Hi guys,
Last spring I bought a 4870 from Newegg (linked below). I had some initial concerns based on negative comments by posters about over heating or fan failure. I thought the posts were a few months old & maybe ASUS had addressed them, so I took the plunge since it was on rebate. I also bought a new PSU for it, the Corsair from Newegg which was also on rebate at the time. I have two PCIE pcs, both Intel D915PBL with 3.4GHZ dual chips, one pc I put in 1GB of generic Mushkin & the other I put in 2GB of some generic stuff. Both in Antech True Power cases (430 watts I want to say, im not at home at the moment...), prior to putting in the 750watt Corsair.
The one I was mainly gaming with had a ATI x1900 Saphire. Put in the 4870 & began to play WoW (really only game I play), it froze up with white screen garble the first day. I though, not a good way to start out but kept playing (ie restarting the PC). Following week; playing WoW, monitor (Sony 21" Trinitron, Gsomething) loses video signal but I still here WoW. I can walk around & hear my footsteps. I open case & there are two red LED lights lit on the 4870. I think ohh great, over heat. So I open case & it "appeared" to remedy the problem for a couple weeks. Then it would come back every week or so.
Then after about 4-5 months it started to be a couple times a week, then to a couple times a day. Interestingly enough, it began to do it even if I was at the desktop after just booting up. Not only just in WoW. Times would vary, sometimes after 8 hours of WoW or just after booting up. I started the RMA process in Sept of 09 with ASUS, that I would end up RMA'ing 2 more times, or 3 total. The first card the sent would not post.
At this point I tried to swap motherboards since they are identical. Also, my other PC began to stop working intermittently. After doing the swap, I come to find out the CPU wasnt working in that one (not my main rig). SO now I have the CPU from my main, in the other mobo & still the card ASUS sent to me wouldnt boot. I put in the x1900 & it POSTs & in to the desktop. I called ASUS for another RMA.
Since it wasnt the same problem I was hopeful that the next card may be good. By the 2nd RMA I started calling ASUS & talked to thier level 2 who was very fair with me. I told him, I had a x1900 that I could put back in & the video signal would not drop in the same PC. He tested the card he would send to me for a day. By now I started to suspect the PSU.
Not sure where else to go; I RMA'd the PSU to Corsair, who sent me a totally new PSU. Shrink wrap & everything, kudos to you guys! Sadly, video still would drop to the Trinitron. Something I tried with the intial PSU & the one that was RMA'd back to me, was exchange the PCI E cables. Because it has 4, I color coded them so I could lable one 1, another 2, another 3, & etc. I tested 1+2 (since the 4870 requires two PCI-E power cables), 1+3, 2+4, 1+4, & 2+3 but still each would eventually go to losing video signal.
I searched the forum & found:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=291552&highlight=4870
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2034392&highlight=4870
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2054336&highlight=4870
Hadnt tried clearing the CMOS so I pulled out the battery, yet problem still persists. :/
I feel bad RMA'ing to ASUS & Corsair, but I am just at a loss. Could it be my mother board (or even motherboards)? They are relatively older by a few years. And yet, they work fine with the x1900. Could it be not enough watts from the PSU, somehow I doubt it. At this point I am just frustrated cause I feel like I have been dealing with this for almost a year. Granted dragging my feet on the testing & RMA'ing was due to my other older fall back AGP gaming pc. Should I just give up on the 4870; even though its sweet performance when its working, & go for the less wattage hungry 5770? Or is it something in the BIOS of the D 915 PBL (Ive tried to change settings to no avail).
Sorry for wall of text, just wanted it all out there incase some one can make sense of it. Thanks for your time if you have gotten this far
ASUS EAH4870 DK TOP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121288
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006
Intel D915PBL
http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/dsktpboards/d915pbl
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15190/eng/D915PBL_TechProdSpec.pdf
Last spring I bought a 4870 from Newegg (linked below). I had some initial concerns based on negative comments by posters about over heating or fan failure. I thought the posts were a few months old & maybe ASUS had addressed them, so I took the plunge since it was on rebate. I also bought a new PSU for it, the Corsair from Newegg which was also on rebate at the time. I have two PCIE pcs, both Intel D915PBL with 3.4GHZ dual chips, one pc I put in 1GB of generic Mushkin & the other I put in 2GB of some generic stuff. Both in Antech True Power cases (430 watts I want to say, im not at home at the moment...), prior to putting in the 750watt Corsair.
The one I was mainly gaming with had a ATI x1900 Saphire. Put in the 4870 & began to play WoW (really only game I play), it froze up with white screen garble the first day. I though, not a good way to start out but kept playing (ie restarting the PC). Following week; playing WoW, monitor (Sony 21" Trinitron, Gsomething) loses video signal but I still here WoW. I can walk around & hear my footsteps. I open case & there are two red LED lights lit on the 4870. I think ohh great, over heat. So I open case & it "appeared" to remedy the problem for a couple weeks. Then it would come back every week or so.
Then after about 4-5 months it started to be a couple times a week, then to a couple times a day. Interestingly enough, it began to do it even if I was at the desktop after just booting up. Not only just in WoW. Times would vary, sometimes after 8 hours of WoW or just after booting up. I started the RMA process in Sept of 09 with ASUS, that I would end up RMA'ing 2 more times, or 3 total. The first card the sent would not post.
At this point I tried to swap motherboards since they are identical. Also, my other PC began to stop working intermittently. After doing the swap, I come to find out the CPU wasnt working in that one (not my main rig). SO now I have the CPU from my main, in the other mobo & still the card ASUS sent to me wouldnt boot. I put in the x1900 & it POSTs & in to the desktop. I called ASUS for another RMA.
Since it wasnt the same problem I was hopeful that the next card may be good. By the 2nd RMA I started calling ASUS & talked to thier level 2 who was very fair with me. I told him, I had a x1900 that I could put back in & the video signal would not drop in the same PC. He tested the card he would send to me for a day. By now I started to suspect the PSU.
Not sure where else to go; I RMA'd the PSU to Corsair, who sent me a totally new PSU. Shrink wrap & everything, kudos to you guys! Sadly, video still would drop to the Trinitron. Something I tried with the intial PSU & the one that was RMA'd back to me, was exchange the PCI E cables. Because it has 4, I color coded them so I could lable one 1, another 2, another 3, & etc. I tested 1+2 (since the 4870 requires two PCI-E power cables), 1+3, 2+4, 1+4, & 2+3 but still each would eventually go to losing video signal.
I searched the forum & found:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=291552&highlight=4870
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2034392&highlight=4870
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2054336&highlight=4870
Hadnt tried clearing the CMOS so I pulled out the battery, yet problem still persists. :/
I feel bad RMA'ing to ASUS & Corsair, but I am just at a loss. Could it be my mother board (or even motherboards)? They are relatively older by a few years. And yet, they work fine with the x1900. Could it be not enough watts from the PSU, somehow I doubt it. At this point I am just frustrated cause I feel like I have been dealing with this for almost a year. Granted dragging my feet on the testing & RMA'ing was due to my other older fall back AGP gaming pc. Should I just give up on the 4870; even though its sweet performance when its working, & go for the less wattage hungry 5770? Or is it something in the BIOS of the D 915 PBL (Ive tried to change settings to no avail).
Sorry for wall of text, just wanted it all out there incase some one can make sense of it. Thanks for your time if you have gotten this far
ASUS EAH4870 DK TOP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121288
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006
Intel D915PBL
http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/dsktpboards/d915pbl
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15190/eng/D915PBL_TechProdSpec.pdf
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