2nd freaking time. Card dying.

[Lt.Col.Dehler]

My Diamond 3870 is dying again. idk whats up i have plentiful airflow in my case and its running at decent idle temps (35) and it keeps happeneing. The video card idk just like quits, screen goes black and windows when it recovers (display adapter stopped working) and then it goes all different colors and then windows shuts down. Its the same problem i had last time and i sent my card back and got a new one and i was fine. I cant send it back any more times now. I dont have money for a newer better card as i owe my dad $900 for my dirtbike haha.
Any suggestions?

 

[dcds1]

does you fan also go to full speed when your screen goes black? Just wondering because I just had to send my 3870 in for RMA because I lost display and the fan went to full speed. After I let it cool down for about 10 min I was able to get display again till I started Mass Effect again. It lasted for about a min then lost display again and never got it back. So I was wondering if yours was doing the exact same

 

[covertash]

One thing I can suggest is to check the temps on your VRM. This sounds pretty close to the problems I was having with my X1950XT where all my other temperatures were fine, even during load, and occasionally I would get artifacting, errors, and sometimes the LCD loses signal or blacks out. If let alone for a while I would get BSOD's too. Though your card is different from mine, I would assume that there is a heatsink of some sort covering the VRMs. Double check that the heatsink is making contact, and if need be reseat it or tighten it if possible and definitely blow out any dust as well. I went one step further and added Arctic Ceramique to the VRMs but that may not be necessary. Best of luck!

 

[Rabid Badger]

What kind of power supply do you have?