#4626506 Posted on: 07/26/2013 11:36 AM

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Any artifacts before Windows loads indicates a hardware problem.

Squares or lines like in your screenshot are 9.9/10 times due to bad vram.

#4626507 Posted on: 07/26/2013 11:36 AM

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Overheated memory. You may be able to get into safe mode. If it works there, kill drivers and try normal OS boot.

Remove heatsink, clean, reattach it, don't forget thermal paste and new thermal pads.

If you can't renew thermal disipation ability, then:
Modify VGA BIOS to have lower clock/higher voltage. Before you do so, you should test values with OC utility.

Other thing to think about is your 400W PSU, it may have overheated too.
- Is fan in it running?
- Does it have clean dust filter or is unit dusty?
- If you ar enot confident about health of your PSU get new one with new GA (you do not want to kill another one)

Side note: Do not expect significant performance boost from new VGA, due to your old CPU. May be time for whole new rig.

#4626525 Posted on: 07/26/2013 12:36 PM

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Hi both, thanks a lot for your quick answers, much appreciated!

Pill, I'm so glad you pointed out that it's most likely VRAM - I will confidently get a new gfx card soon. (A HD7770 or 7790 but I know it won't give me a huge difference)

Fox, I might actually try the BIOS settings first then. Never had a single problem with the PC ever though, if I ran games on it for half a day even. Now it was just idling in Win, then I launched one mediocre game, only ran for 30 sec... before this happened.

Yes the PSU is a problem... its fan died 6 months ago, then I was really worried but then never had the smallest performance drop so I left it.... bad decision.

I don't know how big a PSU I should get though. The 7790 would be a needier one I guess.

#4626528 Posted on: 07/26/2013 12:54 PM

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A good quality 500W PSU is OK for a mid-range card. Where are you buying from and do u have a budget?

P.S. - can u boot in safe mode?

#4626531 Posted on: 07/26/2013 01:16 PM

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Thanks - well I will visit a local pc shop (prices here are good as webshops' )
Budget-wise... I would choose a normal one, not pricy but not the cheapest.

I cannot test safe mod till the afternoon, but then I will miss my chance to buy the card today. So I don't know if I should even try the safe mode things, I got carried away by the thought of the new VGA

#4626535 Posted on: 07/26/2013 01:22 PM

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OK well u can list some models in your price range and we can tell u if they are junk or not....lol

Btw that E8400 should overclock to 4Ghz without too much trouble....

#4626540 Posted on: 07/26/2013 01:30 PM

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Awesome!
I saw two ones at my price range:
Cooler Master RS500-PSAPJ3-IT 500W
Chieftec 500W GPA-500S8 12cm with OEM iArena

Didn't link them cuz it's a Hungarian webshop

Really? Because I didn't dare to OC it really - I built it by parts but never gamed too much.
I have an ASUS P5Q SE mobo, I'll look into how I can change all settings there

#4626545 Posted on: 07/26/2013 01:46 PM

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Awesome!
I saw two ones at my price range:
Cooler Master RS500-PSAPJ3-IT 500W
Chieftec 500W GPA-500S8 12cm with OEM iArena

Didn't link them cuz it's a Hungarian webshop

Really? Because I didn't dare to OC it really - I built it by parts but never gamed too much.
I have an ASUS P5Q SE mobo, I'll look into how I can change all settings there
You'll prob need a better cooler, like a CM Hyper 212 Evo.

Btw those PSU's aren't very good....any others? Or maybe a link to site?

#4626582 Posted on: 07/26/2013 02:48 PM

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Hmm in this case I think I'll skip it for now, for the extra cost.

Re PSUs, here is a webshop I would use:
http://www.edigital.hu/Informatika/Tapegyseg/Aktiv-c1408.html

FYI, about 10000 is what I'd spend on a PSU, much appreaciated!

#4626640 Posted on: 07/26/2013 04:44 PM

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Went through quite a few test and I would recommend:
CORSAIR VS450 - CP-9020049-EU 450W - 10.900 Ft
http://www.edigital.hu/Aktiv/CORSAIR__VS450_-_CP-9020049-EU_450W_tapegyseg-p345933.html
- got good ratings in tests, low ripple
- according to HWIS.C test at 500W it has 79% efficiency (they ended overload test there)
- WHSC.C made overload test up to 570W where their unit kept 81% efficiency

#4626662 Posted on: 07/26/2013 05:29 PM

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I had the very same problem with my 4870, baked it and its been working just fine ever since. give baking a try. i take it your card is out of warranty so nothing to lose really.

#4626669 Posted on: 07/26/2013 05:39 PM

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Gather ye old aluminium foil for covering and a heat gun in circular motions over the chips. Oven method makes all your subsequent pizza's toxic, and there is also running the risk of having everything fall off the board, or bake to a crisp.

If it's the VRAM memory that's fried it likely wont work anyway to reflow the BGA solder but nothing to lose at this point.

#4626679 Posted on: 07/26/2013 05:53 PM

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Yeah doesn't hurt to try baking. I saved my 8800GTX using the oven trick.

#4626746 Posted on: 07/26/2013 08:31 PM

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Wow. First time I hear of this, I will google it. Yes warranty is not valid anymore + bought it in the UK so yeah no way I could utilize it.

NEW Problem is .... I bought a 7770 and physically installed it.
Installed latest official driver from ADM website. Happiness as BIOS+Win loaded without artifacts.
Tested it with a game. However it felt slower than the 4850... knew something was not right. Checked CCC > Overdrive. Now, it should display real sensor data there right? Check this:



after this I enabled overdrive and left everything at the same settings seen there and hit Apply.
THIS is when the nightmare started. I've been struggling with it for 2 hours.
It froze the PC, had to hard reset, just like before... at next boot, Windows loaded the desktop and in 10 sec it froze again before I could open anything (Say, CCC to disable stuff).

I did a clean driver uninstall, and installed it again.
Did not help.
Went to safe mode, tried to ran the installer to choose Uninstall - failed obviously. Somehow I did delete it and installed

Now I installed the default driver that came with the CD (it's a Sapphire GHz OC edition).
It installed CCC 13.1 too...

So far it works okay, but I don't dare to touch the overclock settings now...

Also in the PC shop I asked if I can take it back - said yes. However at home I noticed the packaging was already open - thought it was normal as it could be shown to someone etc... but now what if what I have is a used device...? I would never know...

And one more thing...

My 4850 had a cable like this.
The 7770 has only of those 4-pin ones. Don't know if it's normal. ...probably is.

Any help please?

#4626751 Posted on: 07/26/2013 08:44 PM

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Overdrive shows 300mhz because that is the 2D clock speed, with CCC open you are in 2D mode.

No need to touch Overdrive clocks.....

13.1 drivers are a bit buggy, try these http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=379775
It's OK.

#4626753 Posted on: 07/26/2013 08:46 PM

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Of course, I don't want to overclock it at all. I was only concerned because it was not showing the right clock speed. A game was running in the background, surely it should have made the clocks move somewhat... activity from 0 > 1% at least.
Still, the others aren't fine, like temperature at 0°C. Unless it is known not to work

#4626755 Posted on: 07/26/2013 08:50 PM

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Install the new drivers from Guru3D AMD section and check out Afterburner's monitoring app - it can display clock speed onscreen. http://forums.guru3d.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

So can Radeon Pro......http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=373303

#4626780 Posted on: 07/26/2013 09:42 PM

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The latest I've found on Guru is Catalyst 13-4 driver which is the same I kept trying and trying - but just gave it a try nevertheless. Windows still freezes at the exact time it always does. (just after it loaded everything on the desktop +startup apps).

I got it working once by running a small game ASAP after Win loaded - the system was fine up until I closed it. Then it froze 10 seconds afterwards.

#4626791 Posted on: 07/26/2013 09:55 PM

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The latest I've found on Guru is Catalyst 13-4 driver which is the same I kept trying and trying - but just gave it a try nevertheless. Windows still freezes at the exact time it always does. (just after it loaded everything on the desktop +startup apps).

I got it working once by running a small game ASAP after Win loaded - the system was fine up until I closed it. Then it froze 10 seconds afterwards.
If you disable all startup items (CCleaner) does it still freeze up?

#4626826 Posted on: 07/26/2013 11:06 PM

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Yes thank you I downloaded CClearner and disabled CCC. Now it runs fine. I will test it more tomorrow.

What does it mean though...? I cannot use CCC with my card?

#4626829 Posted on: 07/26/2013 11:15 PM

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Yes thank you I downloaded CClearner and disabled CCC. Now it runs fine. I will test it more tomorrow.

What does it mean though...? I cannot use CCC with my card?
Maybe Overdrive needs to be turned off?

#4626850 Posted on: 07/26/2013 11:56 PM

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But it's been off, I reinstalled the drivers probably 8 times tonight thus it resets to off by default

#4626920 Posted on: 07/27/2013 06:34 AM

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I guess you have not got new PSU yet.
Some details: HD4850 is 100W card, while HD7770 is 80W card.
- As for 6pinPCIe it's 75W (have to provide at least that) while 8pin PCIe provides 150W and more.
- considering your new GA is more power efficient it did not place much work on your PSU at start.
- Since your PSU have defective cooling and took hit few watts at start may have made difference in ability to have problem less boot.

I only guess HD7770 protective electronics realized that your PSU can't provide all power and kept it at low voltage/clocks.
It's very likely if you used 4pin-molex (for HDD/CDROM) conversion cable that it's on different rail in PSU and that one is not very capable.
- I advise to use directly 6pin PCIe power connector which goes from PSU

BTW 7770 should be about 15% faster than HD4850, your OC edition should do even better. But consider that it's 80W card at 1000/1125MHz Core/Memory. OC will raise this considerably.

#4628007 Posted on: 07/29/2013 07:24 PM

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card is 100% toast no amount of screwing with drivers or changing power supplys is gonna fix it

#4628276 Posted on: 07/30/2013 09:45 AM

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Fox: thanks for the suggestions, it makes sense now. I will try plugging it into a different cable, I never thought of that.

Yes the new card works great, it almost doubled the performance in some games. I'm unbelievably happy. Who knows how overheated my 4850 has been for months or years (and I thought the performance was mediocre by default)


onemoar: thanks, that's what I thought as well. Just wanted to make sure