User Guides Graphics Card Issues : Causes and Solutions

Recently I got a HD 5850 as a replacement of HD 5670.However I found that my system started giving me issues, intermittent issues I must say. Please see the link of the issues that I started receiving. HD 5850 Flickering Issue - YouTube. I also put the issue as a query on the forum and received numerous replies. This was not limited to gaming, I also recieved such flickering while in BIOS. Sometimes my PC wont even POST. Tried different solutions ranging from driver re-installation, trying another PSU, trying different RAM, Different Processor, tweaking up voltages, tweaking HT Frequencies etc. I resolved the issue through this method, see below. Let me explain my findings.

Probable Cause:- The graphics card lately have become a lot heavier,now that may not be an issue on a newer motherboard, but on a older motherboard, which had some lighter gfx card installed before, the plastic PCI-E slot may expand under heat. Its not noticeable to naked eye, however that happens. Now when we install a bigger and a heavier dual slot card, the mounting screws may or may not be able to hold the the card with a perfect fit in the slot. Again, that's not noticeable but there might be a loss of contact in one or more pins with the PCI-E. This causes it to lose power under stress.

Symptoms:- No POST, flickering issues, GSOD, BSOD, display going black etc.

Solution/workaround:- Many people advise of updating drivers, issues with PSU, Motherboard, CPU etc which may be true in some cases but its difficult to guess. In such cases we can just try to place the cabinet horizontally so that the entire weight of the card comes on the motherboard and it does not hang on the PCIE, in most of the cases, the stability would improve. It improved for me a lot, but still wasn't perfect as the card would vibrate again under high RPM fan usage. So we can try this step of providing support to the gfx card, which costs nothing and look at the results.http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1269/20111003195054160newdel.jpg I am sure a lot of issues can just be resolved by providing support. I just put a stick to provide support and then ran Furmark to test for 4 hrs, without a single flicker or GSOD. I am really happy with the solution and its been an entire day now when my PC hasn't crashed, or flickered even a single time even under 100% GPU/ CPU load.

Please share your feedback and refer to any such innovative idea which you might have come across to fix an ongoing issue.
 
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Are you sure the card is seated correctly in the slot? Clean the slot and card to take out any dust particles.

5850 is certainly not the biggest of cards and many people use bigger cards without any issues. Try using it in another cabinet or motherboard if you can. It could also be an issue with your motherboard's PCI-E slot.
 
viralbug said:
Are you sure the card is seated correctly in the slot? Clean the slot and card to take out any dust particles.
5850 is certainly not the biggest of cards and many people use bigger cards without any issues. Try using it in another cabinet or motherboard if you can. It could also be an issue with your motherboard's PCI-E slot.
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Yes, the card is seated the best it can in the slot. I have tried to replace the card with 5670 which works without any issues. Slot and Card has been cleaned at least 10 times in last 3 days. I tried the card in a different cabinet and a different motherboard and it worked and thats what I have mentioned that there is indeed some issue with the PCI-E slot, however I dont want to get into hassles of RMA and explaing them the exact issue which they would never admit and blame the gfx card.It works fine for cards like 5670( in gaming too) and even with 5850(Regular windows use) so the slot would work fine even when they would test the motherboard.
 
Which motherboard do you have?

I don't see any harm in trying to get it RMA'ed. Tell them to use a bigger card for testing and if they can replicate the problem too, you'll get your motherboard repaired/replaced.
 
If you have screwed the GPU to the case, then it shouldn't move at all. Earlier, I never used to screw my GPU to the case, cuz I never felt the need, but when I had a GTX260 last year, I finally felt the need to do it. Since then, even on my current HD4670, I screw the GPU to the case.
 
how many watts is your power supply? also give details about other system specs. your Card is 160W, so you should atleast have a 600W branded PSU .
i hope you connected the PCIe power cables properly. They need to carry around 14amperes. so if your PSU cant supply that, touche..

this can also be because of the core of the gfx card not recieving enough volts.

have you tried flashing the bios of your card? make sure to have a backup of the original BIOS first...

i dont think there is any problem with the PCIe slot. if the slot had some loose connection issues, the system should hang.
 
Thanks for the feedback, its been almost a week and the card is working perfectly with the support. No issues,no GSOD/BSOD, no flickering nothing at all. As suspected, the motherboard's PCI-E is the issue. I swapped the motherboard with other test motherboard, and it worked perfectly. So now I am sure that its the motherboard's PCIE slot which is causing all the issues. I will send the motherboard for replacement/or buy a new one once I get some spare time. Till then, m going to continue with the support system.
 
looks like the slot is the bad guy. you know YOU could try to slightly bend the pins in the slot towards the centre with the help of tweezers.
 
^ I wouldn't recommend doing that. You never know if something bad might happen and you end up breaking the pins. In that case he won't be able to RMA the board either since it's a physical damage.

Better to just simply get it replaced.
 
i dont understand, HIS BOARD IS ALREADY DAMAGED. the slots are already damaged, thats why he is having problems.

ofcourse i wouldnt recommend on him doing it if he is a noob. but if he has experience in these sort of things, its okay to try.

PS. rma people will never insect it that closely IMO.
 
^ Yup I know RMA people won't inspect it that closely, but still you never know.

Also, you can't really say it's already damaged. The pins might be having loose contact and that isn't a fault of the owner. But bent or broken pins would bring up suspicion for the RMA guys.
 
I had a similar issue with my 5870, if I held it from the place where you have stuck a piece of wood, it would boot, otherwise the graphic card fan would keep on running and PC will not post and on Gigabyte motherboard, all 4 leds would light up and nothing happens. I just got the card RMA'ed last week from Sapphire in Nehru place. It its a slot issue, why is it not happening with the new card? I have no answer to that.
 
naive_harry said:
I had a similar issue with my 5870, if I held it from the place where you have stuck a piece of wood, it would boot, otherwise the graphic card fan would keep on running and PC will not post and on Gigabyte motherboard, all 4 leds would light up and nothing happens. I just got the card RMA'ed last week from Sapphire in Nehru place. It its a slot issue, why is it not happening with the new card? I have no answer to that.
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Thats strange, so you think it could be the gfx card as well. Did Sapphire replace the card easily. I am not sure what to do. To replace both the card and the m/b. My 5670 worked fine with the same board. How do one prove their point when you go for RMA. So many questions, its really a tricky situation.
 
Also another thing to consider is that the people testing won't be putting the board in a cabinet where the motherboard is in a vertical position. The motherboard will be laying flat with the graphic card in vertical position and not 'hanging' from the slot. As The reason for your problem is the weight of the card causing some loose contact with the pins, you will really have to get hold of some technical guy and explain him the whole situation.
 
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