Looking for Ideas

Aastii

Aastii

VIP Member
I think my video card may have some kind of problem, but before I go and spend out on a new one, or try to repair/RMA it, wanted to see if any of you had any ideas.

Card is Sapphire HD3870.

Since a couple days ago I've been having my computer hang and restart, maybe 2 thirds of the time with a BSOD which either has no message, or has a "video memory management" message. It only seems to happen when I am gaming, it has happened once or twice while not, but it happens most frequently when gaming, usually within a few minutes of starting.

I know it isn't my temps because it doesn't just restart or shut down, it has the error, that and my temps on HW manager are normal for my CPU, GPU and HDD.

I took off my overclocks because I was thinking they may be the problem, however even at stock speeds, it still happens. I ran memtest and it flagged nothing up, ran prime 95 without overclocks on and it was fine for ~2 hours, did full system scan with Avast which flagged up nothing. Uninstalled/reinstalled my video drivers, which did nothing to help it, so I am thinking it is the hardware itself rather than any software, as I haven't changed any software.

Only other thing I could think of would be to back up everything and format, see if it was in fact a software conflict and that sorts it. Any ideas are appreciated :)
 
I'm not pretending to be an expert here, but it's probably the hardware that's playing up if you've done all those software fixes. RMA it if you can. Alternatively, Bake it:D

Maybe your due an upgrade ;)
 
fastdude101 said:
I'm not pretending to be an expert here, but it's probably the hardware that's playing up if you've done all those software fixes. RMA it if you can. Alternatively, Bake it:D

Maybe your due an upgrade ;)
Click to expand...

RMAing may be a problem because of it being second hand, but I can probably BS them.

I doubt baking will help much because the card isn't artifacting or not showing anything, it is just acting up sometimes.

As to an upgrade, I agree, but I'm not made of money, and for the minute, it is still a great card, I can play any game out now on low-medium settings.

I tried OCing it a little, just for giggles, and surprisingly, it hasn't crashed since I posted this, so, I am not holding my breath, but it may have sorted it for some very strange reason
 
can you furmark the card and see if it starts to flip out? and possibly have you tried pulling the card and reseating it? stupider things can happen sometimes
 
Well if it' still bad and you can RMA, you wouldn't get a 3870 back it's too old. Sapphire still makes a 4670, which is around the same performance, or if you get super awesome lucky they might send you a 5670.
 
FuryRosewood said:
can you furmark the card and see if it starts to flip out? and possibly have you tried pulling the card and reseating it? stupider things can happen sometimes
Click to expand...

Already ran 36 marks 06 and it handled it fine. As to reseating it, I will leave that as a last resort, if it wasn't seated properly, problems would be alot more frequent than they are and more sporadic.

87dtna said:
Well if it' still bad and you can RMA, you wouldn't get a 3870 back it's too old. Sapphire still makes a 4670, which is around the same performance, or if you get super awesome lucky they might send you a 5670.
Click to expand...

That is what I was hoping, but if they asked for proof of purchase, I would be screwed. I think the Sapphire warranty is only 3 years, so I would have to tell a little porky pie because I am not the first owner and (Linkin can confirm, as I bought it off him) I think it is over 3 years old.

I thought I had a bad CPU sensor because when doing 3d marks, it didn't go over 29, so I ran prime 95 again, and it did the same. Put a small overclock on (only to 3.0GHz, so raised the multi by 1) and it went up to 31, so I think it is just because the clocks are so low, so that isn't a problem.

I think I may have also started this thread prematurely, because I haven't had the problem since putting my small overclock on my card, so why exactly that helped, I really do not know, I would have thought the opposite would happen and my system become more unstable rather than stable :confused:. Will see how it goes and if it happens again I will post back
 
is it maybe the automatic underclocking done by ccc? i think it is like 157/300 or something like that. i remember reading people were having trouble with error messages and stuff. maybe the overclocking prevented the auto underclocking? not sure if the 3870 even does that though.
 
joh06937 said:
is it maybe the automatic underclocking done by ccc? i think it is like 157/300 or something like that. i remember reading people were having trouble with error messages and stuff. maybe the overclocking prevented the auto underclocking? not sure if the 3870 even does that though.
Click to expand...

You have got it I think.

My core clock is at 300MHz now, rather than 825MHz (50 higher than stock) which it is sat at. However, it is still on, so why exactly it isn't causeing any issues now is completely beyond me
 
What drivers are you running?

If it's the latest 10.6, perhaps go back to like 10.3 or so. Maybe drivers are starting to be emphasized more toward the newer chips and because of that the older ones don't work right anymore.
 
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