Attempting to revive HD 5870 Eyefinity - help?

Centauri

Centauri

2[H]4U
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Mar 1, 2003
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So I picked up this guy online, mostly for the novelty, and also because I figured with 2GBs of RAM and DX11 support it'd make a solid card for my backup Phenom rig.

But it's definitely got an issue of some sort.

Upon installing the card and powering the machine on, the card's fan goes into full-blast before the BIOS post even displays... but the machine does proceed to boot to desktop. From there, rebooting with the card still installed results in a failure to post at all. The only way to get the machine to post again is to remove the card and reinstall it before a fresh power up. Where I then run into the same problem again upon another reboot.

Additionally, once a driver is installed and the machine boots past the Windows boot screen and attempts to load the login screen, I get my first and only signs of artifacting - comically large, Tetris-esque red artifacting with no background image loaded at all. Just red on black.

I have tried with two machines, both of which have sufficient power supplies, including my Ryzen/Fury rig. Identical results.

I have also repasted the GPU and while doing so examined all the capacitors - they all look solid to my eye. No bulging at least.

Any ideas? I'm honestly willing to put some effort into reviving this guy.

Thanks!
 
You can pull off the cooler and clean off the 'paste' and re-apply new paste and reseat the cooler. Also can inspect for more yuckiness that might be hidden.
 
Can try the oven trick.

If it has issues once drivers are loaded, almost certainly a hardware fault.
 
So, it'll work from a cold boot, but not after a soft reboot? What happens if you shut the system down, and then power it back up?

Don't do the oven thing. That's unlikely to work.
 
Any card I have had that loads to desktop with generic drivers, but starts acting up when installing the correct drivers, has needed to be replaced.

You may want to check the cards BIOS to make sure it hasn't been modified for mining. I wouldn't be shocked if it had the fan and clocks cranked up via bios for linux mining.
 
What brand of card?

It isn't one that had a dual BIOS switch is it?

I'm sure you checked, but do you have the PCI-e power cords plugged in?

If all yes, I'd bet it had some kind of custom BIOS.

Maybe check your MB for compatability??
 
It's a Gigabyte. Looks reference though. Model GV-R5876P-2GD-B

I looked for a BIOS switch during my initial troubleshooting but NADA.

Is there a way to examine the BIOS without booting and checking it with GPU-Z?
 
I've got a 5770 and the fan runs at full speed before POST, in the BIOS and during Windows Install.
Fan runs normal once Windows boots and the drivers load.
It also runs warm when the fan is at 100% so the card is probably running at full clock speed till the driver loads.

Maybe your 5870 does the same.
 
I would power down and pull the cmos battery and put the jumper on for fresh pooling .. never failed me yet on a video card that was good and I remember having to do that back when I ran CX 5850's just to get it to see the other card at a hardware way of looking at it in windows for the driver to see it .

My x58 tells me in boot screen if the pooling was updated for changes in PCI Express hardware .
 
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