Issues with VTX3D 7970 when using one monitor.

berghaushouse

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Feb 22, 2015
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Hello all, long time reader first time poster here.

TLDR: Graphics card doesn't work with 1 monitor, but with 2 monitors the one plugged into HDMI port works, what fixes/tests are there I can try?


I recently acquired a broken VTX3D 7970 (with the intention of having a go at fixing it) and have come across some weird behaviour that I hope someone would be king enough to shed some light on. Here goes:

When using one monitor with the DVI port (I have tried 4 different monitors, all of which work with other graphics cards) the card exhibits a weird overlaying colour - in bios it is all green, in windows it's a strange purpley/red colour. When I move the mouse this overlay flickers to different shades of purpley/red and then settles on the same colour as before when I stop moving the mouse.

When using the HDMI port it exhibits a similar behaviour except everything is bright white rather than red/purple or green and I can just about make out what's going on on the screen.

I have tried the graphics card in several different PCs each with varying power supplies, motherboards and processors and every single test has given me the same result so I am confident the issue lies solely with the card. I would be happy to list the exact specs of these machines if someone feels it's relevent.

Now the thing I find weird is that when I use both the DVI and HDMI port in a dual monitor setup (doesn't matter if extended display or mirroring) the monitor using the DVI port has the issue, but the HDMI port works flawlessly - no flickering or issues whatsoever.

This is nice because it provides me with a workaround of extending my display onto a small 10 inch monitor and putting that out of sight under the desk leaving me with a perfectly usable graphics card on the HDMI port.

However the main intention of buying this card was to fix it as I'm trying to make a hobby out of it so if anyone has any advice potential fixes or any tests I can run to diagnose further that would be lovely.

Thanks in advance.

 


After a 5 minute battle trying to remove that DVI cable I found the following:

Unplugging the second monitor the main HDMI monitor stayed fine (however windows was still extending onto the second unplugged display) so I restarted. After restarting the problem came back until I plugged back in the second monitor and asked it to extend onto this display again.

Interestingly I restarted again and found that in bios i had no display on the hdmi monitor, but had the strange green display on the DVI monitor - once it reached windows everything became find again on the HDMI monitor.