4890 destined for the trash can

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R

roofus

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Jul 4, 2008
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I dont often mess with ATI cards because it seems that it never goes smoothly or if it does, the card pooches on me. In spite of that, I do like to mix it up and not screw myself out of a good gaming experience so I got a Visiontech 4890 that works....kind of. It will display to the LCD but as soon as you go to install a driver it is a meltdown. BSOD or if it doesnt get that far, XP freezes up. It will load in safe mode bit that isnt exactly what i was hoping for when I fanned out just shy of 300 dollars lol.

Specs:
Phenom 2 955
DFI LP DK 790FXB-M3H5 motherboard
Mushkin 996601 2x2GB (timings relaxed right now to rule it out)
Seagate Barracudas 2x500 RAID 0
Visiontech 4890
PC Power&Cooling 750W

Any suggestions? I am afraid I am having a brain fart and overlooking something simple.

thanx!
 
It happened to me, it's a driver problem with ex-Nvidia drivers. Either try driver sweeper, or fresh-install Windows.
 
The new 9.7 Catalyst drivers were a total pain for me, I ended up reverting back to the older 9.6 driver. Have you tried using older definition drivers or the drivers on the disc?
 
i have a 4850, have had problems with the most recent of releases for the last 3. I never install the newest. If I do, i get BSOD's, etc, and then it corrupts my win32k.sys file, requiring an XP repair install.
 
I dont know if this counts as progress but after running driversweeper and attempting to install 9.6, I get a Zero Display Service error.
 
If possible, find someone who has a computer with a working ATI card installed and try your present card in it. If your card works in the other computer, its not the card, so you need to look to different problems. However, if your card doesn't work in the other computer, then RMA your card as its got a problem. As to the drivers, I tried 9.7 and it was troublesome, so I went back to 9.6.

In the past, I found DFI boards sometimes present problems of their own, as too many things are left to the person setting up the board and sometimes what you think is there, isn't. Since this appears to be a new build (all new hardware), I'd check through the BIOS carefully to see if anything either wasn't installed that should have been, or was installed when it should have been left out. I know that one time years ago I installed a board and somewhat mindlessly installed everything off the installation disk. Turned out I installed an Nvidia driver without realizing it, which then caused havoc with my ATI card. Re-installing the BIOS and drivers straightened everything out.

At the moment, I see two major possibilities, a bad video card or a bad motherboard. Check the video in someone else's computer, as I mentioned above to confirm or eliminate it as a problem. Then, if the video card is good, look to motherboard for problems.
 
looks like a junk card. it did the same thing in not only a different machine but 2 different machines. i will return it today and see if things go smoother.

thanks for the suggestions all.
 



thanks for pointing that out jdj. yes, i did install it because that put me in the dirt when the 4870x2's first came out.
it was a fkn train wreck with the new cats but 9.6 i thought i was home free. WRONG lol

i will keep a positive outlook and hope the next one is fine. i have never ever had to RMA a video card in all the years i have been working on pc's and that makes 2 within a month. one ATI and one Nvidia.
 
Visiontek is a company i havent messed with since they were Nvidia partners. they used to be awesome. i would imagine you are referring to customer service as most all of these are reference cards with different decals on the plastic shrouds.
 


Don't blame ATI for Visiontech...

I owned ATI cards made by ATI in the pass, and they were way better than NVIDIA self own made cards.

My 9800 pro was probably the best card I ever owned... never got a problem with it.

Right now, the graphic card market is in a big mess due to ATI and NVidia partnerships with companies like that. For example, Asus scrapped the 48XX series. Just check on newegg what they say about the EAH4850... just a damn joke.

Don't think it only happens to ATI cards, my BFG 8800GTX OC died after a year of use and it was a damn joke to run. 32A per rail? Who the hell designed that thing?
 
blame?? they are reference cards. do you honestly think the majority of these resellers have manufacturing facilities?

btw... i exchanged the card and this one works ok. umm where do you have access to the fan speed control lol?
 


Use Catalyst to raise the fan speed....
 
I went ATI with this one because it has been over a year and it was a cutting edge product and flawed. I think if you are going to have biases you need to have them based off first hand knowledge, not trusting reviews that are created on sites that exist off ad revenues and prone to influence. Being fortunate enough to have offerings from both sides I think its fair to call it a wash. Happy with everything I have right now! :)
 


I try, I just hate to see peeps spend good money on their video cards and in less than a 6 month timeframe they end up having to RMA the card.... It's just not fair, these companies like VisionTek, Powercolor, Sparkle, they just cannot compete with the XFX, Sapphire, HIS, etc....

This is the reason I ony buy from XFX (Ati) or BFG / XFX (Nvidia).... I refuse to spend money on a GPU that is not fully backed by thier company..... I have had GPU's die on me after their warranty has expired and I know what it feels like to have a dead card and no support from the manufacturer...






 
IMO yes they are

The only ATI brands myself and my friends trust are XFX, Sapphire, and SOMETIMES HIS

Especially XFX for their great warranties
 
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