Wondering whether a Radeon HD6870 is salvageable at all?

Andrew Walker

Honorable
Sep 6, 2013
4
0
10,510
Hey guys. So I have a quick question to ask you before I do something quite potentially stupid.

So I have what I suspect is a dud graphics card. I think it's out of warranty but so there wouldn't be any luck there I don't think. I was just wondering whether you guys think it could be fixed.

It's a Radeon HD6870 which broke down about a week ago after it loaded up Rome 2: Total war. I posted about a fix for it then, but it was a huge post and I think it was just ignored. When it loads up into windows the reso is 600x400 and the colours look like it's stuck in 128bit mode, or something akin to that. When windows update, or I try to install drivers the computer Bluescreens. It often won't load back into windows without using the "Load last good config" mode. I'm pretty sure it's dead, but I'm looking at building a PC for someone else who wants it on the cheap and I was wondering if the card would be salvageable at all? Because obviously it didn't work on my friends PC and it didn't work in mine (I swapped out my NVIDIA card) but my system has had an AMD card in it before, so who knows how it'd react. I'd be really appreciative if anyone could give any help. And if I've broken forum rules please let me know, because I'm pretty knew to these forums. Thanks :)
 

clutchc

Titan
Ambassador
If you're pretty sure the card has failed, I wouldn't think there's be any way to 'fix' it. You could remove the shroud and clean off/replace the thermal paste. While you're at it, look for anything obvious like a lose fan connector or burnt spots on the board or components. Did you totally uninstall the old driver before installing the 6870 and its driver? Use Driver Sweeper from safe mode to remove any remnants of AMD, ATI, Nvidia graphic driver remnants it finds. Then re-boot and install the latest driver for card and OS. But if you've already been through all that, then the card is probably ready for the recycle container.

DS: http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4266-driver-sweeper.html
CCleaner: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner