Xfx radeon hd 4850 video problems

[quicksilver_67]

i been using a xfx hd radeon 4850 for couple of months and it worked fine. but the other day suddenly when i was playing mw2 my video just froze and sometimes the pc would just trun off. i would like to know if this is hardware or software problem and how to fix it?

 

[Guest]

Same problem here. I installed software to monitor temperatures - the card was quickly reaching 120 degrees within a few minutes of starting any demanding 3D game, and then shutting down shortly after. Found out it's got a shutdown switch to prevent it from heating above 130.

The stock cooling on the card is not sufficient and fails as the fans get a little older and more dusty. Solution is to add a good after-market cooling solution like either of these:

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=42005
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=48358

The card is still powerful enough to be worth this rather than replacing.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[quicksilver_67]

thanks a lot man...i started freaking out it was my CPU or some other part of my PC..for my current solution i just set a desktop fan to my computer at full blast keeps everything cool..but you sure that its only the fan? did changing your fan get the problem fixed?

 

[meeksdoteric]

i been using a xfx hd radeon 4850 for couple of months and it worked fine. but the other day suddenly when i was playing mw2 my video just froze and sometimes the pc would just trun off. i would like to know if this is hardware or software problem and how to fix it?

What drivers are you using? I started having serious issues with my XFX 4850s in Crossfire after installing Catalyst 11.6...

 

[quicksilver_67]

i got the latest catalyst drivers..i found out that there is some serious issues with the catalyst manager.the video would just freeze and be corrupt after like 5-10 min of pc use. so i got rid of it and problem was solved, but not all of it.soon i realized that i could use my computer for more that 1 hr, at times 30 minutes. so like i said before, the only way i use my pc for playing games even browsing the web is setting a desk top fan at it. obviously that means something in there is over heating. dont know wat though for sure..

 

[meeksdoteric]

Well I was having similar instability issues with the new drivers too, but not always. I did some tests, uninstalling CCC and sweeping drivers between tests.

Here's what I found:

(2x 4850s Xfire) + (CCC 11.6) = Super unstable
(1x 4850) + (CCC 11.6) = Still unstable, but not as bad
(1x 4850) + (CCC 11.5) = Stable
(1x 5770) + (CCC 11.5) = Stable
(1x 5770) + (CCC 11.6) = Stable

So I concluded that the 11.5 drivers are stable across the board, but the 11.6 drivers are not stable with either/both of my XFX 4850 1GB cards.

I have nice Zalman coolers on both 4850s.. so I don't think the issue is heat related. I think the newest drivers (11.6) are just not jiving with my particular system components.

I wonder if we have other components in common? Mobo maybe? I've got the MSI 870-G45.

 

[quicksilver_67]

Best answer selected by quicksilver_67.