7970 Grey Screen of Death After Move - Oven trick?

J

JordanCL

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 26, 2006
Messages
1,943
Recently moved apartments and boxed up my system in the box from the case. It's nice and secure but I didn't remove the sensitive components as I did during my last move. After setting everything back up, one of the fans in my H100 fell off but seemed to reattach without issue.

After a few hours gaming I got a grey screen, LCD on my keyboard indicated that the system was still going and I still had volume in my headphones, thought it was a cable issue (Catleap is really fussy w/ cables and positions). When I went to adjust the cable the system crashed. After a restart it immediately crashed again and GPU fan went to 100%.

I pulled the GPU which was pretty hot and let it cool. A few hours later I popped it back in, in a different x16 slot thinking maybe it flexed a bit during the move. Ran fine for a few hours and I went to bed. Next day, grey (or maroon) screened within 30 minutes of gaming, and another time grey screened in 15 minutes of idling.

I've since purchased another GPU, but I'm wondering if I should try the oven trick, if anyone has any tips on it, and what thermal paste/compound everyone recommends for GPUs these days.
 
JordanCL said:
Recently moved apartments and boxed up my system in the box from the case. It's nice and secure but I didn't remove the sensitive components as I did during my last move. After setting everything back up, one of the fans in my H100 fell off but seemed to reattach without issue.

After a few hours gaming I got a grey screen, LCD on my keyboard indicated that the system was still going and I still had volume in my headphones, thought it was a cable issue (Catleap is really fussy w/ cables and positions). When I went to adjust the cable the system crashed. After a restart it immediately crashed again and GPU fan went to 100%.

I pulled the GPU which was pretty hot and let it cool. A few hours later I popped it back in, in a different x16 slot thinking maybe it flexed a bit during the move. Ran fine for a few hours and I went to bed. Next day, grey (or maroon) screened within 30 minutes of gaming, and another time grey screened in 15 minutes of idling.

I've since purchased another GPU, but I'm wondering if I should try the oven trick, if anyone has any tips on it, and what thermal paste/compound everyone recommends for GPUs these days.
Click to expand...

Are you certain it's the actual GPU? When you said one of the fans "fell off" the H100, what exactly does that mean? The entire fan assembly (including the screws) fell off the radiator? Or did just the fan blades/motor pop loose? If it is the former, did you make sure you found and removed the loose screws and they aren't just sitting in the case somewhere, possibly shorting (or waiting to) something?

I assume the LCD was moved in a box, but are you certain that it isn't the issue? If it was having issues with the cabling needing to be in the "perfect" position before, then it is possible that the issue has gotten worse and that LCD is at fault. This might seem a stretch, but if you could get a hold of a spare (or use an HDTV if you have one) to quickly rule it out.

How old is the 7970, and what brand? They should be under warranty from most companies since AMD didn't realize them until Jan 2012, which is just over 2 years. Even the worst companies give you 2+ years of warranty coverage. I would certainly give that a shot before the oven trick.
 
Thanks for the response, great points!

1) Not certain it's the GPU, but I don't think a monitor issue would lock up the machine - I assume the machine would still be functioning but the display would be garbled. LCD was moved in a box, I haven't had an issue with this particular DVI cable, but I went through 3 before I found one it liked. I can try my tv though, that's a good idea.

2) One of the fan blades from the H100 fell off the motor "spindle" (?). I pushed it back on, seems ok, squeaks a little bit. There are no events in the event viewer from the crash.

3) Not sure how old it is, I bought it from a member on the forum. It's a Diamond, which as far as I can tell only has a 1 year warranty, and only for the original purchaser.
 
if your sure its outside of warranty then theirs not so much to loose....i would at least try the warranty route first.....if they still won't then you can take the chance....cause you might kill it in the process.....i would make 100% sure the drivers and software are good using driver cleaners like ddu to clean the drivers....and maybe even try different versions

obviously make sure its not overclocked...and not overheating while testing...might even try a slight under clock just to see if it makes any difference...if the cards clocks are over 925mhz maybe try lowering it to that speed and test again....

I have recovered nvidia 280 cards by baking them but i have also read people saying baking killed there card as well....most of us use it as a last resort;)
 
It's not overclocked and I wiped the drivers and reinstalled them and the system actually crashed during the driver install too :(
 
JordanCL said:
It's not overclocked and I wiped the drivers and reinstalled them and the system actually crashed during the driver install too :(
Click to expand...

yikes.....yea that does sound pretty defective....at least you have another working card to use ...good luck with your bake method and let us know how it turned out;)
 
New card arrived today, so I'll pop that in and confirm, then onto the baking!
 
I've since purchased another GPU, but I'm wondering if I should try the oven trick, if anyone has any tips on it, and what thermal paste/compound everyone recommends for GPUs these days.
Click to expand...

I went with this.......this go round
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002P5W4RU/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
312xcepNhdL.jpg


I always used alcohol before, but gonna use this instead next time
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007TOR08/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
41Zp10XfwRL.jpg


Still waiting on the cleaner to come in (possibly tomorrow)...but i let yea know if its any better than the free stuff that ships with Thermalright coolers....not to mention probably 6 years old lol

I think the best improvements is applying it correctly as thin and even as possible.....I usually go for the non conductive type in case i get a drip in a bad spot...that could be real bad lol

What card did you end up getting? Would love to have one of these myself
http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-VAPO...780&sr=1-2&keywords=sapphire+tri+x+vapor+290x
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
schmuckley said:
eh..90% alcohol works for cleaning surfaces ;)
Click to expand...

agreed...but it never hurts to have other tools that Might work better


as a matter of fact...back in the day i worked retail and one of the tough jobs was removing old stuck on price stickers from the beams...this was at home depot so we had access to anything you can imagine...goof off, acid, whatever you could imagine. Know what worked best? Orange citrus air freshener...was mostly just citric acid

355fb600-081a-4f31-b2bf-6a324a8ab75a_400.jpg


smells the same as the first step bottle in the ArctiClean cleaner package....go figure;).....was a major factor in why i bought the stuff to add to my "tools"
 
Last edited:
So, I actually got a replacement 7970 that worked great for the last couple of months and last week I had a grey screen. Rebooted and things were ok.

Last night I had a grey screen and rebooting gets me nowhere. my RIVE shows code 62. I've ruled out the monitor / cable as I tried hooking it up via HDMI to my TV. I've summarized the issue here: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...ues-followed-by-Boot-Code-62-No-Boot&p=442554

No idea what to do. And of course I sold the "broken" 7970 that started this thread two days earlier so I can't swap that in to test. Two cards in 6 months has me wondering if something else is the issue so I'm a bit hesitant to replace the card.
 
Orange based stuff/solvents works but Xylene or MEK works like friggin' magic for getting thermal paste, gunk, adhesives, and oils off stuff.

MEK and Xylene also work great at going through your skin and giving you cancer too so make sure to wear nitrile gloves and work outside when you use it. Its getting kind've hard to find them in some Home Depots, paint, and auto repair stores because of that.
 
Check your ram and hard disks for errors too. After that, power supply and power from the wall. You might be getting surges and brown outs with out knowing it. Reseat everything and clean the pins. Hope it gets better for ya...
 
blackheart said:
Check your ram and hard disks for errors too. After that, power supply and power from the wall. You might be getting surges and brown outs with out knowing it. Reseat everything and clean the pins. Hope it gets better for ya...
Click to expand...

Thanks. I pulled everything and reseated, rerouted cables etc. Cleared CMOS and for kicks I tried it and it worked.

Moved the setup to the room where it belongs, and it didn't work. Routed some power cables out of the room and to another outlet and it didn't work. Then on the 10th try it just randomly worked.

A few hours later, grey screen crash while watching a full screen youtube video. Then a few hours later grey/white/green lines crash while browsing amazon. I've found this thread:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/378112-33-grey-screen-crash

And I'm not exactly sure where or how to start testing individual components. Definitely open to ideas.
 
Underclocked the card and ran the render test in GPU-Z to confirm, and after about 5 minutes crashed, and now won't reboot.

I have an AX1200 so I'd be really surprised if it were my PSU. Next card is going to be brand new I guess, and Nvidia.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top