pandaquila

Hello everyone!

4 months ago I've built a computer using the MSI P45 Diamond motherboard and the ATI HD4870 512mb graphic card. At that time I was living in China and the computer was built there. After my comeback to Belgium 1 week ago, I've noticed that the computer is having problems with the graphic card (I guess it was hit during the transportation, as I've put the PC in my luggage while travelling by plane to Europe).

What happens is that after starting the computer, nothing (seems to) happen for 1-2 minutes at all (though of course inside the box all leds are on and coolers running), after which the bios and os starts loading, but the whole screen is filled with horizontal lines that flickr lightly. These lines start already in the BIOS, but are not as many as in a loaded OS (I tried windows Vista / linux). After an operating system loaded, I can use the computer as normally, but of course the lines are still present and make the whole experience terifying :-)

Using the led indicators on the motherboard, I've come to understand that the 1-2 minute leg between pushing the start button and the BIOS loading is caused by the system trying to start the graphic card, after which I guess a time-out is reached (but not sure) and my hd4870 uses some other way to display content on the screen.

The problem is 100% with the graphic card, as putting another instead makes everything work normal.

Now, my questions:
1) Did anyone had this experience? What's happening? Is my card really finished? or can it be repaired? After all it's just 4 months old... and it still displays things.... I would guess that there is something small that moved or so, but that the card can be "saved".
2) Does ATI offer worldwide insurance guarantee? I left all the papers with the guarantee talk in China and found nothing on the net about this problem
3) Does ATI have a service & repair point somewhere in Belgium where I can try to repair the card? Or does someone in Belgium repair ATI cards? such a place near antwerp would be really great, but other are welcome too.
4) If the answer to questions 2 & 3 is "no", I would like to ask if someone from you guys (the hardware pro's here) can maybe at least test the card or in the best case repair it? I'd be happy to go to your designated location for this.

Thank you all very much! I hope something can be done!

pandaquila

:-(

Guys! Some help? Does someone know where you can repair an ATI card or can someone do it from this forum (for a payment of course)?

Please help!

wutske

Dunno if this helps: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...ceRequest.aspx

Have you done a visual inspection on the card ? GPU coolers tend to come loose when the experience heavy shocks. The worst thing that can happen is that the cooler ripped the GPU off the card ...

How are the temperatures of the card ?

pandaquila

Hi Wutske!

Thanks for the link. Maybe it'll help, I'm contacting the ATI guys, waiting for their answer.

The temperatures are actually quite high, around 70 degrees Celsius (!), but as I could understand from other fora that is quite normal (yeah... :-( for the ATI HD4870, maybe people were worried about this issue, but it looks to be "normal".

Why do you mean by saying that "The worst thing that can happen is that the cooler ripped the GPU off the card"? I don't get it, can it be checked or so? Cause by looking on the outside, the card looks in very good shape...

Thanks again.

wutske

70° idle is a bit on the high side in my humble opinion, but I won't damage the card (GPUs are tougher as CPUs, they easily can run a 120°c without problems).

For the ripped of GPU, there is no way to check it especialy when only a few "balls" are broken (broken contacts increase the resistance, that's why they cause problems).

I think it's safest not to mess around too much with the card and just send it back (if it's only possible to get RMA in China then I'd send the card to a friend in China and let him do the RMA stuff ).