Mitchell7

Okay, so I have a Sapphire HD 3870 which has been overclocked to 850/1350 for a while now and been completely stable in all my games. However, when I switched on my monitor this morning I was presented with a TV black and white grainy effect with no actual picture of the Windows desktop at all. I had to manually reboot the computer which seemed to fix it.

I have never experienced this before and everything seemed fine when I switched the monitor off last night. I usually set the GPU fan to 40% with RivaTuner when the card is idle and that keeps the temperatures around 37 - 40c

So could this have occurred due to the overclock on the card or something else perhaps? I'm considering turning the overclock down a bit now as it's the only thing I can guess would be causing this.

Any help at all would be much appreciated .

Aeogenia

Could be a random error, if it does not return your probably safe. If it does return put the GPU and CPU on stock to see if that's solves the problem.

It could be that your GPU is artefacting, which would indicate that the card has seen better days. You could scan with a program like furmark to see if its producing artifacts. Run GPU-Z besides it to see the temperatures of your cards components. If it is artifacting you should probably consider buying a new one or RMA you card.

If all leads to no avail, try the one stick of RAM and COSMOS reset method.

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Mitchell7

Well I came in earlier today and experienced the same issue. I'll now be putting everything else back to stock speeds and testing like that. If it occurs again then I'll switch over to an older card to test.

Last thing then to do would be a CMOS reset and memory test.

It does seem very clear to me that this is a video problem, the only thing I don't understand is why everything is fine while the PC is in use. I've only seen the issue arise when Windows is locked and the monitor is shut off for several hours only to be turned back on after this length of time to see this grainy type effect with no picture at all.

I will take a picture the next time it crops up. I guess it's time for an upgrade anyway, HD 5850 anyone?

Mitchell7

Bump

Just a quick update, It actually happened again tonight when playing GTA IV.

The game just suddenly locked up then recovered but within a few seconds I got no picture and this grainy effect. It's now becoming more of a 50/50 chance, I was gaming for a good few hours last night with no issues at all and just tonight it decided to crap out me after 20 minutes into game.

After a long series of tests I can confirm that it is indeed the card, even though no other type of artefacts are present. So I guess its time to invest in a new one.

I'm wondering if I should just get a cheaper ATI card for now such as a 4850 or just go all out and get a 5850...

What are your thoughts?

Btw, thanks very much for your help Aeogenia +rep for you!

nukem

Judging by your sig rig you should go for the newest card you can. A 5850 or 5890 would let you max your settings with any game on that 24"er. The 4850 is a good card (I had one when they came out), but I couldn't max my settings @ 1920x1200 in everything.