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7970 issues. crashing problems

Joined
May 14, 2012
Messages
2
Hi there,

Hoping someone might be able to shed some light on these problems.

In January I purchased a PowerColor HD 7970. It has worked for 3 months without any issues what so ever. Then suddenly it started crashing. Initially in game in The Witcher 2 but then in other games and even on the desktop while the PC was doing nothing at all.

Typically the screen will go a funny colour with vertical lines and no error codes - here is a photo to explain what I mean.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/atkzrl54af5o91y/IMG_20120420_005129.jpg
The screen just freezes. I have seen it crash at 80 degrees, but also at 36 degrees with the GPU idle. I can sometimes go a few hours from a cold boot before it crashes (tho happens much sooner if gaming) but once the crashing starts it becomes more and more frequent until I cant even reach a games main menu.
On some occasions the screen will come back telling me the display driver stopped responding and had to be restarted. 99% of the time tho it just freezes the system. Windows reliability log says its a Video Hardware Error.

I've tried changing the driver, crashing persists on RC1, 12.3, 12.4. I have reformatted and the issue remains.
I replaced the graphics card with a very old 8800GT (horrible for 2560x1600 :S) and the system is stable. I haven't been able to game extensively but I haven't had any of those crashes which leads me to believe the 7970 is knackered. So I sent it back to Ebuyer (am in the UK) they sent it back and say it works fine, that they couldn't find any faults. Again I tested it, again it crashed over and over so again I sent it back once again for more extensive testing, again they claim the card is fine and wont replace it but it continues to be an extremely expensive paperweight to me.

It could be temperature - highest it hits is 80 degrees which shouldn't be an issue at all. However the system has crashed numerous times just on an empty desktop with the GPU at below 40.
It could be power supply - gaming would draw more power but as it does crash even when idle and as this generation draws next to no power when idle it makes me think its something else.

I don't know what power draw the 8800GT uses but I have been able to use 2 in SLI without any issues both running much hotter than the 7970 did.
Am using a 750w PSU if that info is needed.

I'm pulling my hair out over this. This issue has been going on over a month - prior to that I never had a single issue with the card, it just started randomly.
Anybody have any ideas at all?
 
You could try testing it in a different system, that should help tell whether it's the culprit or not.
 
Mine did the same when I installed overclocking programs. Do you have MSI AfterBurner or another overclocking program installed? Just installing the Asus overclocking programs puts my PC into a continuous loop of driver crashes that can only be stopped by holding in the power button and starting Win 7 64 in Safe Mode. I haven't gotten to actually moving a slider in the Asus program.
 
Same thing is happening for my Sapphire 6970.. crashing at 80c. But it wasn't as bad. since mine only crashed when it was under load. Did everything...until I plugged it into my brother's computer.. same thing happened. So I'm pretty sure it was the card.
Sorry if this didn't help.. but I just wanted to give the card a vote, that the video card was the problem...
I don't know about you.. but I'm sending it back to the manufacture to see if they can fix it.
 
Tonight I've been able to game all night without a single crash - I put it in the 2nd pci slot... Its only been a few hours so its no conclusive yet, but that would make it appear to be a fault with the main pci slot on the motherboard (only 6 months old) yet I have been using a 8800GT in that pci slot with no crashes at all!
Still gaming to see how it holds up but this is the longest its been stable for months. god knows why
 
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