HD4850 Not Working in MY Computer?

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blade52x

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I got my HD4850 back today from RMA, and put it into my computer... and no display! I got extremely pissed off believing that I was sent back the same card, the one I sent back initially for the same reason. I put the card into my brother's computer, and it works? I put it back into mine, and no display?

What exactly could be causing this? The 9600GT I use right now works perfectly fine, as does an older 6200LE...

Power supply is fine... no red LEDs are lighting up on the back of my HD4850 like the first one I got did (which is what lead me to believe it was DOA).

The computer boots, and I even hear the Windows Vista load up sound after I blindly put in my password...

Anyone know what's going on? Is my computer freaking out from never having before seen an ATI card? I'll have to sell it if I cannot solve this because it clearly works... just not in my computer.
 
ok if it works in your brothers computer there is something wrong with yours.

Whats the model/make of your PSU

Whats the model/make of your mobo

Whats the bios settings, reset to failsafe /what version is your bios
 
Will let you know as soon as I can. Right now I'm in safe mode wiping all possible nVidia entries off my system.
 
I had the EXACT same issue with my Visiontek 4850. Worked in brother's computer, but not in mine. An old 8600GT worked in both. The 4850 would display sometimes, other times it wouldn't display anything. In both cases, I booted into Windows successfully (heard the Windows startup sound)

I ended up returning it (I guess this doesn't help in your situation). I got an ASUS HD4850 and I haven't had this issue ever since.

weird.
 
He's got:

Processor: E2180 at 2.8GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35-DS3L (whatever the factory BIOS is)
RAM: 2x1GB G.Skill PC2-6400
PSU: Corsair VX450
OS: Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Other than me having a much more high end motherboard... our setups are pretty similar. And he actually needs to RMA his PSU because it's a squealer.

Driver clean is taking forever...
 
use driver sweeper (guru3d.com) works great, but its not a windows problem cause its not coming up when you POST

More then likely your bios needs to be upgraded (since the board does POST just doesnt out put video), i had a GA-945P-S3 last night clock a e4300 @ 600mhz until i could flash it for it to run correctly.
 
Spaxspore said:
use driver sweeper (guru3d.com) works great, but its not a windows problem cause its not coming up when you POST
Click to expand...

Yeah I know... but it's started, so I might as well let it finish.

I had the EXACT same issue with my Visiontek 4850. Worked in brother's computer, but not in mine. An old 8600GT worked in both. The 4850 would display sometimes, other times it wouldn't display anything. In both cases, I booted into Windows successfully (heard the Windows startup sound)

I ended up returning it (I guess this doesn't help in your situation). I got an ASUS HD4850 and I haven't had this issue ever since.

weird.
Click to expand...

That's just GREAT. So if I sell it, I'm taking a chance that it may not work in the buyer's computer. Beautiful. And the RMA department most likely confirmed the card was actually working and just sent it back to me... So if I do it again... I'll probably just waste another $12.
 
blade52x said:
That's just GREAT. So if I sell it, I'm taking a chance that it may not work in the buyer's computer. Beautiful. And the RMA department most likely confirmed the card was actually working and just sent it back to me... So if I do it again... I'll probably just waste another $12.
Click to expand...

Hold up lets not jump the gun here. Am here to help ya man.
 
Spaxspore said:
Hold up lets not jump the gun here. Am here to help ya man.
Click to expand...

Thanks man. I don't know how long this driver cleaner is going to take (been going for near an hour now)... but here are the things I am planning to try.

- Try the second 4x electrical PCIe slot
- Try using a VGA cable
- Factory defaults on my BIOS

Hopefully something works.
 
when you get a chance tell me the F# when the computer posts. Is it a gigabyte MOBO, if it is it with have F# after the model name when it firsts turns on.

post-screen.gif



For example
 
Have you tried connecting via VGA instead of DVI? Tried both DVI ports? Check to be sure your BIOS is set to initialize display via PCIe first also. I know those all should be working if you had it going alright with the 9600GT, just trying to throw out some ideas. Seems more like a monitor connection thing than anything worse, since the card obviously works and the rest of your computer seems to be booting alright with the card in.
 
Blade, do you and your brother have the same display?
There's a number of threads around with people have narrowed down the problem to being the display, something about the refresh rate reported to the card is higher than 60hz which leads to no image.
 
I'm actually posting now using the HD4850 through VGA. Looks like the issue I'm having is identical to a few through those links. Only difference is I'm using an Acer monitor where as it seems like this is mostly a ViewSonic problem. Installing the ATI drivers first before I proceed any further.

when you get a chance tell me the F# when the computer posts. Is it a gigabyte MOBO, if it is it with have F# after the model name when it firsts turns on.
Click to expand...

Forgot to check but next reboot I'll get it.
 
Intersting note... CCC reports my monitors maximum resolution as 1920x1200 and maximum refresh rate as 85Hz, when it's 1680x1050 and 60Hz... something is definitely wrong with my monitor's EDID.
 
blade52x said:
Intersting note... CCC reports my monitors maximum resolution as 1920x1200 and maximum refresh rate as 85Hz, when it's 1680x1050 and 60Hz... something is definitely wrong with my monitor's EDID.
Click to expand...

Mine says 1680x1050 max resolution and 75hz max refresh rate. Mind, it doesn't say at what resolution it can do 75hz though and it's probably at a very low resolution.
One thought, have you installed drivers for your display? Could be that the card can't make out the display right if you are only running on windows generic display drivers.

EDIT: I'm on a Samsung SyncMaster 226BW display
 
I'm about to just give up. It's happening over VGA too as well. My monitor just completely refuses to display anything now with the ATI card. I also cannot seem to completely remove the nVidia drivers form my system. Even after running DC Pro... I'll boot into Windows, and the 9600GT somehow has still has driver installed. It's like Vista is loading up some fail safe driver.

If anyone is interested in a HD4850 with an Accelero S1 installed... I might just have one on the market this weekend.
 
blade52x said:
I'm about to just give up. It's happening over VGA too as well. My monitor just completely refuses to display anything now with the ATI card. I also cannot seem to completely remove the nVidia drivers form my system. Even after running DC Pro... I'll boot into Windows, and the 9600GT somehow has still has driver installed. It's like Vista is loading up some fail safe driver.

If anyone is interested in a HD4850 with an Accelero S1 installed... I might just have one on the market this weekend.
Click to expand...

Looks like it's down to the last option, full format and reinstallation of windows.
 
blade52x said:
Before I do anything like that... how would something like this fix a problem that's occurring outside of Windows?
Click to expand...

It's for getting rid of all drivers and residue of drivers that might interfere with your ATI card.
If you can't get the card to work with a fresh install of windows then you will know it's either a fault with the card or display and you can go on from there.

EDIT: obviously you should do a backup of important stuff first, like dokuments, pictures, savegames and so on.
 
Going to try the reformat (need to install Vista x64 anyway) this weekend and will let you guys know...
 
I think it's my card. Tried it again in my brother's computer and it's no longer displaying. His motherboard is giving out the same exact beep that mine once did (my case has no speaker) when I had a dead 7950GT...

I better a refund for this... no more exchanges, not worth at this point anymore. Took an entire month to have my first one came back.

If I have to, I will charge back. Hell, I might even do it now.
 
Well... working like a charm again in my bro's computer. This is like my ultimate test at troubleshooting computer hardware...

Time to go try my brother's computer monitor. It's back to possibly being my monitor again. For the one time it didn't work in my brother's computer, it just could have been a loose connection somewhere.
 
I've never used an Acer monitor before, but be sure to check the connection settings on the monitor's control panel itself to make sure it's not set for a higher frequency or something. Better yet, if there's a way to set it back to factory defaults do that. You can always restore your color/brightness/contrast settings after you get the darn thing to work.
 
blade52x said:
Well... working like a charm again in my bro's computer. This is like my ultimate test at troubleshooting computer hardware...

Time to go try my brother's computer monitor. It's back to possibly being my monitor again. For the one time it didn't work in my brother's computer, it just could have been a loose connection somewhere.
Click to expand...

Had a look at your system in your signature and see that you have a soundcard, you could try to remove that and it's drivers as soundcards are known to cause troubles with video cards. You could also try resetting the motherboard BIOS (unplug the computer and either move the jumper to clear CMOS or remove the battery, about a minute for both options should do it)

EDIT: drivers for the card, try with only the hotfix driver, not the catalyst 8.6 that's on the cards CD.
 
blade52x said:
Well... working like a charm again in my bro's computer. This is like my ultimate test at troubleshooting computer hardware...

Time to go try my brother's computer monitor. It's back to possibly being my monitor again. For the one time it didn't work in my brother's computer, it just could have been a loose connection somewhere.
Click to expand...

Did you try the steps listed here? I'm thinking it's still gotta be a monitor issue...

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=97379&enterthread=y
 
remmeh said:
Did you try the steps listed here? I'm thinking it's still gotta be a monitor issue...

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=97379&enterthread=y
Click to expand...

I really can't follow what's going on there.

I got up to here...

a simple test to see if actually your EDID is a problem is to install Viewsonic EDID Editor and use it to read the EDID. If it says it cannot read the EDID, then your EDID is a problem. I suppose it could read a corrupted EDID as well, but I'm not sure.
Click to expand...

When I load the program and click "retrieve EDID" I get an error saying "ActiveX component can't create object".

I just installed the 8.6 hotfix. I'll unplug everything, reset, as well as remove the sound card and see if any of these help. I'm doing everything on my bro's HD2600Pro right now, which works fine on my computer.
 
blade52x said:
When I load the program and click "retrieve EDID" I get an error saying "ActiveX component can't create object".

I just installed the 8.6 hotfix. I'll unplug everything, reset, as well as remove the sound card and see if any of these help. I'm doing everything on my bro's HD2600Pro right now, which works fine on my computer.
Click to expand...

You're on DVI right?
 
I finally figured it out. Turns out the Abit Airpace Wireless card in my computer is somehow causing this. With the card inserted, I get the blank display. With it removed, the graphics card works perfectly fine. I'm not sure why this is happening, but that's what it was. So the video card works perfectly fine (like I was suspecting all along) but it just doesn't play very nicely with the wireless card.

Will have to see if there a fix for this now.
 
blade52x said:
I finally figured it out. Turns out the Abit Airpace Wireless card in my computer is somehow causing this. With the card inserted, I get the blank display. With it removed, the graphics card works perfectly fine. I'm not sure why this is happening, but that's what it was. So the video card works perfectly fine (like I was suspecting all along) but it just doesn't play very nicely with the wireless card.

Will have to see if there a fix for this now.
Click to expand...

That is indeed rather bizarre...
 
blade52x said:
Power supply is fine... no red LEDs are lighting up on the back of my HD4850 like the first one I got did (which is what lead me to believe it was DOA)..
Click to expand...

My card does this and works perfectly fine. I get a red LED maybe it's because it's oc'd a by 60mhz?
 
remmeh said:
That is indeed rather bizarre...
Click to expand...

Yeah... I don't know exactly what to do. I don't have a cable long enough to reach from the router... so for now it's either use the HD4850 for gaming... or boot into safe mode with the 9600GT so that I can have an internet connection.

I've tried the two available PCI-e 1x ports available (the third is blocked off) and it happens in either one of them.

My only other option right now is to try the second available 16x slot (4x electrical).
 
I gave up. My brother gets the HD4850. I get my old 8800GT back, and neither of us have to deal with any of this random black screen crap. I'm content...
 
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