5970 Nightmares ...

D

DRZDuke

n00b
Joined
Jun 1, 2010
Messages
9
2 weeks ago I took a massive leap of faith and bought an ATI card. I have always had nVidia cards and most recently had 2 GTX280's in SLI so for the upgrade I went all out and bought the 5970 4gb model from Sapphire.
I was super stoked when the card arrived, stripped the nVidia drivers and shut down, removed nVidia cards, installed 5970 and ... nothing ... wtf ???
System posted and hard drives spinning, was booting into windows and yet no video on my monitors (3 brand new HannsG 28's)
Removed and reseated card again ... same thing :( Contacted ATI/AMD support and explained situation, was told that I must have a bad card (never had that happen) RMA'd the card, got a new one ... same thing :(
Here's my system specs:
AMD Phenom X4 940 3.0ghz @ 3.6
Asus M3N72-D motherboard
8 gigs DDR2 pc6400 Ram
Silverstone 1000W PSU
I reinstall my nVidia card and the system works fine :(
I have scoured the net extensively and the only thing Ican find is a possible conflict with this particular Asus Mobo but I have a hard time believing it.
I have had a very smart (much smarter than me) friend come and look to make sure I didn't miss something and he couldn't get anything working either.
Now I've been without my PC for almost 2 weeks and I'm done :(

I'm basically ready to return the card and get 2 GTX480's and just wait for the nVidia surround driver release

I'm totally at my wits end here ... I can't believe that I would have to buy a different Mobo to get a video card to work and even if were prepared to do that, what board do I buy ?

Any help, suggestions out there ? Any one else had a similar issue ? Please help me :(

Oh sorry, I forgot to mention that I have tried HDMI connections to the monitor and even VGA, I have flashed the BIOS and reset CMOS all back to stock speeds, I have tried 4 different monitors ... I'm sick over this ... just wanna game in eyefinity!
 
did you run driver cleaner in safe mode before installing the ATI driver?

Last resort did you try doing a fresh windows installation?
 
Yes I ran driver sweeper right after I removed the drivers in control panel then rebooted into safe mode and ran sweeper again to make sure I was clean.
I am not gonna reformat my machine for a video card, I'd rather just ship it back and get 2 nVidia cards again.
I have honestly tried everything and as you can probably imagine I am just soooo frustrated at this point. I have thousands of dollars worth of PC gear spreadall over my gaming room and I just wanna play :(
Thanks for the posts though, I reallly do want to use this card but I'm just fried !
 
I honestly can't believe that I'm even considering this but I'm ready to hop a ferry and head to Vancouver right now and buy a freakin Motherboard but at this point I wouldn't even know which to buy that's guaranteed to work with this card. It'd have to be an AMD and I guess I'd go to the 6 core cpu as well :(
 
look at the bright side :) you may end up with a 6 core !

anyhow, try a separate HDD(if you have it) and loading Linux onto it....just a thought
 
A couple things to try:

1. Make sure motherboard has latest bios.
2. Downclock everything back to stock (cpu, ram). <- I would bet on this
3. Once booted into Windows, if still black, try plugging the monitor into the different DVI ports in case it is detecting one as the primary that you didn't expect.
4. See if you can boot into safe mode with the cards and get a display. If so, try installing the drivers from there.
5. Double check your power leads to the 5970 and that they are firmly installed.
6. Make sure that the card is fully seated and isn't hitting a capacitor that would make it feel like it's all the way down but isn't.
7. Try with just a single stick of RAM in a slot.

That's all I can think of.
 
Chameleoki said:
2. Downclock everything back to stock (cpu, ram). <- I would bet on this
Click to expand...

Probably not worth it if that's the fix though. I'd imagine that would leave his 5970 performing like... two GTX 280s in SLI.
 
ATI/AMD cards have EDID related issues with many monitors out there. They'll work in analog mode via S-VGA/D-SUB connectors should your monitor support it but not DVI mode. I've got a monitor that does this with any ATI card since the X1800XT came out. You need to employ some time of EDID work around or override in order to get your card to work with the monitor.
 
IIRC that the chipset on that mobo (NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI) never worked with CrossFire.
 
I had thought that it was a monitor issue at first but I have tried 4 different ones, the 3 new HanssG ones that have only VGA and HDMI inputs and my LG3000H 30" that has DVI and VGA and I actually even went and bought 3 VGA cables to try out, same thing. This is why I am leaning towards the Mobo.
I can't believe that this is even happenin'
 
Dan_D said:
The 5970 uses internal Crossfire. The motherboard doesn't need to support it and you can in fact use 5970's or any dual GPU ATI cards with NVIDIA chipsets. If there is anything to this problem being motherboard related I'm going to bet on it being more of a BIOS problem than anything. Now there may or may not be a newer BIOS that resolves this issue on such an old motherboard so you the OP may need a new board anyway.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Its still likely a mobo issue and there probably isn't an update for this sole issue so you may be looking at a new setup to get things working.
 
Well, it uses internal Crossfire, but the 5970 is supposed to be seen as two discrete devices by Windows. I could see the motherboard as a possible culprit here.
 
Balthazor said:
Well, it uses internal Crossfire, but the 5970 is supposed to be seen as two discrete devices by Windows. I could see the motherboard as a possible culprit here.
Click to expand...

There is no reason for that to be a problem. It has never been an issue with the dual GPU cards from either manufacturer in the past. If the motherboard is the culprit, it could be the lack of OROM space. This is a problem with NVIDIA chipset based boards in general. This may or may not be resolvable through a BIOS upgrade.
 
When you said "system posted", do you mean there is video signal before entering the Windows? if so, that is sure your Windows screwed up. Trying installing a new Windows, you dont have to format.
 
mafa said:
When you said "system posted", do you mean there is video signal before entering the Windows? if so, that is sure your Windows screwed up. Trying installing a new Windows, you dont have to format.
Click to expand...

This probably isn't going to work and isn't necessary. If the system gives you video at the BIOS screen but goes to black once the Windows desktop appears, it is the EDID issue. The problem is not terribly common but does occur with many monitors from a ton of manufacturers. I've even heard of it being a problem with some monitors of the same model and working with others. Different firmware versions of the monitor or slight hardware revisions can account for this. I'm not saying that's the problem for sure but that's how I've experienced it. though using a DVI to VGA adapter on the monitor usually verifies this as the problem. You can also remove all the drivers for the ATI card from the system using driver cleaner/sweeper and then restart the system. If it goes into Windows and the display is in VGA mode then that is almost certainly the issue. It could easily be a problem with both the HanssG monitors and the LG monitor.

Again if its a motherboard problem (which based on what the OP is saying, that's where I'm leaning) then it is most likely due to the lack of option ROM space. Disabling onboard peripherals such as the network cards and boot ROMs may help test for this. It doesn't always work depending on how much OROM space you need. I'd certainly pull any other expansion cards if the system has any to see if that's the case. If you have an OROM issue then upgrading the BIOS may or may not fix the problem. You might even have to go backwards in BIOS revisions to get the desired effect if its even possible at all in this case.

To the original poster: Complete system specifications might help figure this out if you can post them.
 
Dan_D said:
This probably isn't going to work and isn't necessary. If the system gives you video at the BIOS screen but goes to black once the Windows desktop appears, it is the EDID issue. The problem is not terribly common but does occur with many monitors from a ton of manufacturers. I've even heard of it being a problem with some monitors of the same model and working with others. Different firmware versions of the monitor or slight hardware revisions can account for this. I'm not saying that's the problem for sure but that's how I've experienced it. though using a DVI to VGA adapter on the monitor usually verifies this as the problem. You can also remove all the drivers for the ATI card from the system using driver cleaner/sweeper and then restart the system. If it goes into Windows and the display is in VGA mode then that is almost certainly the issue. It could easily be a problem with both the HanssG monitors and the LG monitor.

Again if its a motherboard problem (which based on what the OP is saying, that's where I'm leaning) then it is most likely due to the lack of option ROM space. Disabling onboard peripherals such as the network cards and boot ROMs may help test for this. It doesn't always work depending on how much OROM space you need. I'd certainly pull any other expansion cards if the system has any to see if that's the case. If you have an OROM issue then upgrading the BIOS may or may not fix the problem. You might even have to go backwards in BIOS revisions to get the desired effect if its even possible at all in this case.

To the original poster: Complete system specifications might help figure this out if you can post them.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I didn't see it mentioned yet, but are you sure your PSU is providing enough amperage on the 12V rail?
 
Dan_D said:
This probably isn't going to work and isn't necessary. If the system gives you video at the BIOS screen but goes to black once the Windows desktop appears, it is the EDID issue. The problem is not terribly common but does occur with many monitors from a ton of manufacturers.
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem because the Radeon 5870 I bought was an engineering sample (or so I assumed) apparently and anytime I tried to install Catalyst drivers 10.2 and above I would reboot and it would post fine until just after the windows moving bar, then right before it would hit the desktop I would get a black screen and it would be stuck there. I could not figure out what the problem was until I rolled back to 9.12 drivers and swapped my cable from an HDMI->DVI to HDMI->HDMI then when I installed catalyst drivers above 10.1 it worked perfectly fine on reboot. The HDMI->HDMI cable had to be in for the driver installation though as just swapping cables after driver install after would still get me the black screen.

You have no idea how much crap I tried before getting this simple fix to twork on a 5$ HDMI->HDMI cable I had been using for my xbox360.

By the way I also have the exact same 28" HannsG monitor as the OP which I bought just recently. I was under the assumption that I had this issue because my card was an engineering sample but if you have an HDMI->HDMI cable laying around (or 3) run a full driver cleanup and plug that cable in then install your driver and see what happens. You could also test the 9.12 drivers as there was a change to some ulps power feature with the 10.2 and above that could be causing black screen before hitting desktop. Let me know if this works.
 
No, there is no video signal to the monitors ever. Screens stay black and in off/sleep/no signal mode. The system beeps like it posting normally but I never see anything onscreen. My hard disks spin up like they do upon a normal boot.
I tried removing all the ram except one and unplugging all the hard disks, I have no other expansion cards in the system.
Originally I had a Corsair 850W PSU that is on the recommended ATI list but because I thought that maybe this was it, I upgraded to a new Silverstone 1000W unit.

I have boxed up the card and returned it and also the active adapter that I had to buy for this card. It's so dissapointing to me that this could happen but after numerous calls to ATI/AMD support with little or no assistance I felt I had no choice. For me to have to buy a new motherboard for a video card is ridiculous.
I appreciate everyone weighing in on the situation and attempting to help,thank you all so much, for now I'll use the 2 GTX280s I have and pick up some 480's once I get my credit from this card.
 
Dan_D said:
This probably isn't going to work and isn't necessary. If the system gives you video at the BIOS screen but goes to black once the Windows desktop appears, it is the EDID issue. The problem is not terribly common but does occur with many monitors from a ton of manufacturers. I've even heard of it being a problem with some monitors of the same model and working with others. Different firmware versions of the monitor or slight hardware revisions can account for this. I'm not saying that's the problem for sure but that's how I've experienced it. though using a DVI to VGA adapter on the monitor usually verifies this as the problem. You can also remove all the drivers for the ATI card from the system using driver cleaner/sweeper and then restart the system. If it goes into Windows and the display is in VGA mode then that is almost certainly the issue. It could easily be a problem with both the HanssG monitors and the LG monitor.

Again if its a motherboard problem (which based on what the OP is saying, that's where I'm leaning) then it is most likely due to the lack of option ROM space. Disabling onboard peripherals such as the network cards and boot ROMs may help test for this. It doesn't always work depending on how much OROM space you need. I'd certainly pull any other expansion cards if the system has any to see if that's the case. If you have an OROM issue then upgrading the BIOS may or may not fix the problem. You might even have to go backwards in BIOS revisions to get the desired effect if its even possible at all in this case.

To the original poster: Complete system specifications might help figure this out if you can post them.
Click to expand...

I thought EDID only affects the native resolution of the monitor.
This is the first time I hear that it can stop the monitor from displaying anything, the only reason that I can think of is because the monitor can't display at that particular resolution.

I just noticed that the OP is using "M3N72-D", which has onboard video, have you tried using the video output on the mother board? there should be an option in the bios setting which allows you disable the onboard video.
 
DRZDuke said:
No, there is no video signal to the monitors ever. Screens stay black and in off/sleep/no signal mode. The system beeps like it posting normally but I never see anything onscreen. My hard disks spin up like they do upon a normal boot.
I tried removing all the ram except one and unplugging all the hard disks, I have no other expansion cards in the system.
Originally I had a Corsair 850W PSU that is on the recommended ATI list but because I thought that maybe this was it, I upgraded to a new Silverstone 1000W unit.

I have boxed up the card and returned it and also the active adapter that I had to buy for this card. It's so dissapointing to me that this could happen but after numerous calls to ATI/AMD support with little or no assistance I felt I had no choice. For me to have to buy a new motherboard for a video card is ridiculous.
I appreciate everyone weighing in on the situation and attempting to help,thank you all so much, for now I'll use the 2 GTX280s I have and pick up some 480's once I get my credit from this card.
Click to expand...

Like I said in the last post, it can be the onboard video thing, the video chipset from nvidia. I would not be surprised that if the motherboard chooses the "better" nvidia card and uses the onboard video when it sees the ATI.

Perhaps the real cause does not matter to you anymore, but it can be informational to others.
 
Bummer man.

I for one would be freaking excited to upgrade my motherboard for a 5970 4gb edition. I guess that's just the upgrade bug in me though.

Gl with your 480s.
 
mafa said:
I thought EDID only affects the native resolution of the monitor.
This is the first time I hear that it can stop the monitor from displaying anything, the only reason that I can think of is because the monitor can't display at that particular resolution.

I just noticed that the OP is using "M3N72-D", which has onboard video, have you tried using the video output on the mother board? there should be an option in the bios setting which allows you disable the onboard video.
Click to expand...

On my Viewsonic VP201s the monitor won't display anything past 640x480 VGA mode with an ATI card connected to it with a DVI cable. EDID overrides do not work 100% of the time with it either. You are right about it generally effecting native resolution. That's generally the problem but sometimes the detected refresh rate of the monitor isn't detected right and it won't work in nearly any resolution.
 
DRZDuke said:
No, there is no video signal to the monitors ever. Screens stay black and in off/sleep/no signal mode. The system beeps like it posting normally but I never see anything onscreen. My hard disks spin up like they do upon a normal boot.
I tried removing all the ram except one and unplugging all the hard disks, I have no other expansion cards in the system.
Originally I had a Corsair 850W PSU that is on the recommended ATI list but because I thought that maybe this was it, I upgraded to a new Silverstone 1000W unit.

I have boxed up the card and returned it and also the active adapter that I had to buy for this card. It's so dissapointing to me that this could happen but after numerous calls to ATI/AMD support with little or no assistance I felt I had no choice. For me to have to buy a new motherboard for a video card is ridiculous.
I appreciate everyone weighing in on the situation and attempting to help,thank you all so much, for now I'll use the 2 GTX280s I have and pick up some 480's once I get my credit from this card.
Click to expand...

The option ROM problem can strike NVIDIA cards as well. Trust me, I've experienced it. Though typically it occurs more so with dual GPU cards than single GPU cards.
 
No one has mentioned this.... but are you sure you plugged in all required pci express power plugs to the card? Are you sure they are all working fine? (Voltage tester??) Definately wont get any video signal without that and sometimes it wont even warn you (just did this last week till I realized I forgot that).
 
wingnut691983 said:
No one has mentioned this.... but are you sure you plugged in all required pci express power plugs to the card? Are you sure they are all working fine? (Voltage tester??) Definately wont get any video signal without that and sometimes it wont even warn you (just did this last week till I realized I forgot that).
Click to expand...

I gave the original poster the benefit of the doubt on that as he was capable of reinstalling the NVIDIA card/cards and making the system work.
 
Just sayin, he didnt say he checked that and no one else has suggested it.

I've forgotten it before....
 
LOL ... yes I plugged in both 8 pin power plugs to the card :)
I had a reply finally this morning from Sapphires support team:

"This is a MB compatibilty issue, because HD5970 is using 2 GPU's in one PCB and using internal crossfire feature. If the MB only supports SLI like nVidia nForce series, it will have compaitbility issues"

I had thought this before even buying the card but no one knew or at least no one I spoke with or nothing I read stated that this would be a problem and I was actually told by the salesman where I bought the card that it wouldn't or shouldn't be an issue.

Anyway, like I said in an earlier post, I have sent the card back and am having to pay a restocking fee also but yesterday, after almost 2 weeks of messing around and not hearing back from Sapphire etc ... I was just done. I know some of you will think me silly for not just buying another Mobo but if you were in my shoes, I had just spent $1221.00 for the card, $114.00 for the displayport adapter required and multiple shipping charges, I was not ready or able to spend anymore and we all know that if we buy a new board, we would buy a better one nd have to get the CPU and RAM too, at least I would and I'm just not ready for an upgrade at this time.

Again though, I'd like to thank you all for your comments and suggestions, it's nice to be part of such a great community of enthusiasts that are so willing to help each other.

Just a final thought. On the side of the box, on the internet and everywhere else I could find the only recommendation with anything to do with Mobo states: a PCI-e based PC required.
Well now we all know that's not the case. It's doubtful ATI would ever change thier advertising material for this but maybe they should at least inform the people that sell this stuff that this is the case to avoid this kind of thing in the future !
 
Last edited:
Well while that is true, a board that supports crossfire would help also, I think thats a given. Nvidia doesnt mention that a nvidia chipset is required for its simmilar cards.

My guess is that your restocking fee is probably about 80% of what a new mobo would cost so ... yeah... that was a bit silly.
 
I don't agree with the Sapphire support team. Internal Crossfire has nothing to do with the motherboard itself. It is more likely to be a result of the terrible NVIDIA option ROM configuration and or issues with their PCI-Express 2.0 support. Essentially the 7xx series NVIDIA chipsets are 6xx series chipsets with an added chip for PCI-Express 2.0 support.

wingnut691983 said:
Well while that is true, a board that supports crossfire would help also, I think thats a given. Nvidia doesnt mention that a nvidia chipset is required for its simmilar cards.

My guess is that your restocking fee is probably about 80% of what a new mobo would cost so ... yeah... that was a bit silly.
Click to expand...

Since the Crossfire is internal to the video card itself, Crossfire support on the motherboard is neither a good idea nor necessary. The feature goes completely unused if a dual GPU card is installed in the system. This has ALWAYS been the case with cards from both ATI and NVIDIA.
 
DRZDuke said:
LOL ... yes I plugged in both 8 pin power plugs to the card :)
I had a reply finally this morning from Sapphires support team:

"This is a MB compatibilty issue, because HD5970 is using 2 GPU's in one PCB and using internal crossfire feature. If the MB only supports SLI like nVidia nForce series, it will have compaitbility issues"

I had thought this before even buying the card but no one knew or at least no one I spoke with or nothing I read stated that this would be a problem and I was actually told by the salesman where I bought the card that it wouldn't or shouldn't be an issue.

Anyway, like I said in an earlier post, I have sent the card back and am having to pay a restocking fee also but yesterday, after almost 2 weeks of messing around and not hearing back from Sapphire etc ... I was just done. I know some of you will think me silly for not just buying another Mobo but if you were in my shoes, I had just spent $1221.00 for the card, $114.00 for the displayport adapter required and multiple shipping charges, I was not ready or able to spend anymore and we all know that if we buy a new board, we would buy a better one nd have to get the CPU and RAM too, at least I would and I'm just not ready for an upgrade at this time.

Again though, I'd like to thank you all for your comments and suggestions, it's nice to be part of such a great community of enthusiasts that are so willing to help each other.

Just a final thought. On the side of the box, on the internet and everywhere else I could find the only recommendation with anything to do with Mobo states: a PCI-e based PC required.
Well now we all know that's not the case. It's doubtful ATI would ever change thier advertising material for this but maybe they should at least inform the people that sell this stuff that this is the case to avoid this kind of thing in the future !
Click to expand...

It really isn't AMD or Sapphire's fault if it doesn't work with your motherboard. It is a limitation of your board, not of the card. You simply have to do a little digging if you're spending $1500 on video card equipment.
 
Sorry it didn't work out for you, but you clearly got a GPU that was either not compatible with or too advanced for your current system. the 5970 4GB likely would have been bottlenecked by your cpu/mobo combo anyways. I would suggest that you look into a single gpu solution such as a GTX 480 or Radeon 5870. And OC your cpu so it won't bottleneck those too much. Another attractive option for you pricewise, since you have an SLI motherboard, could be two GTX 470s in SLI, since those have taken a dip in price recently and are readily available under the suggested $349 MSRP.
 
Paying 15% restock on a $1200 video card since you crossposted this on Ncix could have payed for a brand new motherboard that isn't some legacy nForce garbage.
 
vjcsmoke said:
Sorry it didn't work out for you, but you clearly got a GPU that was either not compatible with or too advanced for your current system. the 5970 4GB likely would have been bottlenecked by your cpu/mobo combo anyways. I would suggest that you look into a single gpu solution such as a GTX 480 or Radeon 5870. And OC your cpu so it won't bottleneck those too much. Another attractive option for you pricewise, since you have an SLI motherboard, could be two GTX 470s in SLI, since those have taken a dip in price recently and are readily available under the suggested $349 MSRP.
Click to expand...

His configuration will likely bottleneck any high end configuration to some degree.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top