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I have a Diamond 5870 which stopped working.  It would not display video at all.  I tried to get Diamond to fix it but they only say it's out of warranty.  They won't answer the question of how much it costs to fix it.

So I put it in the oven at 350 F for 10 minutes and let it cool.  This on the idea that there was some broken solder on the card and the heat would rebind it.  The card still didn't work.  So I left it alone for a month.  Then today I tried it again just to make sure it was broken and it works!  But it is slow.  I have run it at 620 MHz gpu / 300 MHz memory for 10 hours now.  At 630 / 300 it only last 10 minutes.  At 850 / 300 it last 5 minutes.  At 900 /300 (where I usually run a 5870) it dies instantly.

Any idea of what the problem is?  Why did it not work and then work again?  Can I make it work better?  Should I use it as is (it does about 280 MH/s) or should I try to sell it as a deficient card?

Sam

Did you ever try to run it that slow before?

Possibly one of the VRMS are bad.   At higher clock the remaining VRM can't supply enough power to keep it stable and the card crashes.

I never ran it slow when it was a good card.  I have about 30 cards and not the time to mess around with them.

Is there a way to test that idea?  Maybe read the voltage as I increase the gpu frequency?  If it is the problem can I fix it?  I don't mind soldering but can't do really fine soldering because I don't have a good quality soldering iron.  And I don't like working too much on dumb problems like this.

Sam

If it is a bad VRM you will be able to see it in GPU-Z.  Goto sensor tabs look for VRM temps.  If one shows no value or significantly lower than the others it is likely bad.

The bad news is this is just academic.  It can't be fixed without extensive work.  Hell most OEM don't even fix them.  They just toss them and give you an RMA that was easier to fix (like dead fan).