I'm getting VERY sick of this...

pretty sure it's hardware, overheat issue

i had that happen to me when i first installed my 4850 a few months ago, it was infrequent but the damn thing was just too hot, unscrewed the heatsink, redid the thermal paste, that worked well, then took off the plastic casing on the stock heatsink, zip tied 120mm fan to it, disabled the turbojet of a stock fan, and never had an issue.

was never oc'd.
 
Guitarrasdeamor said:
Alright, whenever I'm playing L4D, and this seems to be the usual game it happens in, but it has happened in GTA IV as well, my display driver stops responding. The frame stays on screen for a while, then goes off, then throws me back into the game with the little taskbar notification that it has recovered. Well, it just happened again, except this time EVERYTHING went black and white, forcing me to shutdown. I'm damn tired of this, and driver updates don't help it. Vista x64 Ultimate is what I'm using with 64x ATI drivers for my 4850. It's pissing me the fuck off, excuse my language, especially having that last one happen.

What is this?
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Overclocked card? How are the temps?

This is a GPU Recovery generally caused by a GPU that is operating outside specifications (overclocked or temperature).

It could also be a sign of a defective GPU that for one reason or another is now incapable of working at stock frequencies (assuming you did not overclock).
 
Guitarrasdeamor said:
Still idling at 68* right now with fan at 70%. With it at constant 100 it seemed to do it at 60*...I took it out and blew it off with air as well.
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kllrnohj said:
For comparison, my 4850 is idling at ~51C at 75% fan speed. I haven't blown it out or anything since I got it a year or so ago. I don't have any artifacts or driver crashing problems.
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Jesus Christ guys...

Do you have zero airflow in your cases? Or do you never clean them out?

I have the stock cooler on my HD4850 (ATI reference design single slot) sitting at 50% fan speed right now, and CCC is reporting 35C. My room is also 80 deg F (27C) because I don't turn on the air conditioning too often to save money.

As a reference, I have 3 120mm Scythe intake fans (running at half speed I might add), 1 120mm Scythe exhaust fan (half speed also), and 1 120mm PSU exhaust. Positive Air pressure and fan filters FTMFW!
 
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CaptNumbNutz said:
Do you have zero airflow in your cases? Or do you never clean them out? I have the stock cooler on my HD4850 (ATI reference design single slot) sitting at 50% fan speed right now, and CCC is reporting 35C. My room is also 80 deg F (27C) because I don't turn on the air conditioning too often to save money. As a reference, I have 3 120mm Scythe intake fans (running at half speed I might add), 1 120mm Scythe exhaust fan (half speed also), and 1 120mm PSU exhaust. Positive Air pressure and fan filters FTMFW!
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I like having a quieter system. At 75% fan speed the 4850 was by far the loudest fan in my system. It used to idle around 55C with the fan set to auto (so like 27% or whatever), so I probably should blow it out. Just haven't really cared all that much since I'm saving my pennies for a new build anyway. I only have 1x 120mm intake, 1x 120mm exhaust + the PSU exhaust (I think its 80mm).
 
Enable manual fan control
set fan to 31%
save profile/create shortcut to desktop (name it desktop) ((or u can use hot keys))
put fan to 58%
save profile/create shortcut to desktop (name it game) (( or u can use hot keys))

my ide @31% is 45C or less
my temp @58% never go over 80C
 
kllrnohj said:
I like having a quieter system. At 75% fan speed the 4850 was by far the loudest fan in my system. It used to idle around 55C with the fan set to auto (so like 27% or whatever), so I probably should blow it out. Just haven't really cared all that much since I'm saving my pennies for a new build anyway. I only have 1x 120mm intake, 1x 120mm exhaust + the PSU exhaust (I think its 80mm).
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I believe your doing something extremely wrong if you have the GPU fan at 75% and your card still idles at 51C.

I tried to replicate your scenario as best as possible. I unplugged 2 of my intake fans and replaced the case cover. Now I have 1 intake, 1 exhaust, 1 PSU exhaust fan.
At 20% fan speed in CCC, idle GPU temp after 5 mins = 53C
At 27% fan speed in CCC, idle GPU temp after 5 mins = 51C
At 75% fan speed in CCC, idle GPU temp after 5 mins = 34C

-edit... room temps just dropped to 78F, down 2 degrees since last time I posted temps at 10PM.
 
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I have the air off this evening. It's 80 degrees in the room. My 4870 is set to 32% and idling at 51C. Just another example.
 
It could be where the case is stored also. In a desk with limited airflow or rear of the case too near the wall, would affect the temps.
 
This is how my case is setup (sorry for the rough paint picture, lol). The vent thing where the CPU is isn't there BTW.

26756108.jpg


The fans (top+bottom on side) may be flowing opposite direction than what is in the picture, but one is in and one is out.
 
Guitarrasdeamor said:
This is how my case is setup (sorry for the rough paint picture, lol). The vent thing where the CPU is isn't there BTW.

The fans (top+bottom on side) may be flowing opposite direction than what is in the picture, but one is in and one is out.
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Is the side against the wall? It may well be short circuiting on the hot air.

"If you like having a quiet system, get a better heatsink for the vid card imo. The 2 go hand in hand."

When idle my own build with 4870X2 is more quiet than a Tri-Cool fan on low with stock HS (27%). Just need to employ a few tricks for the case.
 
Hypernova said:
When idle my own build with 4870X2 is more quiet than a Tri-Cool fan on low with stock HS (27%). Just need to employ a few tricks for the case.
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Mmm I like. I should of added in that my 4850 had the Asus matrix cooler on it and it was crazy loud above 50% (well noise is subjective). I wouldn't be surprised if the reference 4850 was a little quieter. That is impressive to be quieter than a low setting tri-cool on idle. I can't really notice the noise from my tri-cool on low o_o.
 
Hypernova said:
Is the side against the wall? It may well be short circuiting on the hot air.

"If you like having a quiet system, get a better heatsink for the vid card imo. The 2 go hand in hand."

When idle my own build with 4870X2 is more quiet than a Tri-Cool fan on low with stock HS (27%). Just need to employ a few tricks for the case.
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It isn't against the wall, but more like diagonally....the back left corner is about a foot give or take from there, and it goes farther as it goes toward the front (hence diagonal).
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
I believe your doing something extremely wrong if you have the GPU fan at 75% and your card still idles at 51C.

I tried to replicate your scenario as best as possible. I unplugged 2 of my intake fans and replaced the case cover. Now I have 1 intake, 1 exhaust, 1 PSU exhaust fan.
At 20% fan speed in CCC, idle GPU temp after 5 mins = 53C
At 27% fan speed in CCC, idle GPU temp after 5 mins = 51C
At 75% fan speed in CCC, idle GPU temp after 5 mins = 34C

-edit... room temps just dropped to 78F, down 2 degrees since last time I posted temps at 10PM.
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Praytell what on earth could I possibly be doing "extremely wrong"? Its a freaking fan that is software controlled - there is no user interaction for cryin' out loud.

My case air flow is fine (not great, either, but far from bad). CPU idle is 40C with a case temp of 33C. I would love to get a new case and some better airflow (The 800D caught my eye), but car payments take priority.

I might try blowing out some dust later, but otherwise I really don't care. It works fine and is well within tolerance.

If you like having a quiet system, get a better heatsink for the vid card imo. The 2 go hand in hand.
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Only if I want something very quiet/silent or to overclock my video card - neither of which really matter. The stock cooler is quiet enough.
 
If it's the single slot reference cooler, make sure that there isn't a wall of dust between the fan and the heatsink fins...the dust basically blocks all of the airflow created by the fan. I was only able to see it at an extreme angle with a flashlight (didn't have to take the shroud off). I used tweezers and pulled it out in one peice, didn't even have to blow air.

My 4850 would top out at 105C before I realized that I didn't clear that wall of dust in my cleaning. Temps dropped to 70C at load afterwards.
 
Really? I'll take it out and look at that soon then (after I finish watching Green Street Hooligans for the 83rd time. :D).
 
kllrnohj said:
Praytell what on earth could I possibly be doing "extremely wrong"?
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I apologize, "extremely wrong" is hyperbole...but you definitely need to dust that sucker out, preferably more than once a year. There's probably a carpet growing between the fan blades and the heatsink fins. If you have pets (especially cats) and/or smoke near your computer, the problem will be even worse.

If you take a look at my numbers and compare them to yours, you can see that you need almost 50% higher fan speed just to get the same temp. Why I over emphasized my point is the fact that the noise associated with the 50% higher speed is exponentially higher...and you specifically mentioned you like a quieter system.
 
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So gais...:D
Just took the card out, looked for the dust..said fuck it. Lol...took the whole thing apart. Ponet, you get a hug. There was a dust buildup right along where the fan got air/blew air, and it was blocking it. Threw it back together, and at 70% fan speed, it's idling at 46*C or so :). After turning overdrive off it seems to idle at around 56*C...should I leave it at 70 in overdrive (I would assume that means it wouldn't go higher if it got hotter though..) or just let the software take care of it when it gets hot?
EDIT: Idled it at 100% speed, got to 46*C...still high I s'pose, but easily better than before.
EDIT2: Turned speed to 70, seeming to stay at the same temps just about.
 
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You're welcome. Keep in mind that the dust will just build up there again, so you have to regularly clean it. Or just do what I eventually did and get an aftermarket cooler.
 
I had this same problem in Mirror's Edge, but mine isn't power or heat related... Glad you got yours fixed, but I still have to find a solution :/
 
GPU at 72* (then 66 and such, so give or take) while playing L4D for 30 mins (playing as we speak). Awesome (better)
 
Good to hear you got it fixed.. in the future dont be so fast to blame it on the parts and just try to think logically of what could be causing the problem :)
 
That happened with my 3870x2. It did that for about a month and then died completely.
 
Kenjiwing said:
Good to hear you got it fixed.. in the future dont be so fast to blame it on the parts and just try to think logically of what could be causing the problem :)
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I didn't blame it on the parts?

Anyways...if I was to get an aftermarket cooler...I should probably wait until I get new cards/crossfire right?
 
TIWizard said:
I had this same problem in Mirror's Edge, but mine isn't power or heat related... Glad you got yours fixed, but I still have to find a solution :/
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Mentioned earlier, but I fixed mine by rolling my drivers back to Cat 9.3.

Guitarrasdeamor said:
Anyways...if I was to get an aftermarket cooler...
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How come? Temps look fine now. Unless you're overclocking, I'm not sure what you need it for.
 
The only thing after market coolers will do is provide larger fin grill area for the dust to clog. But eventually they too will clog. The proper action is simply check the HS monthly or even weekly to determine the time interval needed between cleaning.
 
Bigbacon said:
it's just L4D.......

It's always had problems like this. Like every other driver (ATI or Nvidia) fixes it then breaks it again.
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No its not. If its consistant and non-disruptive its a driver problem --like shadow artificats or wierd vertex problems, if your problem is cyclical and actually impacts gameplay, like random flickering textures, or lockups/freezing, and its definatly the video accelerations fault, then you have faulty hardware (or faulty software).

The cards over heating plain and simple. Heres one area where Vista is superior to XP btw, with the video driver in user space you dont get the full blown BSOD, you just get a generic driver crash, and plug-n-play restart.

Sorry, back on topic, your cards over heating. If you want to be certain run riva tuner, and run the temp graph. get it to crash. You'll see a steady climb, then a sharp drop, like a saw tooth, repeating.
 
Hypernova said:
The only thing after market coolers will do is provide larger fin grill area for the dust to clog. But eventually they too will clog. The proper action is simply check the HS monthly or even weekly to determine the time interval needed between cleaning.
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true.. but they are usually quieter and far easier to see the dust on them and to also clean off.... takes me a whole 15 seconds with a can of air to clean off my duorb cooler.. vs the 5 minutes it took me to completely clean my 8800GT with the stock cooler on it..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
true.. but they are usually quieter and far easier to see the dust on them and to also clean off.... takes me a whole 15 seconds with a can of air to clean off my duorb cooler.. vs the 5 minutes it took me to completely clean my 8800GT with the stock cooler on it..
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Or do it like my rig, use a build with intake filters. Beats having to open up your case every few months.
 
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