2 PowerColor 4850 PCS dead in a week!!!!

[pigo1973]

I recently bought Powercolor 4850 PCS 512Mb.
I installed the card, installed the drivers, everything worked fine.
After 1 hour, LCD screen went black; fan on card went to full speed.
I restarted my computer and nothing was shown on the screen, in fact there was not a POST or boot process.
Fans were running on CPU and case, but fan on graphic card was not running.

I replaced card at retail store where I bought the first one.

I went through same process of installation... again everything worked fine.
After 3 days same thing happened. Black screen, fan on graphic card went to full speed, after restart card was dead!

I'm afraid that I could have problems with retail store, since this is a second graphic card that I RMA in a week!

My components are:

CPU: E8400
MBO: Gigabyte P35-DS3R
RAM: 4 x 1GB Corsair DDR2 1066 Dominator
PSU: Corsair 520HX - 520W
LCD: Dell 1905FP over DVI
OS: Win XP SP2 (clean install)

Nothing was overclocked or modify in any way.
Case is well ventilated with 2 x 120mm vents (+ one on PSU)

Note:
Before Powercolor 4850 PCS I had Sapphire 4850 Dula-slot fan for 2 weeks and there wasn't any problems.
But it was too loud, so i replaced it with PowerColor!! (talk about bad move)


Any suggestions what is going wrong here??

 

[Fitseries3]

Psu.

 

[pigo1973]

As I said...

Corsair 520HX - 520W

 

[Fitseries3]

no no... you need a bigger psu.

 

[Wozzer]

I think he means your PSU is your problem. It doesnt seem to be that powerfull........

 

[mullered07]

ive had my powercolor 4850 for about 2-3 months now, although its not the pcs version, and you have the corsair hx520w which is more than capable of powering 2 of those cards let alone 1, cause i would of looked at the psu first, are all the voltages stable for the psu, corsair's are the best psu's you can get but they can also fail although rarely

 

[pigo1973]

That's bulls**it... (sorry)

Seriously....
520 W is just fine...
Before 4850 I had 3870 which is same thing if you look in power consumption department.

I tested my system with power meter and it spend 260-270W in peak!!

So 520W is fine, especially Corsair 520W.

 

[Fitseries3]

there are 2 things to consider about PSU's though. wattage and amperage.

i 600watt psu with only 12amps on the 12v rail is garbage for the stuff we have in our computers.

you need to have 18amps or more on a rail.

 

[mullered07]

no no... you need a bigger psu.

rubbish a hx520w is plenty enough for 1 4850, UNLESS its failing, but he doesnt need a bigger one for that setup

 

[pigo1973]

you need to have 18amps or more on a rail.

Corsair 520HX has a 18A on 12V rail.

http://www.corsair.com/products/hx.aspx

So, lets look at something else here....

 

[mullered07]

Corsair 520HX has a 18A on 12V rail.

http://www.corsair.com/products/hx.aspx

So, lets look at something else here....

actually 3x18a 12v rails

have you checked on the voltages your getting on all the rails tho on the rare chance it might be failing ? not heard of many corsairs dying but there are always exceptions

 

[pigo1973]

I will, but as I said before, I had Sapphire 4850 Dual-Slot fan edition, for 2 weeks and everything was running fine...
Now I borrowed a nVidia 9800GT from my friend which is also a 115W card in peak consumption and again no problem...
So I really doubt that this is a PSU issue ... but I will check voltages.

 

[twicksisted]

actually 3x18a 12v rails

have you checked on the voltages your getting on all the rails tho on the rare chance it might be failing ? not heard of many corsairs dying but there are always exceptions

That corsair should run that system, fine... but if one of the 12v rails gets overloaded it could cause this problem which is why im also led to believe its psu related.

Make sure that you have the graphics card on its own 12v rail and the rest of the components on the other rails, this will ensure that you arent overloading a rail which is causing the psu to break these cards.

 

[pigo1973]

Make sure that you have the graphics card on its own 12v rail and the rest of the components on the other rails, this will ensure that you arent overloading a rail which is causing the psu to break these cards.

Off course I run my graphic cards on its own 12V rail.
Also this is modular PSU, so there is no way you can have a graphic card and something else on one rail.
And one more time... Sapphire 4850 ran for 2 weeks and didn't die...
9800GT is running now for a week and no problem...

 

[mullered07]

That corsair should run that system, fine... but if one of the 12v rails gets overloaded it could cause this problem which is why im also led to believe its psu related.

Make sure that you have the graphics card on its own 12v rail and the rest of the components on the other rails, this will ensure that you arent overloading a rail which is causing the psu to break these cards.

its modular and afaik the pcie connector should be on its own rail even so rails work together to power whatevers on them, or we wouldnt have psu's with multiple rails as this would be pointless anyway with regards to high end rigs. it shouldnt be an issue with a corsair hx520w, there one of the best psu's available, talking as a previous owner and many many people on here will say that aswell UNLESS the psu is defective, its not the problem period!

Off course I run my graphic cards on its own 12V rail.
Also this is modular PSU, so there is no way you can have a graphic card and something else on one rail.
And one more time... Sapphire 4850 ran for 2 weeks and didn't die...
9800GT is running now for a week and no problem...

at least were both on the same track here

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

Corsair 520HX is plenty, did u check your temps on your 4850, or the rest of your system, cause we all know the pcb layout of the 4850, or just like the old 3850's. i owned two of them, they sucked ass, they over heated like a stuff pig, so i took them back, i but my self 2 8800gt's no problems as of yet

 

[pigo1973]

Corsair 520HX is plenty, did u check your temps on your 4850, or the rest of your system, cause we all know the pcb layout of the 4850, or just like the old 3850's. i owned two of them, they sucked ass, they over heated like a stuff pig, so i took them back, i but my self 2 8800gt's no problems as of yet

Temps were OK... 56 in idle, 63 in full load.
PCS did its job very well, but pcb was hot on touch.

I will also take something else... maybe nVidia this time..

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

hd 3850/4850 suck for stock cooling, hd3870/4870 are alot better

 

[pigo1973]

hd 3850/4850 suck for stock cooling, hd3870/4870 are alot better

PCS is not stock
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_4850_PCS/images/card1.jpg

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

dont matter man its not a oem ati cooler and its still stock from power color, for example i installed a zalman VF900-Cu vga cooler, on my sapphire hd3850, even then, my temps only went down a bit. i mean getting a aftermarket cooler will help but they still run hot ethier way unless u water block

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

just live with it let it burn out, its on warranty its ati fault in the first place to manufacturer 3850/4850 that have over heating problems in the first place, by rma your card back to them is teaching them a lesson, make better gpu's, in the first place

 

[mullered07]

just live with it let it burn out, its on warranty its ati fault in the first place to manufacturer 3850/4850 that have over heating problems in the first place, by rma your card back to them is teaching them a lesson, make better gpu's, in the first place

just live with it? wow im gonna be that harsh when ur system spontaneously combusts lol

make better gpu's in the first place? lol fanboi comment if ever i saw one

even certain top range nv cards have had heat problems, just cause you own one doesnt make them the best

and btw the gpu isnt the problem, infact ati have done a better job at nvidia this time round with that certain gpu your talking about and are enjoying the sales because of it i highly doubt its down to the cooling on both cards as they had better than ref cooling on them

and its NOT a stock powercolor cooler either, they use ati reference cooling as stock, this is meant to provide better cooling

but some people will postwhore, what can ya do ?

 

[The_Real_DeaL31]

ether way there coolers suck big apples btw i owned a asus hd3850 and a sapphire hd3850 with the exact same color just a different sticker, they still stunk. Ati or third party manufactures dont tell the public that there cards are set at 20% fan speed, and if u dont manual set the fans speeds higher, then these cards run toasty, like 80 to 100c at load, which is stupid

 

[Muhad]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4850-2-gb-gddr3-review/4

 

[pigo1973]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4850-2-gb-gddr3-review/4

What's your point.

Test system is almost the same...
Power consumption was 325 under full load!!
I have a good 520W.

Please, read this ... this is a very good article on PSUs and power consumption.
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3413

also this...

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

Today I tested 12V rail and they working perfectly....