PC graphics card help please

[Telynna]

Hiya!
I've got a home built computer (by a friend) running windows 7. The graphics card i have ATi 4870 seems to be giving me an odd issue.

I have CCC and the latest drivers for it, looked in the ATi Overdrive section and the graphics card doesnt seem to be too hot under load of LOTRO its 51oC and i've never overclocked it, at unpredictable intervals (sometimes 8x a day) the fan ramps up to running at max power and the screen goes off, I can still hear sounds, whether its music, game sounds or teamspeak. Only way to use the pc again is to reboot.

Next to no software on the pc at the moment as it was formatted again last week, incase it was a software issue. All cards etc have been checked to make sure they've not moved and the PSU is 3 weeks old. Cant see anything obvious listed in the Event Viewer and it doesnt give me a BSOD.

Any help would be apreciated as i'm kinda pulling my hair out!

 

[muckshifter]

Hello you.

ah, does sound like over heating

I have a nVidia GC, it overheats when playing LoTRO also, but fortunately I just get wavy lines and artifacts.

I have installed MSI Afterburner to allow me to set me fan running at a better speed than nVidia's default of 40% ... I don't know if you can adjust the fan speed on your ATI overdrive thingumabob

Welcome to PCReview.


see you in game

 

[Telynna]

Yep i've got the fan running at 40% when just in windows and put it up to 50% or 60% when running LoTRO...Cant hear anything as its so loud, but thats a price we have to pay! Going to run memtest86 as someone suggested that.

 

[muckshifter]

it makes me wonder why 'they' fit such inadequate fans

I'm a little fortunate that I'm quite hard of hearing.

so, that's both ATI & nVidia, I've been thinking of changing, but SiS are, if they still exist, a no go.

This only happens with our game, yes? non of me other games have this heating issue.

Keep us informed how you get on.

 

[Telynna]

Well I thought so, but i've just come back in the room from going "afk" for about 10 minutes, not running anything but Windows and it was throwing a paddy at me ...anyone got a hammer?

 

[muckshifter]

ah, not good.

I haven't used an ATI card since 95 (that's1995) as they have this canny knack of not being able to write drivers for them. I take it you do have the latest drivers from ATI, yes?

http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

http://downloads.guru3d.com/

I would suggest uninstalling all the ATI drivers, using ATI's or Guru's cleanup tool ... then let Win 7 install it's basic one and go from there.

Personal feelings aside, can you give us a rundown on the exact hardware in the PC? In particular, the motherboard, power supply unit & ram.

No need to re-install Win 7, it has an excellent repair ability, all baring a hardware problem that is.

 

[Telynna]

Taken from Belarc:

MotherBoard: Winfast K8M890-8237
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 09/04/2008

2.40 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded

2048 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory - unsure on exact make of the ram
ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (4870)
Realtek AC'97 Audio for VIA (R) Audio Controller
498.22 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space (659.99 total)
PSU is 650w and about 3 weeks old, replacing another 650w that was installed by the IT tech friend that built the pc for me.

Latest graphics drivers have been installed on the pc after format.

 

[muckshifter]

ok, thanks for that.

did you uninstall the graphics drivers completely ? and just let W7 do its thing if need, go to windows update and check for any stray drivers.

Your motherboard is, I believe, a Foxconn K8-Motherboard-Series K8M890-8237, a very basic board. It could be a little picky with 'joeblogs' ram.

The PSU certainly seems more than ample, do you know the make, just take the side off the case and have a look, although some inferior PSUs can cause problems, I not sure if it is the case here.

Do you get any BSOD at any time?


if anybody else has any thoughts on this, feel free to chip in.

 

[Reefsmoka]

My computer used to do the exact same thing when the processor was overclocked. Screen would just go blank during a game, fans would be going mental with some game sound still happening. Mine was a dodgey overclock on the processor. So it just goes to show it might not be the card.

 

[Telynna]

Ok latest update, removed the ATi drivers last night.... No crashes again so far...but i know damned well as i've now said it...it will happen!

As for BSOD i dont get any...

 

[Telynna]

Still so far so good, no crashes since removing the ATi drivers and the CCC, sticking with Windows 7 drivers. Been 2 days now and nothing whereas before it could crash 8-10 times a day.

 

[muckshifter]

well, that seems to have narrowed the wee problem down a touch.

Hope it remains so.

 

[Telynna]

ARGH!!!! After 4 days of not crashing at all its just started again was only using facebook. I really think the graphics card is on its way out now as all i could hear this time was..."revving" of the fan...silly thing!

 

[muckshifter]

oh, bummer ... in my day, a long long time ago ... if you wanted to play games, nVidia was the only choice, although ATI were there, they never could master the driver thing.

You could just replace the HSF (heatsyncfan) unit, or take the opportunity of buying, if money's permit, a new card, either company are game savvy these days.

I will point out, however, that your present system is a wee bit long in the tooth, and would be worth retirement, but then we're talking a bit more in the fiances for a complete new system.

I'm saving meself for some new stuff. May even get there for GW2.