XFX 5870 HD GSOD help needed - Tried RMA

[Braefost]

Hello,

I built my PC from scratch on the 31st of January this year, and since the day of assembly I've been having frequent yet random crashes (GSOD's) in all gaming applications. These have ranged from relatively low tasking applications such as World of Warcraft, to much more demanding games such as Crysis and Shogun 2. Nonetheless, given a length of time this will happen every single time I play a game, windowed mode and full-screen, settings low and high. My PC specs are:

i5 2500k CPU @3.3Ghz Sandy Bridge
Corsair 4GB RAM @1333Mhz
800W PSU
XFX HD 5870 1GB
Asus P67 Pro Motherboard
HAF Mid-tower Case

Only items not bought from Scan.co.uk was the PSU and the HDD. Everything else bought from Scan.co.uk


The crash cannot happen on demand i.e. at a set time in a game, sometimes happening 5 minutes into playing or 2+ hours. I've taken countless measures to troubleshoot the issue:

-Clean sweeping drivers and rolling back to earlier versions.

-Installing the hotfixes for the GSOD problem.

-Replaced my PSU (although that was because of another issue regarding a faulty switch)

-Tried a different monitor

-Changed settings in my CCC

-Swapped cards with a friend who has the exact same model, clock speed and vendor 1GB XFX HD Radeon 5870 (which worked perfectly for two weeks with no issues whatsoever)

-Changing game's graphics settings that the error occurs in

-Tried to find the error code in Windows

-Using a different SATA port on the motherboard for the card

-Changing windows power options

-Changing screen resolution

-Placing RAM in a different channel

-Reinstalling Windows twice and reinstalling all associated motherboard and graphics card drivers
from the support discs.

-Reviewing and checking all BIOS settings are set to default values. This includes making sure voltage, RAM and CPU settings are all at default as well as all timings are at auto.

-I have NOT touched AMD overdrive and/or overclocked any component of my system to higher than stock speeds.

-IMPORTANT- And even returned the card to XFX and the testing company for an RMA which, after a month of testing was returned to me with 'no fault found.'

It has NEVER happened when not in a game, i.e. browsing the internet, watching YouTube videos etc.
The issue is the well known coloured vertical stripes, although sometimes the display driver does manage to close the application before it happens.

I would greatly appreciate any help or advice anyone can give me because at the moment I am completely stumped by this issue and cannot see where to go from here apart from to abandon my GFX card and buy a new one, which is obviously not the most cost effective method to tackling this issue
I cannot seem to find the error codes that are made when my system GSODs, so if someone could point out where I could find them then that information would too be greatly appreciated

Also, if you require any more information please do not hesitate to let me know.

Thanks a lot,
Braefost (Jake)


P.S. I am currently in the process of returning my motherboard to Asus as part of their affected Sandy Bridge recall.

P.P.S. My monitor is connected to the system via VGA cable with a VGA-DVI adapter provided with the graphics card if that is of any significance. I have tried both ports in the back of my system to no avail.

[PowerPie5000]

I'm not sure i would trust that PSU to be honest (i checked it's specs). It doesn't even specify the wattage for the +12V rails. It's got dual +12V rails with only 20A on each which seems a bit weak for a 750W PSU (and compared to my 600W Cooler Master PSU that can output upto 48A on a single +12V rail...). I would recommend trying another (quality) PSU before assuming anything else in the system is at fault, just my 2 cents

[Braefost]

Thanks for the suggestion. Sorry for the confusion, my mistake, I posted the wrong PSU on my system specs. Its corrected now, an 800W PSU from Scan.co.uk, so it couldn't be the Arianet brand as they are exclusive to their site, I'll try and find a link to it.

[Phage]

There are a number of fixes for GSOD. These usually are solved by downclocking the card in CCC, or a new BIOS, as I did,
http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...sod-issue.html
or installing mobo drivers per this thread.
http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...hd-5870-a.html

[Braefost]

Thanks for the links I'll check them out. By how much would I need to downclock the card by in CCC, baring in mind I'm not using the XXX 5870, just the normal one. I installed the latest ASUS BIOS today (version 1503) but I don't really know how to flash my ATI BIOS update which I downloaded. I have a formatted USB stick but don't know how to use it with EZ-flash

[Phage]

Unknown depends on the card. I would take it all the way down to the minimum, then gradually increase the clocks until it starts to crash. This way you should be able to find the highest freq that the card will support.

[sadbuttrue]

Install msi afterburner. Current latest:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=341585

Goto settings and unlock voltage control. As you aren't overclocking you have no need to mess with the voltage, but I think the setting is required for the following to work properly.

Close afterburner, add this to the .cfg file and restart it:

[ATIADLHAL]
UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 2

The value of 2 above disables powerplay. It has been my experience that powerplay is an evil and poorly implemented feature that causes more problems than it solves. Note that disabling it will increase power consumption, fan speed and heat.

[Braefost]

Goto settings and unlock voltage control. As you aren't overclocking you have no need to mess with the voltage, but I think the setting is required for the following to work properly.

Close afterburner, add this to the .cfg file and restart it:

[ATIADLHAL]
UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 2

The value of 2 above disables powerplay. It has been my experience that powerplay is an evil and poorly implemented feature that causes more problems than it solves. Note that disabling it will increase power consumption, fan speed and heat.

Would I be able to re-enable powerplay by just deleting this code if things go wrong?

[Phage]

Thanks for the links I'll check them out. By how much would I need to downclock the card by in CCC, baring in mind I'm not using the XXX 5870, just the normal one. I installed the latest ASUS BIOS today (version 1503) but I don't really know how to flash my ATI BIOS update which I downloaded. I have a formatted USB stick but don't know how to use it with EZ-flash

I have a nice set of PDF instructions if you want to PM me an email address.

[Braefost]

That would be really helpful thanks, I downloaded the XFX ATI PDF file which tells me how to flash it but on the new ASUS BIOS its different.

[Phage]

It's the XFX instrcutions that I have. Shouldn't be too different though.