HD 5970 One GPU Not Working, Can I Disable It?

[Hellfire]

Have you cleaned it yet?

 

[Law-II]

Hi

Anybody recommend any tests or benches I should run to check the 2nd GPU? And the card as a whole.

Disable ULPS
Launch GPU-Z take a screen shot of both Master and Slave positions [use the drop down box]
Upload the screens [will help TPU members to give advise]

In GPU-Z Graphic Card tab navigate to Bus Interface: select "?" and run the bench in full screen [in the bottom left, will see info on GPU's]

Note: running the card in it's present state "full of dust" is not advisable

atb

Law-II

 

[RickyRozay]

Well I've cleaned it as best I can. Also my computer is caseless because I'm cheap, so it's a cool as it's going to get for now until I get hold of some new thermal paste etc.

I'm running the bench mark at the moment, it seems to be taking forever.

I'll post back all the screenshots when it's done. How long does it normally take?

 

[Hellfire]

Hmmm...

How clean. Take the cover off and send us some photo's

You don't seem to grasp how serious the dust issue is

 

[RickyRozay]

Well at idle the temp was 42c, that's all I can say for now. I've only just got the thing and I don't feel comfortable taking it apart for fear of damaging it etc. I'd like to investigate further into what does and doesn't work on the card before I start to push further.

I can understand you may think I'm being an idiot, or get annoyed by my behaviour, but not everyone on this forum is as comfortable with taking things apart and handling components etc as some others may be, so I want to just test the card first and see how I can best get it to work if that's okay.

I'm currently still running the bench and there seems to be no end to it.

 

[Hellfire]

Yes but testing it with a lot of dust could damage it more.


Good luck

 

[Jetster]

On this forum we take stuff apart. Just messing with ya

Yes but testing it with a lot of dust could damage it more.
Good luck

Not likely but its a good idea to give it a good inspection. Swollen caps, cracks, lose solder

 

[RickyRozay]

Also I've googled taking the cover off of a HD5970 and the only article I found seems to be concerned with separating the PCB from the heatsinks to see what's underneath. All I want to do is as you said, access the cooling part. Like so:

Any idea how I can do this without removing anything else?

As taken from: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2009/11/28/taking-apart-the-ati-radeon-hd-5970/2

 

[RCoon]

Well at idle the temp was 42c, that's all I can say for now. I've only just got the thing and I don't feel comfortable taking it apart for fear of damaging it etc. I'd like to investigate further into what does and doesn't work on the card before I start to push further.

I can understand you may think I'm being an idiot, or get annoyed by my behaviour, but not everyone on this forum is as comfortable with taking things apart and handling components etc as some others may be, so I want to just test the card first and see how I can best get it to work if that's okay.

I'm currently still running the bench and there seems to be no end to it.

You don't necessarily have to take it apart, just at least try to clean the damn thing. It is a requirement of every custom PC owner to clean their PC when it requires it, otherwise you're throwing away hardware performance out of laziness.

I get you're scared of damaging it by taking it apart. That's fine, no need. But running a dust clogged GPU is also damaging it.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

I'm running the bench mark at the moment, it seems to be taking forever.

Press the "Esc" key on the keyboard to stop the GPU-Z bench [this was to check that both GPU's are detected and working at PCIe x16 2.0

To remove the Fan Sink Shroud ONLY; remove the screws marked in yellow
Example

Example


Note: make sure you have the correct tools for the job or the screw heads will get messed up

atb

Law-II

 

[RickyRozay]

Well if I can get the front cover off like in the picture above I'd be happy to clean out the heatsink properly, but I'm not sure how it comes off.

And yes Law-II, the bottom left screen of the render test shows:

ATI Radeon HD5900 Series: PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x1 2.0
ATI Radeon HD5900 Series: PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x1 2.0

Also interestingly, I tried Call of Duty 4 just now on relatively low graphics and I was getting just 45fps in some places. On my GTX460 1GB I was getting constant 250fps. So clearly something IS wrong with this card as my friend said, as there wasn't any obvious temperature buildup during those low frame rates...

Any ideas?

I also tried manually increasing the fan speed to insanely loud and it made no difference. Temp while gaming full screen was only 55c

Same with Battlefield 3 so I know it's not just specific to one game.

I'd like to try diabling crossfire, but the option that is apparently needed (disable Catalyst AI), I can't seem to find in CCC.

I found an option to disable Crossfire X in Application Settings, if I specifically load the .exe for the game I want to play in CCC. I tried disabling Crossfire X for the relevant games I'm having issues with, and still the FPS is horribly low.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

how it comes off.

Please see previous post have edited it

And yes Law-II, the bottom left screen of the render test shows: Any ideas?

ATI Radeon HD5900 Series: PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x1 2.0
ATI Radeon HD5900 Series: PCI-E 2.0 x16 @ x1 2.0

Vga card appears to be stuck at PCIe x1 2.0 bandwidth {should have changed to PCIe x16}
[maybe poor contact with PCIe x16 slot on motherboard]
Clean vga PCIe blades with isopropyl alcohol and a coffee filter and Reseat vga card [would be normal; trouble shooting]

What is the Gigabyte motherboard model number? [is not in system specs]

atb

Law-II

 

[RickyRozay]

Apologies, the motherboard is a Gigabye GA G31M ES2L Rev 2.0

The render test in GPU-Z was very slow, it ran frame by frame like a slide show. I assume it shouldn't be that way.

I know my GTX460 1GB had no issues running in this board as it handled many games very well, it was also OC'd.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

Apologies, the motherboard is a Gigabye GA G31M ES2L Rev 2.0

Thanks for the info; looks fine
"I know my GTX460 1GB had no issues running in this board"

This being the case look for physical damage to the card, pay particular attention to the vga card PCIe Blades and the components that are attached immediately above them

The render test in GPU-Z was very slow, it ran frame by frame like a slide show. I assume it shouldn't be that way.

Correct; it should run at very high frame rate and be smooth

atb

Law-II

 

[RickyRozay]

There is also a flashing green light inside the card next to one of the pressure plate things

Is that suppsosed to be flashing?

I'm also racking my brains trying to think of the usual dumb stuff that causes issues sometimes, like which DVI port I should be using (the card has 2) etc...

When I take it off and reseat it I'll see if I can find a screwdriver small enough to take off the cover hood.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

There is also a flashing green light inside the card next to one of the pressure plate things Is that suppsosed to be flashing?

No; its is not meant to flash [this "flashing" is made up of 3x small leds] one led for each component GPU1 master; GPU2 slave & {*AMD opts for its own ATI} PCI-Express splitter chip [this allows the GPUs to speak to each other and acts as an internal bridge
*Source - here

Note: the card would need to be sent back if in warranty

atb

Law-II

 

[RickyRozay]

There was some mild dust, not enough to cause any real issues as far as I'm concerned.

As for the flashing green light, I suspect this card is well out of warranty period as he got the PC pre-built years ago.

Any other suggestions, or am I SOL?

The green flashing light was on the 2nd GPU, I assume this is the slave as you saw in the video.

I assume I'm just best off disabling the slave and other than that, not much else I can do?

I disabled CrossfireX for GPU-Z using CCC, and the Render test was actually a lot smoother, although still jerky it is noticeably better than when using CrossfireX, meaning this is almost definitely a Crossfire problem (as well as the bus running at x1.0)

Unless someone knows how I can disable one of the GPU's in the BIOS of the card

 

[RickyRozay]

Just to let everyone know, I gave up in the end.

I flashed the BIOS to PowerColor (which is what the card actually is) for the slave, instead of the default ATI one chosen by Radeon Bios Editor, and for some reason that increased the PCI-E Speed to x4 on the Master and x8 on the slave, but in all honesty made absolutely no difference in performance. I'm back to my GTX460 1GB, running x16, however this is PCI-E 1.1 and not PCI-E 2.0

Thanks for all the help and advice from people

 

[Recca29]

On this forum we take stuff apart. Just messing with ya

he took it apart at the end.

 

[Pehla]

i had same problem with pcie bandwith on hd6950.. damn thing afther one day just work on x4 2.0
and i bought magnifing glas and then i notice a crack on one of the elektrolites just abowe pice blade!!
i took it to local fix all electronic guy and told him change this for me pls..., after that was replaced all worked fine
but those are realy small things...,so magnifiyng glas is a must
chek for phisical damage!! all over the card!!