AMD 7850 won't idle.

[IInuyasha74]

I just upgraded to an AMD Radeon HD 7850 with 2GB of ram from Powercolor. The issue is that for some reason the card will not idle. I just plugged it in, installed Catalyst drivers and such, and then was looking through Catalyst and found it is running at 95% active. I know a lot about computers but I cannot figure out why. My CPU is idle, and I had nothing open except a few folders.

I tried restarting the computer, and this fixed the issue for a moment, but now it is back to 95% active. I cannot figure out why. I have not overclocked it or made any chances to it, and like I said nothing is running.

On the plus side, I changed the thermal past and its only up to 62 degrees even while being active like this. Anyways, if you can think of why it is running like this, please let me know.

 

[Kari]

scan your pc for malware/viruses, there are some malware that use gpus to mine bitcoins.

 

[ur6beersaway]

Open Catlyst>performance>grapics overdrive>click box> enable (manual) fan control & adjust the slider? any response?

 

[IInuyasha74]

Alright, I just started a virus can, I have over 4TB so it takes a little while but I will say what comes up after.
As for adjusting the fan speed, I adjusted the Fan up some, strangely enough this didn't lower the temperature. My case is well ventilated though and a 200mm fan blows right on the GPU so it may not be able to any better.

 

[bryonhowley]

It sounds like you have something running in the background that is using your GPU but it is hard to say what. Is there any thing active that is using some of your CPU time? If it is using your GPU to that extent then you should see some CPU time usage also.

 

[IInuyasha74]

That was my first thought also, so I checked. Nothing really was. I am only using around 27% of my CPU right now, and 25% of that is the virus scan. Its very strange.

 

[IInuyasha74]

So update. Virus scan is still running. The computer has fallen to sleep twice while I have been busy today, and it seems that it runs at 95% when it wakes up. After maybe 40 minutes of being active it dropped down to 0% as it should be. This only happened once so far, so I do not know if it will always happen. I still do not know why it runs at nearly full capacity though.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Sorry for posting again, but here is an update. Outside of that one time mentioned before, the GPU runs constantly above 90% usage. Virus scan found one virus, but it was deleted and no changes occurred.

 

[ur6beersaway]

Are you running Folding@home,BIONIC,or Skype on the computer?

 

[IInuyasha74]

No. Well I have Skype installed but I never use it. Its turned off. I have another IM though. Is there some sort of issue with AMD GPU's and these programs?

 

[ur6beersaway]

They start automatically during boot, hijack the cpu & gpu running both around max to force their work units thru. Granted they are each invited in by "volunteering" your computer. A noble cause(s) to be sure. Serious clients have a dedicated computer for the task as control seems lost on ones primary system (sharing) such a heavy load all the time.

 

[IInuyasha74]

But the GPU shouldn't be used to start any of these programs because they do not use OpenGL.
Either way, I appreciate the idea, because it made me think to go look in msconfig and shut down a bunch of services and other startup stuff I did not need. now the card is back to idle at 0%. Hopefully it will stay this way.

 

[anxiousinfusion]

I had this issue once with my 560 ti. It wouldn't drop below 450MHz core clock. My solution was to completely uninstall the graphics drivers, EVGA precision and wipe with Driver Fusion. I reinstalled the video drivers and precision with the latest versions and it was fixed.

 

[Mahisse]

I had this issue once with my 560 ti. It wouldn't drop below 450MHz core clock. My solution was to completely uninstall the graphics drivers, EVGA precision and wipe with Driver Fusion. I reinstalled the video drivers and precision with the latest versions and it was fixed.

I was thinking the same thing. If you haven't tried it already try a fresh installation of the drivers but you probably already tried that. What about a bios update?
Do you have any chance to try the card in another computer to rule out a faulty card?

 

[IInuyasha74]

My bios is completely up to date. It is okay though, it seems to have gone away with something I disabled be it a service or program in startup. I figure if it comes back I will try just a clean reinstallation of Windows 7.

 

[abdul77]

i have same problem with my powercolor 7850, cant fix it

 

[IInuyasha74]

How strange. Mine was also a powercolor. See if this fixes it for you.
In the run/search bar under the "start" menu, type msconfig.
Run msconfig and carefully uncheck anything set to start with the computer that doesn't need to be. If you are unsure what to uncheck or not, you can go through the painfully long task of listing everything and I can compare it when I get home to see if I can figure out what you need to uncheck, but it would be a lot easier for you if you do know.