Hi,
I just got a non working Radeon HD4870 512Mb from Sapphire, it's an early model based on the original design. I don't know the story of this card, I bought it as is.
At first, the symptoms were :
- prevented boot (computer would start but nothing on screen, whether I use a 2nd graphics card or the HD4870, plus the system was trying several boot sequence before giving up).
- the HD4870 D1601 diagnostic LED would stay on (Core overheating)
Then, I reflowed the GPU and memory with a heat gun, after replacing a broken SMD capacitor. It did improve things a little, but still no image :
- computer boots, D1601 led is off.
- the computer hangs during the Windows loading
Third, I flashed the BIOS three times with different early BIOSes with the same slightly improved results each time :
- the computer starts normally and the card is detected in Windows and by GPU-Z but part of the data is completely wrong (0Mb RAM, 32bit memory bus, 2400Mhz core clock, the rest is fine), the temps are detected correctly
In the devices manager, I get the HD4800 series video adapter with a little yellow sign next to it, and the code 43 error : "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)"
Now I tried searching for dead components on the board and found one dead transistor, but still no change.
I've searched on the net and it's apparent those cards are quite unreliable.
Any ideas where to look at now ?
I was thinking about trying a stronger reflow.
PS : computer specs :
Phenom II X4 965
2x2Gb + 2x4Gb DDR3 Kingston HyperX
Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
Vertex 2 60Gb
WD Caviar Green 1Tb + Seagate 160Gb
Audigy 1 + Live! Drive II
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500 (brand new from RMA)
I just got a non working Radeon HD4870 512Mb from Sapphire, it's an early model based on the original design. I don't know the story of this card, I bought it as is.
At first, the symptoms were :
- prevented boot (computer would start but nothing on screen, whether I use a 2nd graphics card or the HD4870, plus the system was trying several boot sequence before giving up).
- the HD4870 D1601 diagnostic LED would stay on (Core overheating)
Then, I reflowed the GPU and memory with a heat gun, after replacing a broken SMD capacitor. It did improve things a little, but still no image :
- computer boots, D1601 led is off.
- the computer hangs during the Windows loading
Third, I flashed the BIOS three times with different early BIOSes with the same slightly improved results each time :
- the computer starts normally and the card is detected in Windows and by GPU-Z but part of the data is completely wrong (0Mb RAM, 32bit memory bus, 2400Mhz core clock, the rest is fine), the temps are detected correctly
In the devices manager, I get the HD4800 series video adapter with a little yellow sign next to it, and the code 43 error : "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)"
Now I tried searching for dead components on the board and found one dead transistor, but still no change.
I've searched on the net and it's apparent those cards are quite unreliable.
Any ideas where to look at now ?
I was thinking about trying a stronger reflow.
PS : computer specs :
Phenom II X4 965
2x2Gb + 2x4Gb DDR3 Kingston HyperX
Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB3
Vertex 2 60Gb
WD Caviar Green 1Tb + Seagate 160Gb
Audigy 1 + Live! Drive II
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500 (brand new from RMA)
Comment