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Problem with Sapphire X1900XT - Overeating, Artifacts & Crashes&#3


cocksy_boy

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Hi All,

 

I am having problem with my graphics card and have been scouring the net for a couple of days trying to sort it out. Basically when gaming (Mainly COD4 as an example), after a while playing (sometimes only a few minutes), the game will start artifacting (some parts of the screen flashing, random lines and areas flashing quickly), and eventually it will crash and go to a black screen with the sound still playing or on loop. The only way to get out is to hit the reset button. Not good! Sometimes on reboot Windows will say that the crash was caused by the graphics driver, and is searching for a resolution. Obviously it never finds one!

 

My PC specs are:

 

Intel Core 2 Duo 6300 - Stock Cooler

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, Rev 1.0, F12 BIOS

2 x 1 GB Geil DDR2-SDRAM PC2-5300 (333 MHz)

Sapphire X1900 XT - With Accelero 2

Nothing Overclocked

IBM/HGST SATA 160Gig & Diamond Max 10 SATA 160Gig

Jeantech 450 Watt ATX PSU with 120mm fan

3 x 120mm fans in Antec P180 Case

 

Vista Ultimate (Updated)

All up to date motherboard drivers

Catalyst 7.12 Drivers (Previous drivers removed / cleaned with DriverCleaner.Net)

 

After a lot of searching, and playing with Riva Tuner, ATiTool, Speedfan, Coretemp, and CPU-Z I think I have narrowed the problem to the Voltage Regulator overheating, and/or possible a dodgy PSU.

 

Basically if I leave my system to its own devices when gaming, the following happens (data gathered from RivaTuner):

GPU temps gradually goes up to about 85 Deg C

The fan duty cycle only goes up to about 36% (about 1300 rpm)

Ambient temp rises to about 65-70 deg C

Voltage regulator output goes to 1.45v

Voltage regulator current hovers around 33A

Voltage regulator temp steadily climbs up to 90-odd deg C

 

I don

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power supply does sound like a probable cause... weather it is going out, or maybe its not regulating the voltages... sounds like u r getting too much on your 12 and 5 volt lines. if u have a spare lying around u could try that first with some non needed items unpluged to see if thats the case. wouldnt want u paying for a new psu when the one u have is fine.. there might be a patch for cod4 too i havent looked myself though yet..

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power supply does sound like a probable cause... weather it is going out, or maybe its not regulating the voltages... sounds like u r getting too much on your 12 and 5 volt lines. if u have a spare lying around u could try that first with some non needed items unpluged to see if thats the case. wouldnt want u paying for a new psu when the one u have is fine.. there might be a patch for cod4 too i havent looked myself though yet..

The voltages I have listed are on the negative 12 and 5 Volt lines, but I dont know if this is a problem for the devices connected to it! Unfortunately I dont have a spare, so I need to buy one - I thought I might as well buy a good one if I was going to have buy a new one!

 

I haven't seen any relevant patches for COD 4 (or any people reporting smiilar problems), but I am having similar problems with nearly all other games!

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I have the reference ati branded x1900xtx and a sapphire x1900xt and they both exhibit the same artifacting at stock clock speeds.

 

They also do it in difference rigs with different psu's so ive confirmed its card related. I eventually just gave up and put an 8800gtx in my main and a GT in my spare. Never really did figure it out.

 

The Vreg temps were massively high though. I was able to fix one of them to where it wouldnt artifact "as bad" by mounting a blower fan on the back end of the stock HSF shroud ( blowing down onto the vreg ) . It was of course hideously loud and produced only marginal improvements so it was rendered impractical for use. At this time im guessing it was just too late to do anything as whatever had happened was already a terminal problem.

 

Maybe it was bad luck on both cards. Kinda depressing though since ive got an AIW 9800 in a HTPC downstairs thats been running pretty much nonstop for half a decade.

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I have the reference ati branded x1900xtx and a sapphire x1900xt and they both exhibit the same artifacting at stock clock speeds.

 

They also do it in difference rigs with different psu's so ive confirmed its card related. I eventually just gave up and put an 8800gtx in my main and a GT in my spare. Never really did figure it out.

 

The Vreg temps were massively high though. I was able to fix one of them to where it wouldnt artifact "as bad" by mounting a blower fan on the back end of the stock HSF shroud ( blowing down onto the vreg ) . It was of course hideously loud and produced only marginal improvements so it was rendered impractical for use. At this time im guessing it was just too late to do anything as whatever had happened was already a terminal problem.

 

Maybe it was bad luck on both cards. Kinda depressing though since ive got an AIW 9800 in a HTPC downstairs thats been running pretty much nonstop for half a decade.

 

Hmmm, I hope there is something I can do to fix it!!! Otherwise I'm gonna just have to shell out on a new DX10 card...............!!!!

I dont really ahve the cash at the moment, so that would have to wait a it - there are so many things I want to buy, but I'm just not paid enough!!!!! :D

 

Anyways, with the fan running at 100% I dont get the problems, so there must be a cooling issue somehwere (i think!).

 

Any ideas - I dont think its the GPU cos it shoul run fine at those temps, I think its something else, but I have no idea what!

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This may be a long shot, but have you tried an aftermarket cooler? The RAM chips on the X1950GT at the very least are seated much lower than the actual GPU core itself, and use hellishly thick thermal pads to make contact. But that probably wouldn't explain your voltage reg problems. I'm extremely ignorant in regards to electrical stuff, but your PSU may be delivering too much power to your card?

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This may be a long shot, but have you tried an aftermarket cooler? The RAM chips on the X1950GT at the very least are seated much lower than the actual GPU core itself, and use hellishly thick thermal pads to make contact. But that probably wouldn't explain your voltage reg problems. I'm extremely ignorant in regards to electrical stuff, but your PSU may be delivering too much power to your card?

Yeah, I've got an Accellero 2 on it at the moment. I did notice, as you said, that there is a massive thick thermal pad between the memory and the heat sink. Not sure if there is a better heatsink that touches the mem chips directly, without the thick pads.

 

I'm not sure that a PSU can deliver too much power (when its working normally), but I may be wrong!!

Edited by cocksy_boy

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Poor voltage regulation within the power supply, polar fluctuating transmission... wow that sounds arrogant to just say it's spiking :lol:.

 

Your best bet for cooling is a HSF for the GPU itself and then individual sinks for the RAM chips. I plan on doing that with my card eventually, as soon as I get the proper stuff for it.

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Poor voltage regulation within the power supply, polar fluctuating transmission... wow that sounds arrogant to just say it's spiking :lol:.

 

Your best bet for cooling is a HSF for the GPU itself and then individual sinks for the RAM chips. I plan on doing that with my card eventually, as soon as I get the proper stuff for it.

Right, I received my brand new Corsair HX620W modular PSU (yeah, I went for the bigger one!!), along with a 120mm case fan (noctua nf-s12) and a new hard disk (WD Caviar sE15 500GB) installed them all, and.............

 

I'm still getting the artifacts and crashing poblems!!! :( I think my problems are very similar to this guys problems (expect mine is with the PCI-E version, and his is AGP, and his is the 1950, but which is identical to my 1900xt except for clock & mem speeds), but I can't seem to get the sign in / up to the sapphire forums to work, so can't post there to ask for help!!

 

Now I think the problem has got wose since I installed the new PSU, I had artifacts and a crashes whilst playing COD4 with the fan on 100%, and different artifacts and crashes in Crysis, also with the fan at 100%.

 

I did notice after one of the crashes, that there was artifacts on the POST screen when booting (a couple of coloured dots that flashed a couple of times), so Ipowered off and left the sstem to cool before I rebooted 10 mins later, and everything was fine in vista again.

 

Please can anyone help - is it bad RAM on the card - is there any way to check the RAM on the card? I'm running out of options and the card is 18 months old so I prob cant replace it under warrantee now, which is a royal pain in the back side.....!!!!

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I haven't seen any relevant patches for COD 4 (or any people reporting smiilar problems), but I am having similar problems with nearly all other games!

 

there are none yet :( but they need to put one out like soon! the carrer gameplay is fine but the online play needs some help, sometime it will not even let me into the lobby!

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