Powercolor 6950 pcs+ problem

[Wraithless]

Hi long time lurker in need of a little advice..

I have a weird problem with my new Powercolor 6950 PCS+ (this is the one that ships with the 6970 gpu clock on the secondary bios).
It will not run on my PC in the 16x slot I just get a blank screen. If I put it in the 8x slot it works ok....

System as follows
Antec 300
Q6600 @3.0
MSI P45 Platinum systemboard
4GB OCZ Reaper memory
Enermax Modu 82 525W PSU
Mushkin 120gb SSD
WD 500gb HDD
2x DVDROM

Previously I hade a Gigabyte 5870 OC which worked ok, when I first fitted it everything was ok, then I came home one evening (it was about 3 days after I had fitted it) and the computer wouldnt boot showing a error before the memory detection check, I tried a few things (dropping the OC and tried both bioses) and eventually found it booted ok in the 2nd PCIE 8x slot. So I have left it running like that thinking I had damaged the PCIE slot and looking forward to a SB upgrade.

Fast forward to this weekend repair/upgrade time..... bought

MSI P67A-GD53 systemboard
i5 2500k cpu
4GB Ripjaw DDR3 memory

Assembled it all same fault, the 6950 will not run in the 16x slot works fine in the 8x.

Swapped in my wifes HD4870 it works fine in both slots checked with GPU-Z to make sure it was in 16x , put my 6950 in my wifes PC in the only PCIE 16x slot and it worked ok (well booted up and windows didnt try gaming), her board though is just an Gigabyte G31M-S2L and her PSU is a Corsair HX520 .

I was then convinced it would be the psu so I have just finished swapping PSU's over and still getting exactly the same error. I have tried booting with no hard drives or keyboard and mouse.


Any other ideas (although I'm guessing it will be the card )

 

[Arkadrel]

hardware compatability issues on your board, and the new one?
man.... thats bad luck.

first one was MSI board, then 2nd one you buy is a MSI board, and both have compatability issues, ouchies.

Question is where the fault lies... with your 2 MSI boards, or the Powercolor card?

 

[Wraithless]

I thought about that but it was working ok for the first few days in the P45 board, I never made any changes to it just run drive sweeper took the 5870 out and dropped the 6950.
It booted up straight away, worked OK was able to game, surf and watch video etc fine. Switched it off in the morning to go to work came home 10 hours later didnt work. There had been no power outages during the day according to my wife.

 

[insurgent]

This doesn't help much but I have an MSI board (890GXM) and the same 6950 PCS++ and it runs at 16x. It seems that the only thing you haven't tried changing in your rig is the PSU?

possibly relevant: http://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/co...t_crashes_the_system_in_16x/.compact?sort=hot

 

[Wraithless]

I tried swapping PSU's last night, I was sure it was the problem as the card worked fine in the other PC. But .... nope didnt work. Rung the supplier this morning and have an RMA for it so hopefully that should sort it all out

Thanks for your help and ideas

 

[topazsparrow]

I tried swapping PSU's last night, I was sure it was the problem as the card worked fine in the other PC. But .... nope didnt work. Rung the supplier this morning and have an RMA for it so hopefully that should sort it all out

Thanks for your help and ideas

Sorry to necro this post, but I wanted to share my experience for others also.

I've already RMA'd this card once and I have to again now. The circumstances are similar to OP's description. The card worked great in the 16x slot for a few days. Then I rebooted my computer and the system would randomly not post. The more i power cycled the computer the more often it would not post. Tried changing the slot it was in, the PSU, everything. out of desperation I tried the card in a friends computer and it worked flawlessly (as did his in my computer).

To be safe I ran the RMA'd Card in the 8x slot on my old mobo. Recently I upgraded and built an entirely new system. Foolishly I placed the card in the 16x slot and now again the computer will not post after I power cycled a few times (trying to work the bubbles out of water loop).

I Personally believe these cards have an issue when power cycled and used in the 16x slots for whatever reason. It's also incredibly bizarre that it can work fine in someone elses computer and not mine.

 

[borisvodofsky]

Did you update the bios?

just saying, cuz rma is a 2 weeks ordeal.