Radeon 5xxx Owners Report Grey Screens/Hangups

[jedwards16]

Thanks for the article. I too am experiencing issues and hope that this negative press with prompt ATI to maybe move a little quicker. This issue has existed for quite some times and its finally being picked up on.

 

[doron]

[citation][nom]JMcEntegart[/nom]It's not "only" 30-40 people, nor is it just the amd forum. Like I said in the article there are people on different forums all over the web.http://www.rage3d.com/board/showth [...] 1336110454http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] p?t=241042http://forums.amd.com/game/message [...] erthread=yAnd on our own:http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] 70-dilemmahttp://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] 870-ownershttp://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] lines-5870[/citation]

I was talking about the official AMD forum, so yes it is "only" 30-40 people. But it seems you're right:

Taken from the amd forum: "Didn't want to tell anything before I got confirmation that I could, but the ATI rep on our forum, David Baumann (product manager of 4000 and 5000 series), have forwarded all my tests to the ATI engineers about my issues with grey screen and are also paying attention to the issues in this thread. Rest assured that ATI is taking our problem seriously and are looking into it too on whats causing it."

(link to the op)

At least the problem is known and is on the software level, unless someone fabricated this quote.

 

[eyemaster]

I've had crashes when I OC"d my 2 x5770 by 15mhz to 865mhz. Now, I can't remember if I've crashed since, but it's possible.

 

[ikefu]

I've now put together three systems with Radeon 5850 cards and none of them have reported having this issue (Two are friends that I have extended gaming sessions with and no problems for any of them)

So I wonder what percent of cards are having this problem. 15% 5%? You'd think it would have been heard about more if was any higher but its an important stat.

 

[Guest]

i had plenty of problems initially and on my own tried lowering my mobo's ram frequency, setting the processor dcts to ganged mode, using power profiles, updating my sapphire 5870's vbios, switching the dvi port i used on the graphics card to dvi port that was adjacent to 2 other ports (display port and hdmi port).

I suspect either switching the ports did the trick, or changing to ganged mode did the trick. My mobo has all 4 DIMM slots populated. Total system memory 4GB.

I no longer encounter greyscreens after trying what I tried above.

 

[markabee]

I have been running a 5870 on Windows 7 64 Bit Ultimate since November. For the first month, when running video WMV, the screen would essentially freeze. I upgraded to a new 850W PSU and have not had any problems in the last 45 days.

 

[cybernard]

I have a radeon 5870 and every other game I have is fine except ghostbusters. It cause the ATI driver to restart.

 

[pocketdrummer]

[citation][nom]foody[/nom]Lucky me. My 5770 works flawlessly under Windows 7 Ultimate x86.[/citation]

I wonder if it's a 64-bit issue...

 

[nforce4max]

The first thing I do when I ever get a new or used card is to check the power stages to see how hot they run. If they are well above my taste then it is cooling mods. My 8800gtx wasn't much work for the cooling mod thanks to the board lay out while my x1900xt was even less but still hovers around 50-70c on the power stage but never any higher. Both my 9800gt 1gb editions have the same mods as well while one would prime for a volt mod for a folding home box. For those who suffer with this problem check for hot spots and replace any bad compound as well check the thermal pads are making contact with the Vram and VRM.

 

[Guest]

Here is my story. Card works fine if my 2d clocks are bumped up. The only time I have problems is when it runs at stock 2d speed. No problem playing games.

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=125782&enterthread=y

 

[BoxBabaX]

Thankfully, 5870 here with no issues at all.

 

[Jenoin]

Had my 5770 for a couple of months. I cranked the core speed to the max the day i got it and mem to 1300. Zero issues, all the latest drivers and updates. Has the Rev 2 cooler. Runs cool, pretty quiet. Have a Foxconn A79A-S Mobo and a Phenom II 920.

 

[Guest]

It's weird. I say it's the Windows update, because I never had the problem before 3AM this morning when this "important" update auto-installed. I'm betting it's limited to x64 if it's caused by the Win update. I have a Saphhire 4850 with the problem. The odd thing is I have two of them, one is a later generation of the same card. The first, early generation from when 4850 was brand new is the one that is crashing. (my newer 4850 is controlling my main monitor, and the computer even works for some 10 seconds or so after the side monitors have "grey screened"

I rolled back through System Restore and the problem was still there, oddly. Updated drivers, still there. Currently it seems to have stopped, but I still don't feel "safe" as there was no definitive fix applied.

 

[Xzar]

My 5770 has been working flawlessly for the past month with Dirt 2 and Dragon Age on max settings. I am very pleased with it, never went above 33% fan speed.

My model is made by Asus, 2nd revision, so it is different from the reference model made by ATi, so perhaps the new revision of cards run cooler and have less bugs.

 

[Xzar]

BTW, forgot to mention that I use Windows 7 ultimate 64-bit.

 

[jedwards16]

Oh, and just to note, the problem isnt exclusive to 5XXX series cards, nor is it exclusive to any certain brands, mobos, CPUs, PSUs, or anything.

I started putting together a spreadsheet containing the names of everyone in the ATI thread about this issue. Its a little sloppy and incomplete at the moment but the basic info is there.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ar5mJHxtjN9sdDhYMkxxeHBjRUUtbHBtbmpFb1JVbEE&hl=en

 

[dark_lord69]

Well then....
I think I'll go with nVidia's new line of GPUs.

 

[razorblaze42]

[citation][nom]notty22[/nom]So is this a non story, the ATI fanatics won't have any of it that there is a problem. ATI is perfect and they would never rush to manufacturing.NO NEVER< lol[/citation]
ATI isn't perfect... I stated earlier that 95% of users rated the 5870 as good/excellent, leaving 5% experiencing problems. Guess what the percentage is of nVdia 285 having problems? 4-7%, which even given my "public schooling" equates to 5.5% on average. So it appears a 5% failure rate seems fairly NORMAL!

 

[mrcmark]

My sapphire 5770 before failed miserably. I thought it was a driver is buit i wasn't. I keeps on crashing in windows 7. I turned out to be a bad video. In the net more user encountered issues with the 5770, Im thing there is a bad batch out there.

 

[mrcmark]

Aarrg typo error.
I thought it was a driver issue but i wasn't
Im thinking there is a bad batch out there.

 

[MCMunroe]

Looks like classic patern GPU thermal death to me. I work as a OEM on-site tech and seeing patterns and grey screens on any GPU means it's burning out and is in the process of going down hill.
Lowering the clocks and or raising the voltage could extend the inevitable.

I'm shocked that the other experts don't see that instantly from the symptoms.

GPU Thermal Death Stages:
1. Some geometry glitches or corrupt textures in 3d.
2. Games start crashing.
3. Some patterned distortions in 2d, windows desktop.
4. Some windows crashing.
5. Some distortion on POST and OS load screens.
6. No POST. Card completely dead.

 

[tpi2007]

There could be many possible causes, even concurrent ones, but let's try to do some doctor's work without the patient - hope we'll get some answers from the "patients though":

1. Did people buy the card brand new and start having problems immediately ?

2. If yes, did they buy the card yesterday or a months ago ? My Win 7 64 bit edition installed a "reliability update" yesterday rated as important and begged me to restart the system afterwards - it could be Microsoft's fault. If it was months ago, it could be either a manufacturing problem or a driver fixable problem, for example, certain chips not being able to idle at such low frequencies for example.

3. If not, how much time did it pass before you started having problems ? (It could be a manufacturing problem - remember the 40nm chamber misalignment problem - it could be a possible cause after a few months of working..)

4. What is the rating of your PSU's ? Did people do the math ?

5. Is this happening very frequently to other 4 series cards ? If not it could be an isilated matter with apparently the same effects but different causes. If it is, is it all 4 series cards, or is it mainly with 4770 cards ? These are 40nm parts, so again, it could be a manufacturing problem.

6. Does it happen under Windows XP and Vista too ? Teh did have a reliability update yesterday or in any other day that could be related to this problem ? If people started noticing the problem at the same time, it's an indicator.

7. The thing about this not affecting everybody means it is only triggered by a combination of factors which some unlucky people have in their systems. That said, it may have gone unnoticed to many and now gaining traction because of some little adjustment in OS and/or driver updates.

Just my two cents. Hope it gets fixed soon.

 

[nerdbox]

Just and FYI I bought my XFX 5870 in Oct and it has had no issues. I will agree that I am not seeing as good of performance as Tom's reported in their benchmarks (My sys i7920 @3.6ghz; 6gb ram, win7 64bit,XFX 5870 9.12 driver) but I ahve not seen any of the issues being reported.

 

[envolva]

I had the problem, I did just about everything to solve it.

Luckily something did work! The card is working rock solid for over a month now.

GTA IV and Crysis Warhead did set the vertical stripes bug every other minute, but not anymore. Also Furmark now runs for 30min sessions without any problems. Before it would break from 1 to 6 minutes into the stress test consistently with vertical stripes.


Things I'm doing:
- updated my motherboard bios (Asus P6T)
- increased uncore voltage settings to 1.30V
- increased PPL voltage settings to 1.88V (have to check at home)
- disabled turbo mode (i7 920)
- increased idle clock setting with overdrive to 300MHz / 420MHz
- increased video card voltage configuration within CCC. (as far as I can tell it doesn't really work, otherwise others would do it there instead of Afterburner.)


Things I tried, but undone.
- increased video card voltage with Afterburner. (uninstalled)
- increased video card fan speed. (left on CCC auto)


I got really pissed when the problem first appeared, playing with constant fear of vertical stripes.

But I got rid of it, for over a month at least. I don't think about when the next vertical stripe screen will appear anymore.

Will be happy to crossfire my ATI 5870 when the time comes.

 

[MetzMan007]

I am running a Core i7 920 at 4.2ghz, on a Asus P6X58D mobo, 12 Gb OCZ 12800 Ram, and Tripple XFX 4890's in Crossfire and i have seen no such issue been running non stop for at least a month without restart. and have been playing games from age of empires 2 - the new batman to crisis. all at 1920 x 1200. the only reason i still play crisis is because it is a beautiful game when you have the power. ooh and running windows 7 home premium 64bit.