Have I fried my card?

[michaelmclees]

I have an XFX 5850 that I've been mining on for a few months.  It was my first card that I started mining with and it looks like it might have been the first to go.  I can't identify any physical problem with the card (burned or damaged transistors or broken fan), but when I try to boot with the card plugged in, my box won't make it past the Windows XP screen with the moving orange boxes under the logo.  I can run 3 other cards in that same slot and there are no problems.  Only with this card are there issues.

If I can't boot to Windows with the card, how can I test to see if it is fried somehow?

I haven't overclocked it past it's CCC limits and it has always been well ventilated.

[kokjo]

try booting on linux. should work even with a fried card.

[malevolent]

What were the temps? Did you overclock and did you increase voltages?

Try booting in safe mode and reinstall video drivers.

[michaelmclees]

What were the temps? Did you overclock and did you increase voltages?

Try booting in safe mode and reinstall video drivers.

The drivers work fine for my other XFX 5850, an identical card.  I didn't increase voltage and the temps were always in the 70 range.

[malevolent]

Well you can at least try :p 

But if identical cards on the same mobo, same pci-e slot with the same psu work fine, then... i'd just rma it.


ps. your card isnt fried if you kept it in the 70s, you're probably just unlucky, sometimes pc hardware is already faulty when it leaves a factory..

[michaelmclees]

Kind of a bump, but someone might find this useful.

I was able to temporarily get it going again by starting the computer in VGA mode.  Apparently, sometimes the card will attempt to send a signal to the monitor that the monitor doesn't recognize, resulting in a black screen (not off, just a bright black image) and starting in VGA will fix that.

Despite being the only card attached to the motherboard and a 1000W PSU, it still began to artifact the moment it was under a load.  About a minute later, it gave me the green line screen and then the black line screen.  I was unable to revive it and now it is in the mail to XFX for an RMA.

In all honesty, this card has been giving me similar problems from day 1, so I can't say I'm surprised.  Hopefully the replacement will work out.