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Blackscreen issue with HD6970

S

Sunnyd514

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 7, 2011
Messages
76
Hey guys,

I've run into a strange issue that I need a bit of assistance with and would like to get some opinions. Long story short is I have an XFX HD6950 that I bought a little over a couple years ago. I have flashed it to a 6970 and it has been a phenomenal card that I have had zero issues with. However, about a month ago it just up and started crashing to a black screen on any game that I would play. The time it took to crash would vary but it could be as quick as 5-10 minutes. It would crash to a black screen and then I would have to reset my PC (running 8.1). I hadn't changed drivers or any other hardware or software, it just started crashing out of seemingly nowhere. Keep in mind if I was idle or browsing the web the PC never crashed. Also, bizarrely, furmark seemed to run with no issues.

The only thing I could think of was that maybe the TIM needed to be replaced, even though afterburner still showed excellent temps. I ordered some MX-4 TIM and took apart the card, scrubbed off the original TIM off the GPU until it was nice and shiny. I didn't mess with the little memory tabs. I applied the MX-4 and put everything back together. I installed it back into my PC and the card booted up normally but when I tried to run a game (SC 2 in this case) it crashed again. Afterburner showed great temps again as I set it so it won't allow the GPU to get above 80C. I've tried reformatting windows 8.1 (x64) and re-installing the games/drivers but that does nothing. Any idea what might be causing this? I really would like to figure this out and get my card back up and working.
 
Does your card have the little toggle switch on the top to turn it back into a factory 6950? My son's card kind of did something similar a few months ago, and we toggled it back to normal 6950 and it works fine now. Although we are thinking strongly of upgrading to one of those used 280x cards that seem to be hitting the market now...
 
Yes, it does. I had thought about that but I didn't really think it would do anything. However, since you mentioned it I will DEFINITELY try that. Were you able to get it back to the 6970 speeds after you moved the switch or did you have to leave it there?
 
Had to leave it at 6950 mode, but was able to turn the clocks back up.
 
I appreciate the quick response and I did try that but unfortunately the card black screens shortly after starting a game on either switch option. Anyone have any other idea?
 
I am having the EXACT same issue. Does your mobo have LED's that blink red when it tries to restart? My "VGA LED" light blinks after it tries to restart. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Johnny - Unfortunately I gave the card to a friend who is a big AMD fan. I guess he wants to mess with it but I'm pretty sure there's something in the hardware that causing problems. Since I don't have the card anymore I can't tell really tell you - sorry! Although, I don't think there's much you can do outside of what I did (changing the thermal paste and putting the switch back to default bios). I ended up getting a PNY Nvidia 770OC 4GB and I LOVE it.
 
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