Looks like the 6870 is causing the computer to freeze

[kalnick]

My cousin had an issue with the his computer locking up while streaming on some sites, also occurred on sites with auto playing video adds.  He tried to reinstall windows,  and then he asked me to fix it up.

He also complained the system was very hot and it did thermal shut down on him a couple times

I also set him up with kodi

I've narrowed it down to the GPU Saphire Radeon 6870

 I can reliably recreate  the freeze up, but I can't figure out why it is happening or what could be doing it.

 

The issue I have scene:

The computer will freeze up. The image on the screen remains, the system is still powered up, numlock does not respond mouse does  not move and so on.

Kodi 17.1 there is no picture or audio when the video loads but the counter is moving,

 

Relevant Specs:

AMD 965BE

Asus M5A88V-EVO

corsair vengeance DDR3 2x4gb

Saphire Radeon 6870

Corsair TX850 PSU

 

 

For trouble shooting purposes:

The system was full of dust, it was bad. I was surprised he didn't fry the cpu or gpu.

FIrst thing I did was blow out the dust

I put new thermal paste on the CPU

I reinstalled windows updates and most recent drivers for everything on the system, issue still occurring

I replaced the power supply issue still occurring

reinstalled windows again this with the bare minimum updates to get Kodi 17.1 working and a latest gpu drivers, issue still occurring

Tried older drivers still occurs

I put R7 370 in the system, ran Kodi 17.1 it worked perfect, ran some furmark, prime 95,  for over an hour system is perfectly stable

I put the 6870 back in run furmark and prime 95s all around test for 2 hours system is fine no issues.

Start up  Kodi 17.1 system freezes or there is no picture or audio when the video loads but the counter is moving, When you try to move forward you get a frame with video then the system locks up.

Kodi 16.1 works perfect no freezing, I let youtube play videos for a hour no freezing.

 

He has it back and will let me know if it continues to happen and what sites it is happening on.

 

What I would like to know is this.  Is there something in the gpu or on the pcb that relates specifically to video pay back that may have been damaged by over heating that may be related to how some video codecs or programs interact with the hardware decoding of the video???

 

That the only thing I can think of. Since it appears to work perfect with version 16.1 of kodi I'm wondering if its a new standard or something.

 

 

 

[Spudbilly]

You need to determine the max temp of the GPU and then use HWMonitor software to check that temp while stress testing. If it is overheating...then reapply non-conductive thermalpaste to the GPU and make sure thermalpads are good too. If that does not fix it and temps are good...then GPU could he bad. Goodluck. 

[kalnick]

1 hour ago, Spudbilly said:

You need to determine the max temp of the GPU and then use HWMonitor software to check that temp while stress testing. If it is overheating...then reapply non-conductive thermalpaste to the GPU and make sure thermalpads are good too. If that does not fix it and temps are good...then GPU could he bad. Goodluck. 

Maxed out at 76c that's an ok temp for this card. This is not the issue

 

Out of curiosity did you read just the post title and comment or did you read the whole post then comment?

 

 

[Spudbilly]

2 hours ago, kalnick said:

Maxed out at 76c that's an ok temp for this card. This is not the issue

 

Out of curiosity did you read just the post title and comment or did you read the whole post then comment?

 

 

Yeah buddy, I did read it all.

 

You stated... "I put the 6870 back in run furmark and prime 95s all around test for 2 hours system is fine no issues." 

 

You did not state what the temps were. Temps being the GPU temp as well as the GPU VRM temps. As well you said that there was a ton of dust. Gpu's in my experience need to be disassembled to really get the dust out even when there isn't that much dust.  

 

I wanted to rule out hardware malfunction with enough information to do so. You may have seen temps, but I did not. If hardware is working properly...then I can try to help with the software having issues interacting with the hardware etc...

 

I have had similar freezes, but they all had to do with overclocking instability. So I want more information. That is all mate.

 

but whatever. gl