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Sapphire 7970: PC won't boot

R

Ramirin

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 24, 2010
Messages
80
I recently upgraded to a Sapphire 7970 that I purchased at Amazon.

Yesterday night I was browsing the web when artifacts started appearing on the screen. I rebooted the pc and everything was fine until I fired up The Witcher 2. The main menu had black vertical lines and the screen was flickering.

I restarted the PC again and the game played fine. Then I went back to web browsing and the screen started artifacting and flickering again. Instead of rebooting I opened up Skyrim and played the rest of the night no problems.

This morning I turn on my pc only to find out that it would't post. After several attempts I opened the case and noticed the VGA LED on the motherboard was solid red. (Asus Crosshair Formula IV). Sometimes when trying to boot the video card fan will spin up at full speed while other times it would spin normal.

I cleared the CMOS, changed PCI xpress slots but the red VGA light on the mobo goes red every time.

I don't have another pc to test this card on so that's not an option. Does anyone know what's going on? Do I have a bad card? If so, should I send it back to Amazon for a refund or RMA it to Sapphire?

I feel like I've wasted $550....
 
RMA

It happens. You got a bad card probably. Do you have another gpu that you can replace it with to make sure it is the 7970 and not something else?
 
Its amazon. They will get you a new card quick if your a prime member.
 
Do you have Vista OS?

Read about a smiilar problem with Vista OS at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414

2 eggs

Doesn't work with vista

Pros: Great card with competitive edge that Nvidia doesn't have

Cons: Doesn't work with Windows vista. Installed the driver, and it makes my computer lock up after about 30 seconds. Very disappointed. Will wait a few days to see if they decide those of us are worthy enough to make a driver for. I mean WHAT THE HELL?!

Other Thoughts: Words cannot describe...
Click to expand...
 
I have Windows 7 Pro.

I just packed the card and will send it back for a refund, as Amazon doesn't have it in stock.
I wonder if I should get the 7950 instead and save $100, or maybe wait for Keppler.

I have owned around 20 video cards from different manufacturers over the years and this is the first time I get a defective one.
 
Ramirin said:
I have owned around 20 video cards from different manufacturers over the years and this is the first time I get a defective one.
Click to expand...


I've had DOA cards before from NVIDIA and AMD. It happens.


Alot of good deals on other cards right now. HD79XX series pricing is high right now and are showing quite a bit of problems with drivers.

I would wait a little to see what NVIDIA has to offer and to see what other 28nm cards AMD will soon have out.

Alot of good deals on video cards right now. Tough for me to pass up on some of the discounted NVIDIA cards but I'm holding out for Keppler or a hot deal on any 28nm video card that meets my needs.
 
My biggest problem is that I sold the 6970 this card had replaced.
I guess I'll have to stick to my PS3 in the meantime. Not sure if I can get used to playing BF3 on the console after experiencing it in full glory on the 7970...
 
Ramirin said:
I have Windows 7 Pro.

I just packed the card and will send it back for a refund, as Amazon doesn't have it in stock.
I wonder if I should get the 7950 instead and save $100, or maybe wait for Keppler.

I have owned around 20 video cards from different manufacturers over the years and this is the first time I get a defective one.
Click to expand...

I had an Abit BF6 take out a Geforce 2 before. And it was a known bug that Abit apparently fixed in a newer revision of the BF6 (the board would kill a GF2 card if the FSB were higher than 133). I took the motherboard back for a refund (I think the card was bought at best buy, while the motherboard from some OEM at Pomona computer show) and the chinese owners gave me a VERY, VERY hard time (obviously because I'm black--you simply wouldn't believe how they treated me). They didn't even listen to anything I said. It was only after I threatened to sue them for willingly selling defective merchandise that they quickly gave me a refund.

I also had a 9800 pro and an x800xt die, both caused by the same thing (more than 1.55v AGP voltage). Gigabyte let me RMA the x800 and got an x850 in return, and it's still in my pentium 4 rig.

I haven't had any doa cards (that weren't caused by hardware conflicts) but I did have a doa motherboard once.
 
Ramirin said:
Lol I was just thinking the same thing. Maybe I should focus less on hardware and more on the games.
Click to expand...

most hardware enthusiasts have a hard time with that - i know i do

i think they key is just to focus on getting the gameplay experience you want, price be damned. then just enjoy! it's a hobby so of course it'll cost money. but if you can't distance your mind from how much it cost, you'll never be able to actually enjoy the games you play on that sweet tech.
 
As my Sapphire 7970 is on its way back to Amazon for a refund, I'm starting to suspect that there's something potentially wrong in the board's design/manufacture.

A quick search for "7970 DOA" or something of the sorts returns quite a few hits everywhere from overclockers.net to Tom's forums. Some of the reviews at Newegg also talk about artifacting and failure to post. And in most cases it appears that Sapphire's card is the most affected.

Do I smell a recall?

I was planning on getting a 7950 and save $100 but now I'm not even sure what to do when I get my money back...
 
Thought I would add my woes. Just had two 6970's running flawlessly for 10 Months with my 2600k OC'd to 4.6. Put two new Gigabyte 7970's in and the troubles begane, weird horizontal lines on boot and artifacts in games, then some crashes, finally it looks like they contributed to my MSI P7A-GD65 being non functional. Gonna try two more one more time before I get a refund and get another brand possibly (along with the MB RMA). Lots of drivers and Xfire woes but this has gone much deeper now.

:(
 
I took the risk and got a Sapphire 7950 vanilla edition.
Put it in and my PC booted, confirming that the 7970 I had was defective.

I overclocked the card using Trixx to 1000/1575 and now I get 7970 performance for $100 less.

Let's see how long it lasts lol.
 
Ramirin said:
I recently upgraded to a Sapphire 7970 that I purchased at Amazon.

Yesterday night I was browsing the web when artifacts started appearing on the screen. I rebooted the pc and everything was fine until I fired up The Witcher 2. The main menu had
Click to expand...

I've had this issue on my 7970 with The witcher 2 everytime I turn Vsync off. I just have play the game with Vsync on, 60fps, fair enough.
 
OLBaID said:
Thought I would add my woes. Just had two 6970's running flawlessly for 10 Months with my 2600k OC'd to 4.6. Put two new Gigabyte 7970's in and the troubles begane, weird horizontal lines on boot and artifacts in games, then some crashes, finally it looks like they contributed to my MSI P7A-GD65 being non functional. Gonna try two more one more time before I get a refund and get another brand possibly (along with the MB RMA). Lots of drivers and Xfire woes but this has gone much deeper now.

:(
Click to expand...

hey bud i hear you! mine has the verticle lines thing going on and also fails to post 30%50% of the time. i have a ASUS Crosshair Formula IV and once i took the asus 7970 dcu II TOP out and put my asus 5850 back in everything was ALMOST back to normal except my PC randomly freezes some times ... like the video card actually messed my MOBO up... could this really be? i went as far as reinstalling windows 7 64bit and all. FML FML FML. i live in hawaii and shipping times SUCK BALLS
 
Mr Mean said:
Does anybody know what the red VGA light mean? I am just curious :)
Click to expand...

Mobo stuck trying to init video graphics adapter. One of the hundreds of tiny wave solder points prolly cut loose or cracked.
 
xorbe said:
Mobo stuck trying to init video graphics adapter. One of the hundreds of tiny wave solder points prolly cut loose or cracked.
Click to expand...

one of the solder points on the Mobo or the Video card? because i have the VGA light stick on with my 7970 and it wouldnt boot but i put my 5850 in and it booted right up like a charm. so its most likely a solder point on the 7970 or mobo you think? if this means its probly on the graphics card that means exchanging it will work ( which would be nice because right now i thought it was my pc and not the card so exchanging wouldnt help me. but if its the card then its all good and i wont have to return it, i can exchange it )
 
The 5870 i ordered the day of release from Sapphire was DOA. I remember having the same sentiments about torching $500. Fortunately there are laws to protect consumers and companies have to create warranties to sell products over competition in such an identical market of discrete gpus.

The availability was so awful I had to settle for a refund. I ended up waiting six months and getting the 5970 so there's always a better future if you want to look for it.
 
Oh I thought you had a motherboard with a vga status led (mine does). I was suggesting the card was broken.
 
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