FAQ - http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
Live Support - http://livesupport.asus.com

If you continue to experience issues in the future, please do not hesitate
to contact us.

Best Regards,

Jerry

ASUS Customer Service

[OneMoar]

Originally Posted by pintycar

Thank you! I'm glad I finally created an account after so much reading hehe



It's funny that you say that because I got a reply from Asus tech service saying this (note the irony in the recommendation coming from a Asus person):

Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.
Please remove the GamerOSD and SmartDoctor for this problem.




For more information feel free to refer to our self-help pages by clicking
the links below:
Troubleshooting -
http://support.asus.com/troubleshoot...Language=en-us
FAQ - http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
Live Support - http://livesupport.asus.com

If you continue to experience issues in the future, please do not hesitate
to contact us.

Best Regards,

Jerry

ASUS Customer Service

just someone reading off a TelePrompter in India

[m1dg3t]

Originally Posted by OneMoar

just someone reading off a TelePrompter in India

We would be so lucky! More like an auto reply bot, there is a reason why I said Asus support is shit and will never buy anything else from them.

Make sure to use driver cleaner/crap cleaner after removal of old driver's and reboot PC prior to installing new one's.

Sorry you don't like my advice's Good luck getting it sorted

[pintycar]

Hey guys,

Thank you all again for your comments/suggestions. I take on board all of them m1dg3t

OK, after a very busy Sunday, I've tried everything possible, and nothing seems to work. Upping the vCore makes it crash at a lower clock than with it lowered. So if at 1.165v it crashes at 600MHz with 1.250v it crashes at around 450MHz (all this is instant as soon as load is applied, no time for temps to get even mildly hot).

To be honest it does feel like there is not enough power, which would explain why at a higher voltage it would crash at lower clocks, but then again I have experienced this with two different PSU's which happily power other 5870 to the sky and back. So It seems to be inside card, maybe some of the VRM's gave up, I don't know I am no expert in electronics and don't even have a multimeter to start with.

Regarding the RMA procedure, I got another email this morning saying that I should first contact the retailer (but it's out of business) and if they cannot provide me with warranty then I could give him (Asus person) my details and he would forward them to the UK centre (I thought Asus DIDN'T have a UK RMA centre for graphics cards...). So anyways I am waiting for their response..

I also checked the state of the thermal compound and thermal pads and they seemed to be OK. I'm going to replace them just in case but I don't think it will make a difference.

Thank you for your time and I will write here again with the outcome of the RMA.

Cheers.