PowerColor 7870 Myst Edition - What do you call this?

[peterman25]

Long time lurker, first time poster

I thought that I would poll those that have more experience than me with these issues. I've built numerous computers over the last few years with never an issue other than a hard drive fail. I built a system for a friend with a PowerColor 7870 Myst Edition and, from all of my internet research, it appears to be failing. The card was about a week old when it started to demonstrate problems. Those problems have only gotten worse. I have attached links to videos of the issues. What do you technically call this? Tearing? Artifacting? I can't seem to find a definitive source. The machine sits about an hour across town so I haven't been able to do any troubleshooting of my own. MSI Afterburner is used to control the fan profiles to keep temps under control.

Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

http://youtu.be/aKQBXK5ID0Q

http://youtu.be/RSQJoDQ4K28

 

[Kenmitch]

Welcome to the forum

I'd call it not good....Kinda looks like corruption?

I've seen similar when I had my HD 5850 and thought my card was going south. Wound up being caused by the drivers tho. Had to clean out the drivers and reinstall them to fix the issue.

Which drivers are you using? Has there been multiple sets of drivers installed/tried?

 

[omeds]

Looks like the card is failing.

 

[KingFatty]

Just to be safe, can you bring a spare monitor and swap to a different monitor to test?

Also, that would include using a new cable, and different port on the video card.

Actually maybe he could try that now, using a different port on the card.

 

[peterman25]

Thanks!

Not sure of the drivers. CCC was installed and pulled the latest drivers (no betas or priors) at the time when the machine was first built. This was approximately a month to 6 weeks ago. I know that drivers were uninstalled and reinstalled once, but it wasn't done by me. I'll be troubleshooting it next week and that is one of the first things I will be looking at - proper uninstallation of the drivers and reinstallation along with a few different versions.

 

[Accord99]

While the corruption does seem hardware related, you may want to update the latest 13.4 or beta 13.5 drivers. There was a period of time when the Catalyst drivers caused desktop and game artifacts.

 

[peterman25]

King-

Yes. I will be trying that out next week. The machine is coming to my house. So, different everything will be tried. Monitors, cables, ports, drivers, etc.

 

[Face2Face]

I would RMA it. Looks to be hardware related.

While the corruption does seem hardware related, you may want to update the latest 13.4 or beta 13.5 drivers. There was a period of time when the Catalyst drivers caused desktop and game artifacts.

Didn't look like this though. And that was mostly DX9 games, this is happening on his desktop.

 

[peterman25]

Accord-

Thanks. I will definitely give betas a try. Recommendations on driver rollbacks? Is there a prior version that I should try or avoid?

 

[Accord99]

Accord-

Thanks. I will definitely give betas a try. Recommendations on driver rollbacks? Is there a prior version that I should try or avoid?

I think it was fixed with the 13.3 betas, and remains fixed in the current WHQL and beta drivers. I also remember that it only appeared around 12.10 or 12.11 so an earlier driver should also work. However, if your friend isn't using a driver in between the above, then it's hardware.

 

[Kenmitch]

Thanks!

Not sure of the drivers. CCC was installed and pulled the latest drivers (no betas or priors) at the time when the machine was first built. This was approximately a month to 6 weeks ago. I know that drivers were uninstalled and reinstalled once, but it wasn't done by me. I'll be troubleshooting it next week and that is one of the first things I will be looking at - proper uninstallation of the drivers and reinstallation along with a few different versions.

If your lucky it'll just be something silly like the drivers, loose cable, etc.

This is what it took to fix my driver issue that caused similar results to what your videos show. Doing the normal remove and install didn't work for me. In IE on mine it looked more like your game video whenever I scrolled.

Seems like it would take a while to do the following but it goes pretty quick.

1. Go to Add/Remove Programs
2. Uninstall the Catalyst Install manager (Express Uninstall)
3. Reboot the computer and log back into windows as normal
4. Go to folder options and select “show hidden files and folders”
The next part of the guide will remove all ATi/AMD files and folders from the computer.
5. Go to your C drive and remove the “AMD” folder
6. Double click the “Program Data” folder (Normally hidden) and remove all ATi/AMD folders
7. Go back to C and double click “Program Files” and remove all ATi/AMD folders
8. Go back to C and double click “Program Files (x86)” and remove all ATi/AMD folders
9. Go back to C and double click “Users”
10. Access the name of your windows profile and double click “AppData” (Normally hidden)
11. Check the “Local”, “LocalLow” and “Roaming” folders for any ATi/AMD folders and remove them.
12. Go back to “Users” and check the “Default” folder (Normally hidden)
13. Double click “AppData” (Normally hidden)
14. Check the “Local” and “Roaming” folders for any ATi/AMD folders and remove them.

The next part of the guide will remove registry entries left by the AMD drivers.

Depending on what version of drivers you use you may not see some of the items in the registry.

15. Close everything down and go back to your desktop
16. Click start, then type “regedit”.
17. Click “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” and extend the folder
18. Click “Software” and extend the folder
19. Remove all AMD and ATi Folders
20. Click “Wow6432Node” and extend the folder (Within the software folder)
21. Remove the “AMD” folder
22. Click “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” and extend the folder
23. Click “SOFTWARE” and extend the folder
24. Remove all AMD and ATi Folders
25. Click “Wow6432Node” and extend the folder
26. Remove all AMD and ATi Folders
27. Click “HKEY_USERS” and extend the folder
28. Click “.DEFAULT” and extend the folder
29. Click “Software” and extend the folder
30. Remove all AMD and ATi folders
31. Click “S-1-5-18” and extend the folder
32. Click “Software” and extend the folder
33. Remove all AMD and ATi folders
34. Click “S-1-5-21-1632250243-966907716-928185508-1000” and extend the folder
35. Click “Software” and extend the folder
36. Remove all AMD and ATi Folders
37. Close down regedit and empty your recycle bin
38. Undo the folder options change to hide the hidden folders
39. Reboot
40. Install your AMD/Nvidia drivers and reboot

 

[Imouto]

Kingfatty may be right, try plugging them properly, using other cable and monitor. I leave them loose when building and sometimes forget about them. I've run into this problem several times and fixed it easily.

 

[philipma1957]

I will give you a completely new idea. Check how the card is in the slot. I built 25 -35 pc's over the last 2 years and got a new problem on my build yesterday.

the brass standoffs were too short just a tiny bit. 1/8 of an inch. so you test everything it wroks then mount in the box (fractal in my case) then you boot and the picture flickers . after many trys to figure out the issue. I noticed the front of the card in the pcie slot was only 90% inserted. about 1/8 of an inch or so of the contacts was visible. The card could not be pushed in completely .

I studied the problem a while and figured that the back of the card fully inserted I thought must be a little pice of junk in the from of the slot. I HAVE An Asus maximus board for the build has 5 slots same problem in every slot. Then I thought the case holes that hold the cards were too high. Then I thought that the case slot that the bottom of the card goes into was too small. After a few hours I said I have some nylon washers I will boost the brass inserts a bit. so I added 1 washer to every insert. case hole then washer then insert this raised the board about 1/16 of an inch.

I then realized that the board also fit a little better in the shield for the mobo jacks in the back. this almost fixed all problems I then took 3 washers and 3 pieces of double sided tape and on just the 3 standoffs nearest the wall of the case that the vide card come out of.

so those standoffs were:

case hole- washer- standoff- 2 sided tape - washer- mobo- screw.

once I did this the cards fit snugly and tight in the entire pcie slot .

since this case will mine and have 1 7970 and 3 7790's good slot connection is a must.
so try to see if the card is fully inserted. this would be really true if the case is a fractal like mine.

 

[peterman25]

Awesome suggestions everybody..a few out of the norm ideas..I will definitely give them a try next week when I get the machine back. Thanks.