Brand new system w/ HD4870

[devilmyarse]

I've built my new system. Specs in sig. It runs perfectly stable for hours on end (i've left it running for 4 days straight) when not in graphical mode.

However, any app that requires 3d acceleration causes the system to just lock up. I get this problem:
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/7...ruptionhf6.jpg
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/c...jpg/1/w600.png

Even programs that utilise less than 10% of the gpu (IE like google sketchup or something like the java 3d game Runescape)

It happens completely at random. I've even monitored gpu temps and it never goes higher than 60c. I still get the lock ups.

It seems to happen at random. I've ran crysis for a couple of hours on ultra settings and it's never crashed. Likewise with other games like CoD4 or Half Life 2 i've played for hours without seeing a crash. The only 'intensive' game i've played was Stalker that actually caused one of these crashes.

I'm running Vista x64 Ultimate. 8.10 catalyst (it's done this same crash on 8.6 and 8.8). Is it that my system is overheating? Or have I got a bad GPU?

Thanks for any help.

[Pitch]

Does AtiTool crash it? Might be worth using some GPU stresstests. Likewise, what about the GPU folding client?

[devilmyarse]

Well i've used furmark for a good few hours and have it not crash...

[devilmyarse]

Just ran furmark again. It ran for about 30 mins. I closed it. Loaded up Sketchup. It crashed the whole system within 10 minutes. Temps were around 67-70c.

[MUff1N]

I'm pretty good with graphics cards & this is my assessment.
This is a driver issue with your graphics card.
When I had an ATi card, there were good & bad drivers that would come from them. One game would work perfectly & the next would crash it hard.

So what I think you're going to have to do is just wait for another driver update & hope that it fixes this.

Something else too, if you have any "Tweaking" utilities running in the background this too can cause issues with certain games & applications.
So if you do, try turning them off & see if it still happens.

[devilmyarse]

Well I've had the system off over the weekend as I've been staying at my fiancées house. Installed my new Antec 900 case. Switched it on. Loaded up spore. Crashed before it even got to the menu screen.

I've been experiencing these crashes on 8.6, 8.8 and now 8.10 so surely it's not a driver issue? Is this card just a dud? Please let me know because I have a no quibble exchange if it's within a month.

[Rondog]

Personally I'd swap it over just in case. Its giving errors so your well within your rights to swap it over having ruled out drivers.

[devilmyarse]

Right well, I'm just about to uninstall the drivers and do a driver cleaner wipe in safe mode and then reinstall the display driver only for 8.10 and see if that helps. Wish me luck!

[devilmyarse]

Done all that. Seemed to have improved a little. My fiancée played Spore for about an hour. No problems what-so-ever. I loaded up UT3 and it crashed within 10 minutes...

Am I just unlucky or something?! :P

I'm going to contact ebuyer in the morning and go through the returns process. This is really gonna suck because I don't have onboard video or a spare PCI-E GPU (yes, this really is the first system i've had with PCI-E)

[Rondog]

Ask them if they do shipping in advance. Some of the bigger e-tailers do as a customer service dependant on stock.

[bonesaw]

try older drivers or might be heat?

[devilmyarse]

Well I thought it was a heat problem when it was in my old case which sucked for thermals but since upgrading to the Antec 900 thermals aren't an issue in there thanks to it's abundance of huge fans plus the 20cm fan on top. It's idling at about 50c. When it's at full load it's only going to about 70c.

Unfortunately I've just looked on ebuyer and the DoA return has expired so I'm going to have to get it replaced under warranty. I can get a refund as well so I'm really tempted to just get the 1GB version since they are practically the same in price anyway.

[Daniel ~]

Me, I'd dump the card...if nothing else you will have eliminated the most likely possibility that you can easily check on.