HD4870X2 Problems

TheUnk

Golden Member
Jun 24, 2005
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So in an attempt to replace my 8800GTX with one of these, I have lots of problems..

When I first instaleld the card, it did not seem to boot, at least I thought.. After a couple hours of updating the mobo (Gigabyte GA-P35C-DSR3) bios, removing all but the minimal hardware required, (1 ram stick, 1 HD). Reseating this reseating that, blah blah blah. I could get no further than the mobo graphic/text with boot menu options and access to the bios (which would not work either) I gave up.

Frustrated and distracted I had left my pc on at the point when it was freezing while attempting to boot. When I returned, it had actually made it into Windows. It turned out that it takes a whole 2minutes to get past the black screen of nothing.. Great I thought, not a big deal, don't restart that often anyways.

Unfortunately no matter what driver versions, fresh OS installs, 32-bit or 64bit, whenever I install the ATI drivers and restart, I get a BSOD every single time.

I have sent it back for a replacement, but fear that maybe it was another component causing the problems, since it could eventually get into Windows... I have a Seasonic 600W PSU which meets the minimum requirements, and it has two 6pin PCIE power cables, one of which I used an adapter to make it 8pin. Could that be a possible cause? Or maybe it's the mobo... I really don't want to spend more money since I just dropped $550 on this card.

Man I type too much :laugh:
 

TheUnk

Golden Member
Jun 24, 2005
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Windows just installed it as "Standard VGA Device" or something along those lines.
 
Nov 26, 2005
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How many sticks of ram are you using? Try, if you have 4 sticks, 2 sticks. My hunch is that its a memory problem.

EDIT: you can also try unplugging extra peripherals, like disc rom, extra hard drives, floppy...
 

TheUnk

Golden Member
Jun 24, 2005
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2 sticks. I tried it with just 1, no luck. Have been using this RAM for nearly a year with the 8800GTX.
 
Nov 26, 2005
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check my edit on above post:


EDIT: you can also try unplugging extra peripherals, like disc rom, extra hard drives, floppy...
 

TheUnk

Golden Member
Jun 24, 2005
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I tried unplugging everything. DVD, all hard drives but the one with OS, removed sound card, even unplugged some fans.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
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alienbabeltech.com
since you already sent it back for replacement, why worry now?

just give us an update ,, it might just be a bad card
rose.gif
 

TheUnk

Golden Member
Jun 24, 2005
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Guess I'm just looking for someone that experienced similar problems and what it turned out to be. It's gonna take over a week to get the replacement, and if it is the mobo/psu then even longer to get a new one of those and I'm dying to try it out =p