4870X2 Lockups/BSOD

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon' started by Osiris_Z, Jan 28, 2009.

  1. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    *SOLVED* 4870X2 Lockups/BSOD

    First of all I'll go through my PC specs in more depth than the panel on the left.

    Intel Core2 Duo E8400 @3Ghz CPU
    2x 2GB DDR2 Apacer RAM
    Sapphire 4870X2 GPU
    Silverstone Zeus 850W 70A Quad +12 PSU Nvidia SLI ready
    3 WD SATA HDD
    Asus P5K/EPU w/ Intel P35 chipset MOBO
    1 Acer P243W A Monitor through DVI
    Windows Vista X64 Ultimate SP1
    Catalyst Control Center 9.1
    Up to date chipset and monitor drivers
    All games are patched up to date
    BIOS ver. 0604

    I'm getting seemingly random lockups and BSODs when playing 3d games (such as crysis, oblivion, FSX, Gears of War, and PSX emulation) but not while benchmarking and stress testing (rthdribl). The crashes seem to be less frequent if I turn off the second GPU, but this may just be coincidence. The PSU seems to be SLI ready, but does not say anything about crossfire, but the 4870X2 is on one PCIe X16 slot, would this be the issue? I'll go ahead and list some of the things I've tried.

    -Re-seating the GPU
    -Turning CCC AI off/Standard/Advanced
    -Overclocking/Underclocking GPU core/Memory speeds
    -Overclocking/Underclocking CPU speeds
    -Different operating systems (Win7X32)
    -CCC 8.10,8.12
    -Backdated chipset drivers
    -Ran OCCT, cpu came back stable
    -Ran memtest86+ ram came back with no errors
    -increased and decreased nb, cpu, ram voltages

    Now a more detailed description of the issues.

    I'm getting lockups in-game in Oblivion and before gameplay begins in Gears of War. Crysis seems to be a little more random with crashes in either the menu or in game, pixilation and graphical distortion in game, BSOD in game and on exit resolution change. I seem to get a lot of crashes when changing resolutions, usually when exiting games or changing resolutions in options menus. Strangely enough I cannot seem to get a crash at all when stress testing with rthdribl and the GPU seems to perform extremely well during these tests. The crashes seem to be a lot less frequent when using a lower resolution monitor through VGA instead of a much larger 1900X1200 monitor through DVI.

    I've contacted AMD/ATI support and they suggested an RMI, but sapphire only allows an RMI through the sales outlet (which is a local computer store). I brought the computer into the store, told them the issues and they couldn't find anything wrong while benchmarking for 12+ hours with 3Dmark so they sent it back to me. The problems persisted and I brought it in again with my games, they played them, got some crashes, then said they updated the GPU drivers and it magically started working again (I'm 100% sure I had those updated to latest drivers). They seem to be either lazy or stupid, so it seems I either need to point them in the right direction with the root cause of the issue, or I need to compile detailed logs of the crashes and print them out for them, I need your help in either case.

    So can you please point out possible issues or other things to try?

    Or can you please point me in the direction of some good software I could use to compile crash logs which I can print out?

    Is my GPU compatible with my PSU?

    And how can I find out if this is a CPU issue?
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2009
  2. IcemaN22

    IcemaN22 Member Guru

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    GPU:
    Assus TUF 4090
    Is your cpu and ram stable on OCCT?
     
  3. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    I'm trying this now, 1h left.
     
  4. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    OCCT V2.0.1 reports that the test was completed and the CPU was stable. I guess I can rule out a CPU or RAM problem.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2009

  5. Messerschmitt

    Messerschmitt Master Guru

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    GPU:
    ASUS 7970 DCU II
    Did you run memtest? I've heard so many stuff about BSOD about ram.
     
  6. IcemaN22

    IcemaN22 Member Guru

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    GPU:
    Assus TUF 4090
    What is your NB volt at?
     
  7. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    I ram MemTest86+ of my Xubuntu X64 Alt. Install CD and it completed a pass with no errors.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2009
  8. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    OCCT read my CPU voltage at 1.08V, and my bios read it as 1.224V.
     
  9. IcemaN22

    IcemaN22 Member Guru

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    GPU:
    Assus TUF 4090
    I had samme issue as you, fine in windows and 3dmarks and was stable... but got BSOD when I played games. The solution was to increase the NB volt (Northbrdige volt), if you have auto it can give you to little. Check how high NB volt you are using (for example in bios), if it is under 1.35V increase it by 0.10.
     
  10. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    Is my CPU voltage the same as my northbridge voltage? If not, where do I get information on my current NB Volt?
     

  11. IcemaN22

    IcemaN22 Member Guru

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    GPU:
    Assus TUF 4090
    No cpu and northbridge are 2 different things. You can get the information in bios or you can download Everest: http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?ps=UE&lang=en
     
  12. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    Everest Reads my Northbridge Core Voltage at 1.25V, I've been looking through my MOBO options and I can't seem to find the option for changing NB voltage.

    BIOS options in Advanced>Chipset>NorthBridgeControl are as follows:

    Memory Remap Feature [Enabled]
    Initiate Graphic Adapter [PEG/PCI]
    PEG Port Control [Auto]
    PEG Port Force x1 [Disabled]

    ASUS C.G.I. Function [Auto]


    So... any way to change this without going through mobo settings?
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2009
  13. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    Alright, I managed to change my NB voltage under Jumper Free Settings up from 1.25V to 1.35V as recommended. Strangely enough this did not seem to effect the displayed NB voltage in everest which still displays it as 1.25V. My issues still seem to persist just as much as before.
     
  14. macdaddy

    macdaddy Guest

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    GPU:
    TITAN X
    reinstall drivers that the next step i will try
     
  15. bokah

    bokah Guest

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    GPU:
    EVGA 670GTX 2G
    1st check power plan from vista, set it to max
    2nd check voltages for 2G ddr kits as they should eat bit more than 1G
    3rd check sb voltage from bios if it has more options than 1.05 and 1.25 (or very close to those) i.e if ur able to put something like 1.30 or 1.40 voltages on it, it is very likely really nb voltage not sb, my mate has it this way
    he also had bsods and got rid em with cpu or mch ref set to auto instead of bit oc (sry cant recall which one it was)

    sometimes catalysts bugs with 4G memory or above. with Memory Remap Feature disabled, u can check if its the case, leaves u about 3.2G usable
     

  16. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    I tried this again today and it seemed to help for awhile, until I started up Crysis and played for about 5min. Then something new happened, the screen went into standby (pointing to a GPU failure) and the card's fan sped up to (what seemed like) 100%. I waited about 5min for the card to reset (as it usually does) but it did not. Also, the third and forth red lights (from the ports) were on steady. I reset and the screen remained blank with the fourth light on steady until I reset again and it booted normally. I'm also now getting a louder-than-normal humming sound coming from the GPU when running games (aside from the fan noise).

    I am now almost certain this is a GPU error.
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2009
  17. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    I've increased all these voltages except for sb, with no effect.
     
  18. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    Any chance you guys know of some way at all that I might be able to print out crash logs or anything else that might convince the guys at the shop that I'm having issues with my GPU?
     
  19. Pvfc-Epic

    Pvfc-Epic Maha Guru

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    GPU:
    ASUS GTX560Ti DirectCU II
    hello i have same motherboard and vid card .. problem is the board and or bios .. originally i had the 0414 bios for my 8800gtx which was flawless, i installed new gpu and lots of errors and os installs later i install the 0603 bios on which the vid card now runs without problems.

    latest 1201 bios is worst i tried.
     
  20. Osiris_Z

    Osiris_Z Member

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    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870X2
    The 0604 bios is what I have installed and I'm still getting GPU crashes every time I run a games. Interestingly enough, the card seems to work fine under flglx drivers. This is not a fix however, as I need to need to run windows for games.

    On another note, I installed 9.1 drivers with no improvements to my problems.
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2009

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