Radeon HD4870 on the blink...

[Pieter Theron]

Hi Everyone,

I am getting a lot of VPU recover these days on my HD4870 but apart from that I also get these on the screen quite often. Sometimes the screen only acts normal once a VPU recovery has taken place. I removed and reinstalled the driver/catalyst but it all is pointing to another card down the drain.

Anyone else seen this?

Thx

 

[Jim Cole]

That is pretty much what you see when the memory on the graphics card dies. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to recover from that unless it is something like a cold solder joint in which case you could attempt to resolder, but you would need to have all the right equipment.

 

[Pieter Theron]

Thanks Jim, Guess I can't complain because I got the card in 2008 when they were just released. It did serve the purpose but the 512Mb seems to be a bit outdated if I look at all the other cards out currently.

Strange how you loose touch with technology when you are not actively looking into buying something... Time then for a 6xxx something :lol:

 

[Jim Cole]

Just because the thought came to me, have you tried to remove the card and put it back in a couple of times to clean the contacts a little? Some times dust or oxidation might be an issue and this would see if that would eliminate it.

 

[Mike Sterckx]

Also dont use the latest catalyst drivers as they no longer support 4xxx series aparently. My m8 has a 4870 and his graphics went kuku after installing the latest driver. When putting back an older driver the problem was fixed. But by the looks of the screenshot your card is probably as dead as a dodo.

 

[Marcel vd Aa]

Also dont use the latest catalyst drivers as they no longer support 4xxx series aparently. My m8 has a 4870 and his graphics went kuku after installing the latest driver. When putting back an older driver the problem was fixed. But by the looks of the screenshot your card is probably as dead as a dodo.

well I'm running a HD4870 with the latest catalyst suite and have no trouble whatsoever so I highly doubt that AMD would no longer support this card...

 

[Pieter Theron]

Yeah I also think this one is now part of history... Served me well but it is now time to go...

Picture the Scene: I started with a car restoration project recently and for that I needed to buy a socket set amongst things. It took me 4 weeks to research and study the manufacturers and then decide which socket set to buy. Imagine how long it is going to take me just to buy a damn video card when there are so many out on the market... I recon it might be next year when I buy a new one :lol:

Thanks in anycase guys

 

[Jim Cole]

Check out tomshardware.com and look for articles on graphics best bang for the buck. Find the most recent article and go from there.

 

[Pieter Theron]

Just a little update...

I got the the bottom of the problem by pure chance... The problem seems to be related to the "PowerPlay" issue that is talked about in some forums (not that I really know what it means). Although most don't have the same symptoms as mine it surely solved the issue I had...

When I have Steam open like in my first screenshot the whole top is filled with pixels. So what I did then is to open Catalyst and enable Ati Overdrive just by ticking the box. As soon as I did that the pixels dissapeared. When I deselect Enable Overdrive the pixels jumps back.. With that enabled I also don't get the VPU Recovery when opening Race or Photoshop.

Well I am glad because that saved me some cash for now but thinking back the issue started about a year ago and gradually got worse but no so much that it bothered me. Now playing Race again it really started to show. So I guess I owe SimBin...lol

Thanks everyone for your suggestions