New PC - Graphics Card Problem

[Cbarker]

Hi All,

Just received my new PC and was over the moon. All poised for a great review until I loaded up some games and then the graphics card failed. Tried a few different games and as soon as they are loaded (sim city - main menu, Civ 5 - soon as an actual session starts) the screen flickers, lines across it and then either cuts out to black or 'beige' lines across it.

Have had to hard restart or sometimes can ctrl+alt+del to task manager and then close it. One time it came up with an error box in the bottom right saying 'this device driver has been recovered' also another time saw the task manager box with 'render error' written in it.

Windows runs fine and have installed/run the usual suite of Itunes, office, chrome etc without incident.

Card is: 2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7870 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable

Have done a search and tried all the reccomended steps including:

- Taken panel off and checked all connections. All seem fine.
- Updated drivers - both through the included CD, then through normal windows tool and through the AMD website.
- Tried a clean install of drivers
- Tried DVI and HDMI

So am at a loss. Will call PCS tomorrow (they have been great in the building/sales stages) but will be at work so wont have it in front of me and unless there is something else can be done while I am sitting in front of it dont know what they could suggest.

If anyone has a silver bullet to sort this you will become my new hero!

If i can get it sorted soonish I still think PCS deserve a rave review for the process, one small hiccup doesnt' dissuade me.

Thanks

Chris



Card is: 2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7870 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable

The full spec is below:


Case ZALMAN Z11 PLUS BLACK MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P8H61-MX USB3/SI: uATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7870 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader NONE
Power Supply 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Sound Card ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive NONE
Firewire NONE
TV Card NONE
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor NONE
2nd Monitor NONE
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables NONE
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision NONE
Keyboard & Mouse NONE
Mouse NONE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Speakers NONE
Webcam NONE
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Cable Tidy NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Home Installation NONE
Data Recovery NONE
Delivery SATURDAY DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (BEFORE 12 NOON) (£19)

(paid for Sat delivery but as was ready PCS allowed me to get it sent today and very kindly refunded the difference even though I didnt ask them to!)

 

[SlickShoes]

Update the drivers to the latest version, reseat the card in case it came loose intransit. Other than that there isn't much you can do, PCS should be able to send you a new card out and take that one back in return you will just have to fit it yourself, better give them a call.

 

[Grimezy]

Update the drivers to the latest version, reseat the card in case it came loose intransit. Other than that there isn't much you can do, PCS should be able to send you a new card out and take that one back in return you will just have to fit it yourself, better give them a call.

He said he'd tried those already.

But like Slick said there's not much else that could work, as stupid as it sounds you've definitely got it plugged into the right port at the back of your rig and not the motherboards port?

 

[Cbarker]

Thanks for trying!

Yup definitely in the hdmi slot on the board (I removed card and tried the motherboard as per pcs advice and worked fine off integrated) and tried all the updates etc. Reseating it has helped in that games tend to last about 2-3 mins now but still no good for use.

Spoke to pcs who were very helpful and are sending a new card out to me tomorrow and will take back the old one. With any luck that'll sort it. Didnt catch the name of the bloke I talked to at 9.01am this morning but was very helpful!

Bad luck really but don't blame anyone, long as the new one works ill be happy. Given the price and quality of what I got hasn't changed my opinion.

 

[SlickShoes]

I often wonder if it's worth them sending graphics cards in a separate box sometimes, I think just about everyone I know that has bought a PC online has had a problem at some point with a card being damaged in transit in the PC. I bought my last PC years ago from another site and the same thing happened to me that you have described. Hopefully the card they send out to you will be fine, it's good that they can get a replacement out to you so quick at least!

 

[Cbarker]

New card arrived.

Same spec but definitely seems meatier/more solid than the last. Must be different brand (didnt pay attention to old one) but this one is bigger and heavier by far. All plugged in within 5 mins, installed within 5 and now all up and running!

Works a treat.

So all sorted. Thanks guys.


Anyone else has an issue you would be amazed that a quick phone call and 24 hours and it'll be fixed. Won't get that from a major retailer.

 

[eaypc1]

I've got the exact same graphics card! I'm having problems too I've created a thread about it. It doesn't seem to be the exact same one but I'm it's during playing games so I'm assuming it's something to do with the graphics card.

I've had a few calls but the help so far was 'please check your heat levels'... when I've just bought a spanking new desktop that has 2 fans and that isn't burning my foot off I don't expect it will be that but there you go. I'm gunna call them tomorrow and try and get this straightened out. really hope it's just due to a defective card and can be replaced.