Is my gpu dead or it is a firmware/bios problem ?

[ChiChi]

Hello I have PowerColor RX 470 Red Dragon 4GB with Hynix RAM
http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/21/05/30/e57.png
http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/21/05/30/r8q.png

I've recently bough it as a second hand GPU. It was probably used for mining. 99% the bis was flashed.
Visually there is nothing wrong with the PCB. The fans are spinning, the GPU is found in the Device Manager as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.

After few days of attempts to fix this old GPU I am still not sure if the problem is hardware or software.
With different bioses different situations occurs but the second display refuses to exit this sleeping mode.
Best situations so far (almost working):

Previous best - Older windows version + one of the bioses + any driver = nanominer detects the GPU but after few 0 Mh/s the miner just turns off (The display is still in sleeping mode)
Current best - Last windows 21H1 with all the updates + Asrock H81M-VG4 r3.0 BIOS 1.20 (Updated from 1.10) + THIS BIOS https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/185897/powercolor-rx470-4096-160731 and the result is... the device manager now knows its rx470 but there is a yellow triangle (code 43) and the display is still in sleep mode.

I have read a lot of topics and cant decide if the bios is not right, or the GPU is dead. I just do not know how to debug this situation.

PS: I am suspicious about one of the ram chips.

Thanks.

 

[Caring1]

Post pictures of the actual card, not links, with all stickers on the rear or box clearly visible.

 

[ChiChi]

Hi, this is it. I will upload a picture of the ram in a couple of hours.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

It honestly looks like a mining card.

If you want to know if youre running with the correct bios, Youre going to need to remove the cooler and give us some good pictures of the memory and the GPU die. Both of them will have numbers on them that will help us identify what card it is.

 

[ChiChi]

 

[Imperator]

Hello there
Here is the BIOS for your card.
Good luck

Powercolor RX 470 VBIOS

4 GB GDDR5, 1210 MHz GPU, 1650 MHz Memory

www.techpowerup.com

 

[ChiChi]

And it is not working with it. The PC do not post when I select it as a primary card in the mobo settings. But with this bios and older Windows version and random drovers I managed to remove the yellow mark. I even succeeded detecting the GPU in nanominer but the card didnt make any calculations and the program was terminated without me touching the PC.
If I do not explain everything this is bcs I triedn 10 drivers, 15 bioses, few Windows version - all with diferent results. But nothing was a complete success.

 

[Imperator]

BTW, did you enabled the compute in AMD drivers, in order to mine ?

 

[ChiChi]

No, with the latest windows AMD do not detect amd device or its not working properly.One more thing the fans are spinning during the boot and when windows starts they restart every 5-10 seconds (spin-stop-spin-stop....)

This is when the gpu is set as a secondary, when its primary there is no POST

 

[RadFX]

When you bios mod Rx series cards you are supposed to click 'no' when atiflash askes you to reboot, then run ati pixel clock patcher - https://sourceforge.net/projects/amd-ati-pixel-clock-patcher/ after it's done, reboot.

I had no troubles doing this with my Rx580s, but the Rx570 every time I have to re-install it I have to run the atu pixel clock pather otherwise I get the yellow mark code #43.

Also, there is this great little program - https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/device_cleanup_tool.html that you can clean the device manger which I have found to be helpful. Hopefully this helps.

 

[Imperator]

After you install atikmdag patcher please share with us the status of your card.
RadFX is right. I forgot to tell you about that patch - that is needed in order to fix pixel clock.
Cheers

 

[ChiChi]

Hello I just followed these steps
1. Flashed my bios with the one impero provided
2. Patched the values with ati pixel
3. Safe mode - uninstalling drivers with DDU and amdcleanuputility
4. Boot up normally
5. When I try to install drivers I have to repeat step 3. Because of Thread stuck in device driver and no way to boot in normal mode because of this

EDIT: this monitor shows up when my integrated graphic card is in use, not the AMD which also makes me believe this is a software conflict.
EDIT 2: Windows auto updates installed the driver, I was able to check the Dev Mgmt and there was no yellow triangle but 10 seconds after the installation was completed - BSOD Thread stuck in device driver and windows roll back the drivers...

 

[_ALB_R3D X]

I've a similar issue as of late,but my card a reference 5700xt would boot,show a black screen and leds on the side would randomly go up and shut off.
I was pretty sure it was a psu going eol bit the problem was some signal from the monitor to the gpu not returnig as it should.
My solution was deleting some regedit entries as shown here : https://community.amd.com/t5/driver...stall-black-screen-no-signal-can-t/m-p/233782

Hope this helps

 

[ChiChi]

Thanks for the advice but Its similar but not actually, because my PC do not POST with this gpu.. I tried to delete these regs but windows didnt allowed so, so one more attempt to auto update
Result - fans stop to spin just beofre windows boot up, and this old tv screen. I have to uninstall the drivers with DDU and try something else again...

 

[_ALB_R3D X]

While your drivers are uninstalled does it let you boot normally?
If so,enter safe mode and delete those reg keys,that did it for me!
I even changed my psu because I was 100% sure that the problem was there,but it was just some software glitch.
i remember now that when I booted normaly(black screen) and I didnt touch anything,the card went into some kind of sleep mode,fan off,side led off then it would restart by itself but again go into this kind of sleep state.
It takes a lot of patience to own an amd card...

 

[Naki]

I think they guy you got the card from was not totally honest with you, and sold you a non-working, faulty card.
IMHO no special magics will fix it, card is dead.

 

[Imperator]

Naki, you could be right.
But...there is always a chance that the old owner has flashed a wrong BIOS in it so the new owner have to dig....in order to restore the old glory for the card.
Don't kill his will to restore it.
Cheers

 

[ChiChi]

I am OK with the idea the gpu is dead, but how to tell for sure... why with 1 bios its recognised in windows with another it is not... its always with yellow mark though.

 

[Imperator]

To be honest could be the memory controller.
I also have 1 card with the same situation. Error 43 with that yellow triangle.
So in my case i think it is at hardware level.
In your case you should dig further in order to declare it dead.
Good luck mate

 

[ChiChi]

Unfortunatelly there is no guide fo how to debug a GPU..

 

[Imperator]

Also true. Al you have to do is to dig the web for further technical details.
At least that is what i am doing when i want to repair something

 

[ChiChi]

If I find sth I will post it here.

 

[ChiChi]

Hello folks
Nothing new under the sun. But I just could not find my PCB on google so I will post it if sbdy needs it. And my question is if u can tell me which components to check with multimiter and what values to look for. I am an enthusiast dont tell me its not possible please. I have seen multiple youtube videos but none for this model gpu so... thanks in advance

POWERCOLOR RX 470 RED DRAGON PCB

I will do my RDBM Homework and hopefully when I come back I will find the savier's comment. Wohoo

 

[Imperator]

 

[ChiChi]

You said to dig, so I am digging