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Radeon 5870 problem

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jctusmc03

Gawd
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Dec 8, 2009
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Hey all!

My 5870 is having some problems and google hasn't provided any worthwhile results in the 2-3 links I checked so I'm going to try here.

First off, I doubt it's the monitors because both of them were working 6-7 hours ago perfectly, and they are both under 3 months old.

One monitor is showing full brightness, and the other one is showing as substantially darker.

I've tried both up/down-grading to different versions of Catalyst, I've tried three, and they haven't been able to fix it either.

I've also tried adjusting the brightness on the actual monitor that's darkened and it affected it some, but nowhere near all the way.

Suggestions?
 
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So one monitor is a lot darker than the other? It's either the monitor or the input/output port you're using. Do your monitors support any other inputs beside VGA/DVI? If yes, try using those inputs (HDMI or DisplayPort). Next try swapping the monitor connections you're currently using. This should rule out the GPU as the culprit. It could also be the DVI cable. You could also try resetting the monitor back to factory settings.
 
There's an issue with the 58xx cards where they don't clock the memory high enough to support multiple monitors under idle when you enable CCC tweaking. I think mine idles at 157core/300mem and that's only enough to support 1 monitor. This produced flickering in the second display but I've never heard of it causing one display to become darker. I have a 5870 and I've seen the flickering problem when running eyefinity or dual-monitors but using MSI afterburner and steering clear of CCC has fixed the issue. There's also a way to manually set the idle clocks and voltages through some .ini digging.

Are you sure it's not the monitor? Some monitors have a tendency to lose their user preferred settings after shutting off or if you pull the cord. I had a gateway monitor years ago that would go back to default whenever I turned it off>on.

Try using the darker monitor and unplugging the primary better monitor. If that doesn't fix the issue then you know it's the monitor itself and not a dual display problem. You should also try swapping the positions on the monitors, assuming you're using the dvi connection. If you've got an adapter or two you may want to try swapping those as well.
 
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First off, I doubt it's the monitors because both of them were working 6-7 hours ago perfectly, and they are both under 3 months old.

Never assume its not anything..


First a couple of things that are easy to verify it isn't the monitor

i'm assumming you only have 2 monitors, are they both hooked up DVI?


#1 swap ports, swap the ports each one is using..

#2 Unplug the monitors hit the power button and go into the on screen display.
is the OSD menu's the same brightness? if the OSD's are not the same it is the monitor you may also have a test pattern you can display on the monitor from the OSD (not too many include this any more)


from what you are describing i'd almost bet your backlight on the darker monitor went out or something else that is affecting its brightnest.. another thing you can try is in your monitor reset it to factory default settings.

i don't think i've ever come across where the specific port on a video card displays darker or lighter.. Just to double check you went into catalyst and reset the brightness/contrast to default? you have 2 places to adjust brightness/contrast.. one is on the monitor itself and one is in the catalyst control panel


if the one that is dim stays dim its most likely the monitor's backlight went out.
 
It ended up being one of the DVI ports on on of my 5870 it looks like, unless something is jacked up software wise. I switched the monitors to the DVI port opposite of what they were plugged into and the darker monitor was then the other monitor and the one that was dark was correct.

I cant use my other 5870 right now because the fan died (another is OTW) so I was just trying to use the one 5870 for everything. I finally gave up trying different things a little while ago and just dug through my computer "crap" box and found an old 4670 that has two DVI ports and plugged the darker monitor into that and it's all good now.

What could be causing one of the ports on the 5870 to send video out darker than normal?
 
Well could be that you have a color profile that's corrupt or just erroneously set. You should be able to check that it's not just incorrectly set color setting by going into the Catalyst Control Center->My Digital Flat Panels->Display Color and making sure the color and brightness settings are the same for both similar monitors. Then you need to check that windows itself isn't mucking things up.
Right click on desktop->screen resolution->Advanced Settings->Color Management Tab->Color Management make sure both panels are running the same profile. Next check that your settings on each monitor are the same. By this I'm talking about make sure the monitors have the same settings on the menu for the monitor itself. If none of that helps then its probably a hardware issue. It could just be overheating and that fan might help. If that doesn't solve your issue it's RMA or replacement time I'm afraid.
 
It looks like it's just that port on the video card so I guess I'll just avoid it. I don't really need it anyways and the only reason I even discovered it is because I had to remove my other video card because the fan died out. I'll just have to RMA it once I get my other card up and running.
 
It may be that on the darker monitor the cables are not secure -- check the cables and make sure they are seated TIGHT. on both ends
 
It may be that on the darker monitor the cables are not secure -- check the cables and make sure they are seated TIGHT. on both ends

Definitely not the problem, and neither are the actual cables, I tried switching them out too. I have no idea what's making that one port act all weird when both the other DVI port, and the hdmi port are working fine. Fml. Lol
 
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If you simply boot up with one monitor attached to the "bad" port does it look dark still?
 
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