AMD 6870 crashes instantly to desktop on all games

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Åndhrimnir

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 28, 2009
Messages
323
Hello guys,

I've been trying to troubleshoot a card I bought used the other day and was hoping to swap into my gaming rig. It's an HIS 6870 that the owner was pretty sure was still working.

The issue is that upon launching any game (that I've tried) either the game crashes instantly with an error, or it sits there unresponsive to input, drawing a new frame about once a minute (so it looks REALLY frozen). Not everything draws, either (i.e. if you wait for 20 minutes in Skyrim, you don't actually see the world get loaded -- it just sits there flickering the HUD).

This seems to happen very quickly after some graphically-demanding portion of the game loads. I almost always make it through intro credits. Crysis crashes at the main menu. Skyrim crashed once right after loading and once during the load screen. AudioSurf crashes when you select a song and it brings up the loading screen. Assassin's Creed II crashes when the "press start" screen comes up with the moving Animus pattern background.

These are the things I've tried so far:
-MemTest86
-new drivers
-old drivers (12.3)
-new drivers again (clean -> install, as well as normal 12.3 -> update)
-putting the card in a different PCI-e slot
-underclocking the card
-new PSU

I've also benchmarked the card (using LuxMark). It scores right around where other 6870s in their database scored (679 I think was mine).

Is this card just dead? Is there something else I should try before I give up? I may end up swapping back to my (laughably old) GeForce 9800.*

Thanks.

*Man, that card was a beast. I have two, and just one of them plays Skyrim on high at ~35 FPS.
 
Well depending on if you can still return it or not, I'd disassemble it and check to see if there is any thermal paste on the gpu. No idea if that's it, but worth trying.
 
I don't even know where/when it was purchased. Doesn't matter -- I paid so little for it that it was practically a gift. The guy who sold it to me was moving and didn't want to ship the parts from his old rig.

I was considering checking the thermal paste. The only thing that prevented me from doing so is (a) the temperature didn't seem too high (hovered around 40 or 45 C) since I cranked the fan speed up to max as a troubleshooting measure and (b) that the crash happens immediately on load, not after some period of warming.

I'll give it a shot though and see if there's anything I can do to improve the thermal contact. Thanks.
 
could try the oven reflow,I have a 1900xt fixed for 3 years using the proceedure
 
Its still sounds like a driver error. Try running the 9800gtx again, then unstall the drivers before putting the 6870 back in.

One more thing, try a different power supply if you can.
 
As I mentioned, I've already tried swapping the PSU out; the symptoms didn't change at all.

I pulled the 6870 out and checked the thermal paste -- there was plenty, and it was still goopy and plastic (not flaked / dusty), so I don't think that was the problem. I also swapped the 9800s back in, and they both work (once the Nvidia drivers were installed, naturally).

I'll put the 6870 back in and see if it magically works once I get home. Is there anything else I can try? Should I revert to even older drivers? Should I maybe contact AMD support and see if they have any recommendations (will they even help if it's out of warranty / I don't have proof of purchase?).
 
Åndhrimnir;1038739028 said:
As I mentioned, I've already tried swapping the PSU out; the symptoms didn't change at all.

I pulled the 6870 out and checked the thermal paste -- there was plenty, and it was still goopy and plastic (not flaked / dusty), so I don't think that was the problem. I also swapped the 9800s back in, and they both work (once the Nvidia drivers were installed, naturally).

I'll put the 6870 back in and see if it magically works once I get home. Is there anything else I can try? Should I revert to even older drivers? Should I maybe contact AMD support and see if they have any recommendations (will they even help if it's out of warranty / I don't have proof of purchase?).
Click to expand...

What os are you running ?
 
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I could theoretically revert to Vista Business 32-bit if there was a chance it would help, although I'd sacrifice 5GB of RAM in doing so.
 
Yea and that would be no good. I was just curious because as of reading through some of the Faq came across this, if it may help you out at all. Video Cards Did not know if Windows 7 had the same problem or not as Vista did. I see Amds newest is 12.4 Drivers package.
 
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