• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Aritfacts, BSOD's, Reboots - Video card or PSU?

C

consumed343

Junior Member
I'm looking for some help on a recent problem, trying to determine if it could be related to PSU or Video card.

Last week I went to use my rig (w/4890) and noticed Win 7 Areo was turned off, so I flipped it back on. Within moments I was getting artifacts, and when I went to launch BF2-BC the screen went completely white, I had to reboot. Upon rebooting Window's Areo was turned off again. When I flipped it back on, same thing, artifacts to the point I couldn't turn it off, then reboots, bsod's.

I've been running a 4890 on an Antec Truepower 380W with no problems (until now), and before that, I had a friends GTX 460 on the Antec 380w for 2 months prior.
I've been playing MOH 2010, BF2BC, Mafia 2, all on the Antec 380W as said for months without issue.

As soon as I took the 4890 out and used the onboard HD 4250, the system runs without issue, and I've been playing HL2 although I know it's not using the power the 4890 would.

At the moment I don't have another system to test the 4890 in, and at first I thought the Video card might be dying, because of the artifacts... but would that also give me BSOD's and reboots?
Is this most likely a PSU issue or the 4890? I bought the 4890 used, but it's been eating all the games I toss at it, no problems.

With a kid on the way, yeh! lol, I'm on a budget so I don't want to replace both parts right now. Any help much appreciated. Thanks! Rest of my specs are as follows:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 (stock 3.2)
Gigabyte AM3 board
4GB Kingston
1TB WD Black
ATI Built 4890 (stock)
LG DVDRW
Antec TP 380W
 
Last edited:
consumed343 said:
Last week I went to use my rig (w/4890) and noticed Win 7 Areo was turned off, so I flipped it back on. Within moments I was getting artifacts, and when I went to launch BF2-BC the screen went completely white, I had to reboot. Upon rebooting Window's Areo was turned off again. When I flipped it back on, same thing, artifacts to the point I couldn't turn it off, then reboots, bsod's.
Click to expand...

I did have this problem but a new driver solved it.

Edit:In your case, I think your psu is dying.

Edit 2; reinstall the latest drivers on the AMD website first.
Does this happen with all your games? Try them at the lowest settings.
Could the card be overheating? Is the fan spinning?
 
Last edited:
If you system is unstable with the 4890 installed with normal desktop use (no 3D gaming), and then it's fine with the 4890 uninstalled, then the culprit could very well be the 4890. At an idle load at the Windows desktop a 4890 shouldn't be stressing your PSU enough to cause your problems while gaming with onboard video works fine with your power supply.

So I'd say the first culprit is a faulty card, but the next and very likely culprit is the power supply. That is an older model and it's just not up to today's quality standards. Perhaps the rail feeding the external video card has become unstable, or maybe the whole thing is unstable. You could test by stressing the processor, which should load the PSU more than an idle 4890 would.

You really need to find another system to test the card or power supply. It's a close call as it could easily be either one. You need to get more info before proceeding with assurity.
 
Last edited:
So using the onbaord 4200, I fired up Prime 95 using the PSU/heat test and let it go for 15-20 minutes, with no issues.

Also before I bring it anywhere tomorrow, I thought I'd give the 4890 one more try but it failed instantly.
I tossed in the 4890 and made sure the onboard 4200 was off to kill any extra power. As soon as windows loaded (with Areo on) I got instant artifacting to the point the start menu was flashing on the opposite side of the screen.
 
Last edited:
With the 4890 installed, during bootup, safe-mode, basically as long as no 3d is being used, it runs fine. You flip the 3d switch, use areo and it's a show of artifacts, bsod's and reboots.
What puzzles me is that it's doing this at Idle on the desktop... I can't imagine that the Areo interface uses that much more power with the 4890 over the onboard 4200...
 
4890 is probably using about 50W more than 4200 at idle states. The 4890 doesn't have aggressive idle power levels like the 5000 and 6000 series.
 
cusideabelincoln said:
If you system is unstable with the 4890 installed with normal desktop use (no 3D gaming), and then it's fine with the 4890 uninstalled, then the culprit could very well be the 4890. At an idle load at the Windows desktop a 4890 shouldn't be stressing your PSU enough to cause your problems while gaming with onboard video works fine with your power supply.
Click to expand...

I agree, if it was a game that would be a different matter, but aero?
I place the blame at the video card...

or at least I would but:
happy medium said:
I did have this problem but a new driver solved it.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a very serious driver bug, but it is possible. Try another driver version.
 
Did you physically inspect the video card for blown or bulging capacitors ?
A card with blown capacitors or other electronic problems will behave like this at first. It can mostly operate in 2d, but any 3d /aero throws of driver errors/ blue screens.
So I'd say the card is now dead, and possibly died because of that PSU being so small. Constantly overworking the electric circuits feeding the gpu.
 
I can't see any physical damage but then it's probably invisible. I'm going to take the card to a store later and get it tested.
 
either GPU or psu... i lean more on the GPU since you've tsted GTX 460 for a month or so and ripped games..

4890 and GTX 460 for example the cyclone version is roughly 30-40w difference on peak power between the 4890...
 
PSU gets weaker upon load. 4890 on a 380watt PSU means your PSU is probably going to die at early age. Upon death, PSU will also weaken all parts that are connect to it. Try to downclock the card and see if you still get artifacts. Chances are, your video card still works, just not at its leak shape as the unstable voltage off the PSU has worn down the capacitor of it.

You can bring your card to a friend and fire it up and see if it is still okay given if the PSU is strong, or simply buy a stronger PSU and see if it fixes problem. If it doesn't fix the problem, return it and state that the PC isn't stable with it.
 
An update.

Someone mentioned that the OS "might" be the problem and to install Win 7 fresh, and so with a spare HD I did just that.
After installing Win 7 with the 4890 installed, I tossed in the 10.10 drivers and enabled Areo and whola! no artifacts... I then installed Futuremark and it too ran without artifacts.

I also wanted to see how another Vid card would act on the origianl OS installed, something a little more powerful then the onbaord 4200 since I know that worked OK. I borrowed a friends 5670 and installed that. (same OS install that cause issues with the 4890) With the 5670 installed with 10.10, I flipped on Areo without issue. Then I fired up BF2-BC, and some Halflife 2, again no issues.​

So basically...​

Main HD w/original OS (win 7), 4890 = Mad Artifacting/BSOD/Reboots BUT a 5670 works fine.​

New OS install of win 7, the 4890 seems to work fine.​

Does anyone understand that? I don't... :\​
 
file corruption in the OS, leftover files from previous drivers, conflicting windows update updates... there are several explanations there.
I am rather surprised though that a reformat solved the problem.
 
Last edited:
System crashed again...

I've been running my friends 5570 for 2 weeks without issude, going through HL2 and other games. No issues, and same OS install/380w pus that caused artifacts, bsod's with the 4890, *but the 4890 turned out to be OK.

I picked up a 6850 yesterday, and installed it on the same OS install, same 380w psu. I fugured I should be good this time as it used far less power then the 4890. Well, the PC was up and stable for 10hrs, played some Metro 2033, and then this afternoon... half the screen disapeared, then flashed back, followed by more graphic corruption.

Something else I figured out... I had logmein.com installed on the system. (It's like PC anywhere, and it uses a mirror video driver)
The night before the PC when wonky (2 wks back), I logged into the PC from work. The next morning my wife said when I had logged in, the screen was displaying weird lines etc.
Then when I went to use it that morning Areo was disabled, and wouldn't re-enable without artifacting. Also, Windows said there was a problem enabling Areo because of a conflict with a "mirror driver". Now I've uninstalled all instances of the logmein.com software, but I'm wondering if this could be the source of problems?
I'm going to pickup a new PSU tomorrow, but I really don't want to re-install the OS as I have so much crap installed 🙁
Twice now I've re-installed the OS and all the problems dissapear, but I'm still weary trusting my +12V (34A) line now...
 
Last edited:
Did you ever say how old the PSU is? If it is 3 years old or more it is very possibly the PSU. My Antec Neopower shut down on me a few years ago and it would work fine, but every time a 3D app started there would be a pause for 1 second. PSU's can do some weird things when they are going out.
 
Its gotta be PSU ,, 380w will not cut the rug with your rig specs. You need 600 watt suppply at minimum when going quad core ...... cuz then you also got graphics card and mobo and drives etc...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top