Persistant problems with Gainward HD4870.

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Duggeh

n00b
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
3
Just replaced my age-ed Athlon XP system with a new machine I've put together.

Intel Core 2 Quad 9550
OCZ 2GB DDR3 PC3-1333MHz Platinum (2x1GB)
Asus P5Q3 Deluxe @ Wifi-N
Thermaltake BigTyp 120 VX
Western Digital VelociRaptor
Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray
Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 VGA Cooler (still waiting for it)
L2442WD-VA 24"
Zalman ZM1000 1000w PSU

Installed windows XP and I am having nothing but persistant and continual problems with the graphics card drivers. Many games can't run for even 30 seconds without a VPU recovery instance, others, like half life 2 and bioshock seem okay and can run for a while, but sometimes crash just as readily. NWN crashes not long after the game menu comes up and GTA:VC and others, don't let me select anythgin except the base graphics settings.

Even just running windows, time will pass and then *blort* blue screen of death ati3duag.dll error (or similar).

Lowering the core or memory speeds, or upping the fan to 100 to keep maximum cooling has no reliable effect. I've done 3 windows reinstalls. One with SP3 and 2 with SP2. No change.

Has anyone else had trouble with the gainward card? Is it likely I've got a faulty one? I'd really rather not be forced onto Vista.

Any help or suggestions much appriciated.
 
Halt screen errors have now propogated to windows installation and general running, NTFS driver errors, bad_pool_caller errors etc.

Never with any pc have I had such a regular, persistant and utterly irritating problem.
 
make sure your fan speed is at least 30%. My visiontek came factory at18% and was idling @ 76C.

You can use the xml fanspeed hack to make sure you are not overheating.

Just another thing to check off the troubleshooting list.
 
76 degrees is fine, warm yes but well within specs

one gpu on my 4870x2 idles at 76 degrees since 8.8 but doesnt cause any problems

try using stock speeds on the cpu/ram and see if it helps
 
Even with the GPU fan set to high in ATI tray tools (louder than my hoover) the problem still occurs. CPU and RAM are and have been set at stock, only non-auto bios setting for cpu/ram is the 1.8v setting for the ram which has to be put in manually or it defaults to 1.5v

I run another new windows install for a ong time, installed the display drivers and bam, problem back, so this must be a driver error or a hardware error exaccerbated by the drivers.

Problem happens with the 8-7 and 8-8 catalyst drivers.
 
it is very likely a faulty card, the easiest way is to try it with another pc, if the problems still occurs, then rma it.
 
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