4870 trouble (black screen, crazy RPM)

[painkiller10]

In desperate need of help here. My newly built computer was working fine yesturday, I went on today and checked the temps of the card and was supprised at the high temps I was getting, so I decided to up the fan speed to 41%. About 10 minutes after I did this I lost signal and the fan started making an extremely loud noise (sounded like a plane taking off) Now whenever I turn on my PC all I get it is a black screen and this very loud fan noise as a greeting.

I have tried switching monitors but that does not seem to do anything, probably something wrong with the card but I'm not sure.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[AdamAnubis]

What were the temps it was running at?

[Noxvayl]

The HD4870 is normally pretty hot, compared to what we would normally expect to be hot. 70-80 degree's is normal for those cards. They only overheat at 110 degree's which is far beyond what we deem too hot.

You should try un-installing the drivers and then installing them again, there have been problems with the fan speeds and it seemed to be a driver issue from what I have read.

If that doesn't work try taking the card out of the slot and placing it in the second PCI-E slot(if you have a second one). That should force windows to reassign drivers which hopefully will sort out the problem.

[painkiller10]

The HD4870 is normally pretty hot, compared to what we would normally expect to be hot. 70-80 degree's is normal for those cards. They only overheat at 110 degree's which is far beyond what we deem too hot.

You should try un-installing the drivers and then installing them again, there have been problems with the fan speeds and it seemed to be a driver issue from what I have read.

If that doesn't work try taking the card out of the slot and placing it in the second PCI-E slot(if you have a second one). That should force windows to reassign drivers which hopefully will sort out the problem.

May sound like a dumb question but - how can I uninstall the drivers when I can't see anything on the monitor? :S

As for changing card slots, I'll give it ago.

[AdamAnubis]

If your motherboard has onboard graphics If not, borrow a mates graphics card or use a spare one

[Noxvayl]

If your motherboard has onboard graphics If not, borrow a mates graphics card or use a spare one

What AdamAnubis said

I always like to have a spare option available in case something goes wrong, either a different GFX card or onboard GFX.

[painkiller10]

Ok thanks guys, got my hands on a mates old card so going to give it ago today.

Where are the drivers stored on the PC and how would I go about removing them?

Cheers.

[Pob255]

You should find it in the control pannel, add / remove programs
ATi did a good ati driver cleaner as well, here it is https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206...ninstaller.exe

[painkiller10]

Well I installed a 8600GT, booted and left the PC uninstalling the drivers, I come back and BAM, black screen.

So dunno WTF is going on. Mobo is to blame?

EDIT: PC doesn't seem to be booting at all. Weird as it booted a few minutes ago.

[Noxvayl]

What are you system specs? As much detail as you can for your spec would be helpful specially with the Power Supply.

I think its possible to be a fault on the motherboard... need to check on a few details though.

When the PC was on the black screen were the fans running? Ie is power still being supplied to your machine?

When you turn your PC on now does it attempt to start or does nothing happen at all?

Have you tried putting the HD4870 card back into your computer? If not try that and let us know what happens with regard to the above questions.

The more detail you can give on the problem the better for us diagnosing

[painkiller10]

What are you system specs? As much detail as you can for your spec would be helpful specially with the Power Supply.

I think its possible to be a fault on the motherboard... need to check on a few details though.

When the PC was on the black screen were the fans running? Ie is power still being supplied to your machine?

When you turn your PC on now does it attempt to start or does nothing happen at all?

Have you tried putting the HD4870 card back into your computer? If not try that and let us know what happens with regard to the above questions.

The more detail you can give on the problem the better for us diagnosing

Specs:

Intel Quad core 4GB Q6600
Corsair 4GB DDR2 800mhz RAM
Seagate 500GB hard drive
Samsung 22X DVD drive
Sapphire HD 4870 512mb GDDR5 Graphics card/Inno3D 8600 Graphics Card
Asus P5Q Pro Motherboard
Corsair 520W PSU
Arctic cooling 7 processor cooler

1. Yes, for the 4870,the fans were still running when I was on the black screen

2. Now, when I turned on with the side open all I could see happening was the fans going, other than that it does not seem to be doing anything else

3. I will put the 4870 back in now.

EDIT: Just put the 4870 back in, same as 2.

[Noxvayl]

Sounds like a Motherboard fault.

If it was driver related changing the GFX would of easily solved the issue. If it was the PSU it would continue to reboot plus the 8600 wouldn't of had a problem since it uses far less power than the HD4870. The memory normally gives out errors in the form of BSOD's not black screens. It could also be the CPU but without it coming on you can't really test... If you have a second motherboard to try your CPU and memory in that should tell you without any doubts whether the motherboard is to blame but as it stands I think the motherboard is the most likely cause.

[painkiller10]

I just put the 8600 into the other graphics card slot and it is working fine now. Other slot must not be working properly, will try the 4870 in the other slot aswell and see if that does it.

[Noxvayl]

I just put the 8600 into the other graphics card slot and it is working fine now. Other slot must not be working properly, will try the 4870 in the other slot aswell and see if that does it.

Thought you tried that before when I first suggested it... its pretty obvious its a fault with the motherboard if the second slot works fine

At least your PC is working now... sure a quick RMA can easily be arranged as you said your system is new. Hopefully you get a new board pretty soon

[painkiller10]

Put the card in the second slot when I had removed all previous drivers, installed the Vista hotfix.

4870 ran FINE for around 4 hours, Just shut down and switched it back on and its back to black screen etc. again.



****ing annoying..

[Noxvayl]

Does it still give you a black screen with the first slot?

Did you use the new Catalyst 8.7 drivers?

Try using the card in the first slot again... if it works for a while you know its a driver problem and not your hardware. Best thing to do in this situation, because you don't know what exactly has caused the problem, would be to format your hard drive(back up all your important files) and then install a fresh copy of Vista. This is the perfect solution for all driver errors and viruses but is only really used as a last resort if your not able to locate the source of the problem.

Personally I use DBAN to format my HDD because it's the most secure(basically means it gets rid of things a basic format would not). Use the automatic option

If the problem is not driver related... which at the moment I believe to be the most favourable option for the cause of the problem... then it could be hardware but I don't think its hardware because it works for short periods of time and then fails with each new hardware configuration you use. This indicates that the hardware works but some software is getting in the way somewhere along the line.

I hope you are able to format to see if my assumption is correct... not nice to have your new PC not working that's for sure.