4870 losing signal?

[jcwagers]

I've just recently put together a new system. The components are:

OCZ 700w power supply
5400+ BE
Visiontek 4870
2x2gb OCZ Reaper
750gb Samsung
Asus M3A78 Pro

I've had the system on for a couple of days with the normal reboots for various things. I left it on all night last night and I used it before bed and it was fine. I haven't done the profile fan fix because I never could get it to work correctly. My card was idling at around 77c and load was around 81c or a bit above. This morning I was typing and the monitor loses signal and goes from Digital to Analog and keeps repeating. I thought it was odd so I restarted. After restart.....nothing on the screen. If I leave the computer off for a couple of minutes, it will post and get into windows. My time in Windows is very limited before it loses signal again. I downloaded Expertool and thought that the card might be overheating so I set it on the fixed fan speed of 50%. After a few minutes, I hear the card spin down and there goes the monitor signal again. I'm running Cat. 8.8 too btw. Is there something that I'm doing wrong or do I have a flaky card? I'm up for ideas at this point and any and all would be appreciated.

jc

*UPDATE*
It seems that there are quite a few people with similar cards (4850/4870) that have varying degrees of losing signal on their monitors. Some of them have managed to use VGA instead of DVI but that hasn't worked for me. Also, there are 4 small LED lights on the back of the card. These apparently are diagnostic in nature. According to a guy named Spyral on the AMD Game Forums the lights stand for the following

LED 1601 - Critical Temperature Fault
LED 601 - Critical Core Power Fault
LED 1602 - Power Connector A was removed
LED 1603 - Power Connector B was removed

The actual order of the LEDs is
1602
601
1601
1603

On my card when I boot up the system 1602, 1601, and 1603 are all lit. All of the pcie connectors are plugged in and plugged in correctly. This is what makes me unsure if it's actually the card or if the power supply isn't giving off enough juice. The main thing I've noticed now is that the system will output any signal at all when I turn it on. I tried using one of the VGA adapters on the card and using VGA on my LCD and that doesn't work either. I'm figuring that I'm going to have to RMA something.....but I don't know whether it's the Power Supply or the 4870. :S


*UPDATE #2*
Came home from work and thought I'd try the system just to see what would happen. Everything booted up perfectly fine.....power LED is on front of the case and the hd light it working and there were NO LEDs on the back of the card. So for now it's working again so it must be some kind of software trouble I suppose. I don't understand it at all but I guess I'll go with the flow for now.

 

[apoppin]

Try reseating the card. Make sure all your PS connectors are right and maybe switch them around; maybe move your 4870 to another PCIe slot or try in another PC

if it continues, i would consider a RMA quickly
- your temps are the same as mine. i set Expertool to 'dynamic' and it still will be in the high 70s and low 80s as evidently it is running exactly what it was designed for.

 

[jcwagers]

I tried reseating and so far no difference. I have to turn the power supply off in the back and wait a few minutes and then it will boot up. I tried just now and even then it wouldn't. I think I only have 1 PCIe x16 slot and I don't have another computer with PCIe.....my old one is AGP.

btw.....thanks for the help.

 

[zod96]

The same thing has been happening to me as well. Everything will be fine and dandy then I lose video signal for no reason, and this is in 2d or 3d mode. I'm using the 8.8 drivers. It also did it on the 8.7 as well. I like the card, but so far to me nvidia's drivers have been much better imo...hopefully this issue gets resolved in the 8.9's when they come out

 

[jcwagers]

I'm not thinking that it's a driver issue but I suppose that's possible. I'm thinking it's a hardware problem. Mine is very indecisive as to whether or not it wants to spin up when you start up the system. Seems like sometimes the fan revs up and sometimes it doesn't.

 

[jcwagers]

Now I'm even more confused. I noticed that the power led on my case doesn't come on when I power it up. And holding in the button to turn off the computer doesn't work either. I have to switch it off in the back. All fans are spinning fine and the usb on the front seemed to work. *sigh* Is it a power supply problem or a video problem? Wow......this gets more and more interesting as I go.

 

[jcwagers]

updated original post with more findings.........I just wish I understood. hehe

 

[madbutcher88]

Mine also does this from time to time scared me when it first happened but I found out a few people who say they get it occasionally its just some glitch that will hopefully get resolved

 

[jcwagers]

Well, it seems like the whole computer is useless afterwards. Almost like it's overheating....even though it shouldn't be. The computer doesn't want to boot back up properly and the LEDs start coming back on on the back of the card. I have 3 120mm fans in the case so there should be decent airflow. I'll admit it's very sporadic when it happens. Everything is fine and then *BAM* lose signal. It seems to affect the entire system too......when it's working properly...I have the blue power led on the front of the case and the hard drive led. After it loses signal....I get nothing on either......even after a reboot. Like I have to let the card or power supply cool down for a while. I don't understand it.

 

[apoppin]

Why not just RMA the damn thing?

it appears to be *defective*

i know i would not put up with that crap with my 4870 =P

 

[Zstream]

I had this problem and it was the motherboard I/O plate causing the problem. It was messing with the grounding of the case.

 

[jcwagers]

Originally posted by: apoppin
Why not just RMA the damn thing?

it appears to be *defective*

i know i would not put up with that crap with my 4870 =P

I may have to RMA it. I just don't understand why it works sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. I'm afraid I'll RMA it and get one back that does the same thing. Then I'll feel dumb for returning a card that most likely DID work. However, I'll try to contact Visiontek or Newegg and see about getting a replacement. Thanks again everybody for helping.

jc

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: jcwagers
Now I'm even more confused. I noticed that the power led on my case doesn't come on when I power it up. And holding in the button to turn off the computer doesn't work either. I have to switch it off in the back. All fans are spinning fine and the usb on the front seemed to work. *sigh* Is it a power supply problem or a video problem? Wow......this gets more and more interesting as I go.

The power LED light will not come on for two reasons:

1. The front panel connector to the Power LED connector has come off.
2. The front panel connector to the Power LED is on backwards (+/- to -/+)

Check all of your front panel connections for loose or popped of wires.

 

[jcwagers]

Well, when the system powers on properly, the front panel connector for power LED come on like they're supposed to. When the video card loses signal is when everything seems to go haywire. Even after a reboot, I get no signal. I was under the impression that most people who have the "lost signal" problem had it come back on when they rebooted. It might lose signal again but it doesn't have a continuous lost signal from the initial reboot and everyone after. I had the system off for around 8 hours last night and when I started it back up, it initially started up fine. I wondered if it might be overheating but it was on for a few minutes and I even had Guild Wars going for a bit. I left the system off for 4-5 hours last night and tried it this morning and there was still no signal. I'm going to try it again here in a minute and see what happens. It looks like apoppin might be right and I may have to RMA it.

 

[nevbie]

Originally posted by: jcwagers
It seems that there are quite a few people with similar cards (4850/4870) that have varying degrees of losing signal on their monitors. Some of them have managed to use VGA instead of DVI but that hasn't worked for me.

I have to use the VGA cable fix, but at least in my case it was like that from the beginning - this fix is probably not related if your problems start later. I suspect that in my case my monitor EDID is corrupted, and that is why DVI won't work with ATI cards, but I have no concrete information nor have I tried fixing it properly yet. Your problem should not be related to EDID because you can get the signal, and because your problem also affects VGA.

..just confirming.

 

[ronnn]

Make sure it is not your monitor. My monitor does this very occasionally and is fixed by turning the monitor off and on.

 

[jcwagers]

Well, I reverted back to the Cat 8.6 drivers that came on the disc and all seemed to be well. That didn't work for more than about 20 minutes and then lost signal. I tried VGA and actually did get it to come on. I figured that this was the end of the problem since the problems seemed to be related to DVI. Alas, after a few minutes...it once again lost signal. I even left the computer at idle and it lost signal. I have my monitor set to shut off after 5 minutes and I'm not sure if that triggered it or what. I guess I'll just use my old rig until I get this lined out. I suppose I'll put in for an RMA and try to send the card back tomorrow.

 

[Genx87]

What OS? I have had this issue intermittenly on my 8800GTS 640 since moving to Vista.

 

[jcwagers]

Running XP w/SP3

 

[SolMiester]

PSU?

 

[manimal]

Ive had similar issues to this on 3 different cards, two 4850s and one 4870. The problem is that on my htpc which I leave on 24/7 this has become very annoying. Dual monitors was horrible as well since the image would flicker on and off sometimes for minutes at a time. I love the performance but the driver issues have been awful....

 

[jcwagers]

Originally posted by: SolMiester
PSU?

700w OCZ

 

[Intelman07]

Did anyone find a solution to this.

With a w2207 and a 4870, I lose signal when going to the welcome screen in Vista, and sometimes when waking up from a screen saver or save power state.

Here is what I wrote up:

So for the past few months, when I return to my computer and move my mouse to wake up the screen, crazyness happens. The screen will flash on and off crazily, with each flash resetting my mouse cursor back to the middle of my screen.

Sometimes I can catch a glimpse of programs hanging in the background, one by one. And sometimes Vista will ask me if I want to disable Aero.

This doesn't always happen though, I cannot figure out what, if anything causes this. I've formatted at least 4 times since this started happening, in the hopes it is something I've installed.

I use Office, Live Suite, BOINC for Rosetta @ Home ( I recently added this, it happens without this app) and A few PC games, like Call of Duty.

I have also been through 3 ATI drivers. 8.9 8.10 and 8.11. A bug could be carried through all three drivers, but I figure a google search would have turned up such a thing. I also install the latest Intel Chipset installation utility from their website.

Another issue that happens is sometimes when I logout, or do a "switch user", my screen will go black, like it is recieving no signal. If I press arrow keys tab and enter a few times, I usually can login to the user with no password. If I am really luck, I can press a combination, type my password, press enter, and get logged in. I assume this is related somehow.

Now in addition, I have ran memtest86+ for 26 hours, it all passed, I have ran Prime95 for 18 hours, it passed.

This past time that my screen flickered alot I pressed control atl del, selected log off, waited for a bit, and my PC went to a black welcome screen. I then luckily logged back into my account, and I am now here typing to the world just fine.

Wtf is going on here? I've tried formats (with different Vista Discs), I've tried different drivers, I've tried stress testing (including my video card, with folding @ home).

Any ideas on how to track this down? I am betting it is software, it seems too inconsistant to be faulty hardware. In my short experience, hardware either works, or does not. If it is hardware, I wonder WTF it is.

Here is a shot video of what happens.

http://flickr.com/photos/obiwantoby/3039459273/

Somtimes though, the signal is just not there and the screen remains black. If I had money to blow, I'd smash my 4870 .

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Intelman07
Did anyone find a solution to this.

With a w2207 and a 4870, I lose signal when going to the welcome screen in Vista, and sometimes when waking up from a screen saver or save power state.

Here is what I wrote up:

So for the past few months, when I return to my computer and move my mouse to wake up the screen, crazyness happens. The screen will flash on and off crazily, with each flash resetting my mouse cursor back to the middle of my screen.

Sometimes I can catch a glimpse of programs hanging in the background, one by one. And sometimes Vista will ask me if I want to disable Aero.

This doesn't always happen though, I cannot figure out what, if anything causes this. I've formatted at least 4 times since this started happening, in the hopes it is something I've installed.

I use Office, Live Suite, BOINC for Rosetta @ Home ( I recently added this, it happens without this app) and A few PC games, like Call of Duty.

I have also been through 3 ATI drivers. 8.9 8.10 and 8.11. A bug could be carried through all three drivers, but I figure a google search would have turned up such a thing. I also install the latest Intel Chipset installation utility from their website.

Another issue that happens is sometimes when I logout, or do a "switch user", my screen will go black, like it is recieving no signal. If I press arrow keys tab and enter a few times, I usually can login to the user with no password. If I am really luck, I can press a combination, type my password, press enter, and get logged in. I assume this is related somehow.

Now in addition, I have ran memtest86+ for 26 hours, it all passed, I have ran Prime95 for 18 hours, it passed.

This past time that my screen flickered alot I pressed control atl del, selected log off, waited for a bit, and my PC went to a black welcome screen. I then luckily logged back into my account, and I am now here typing to the world just fine.

Wtf is going on here? I've tried formats (with different Vista Discs), I've tried different drivers, I've tried stress testing (including my video card, with folding @ home).

Any ideas on how to track this down? I am betting it is software, it seems too inconsistant to be faulty hardware. In my short experience, hardware either works, or does not. If it is hardware, I wonder WTF it is.

Here is a shot video of what happens.

http://flickr.com/photos/obiwantoby/3039459273/

Somtimes though, the signal is just not there and the screen remains black. If I had money to blow, I'd smash my 4870 .

I would say it sounds like a defective card or lose connection somewhere like the others have already stated,FYI I'm using Gigabyte 4870 card and OCZ 700W PSU with Vista x64, never seen any issues like yours in my system(used so far every driver from 8.6 to latest 8.11).I'm running in DVI mode .

Basically I would try another video card to see if same problem happens,if so I would also try another PSU,have to rule out faulty hardware,don't overlook monitor cable too.