Problems with Sapphire 4870

DokmanD

Member
Jun 7, 2008
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I just recieved my Sapphire 4870 and inserted it correctly, plugging in two power cables as instructed. Everything switches on fine and windows xp boots up but as soon as windows detects new hardware and starts looking for new drivers for the card I get a quick blue screen and then a reboot. Has anyone had this problem???

I dont want to RMA straight away as these are in such short supply and Iv waited for a couple of weeks for it to arrive. Any suggestions?

Im running the latest Catalyst 8.6, I even installed the CD that came with the card (using my old Sapphire 3450 to run the system, which works without any issues). Nothing seems to help. As soon as Windows boots up and logs in and the bottom left tray starts loading a bubble pops up saying searching for drivers for new decive a blue screen flashes and thats that, the system reboots.

Asus P5Q Deluxe P45 Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)
Maxtor 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm *32MB Cache*
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PK PC2-6400C4 (2x2GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL4D-4GBPK)
Corsair HX 620W Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC
Sony DRU-190S 20X DVD±RW DL & DVD-RAM Serial ATA
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3450 Silence 512MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (will be replacing with the Sapphire 4870 I hope)
Lian Li PC-7B PLUS II Aluminium Black Mid Tower Case
Microsoft Windows XP Professional w/SP3
 

jiffylube1024

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
7,430
0
71
If loosening your memory timings/upping memory voltage doesn't work, try booting in safe mode, removing all ATI drivers, delete the install folder and then reboot again. It should get into windows fine. Now try downloading the latest Cats from ATI's website and try installing them.

I had no problems simply swapping from an ATI HD 2600XT with Catalyst 8.6 to a 4850 HD (no driver reinstallation), but if you're having these problems you can try going fresh with new drivers.

Also check to see if there's a new BIOS for your motherboard as that's a pretty new model. Also, what voltage is your CPU at? If it's set to "default" you might want to change that to whatever the Wolfdale E8400 is rated for (1.25V or something?) since the ASUS boards tend to overvolt like crazy on "default" setting.
 

DokmanD

Member
Jun 7, 2008
27
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0
Everything is set to default and everything works fine, however as soon as I insert the card and as soon as the windows screen comes on that it blue screen and reboot. Ill try and get the new drivers for the board and see what voltages its running.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
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Is the system able to boot into safe mode without blue screening and rebooting?

 

Elfear

Diamond Member
May 30, 2004
7,096
640
126
Sounds like driver issues to me. I've had similar problems with a video card and it was resolved with new graphics drivers. Hopefully booting into safe mode will work.
 

TheSynth

Member
Jul 27, 2006
61
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0
I had some blue screens when I was switching from my 2900 to my 4870. I knew it was the drivers. I was able to get into safe mode but you can't uninstall ATI software because the Windows Installer is disabled. So while in safe mode I went to to the Device Manager and uninstalled the video card (right click, uninstall). Rebooted, loaded windows and it worked fine.
 

DokmanD

Member
Jun 7, 2008
27
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0
Thank god for that. I played around with the voltages for the memory and the cpu but nothing did the trick. Left them on default for the moment. I then uninstalled all traces of ATI from my system and restarted, still nothing. By this time I was loosing patience big time. I already requested RMA stating faulty card.

On the off chance I restarted the system in safe mode and hey presto everything was fine. It detected the card and I inserted the CD and installed the drivers. It did its own install of the HD audio or some crap too. I restarted my system and everything was working. I installed Catalys 8.7 beta as this is the newest driver I could find. Everything seems to be working fine at the moment. Not sure if the CD has the latest drivers but I cant find any sort of hotfix for the 4870. Also going on to the AMD/ATI website I could not find any drivers for the 4800 series. If anyone has a link it would be much appreciated.

Also lavaheadache, where did you find the hot fix, any links are much appreciated???

Everything is working ok at the moment, time to test out some games and the graphics with this beast, altho it is getting very very VERY hot compared to my older cards. I think it is well worth invsting in to a good cooler for it as this seems to run hot and get very loud too.
 

DokmanD

Member
Jun 7, 2008
27
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0
Also I forgot to mention I updated my motherboard bios to the latest one but that didnt do anything either
Asus P5Q Deluxe P45