# Gfx Card (HD 6850) Problem or PSU problem?



## Xai (May 12, 2012)

Hello,

For past few weeks, I have been having trouble on and off with my display.

I have a* HD 6850 1 GB DDR5 - Sapphire*, and my PSU is* Corsair TX 650W*.

My display becomes a solid color (sometimes blue, sometimes black, sometimes other color) with vertical lines. The PC freezes and I have to restart my PC using the reset button/switch.

On rebooting, I usually get shaky lines and patches on the screen..sometimes white, sometimes pink and green/blue.

This seems to happen randomly. Not only when playing games, but sometimes while surfing too.

Not sure whether my gfx card has gone bad, or whether my PSU is not being able to provide enough power. I switched back to my old HD 4670, and no problem.

I ran HWMonitor for temps, and my Gfx card does not seem to reach very high temps - it used to reach 90s, but I suppose that's normal for GPUs. Problem is, I cannot check the temp at the point of crash.

Something I noticed in HWMonitor was that in motherboard section, under -12V section, it shows -7.74V. Could that be a problem?

Thanks for you help and inputs, guys.


----------



## pramudit (May 12, 2012)

your psu is good enough for 6850. the software you are using is providing false values, i also get the same error. check the voltage is bios menu...
for the problem, is your gpu getting overheated???


----------



## Xai (May 13, 2012)

pramudit said:


> your psu is good enough for 6850. the software you are using is providing false values, i also get the same error. check the voltage is bios menu...
> for the problem, is your gpu getting overheated???



Not sure if it's an overheating problem. 

Before my previous post, I had been surfing, watching movies and gaming for a few hours, then got the problem. Then I took out the card and kept it away for like 3 hours. Then I tried putting it back on. Within 5 minutes, the issue reappeared - on desktop, with Firefox and my temp monitoring s/w running.

Temperature was around 46C just before the crash.


----------



## coderunknown (May 13, 2012)

it maybe some sort of memory problem on the GPU. corrupted ram chips. though can't say that PSU is offering sufficient power. still lack of power shouldn't cause such kind of artifacts. 

try doing a fresh install of Windows and latest catalyst drivers.

also check if the connectors (golden part of the GPU) are ok.


----------



## topgear (May 13, 2012)

looks like a GPU vram isse as Sam has pointed and do what he told - also make sure your system ram is ok - check it using memtest86 app.


----------



## Xai (May 19, 2012)

Noticed some new glitches just now while gaming. First time seeing these. Not a glitch in the game, as I asked around and no one else was seeing these glitches.

*i50.tinypic.com/11qpxdf.jpg

*i49.tinypic.com/bewj4.jpg

*i46.tinypic.com/s1hx78.jpg


----------



## RCuber (May 19, 2012)

BTW have you checked if your card has a new BIOS released?


----------



## Xai (May 19, 2012)

Charan said:


> BTW have you checked if your card has a new BIOS released?



I don't know. Where can I see the BIOS details? Does tampering with BIOS void warranty, 'cause if it's a GPU issue, I may still get a RMA.


----------



## RCuber (May 19, 2012)

Xai said:


> I don't know. Where can I see the BIOS details? Does tampering with BIOS void warranty, 'cause if it's a GPU issue, I may still get a RMA.



you can check it in CC .. also check AMD/Saphire website for BIOS updates


----------



## topgear (May 20, 2012)

@ Op - your card is a factory OCed one ? if so run it at stock spped of 775Mhz/1000Mhz or try running with 750Mhz/900Mhz ( gpu core and mem clock speed ).


----------



## Xai (May 20, 2012)

topgear said:


> @ Op - your card is a factory OCed one ? if so run it at stock spped of 775Mhz/1000Mhz or try running with 750Mhz/900Mhz ( gpu core and mem clock speed ).



It's not OC-d. Running at default clock of 775 mhz/1000 mhz.

I updated the drivers, and the card has not given much trouble since yesterday mid-day. Still the issue has a tendency to disappear and then come back out of nowhere.

I will try reducing the clock speed next time the issue appears.

PS: Lol, I jinxed it! Them glitches are back. The event viewer showed "Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered."


----------



## topgear (May 21, 2012)

^^ even I'm facing some issues with my HD6850 in some games - time to check it properly.


----------



## Xai (Jul 21, 2012)

So, looks like the card was indeed busted. Got a 6870 as a replacement for my 6850


----------



## saswat23 (Jul 21, 2012)

Sapphire issued a HD 6870 in replacement! Or did you have to pay some extra. 
Describe your RMA too. I mean time taken and other details.


----------



## Xai (Jul 21, 2012)

saswat23 said:


> Sapphire issued a HD 6870 in replacement! Or did you have to pay some extra.
> Describe your RMA too. I mean time taken and other details.



Sapphire issued it, no extra payment from my side.

Took a month though. The after-sales support guys from Kolkata apparently ship the card to Aditya Infotech in N. Delhi.


----------



## Jripper (Jul 21, 2012)

^ Lucky you. I got a 6850 as replacement for 6850 :\


----------



## topgear (Jul 22, 2012)

@ *Xai *- congrats  and that's one more example of great service provided by Sapphire and Aditya Infotech - heard good feedback about them before as well and they live up to it even now.


----------



## Sukhvinder789 (Jul 22, 2012)

Wow so lucky you are ^^'


----------

