Hey all, I've had a Radeon HD 4870 512MB in my computer since the summer of '08, just a few weeks after their release. It's been awesome for me in the 3 years I've had it, but I'm afraid it may be nearing the end of its life and was hoping you guys could help me. Until almost a month ago I was away at school since the summer, and didn't use my desktop much aside from winter break. Everything seemed to be going fine until a couple of days ago, when my monitor flickered back and forth between the picture and a black screen. It worried me a bit, however didn't surface again so I shrugged it off. Today however, I went to Hulu to watch a show when it started happening again. Because it's summer I thought that the card may have been getting too hot (despite the fact that it has run at 56C whenever it's on since I got the card), so I turned the fan up 15% just to ensure that it wasn't a heat issue. However, it's now running at 45C and I'm still having the issue. Something else I noticed is that there seems to be some graphical artifacting at the top of my Catalyst Control Center in the form of green blinking lines/lights. Additionally, I tried playing Doom 3 yesterday for the first time in a few years. however as soon as I start it I get a mixture of green artifacting and a flashing screen, however I assumed it was just a driver issue. The bizarre thing is that I've been playing other PC games lately such as Bulletstorm and GTA IV and have not had any issues like these, and if I try watching a show on Hulu or clips on places like MLB.com the issue goes away as soon as I exit. If you guys could help me out I'd really appreciate it.
Is my GPU failing?
- Thread starter haon8
- Start date
claptonman
New Member
Best thing to do is first do a fresh install of the current drivers. ie, remove the drivers you currently have, restart, install new ones, restart.
Is this something that you could demonstrate? Like, if you were to show someone, you could pull up hulu and it would start flickering? If so, find someone else's GPU you can borrow for a little and see if it still does the same thing.
Is this something that you could demonstrate? Like, if you were to show someone, you could pull up hulu and it would start flickering? If so, find someone else's GPU you can borrow for a little and see if it still does the same thing.
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This can't be an issue which affects all users of Hulu, MLB.com, and Doom 3. Either way, I don't have access to another GPU. However, you're right about the drivers. I'm downloading the newest ones and I'm going to uninstall the old ones. If the update doesn't fix my issue then I'll just switch over to my integrated graphics for a little while and see if I still have an issue.
Ok...awesome (not). I uninstalled the driver with the built-in application tool and then used Driver Sweeper to clean out the rest of the files, restarted, and I can't even get a signal to the monitor. The worst part is that I can't even see the BIOS boot screen to let me get in to set the BIOS defaults. I was able to get far enough to the startup process to see the Windows 7 startup screen, but it was completely corrupted (graphically), and as soon as I got to the log-in screen the monitor lost the signal. I guess the only way to see if I can fix it is reset the BIOS jumper...
Ugh, my worst fears have come to fruition. I reset the BIOS jumper in hopes that it would allow me to use the onboard graphics on my PC (I had previously disabled to to disallow any conflicts with my GPU), however when trying to start the computer now, with the monitor plugged either into the GPU or the onboard chip, I just get a black screen. I don't see the BIOS boot screen, nothing. To rub salt in the wound, I don't have access to another GPU (I sold my old one on Ebay last summer) to test it with, so as far as I know I'm pretty much shit out of luck. Do you guys have any other ideas, or am I going to need to RMA/order a new GPU?
Ok, a new development. After re-seating all of my hardware, I started the computer again, and after a painfully long time, it took me to the boot screen where it told me that the BIOS settings were incorrect (understandable, since I reset the jumper). During this time, the screen flickered another 2 or 3 times. I set everything to what it was at before, saved and restarted again. After another painful length of time, it took me to the desktop. I didn't waste any time and installed the latest drivers for my GPU, then restarted again. I waited (yet another painful length of time), and I heard the login noise after a few minutes, however the monitor stays blank. Ideas?
claptonman
New Member
Wow, this is quite a problem. Have you tried restarting in safe mode? I would try buying the cheapest GPU you can find and see what happens.
Ugh, do you think that that's the only solution? And as for safe mode...I'm continuously tapping F8 as soon as I start the computer and it's not working, but I can't be very precise about it since nothing appears on screen.
And do you honestly think a bad GPU would be the cause of a computer taking an eternity to boot to Windows?
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And the issues don't seem to stop. I put my GPU back into my computer (after removing it to check to see if I could get a signal with the onboard graphics, which didn't work), but now I can't even get the computer to start. When I hit the power button, the lights illuminate for about 1/4 of a second (GPU indicator lights, fan lights, etc), but then go out. The power button then doesn't work until I cycle the power again. The bizarre thing is that I recall having this issue before, but don't remember how I solved it.
Alright, well I think that I managed to find the issue. I have my PS3 and my PC going into an HDMI splitter (my PC using a DVI to HDMI cable), which then runs to my monitor from an HDMI to DVI cable. I think the cable that ran from the splitter to my monitor was bad, because I tested the PS3 this morning and while I got a signal to the monitor, it too was corrupted. I ran a DVI cable straight from my computer to the monitor and it seems to have fixed the issue, and the reason that my computer was no longer starting was because the power cable that leads to my sound card was improperly plugged in (having had to unplug it in order to remove my GPU). It's kind of sad that I spent this much time on a simple issue, but that's usually what I do when situations like this come up. I overlook the easiest possible solution. I tried Doom 3 and Hulu, neither of which cause flashing/corruption. There is also no corruption in CCC, so I think I'm good for now. Thanks for the help guys! All I need to do now is isolate which cable was problematic and replace it.