For those with Sapphire HD4890 Vapor-X issues...

[Addicted]

Hi all,

GG over at VGAforums has made a post regarding issues with the Sapphire Vapor-X card. This refers to the boot issue where the card sits with fan @ 100% and displays no image.

It has been identified in cards with the following SKU/PN so far:
SKU#11150-05 // P/N:288-1E115-020SA

Can people with this problem please post either here or in the VGA forums sticky (http://www.vgaforum.com/showthread.php?p=141572#post141572) with purchase details of their cards, including purchase date, retailer and location.

For example mine was:
Purchased 8/7/09 from the ComputerLounge online store based in Auckland, New Zealand.

This will help Sapphire know how wide-spread the issue is.

If there are people with the same problem, but different SKU/PN numbers, can they post these numbers as well.

If you are experiencing this issue, contact your retailer for an RMA.

Regards.

 

[warlock]

I have the same card and I suspect a conflict with my X-Fi extreme gamer. I installed an old pci video card so I could access my system, for some reason this seemed to interfere with my sound card. Although this fixed my new 4890. When I tried to reinstall my sound card, the 4890 stopped working and the fan on the video card maxed out. I removed the sound card again and everything went back to normal.
P.S. I purchased it from Newegg on 7/15 Item #: N82E16814102841

 

[warlock]

After last post I uninstalled the creative drivers, went back to on board sound. Installed an old pci tuner card into pci slot to see if it would have any effect, Everything works fine and vista was looking for drivers for the tuner card. So I installed the X-fi it booted fine and vista wants drivers for that also. Now after reinstalling the creative drivers black screen and high fan speed again. uninstalled the X-fi and everything's back to normal again! seems to be a driver conflict.

 

[dyermaker]

i also have a sapphire card with this issue.. serial and pn checks out (SKU#11150-05 // P/N:288-1E115-020SA). when i first installed the card, the fan was maxed out like the guy before me said. at first i thought it was an issue with my onboard vga (ati hd3200) .. i eventually got the other card installed by booting into windows with onboard and no power cables attached to the sapphire... installed software, changed bios to use PCI and disabled onboard. rebooted.. same problem again. i changed power cables around, disconnected my 2 case fans, dvdrw drive and the power to my creative audigy soundcard.. that seemed to work. in troubleshooting, i thought one of my fans was now the culprit.. until i tried connecting the dvd drive and got the same problem again. (grrR) so i turned to google and found this thread... which gave me some heart cause at least then i knew something else was going on. seeing as i had an audigy in there as well, i removed it completely from the motherboard and that seemed todo the trick. i now have all case fans and my dvdrw connected. however, just this morning i powered on.. the sapphires fan was maxed out again, i power cycled like 3 times quickly until i heard the fan whirring at low speed (thats when you know its worked). so i guess the problem has not been fixed completely.. not to mention i like to use my audigy for dj'ing with traktor, am stuck with my crappy onboard realtek for now. i opened a support ticket with sapphire before the weekend (i also pointed them to this thread btw). got a reply this morning.. this is what they said..

Dear Sir :
Please help to read our warranty policy here at first - http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/support/?cid=3&psn=000203

Then prepare your receipt and contact your reseller to go RMA process.

Thanks.

no mention of what the problem actually is or anything.. just to RMA the board.. have you lot made any progress since? im posting my sys specs below anyway, it might help..

Phenom XII 710 x3
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H (rev.1.1)
2GB Crucial 8500 CL5 DDR2 1066mhz unganged
X-Power GTX Light 580W PSU
Samsung Syncmaster 957p CRT

 

[Dreadnought33]

Damn, I have that same problem, only I thought it was the MB with a cold boot problem. I have a Spphire HD4890 1 GB VaporX with the same SKU and Part numbers and, as you say, when the system starts, the VGA sits there doing nothing with its cooler at max speed.

I also have an XFi card, athough from Auzentech, not Creative.

I bought mine from Coolmod, in Spain, 24-07-09.

What a peacefull upgrade I'm having this time

 

[Deleted member 24505]

That GG mod is a tool.

Dont disagree with him on that forum or he'll ban ya.

 

[dyermaker]

Dreadnought33: have you tried removing the xfi?

 

[Dreadnought33]

No, I haven't. Up until today didn't know that the cold boot problem was VGA related nor that an XFi could be a part of that problem. I'll try it tomorrow but, even if it works, it isn't a good solution for my problem because I want to be able to use both the VGA and the sound card. But be assured that I'll try that and tomorrow I'll comment my results here.

 

[dyermaker]

i hear ya.. i would like to be able to use my soundcard as well. what kind of juice does your powersupply give as a matter of interest? i might try and fiddle with irq settings later or something i dunno. if all else fails i could rma for an asus gefore 275 for 5 euro more.

 

[Dreadnought33]

As PSU I have a Corsair HX1000W. I have heard that this PSU are somewhat noisy on their rails but I've had this unit for almost a year, powering a Sapphire Radeon HD4870 and never had any problems.

Anyway, I have already contacted the vendor and I hope I can get a new VGA soon.

 

[erocker]

Have any of you with this problem tried to uninstall the ATi HDMI audio driver to see if that is the problem?

 

[Dreadnought33]

No, I didn't think of that. But, anyway, the problem is not Windows related but hardware related, so uninstalling the HDMI Audio Driver I don't think would solve the cold boot issue imho

 

[erocker]

A boot issue could very well happen with an IRQ conflict.

 

[Dreadnought33]

Sorry, but I'm lost right there. I know that when the board starts, it assigns IRQ to all the components which are connected to it, am I right?? I was told a very long time ago to install propietary sound cards in the last PCI slot, because it's the one usually doesn't give IRQ conflicts, although I've never known why (but has worked up until now).

So, if the problem is an IRQ conflict, maybe it can be solved changing the audio card to another PCe slot, maybe more if we bear in mind that mine is in a PCe x16 slot, I don't really know if this has something to do with this issue or not. But I fail to see how uninstalling the HDMI Audio Driver from the VGA could solve this problem. I mean, if you could deactivate that sound card in the VGA, maybe it could work, but the drivers... I don't know, I'm probably quite tired and I fail to see your reasoning; or maybe I'm too dumb to understand it, which could also be quite possible. And I'm not being sarcastic, ok

 

[dyermaker]

erocker: are you suggesting the ati hdmi driver could somehow be conflicting with a pci soundcard? ive been reading up and im a bit confused by this whole hdmi passthrough on the ati cards. im using onboard sound atm via Realtek ALC889A.. when i first installed that, i also installed realteks driver that came with the motherboard which included microsofts UAA bus driver. with my creative audigy installed and onboard disabled i had the symptoms mentioned above (sytem booted but with blank blinking monitor, fan maxed out on the sapphire). in device manager at present i have 'ATI HDMI Audio' and 'Realtek High Definition Audio'.

 

[grunt_408]

So help me out here is this problem with all Vapor-x 4890's or just some. I only ask as I have one on the way and waiting for on my refrence sapphire 4890 RMA so I can get it exchanged to anotherr vapor-x . I have a XFI xtreme gamer looks like I may well run into trouble here. BTW I did read the first post. But could there be two seprate issues? one driver related and the other BIOS related?

 

[dyermaker]

we dont really know whats causing it.. so far i guess you could say, as in the first post and my own card.. it seems to affect cards with this SKU/PN: SKU#11150-05 // P/N:288-1E115-020SA
i use xp sp3 as well whether or not that makes a difference. i dont see anything bios related unless its an irq problem which ill try to investigate.. drivers dont seem to be the problem.

 

[Blacklash]

Try running MSconfig and disabling the service CTHelper. It's been notorious for causing all kind of problems in the past. It's a Creative service installed with the driver.

I remember a while ago this service could cause some CPUs to peg at 100 load and not drop.

 

[dyermaker]

thanks but i use kxproject drivers anyway. i suspected my power supply might not be upto scratch @ 580w because i did manage to get the system to boot eventually with my audigy (although same problem when i hooked up my dvd drive) but someone here has a 1,000w corsair so...

 

[Addicted]

From what I know it is a hardware fault on that batch of cards, I have sent mine in for an RMA and my retailer has said that the entire batch was recalled so I have to wait for new stock to arrive in the country to get my replacement.

 

[grunt_408]

got mine today looks like the box has been opened at some stage:shadedshu

SKU# 11150-05-41R
PN 288-1E115-020SA
will be testing soon to see how it goes.

 

[Losang]

I've got the same problem with my vapor x with that sku/pn

oddly enough I try it in my friends pc and it works fine.

Must be conflicting with my system somehow

Bought 28/7/09 from pccasegear.com in melbourne

 

[grunt_408]

I've got the same problem with my vapor x with that sku/pn

oddly enough I try it in my friends pc and it works fine.

Must be conflicting with my system somehow

Bought 28/7/09 from pccasegear.com in melbourne

I got mine from the same store have not tried it out yet waiting for my i7 gear to arrive tomorow

BTW @ Losang welcome to TPU

 

[dyermaker]

i have decided to return my card and start the RMA process.

 

[grunt_408]

That sucks mon. I hope this isssue is not too widespread I was looking forward to a nice the silant cooling. (The standard cooler is too loud for me) .