problems with HD 2900XT

cy387_lk · December 21st, 2007, 10:59 PM

Hi

I must say this card has been giving me nothing but a headache from the very moment I got it. First it shut down after 15 secs of gaming because of overheat (something was wrong with cooling sys), so I changed it. Now the new one works pretty well, but my pc dies after 30min - 2h of playing any 3d game (TRL, Supreme Commander, HL2, etc.). And it dies completely, not just game window hangs up. It's not overheat for sure, the card doesn't pass over 50-60C, but here my ideas end. It could be drivers, OS, the card itself, or anything else...

Could anyone share his/her experience with this "thing", I really would like to know whats wrong with it...

My conf:
---------------------------
OS: Windows XP x86 SP2, updated
Motherboard: ASUS M2A-VM, chipset AMD 690G / ATI SB600
Integrated Audio: ALC883 HDA
Proc: AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 (AM2 socket, custom fan)
RAM: 4x1Gb DDR2, PC2-6400, A-Data, Extreme Edition
Video: ATI Radeon HD 2900XT 1Gb VRAM (manufacturer: Diamond)
PSU: ThermalTake Purepower 600W (2 fans, 2 separated 6pin PCIE power cables)
Box: CoolerMaster Centurion (1 fan in front of HDDs, 1 12cm fan on the back)
DX: 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Catalyst: currently v7.12 (with 7.11 had the same problems)

Can send my dxdiag log if needed.

**Regeneration** · December 21st, 2007, 11:05 PM

BSOD? Are you overclocking? Have you applied enough thermal paste? Are you using fresh and clean OS installation? Are you using the latest Motherboard BIOS?

Zamoldac · December 21st, 2007, 11:15 PM

like Regeneration said above i could be mobo's fault try changing the bios to a newer version. if that doesen't work try using the card on another computer see if does the same think there could be a problem with the card since you reported overheating before.. some parts maybe damaged especialy the gpu and or vram chips.

Mac Daddy · December 21st, 2007, 11:17 PM

This is not a cheap card surprised you are having issues I know Zamoldac is running a Sapphire version and has reported no issues at all. From your description of the first cards defect and the symptoms on the second I would say check your power supply but 600W should be more than enough.

Everything else in your system is more than adequate. Before starting to troubleshoot other components 2 quick checks for you.

1) I see you have dual PCI-E connectors from your PSU try the other one if you haven't

2) If you have access to another machine with a PCI-E slot try your card in it that will determine whether it is system or card related

cy387_lk · December 22nd, 2007, 02:10 AM

ok, in order:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regeneration

BSOD? Are you overclocking? Have you applied enough thermal paste? Are you using fresh and clean OS installation? Are you using the latest Motherboard BIOS?

- no BSOD, just a classical hangup. pc repeats some last bites of audio stream for about 5 secs, then goes silent and dead. Ive got 2 monitors so i can clearly see if just the window went down or the whole system, and here is the last case. So when it happens I just restart the pc.

- no, no overclocking, two 6pin cables don't allow to overclock it. I just wouldn't have enough power to do this with these cables; this little monster consumes more than 320W when u set it above initial settings.

- no, i haven't applied any thermal paste. The card is sealed and it's said it should work quite well like this. Also as I mentioned before it does not overheat. There is no compatible temp monitor for it yet, but catalyst utility has its own "high temp warning" notifier which i saw working several times in my life, and i have not seen it with this card yet. Still it would be interesting, ive never heard anything about ppl using thermal paste for these cards.

- it's a relatively fresh install, 6-7 days with no heavy tweaking, just standard soft. I make tweaking utilities for windows myself and know when i touch something sensible in the most hated OS ever

.

- yes the BIOS is the latest one. The motherboard got an integrated ATI X1250 card, but it's turned off in BIOS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zamoldac

like Regeneration said above i could be mobo's fault try changing the bios to a newer version. if that doesen't work try using the card on another computer see if does the same think there could be a problem with the card since you reported overheating before.. some parts maybe damaged especialy the gpu and or vram chips.

- who knows, but I'm sure I couldn't turn this card in again on the warranty since it is "working". I'm currently living in Mexico and here warranty service quality is not so good as it should be...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mac Daddy

This is not a cheap card surprised you are having issues I know Zamoldac is running a Sapphire version and has reported no issues at all. From your description of the first cards defect and the symptoms on the second I would say check your power supply but 600W should be more than enough.

Everything else in your system is more than adequate. Before starting to troubleshoot other components 2 quick checks for you.

1) I see you have dual PCI-E connectors from your PSU try the other one if you haven't

2) If you have access to another machine with a PCI-E slot try your card in it that will determine whether it is system or card related

- the card uses both power connectors at once: one is 8pin PCIE2 and 6pin PCIE compatible, another is just 6pin PCIE. All forums and the manufacturer say the card works perfectly with just two 6pin connectors if i don't overclock.

- as for the try on another pc, i will, though it would be complicated. i just do not know anyone with a pc capable to run this card

Varroa · December 22nd, 2007, 02:12 AM

I have the same card and mine works great. Do you have both PCI-E power connectors plugged into the card? Also, did you do a fresh install or did you just replace your previous card with this one? If you were just replacing what did you do to update he drivers? Make sure you use drive cleaner pro before you installed the drivers and make sure your motherboard drivers are up-to-date. Oops, looks like you posted your above post at the same time as mine so you answered all my questions. I wonder if something else on your system is overheating? I found that my northbridge chip was overheating with my current setup and I need to add an aftermarket HSF to keep things stable.

Gamer Z · December 22nd, 2007, 02:14 AM

not to affend all you ati fan boys but i have same problem and more with every ati card i get

ati makes u wanna down-grade to that nvidia card that was lying in your closet just collecting dust

cy387_lk · December 22nd, 2007, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gamer Z

not to affend all you ati fan boys but i have same problem and more with every ati card i get

ati makes u wanna down-grade to that nvidia card that was lying in your closet just collecting dust

lol, yeah, better to cook eggs on a gf8800gtx's 90C

. i've heard it's not a video card, it's a frying pan

**Regeneration** · December 22nd, 2007, 03:21 AM

It’s not easy to solve such kind of problem since you’re not getting any error message. You need to go through the elimination technique. If you have another graphic card (even integrated), use it to make sure your Radeon card isn’t the problem. Install RivaTuner and use its In-game OSD feature to monitor CPU, Motherboard and GPU temperatures.

Run memtest and try to remove some memory modules. Then try to fine tune BIOS settings and to disable/remove other peripherals until you will find the source of your problem. If you eliminated all possibilities, then it could be your power supply, motherboard and CPU. Are you using PAE? Have you tried to disable PAE and DEP? I’ve heard that some motherboards may lockup in X86 due to 4GB chipset limitation.

**Regeneration** · December 22nd, 2007, 03:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gamer Z

not to affend all you ati fan boys but i have same problem and more with every ati card i get

In the last five years I had:Rage, 2MX, 4MX, 5200, 9600XT, 9800XT, 6600GT, 7800GT, X800, 7300GT, 7600GS AGP, 7800GT SLI, X800GTO2, 6800XT AGP, X1800, X1950PRO, X1950XTX, HD 3850 and 8800GT. With all these cards, I had only issues with the 7800GT and 7800GT SLI.