Radeon HD 3870 X2 problem

zerojjc · Jun 26, 2011, 04:39 PM

Hey everyone, im hoping someone here can help me. I saw that this site did a great review on this card, so i figured you all would know a good bit about it. I have had this graphics card (Radeon HD 3870 X2) for 2 years now and i am starting to think that something is wrong. The card works wonderful with mid to higher graphic games, but when i run low end games it seems to crash my pc. I first noticed this with the game SPORE. I could play the game for 5-15 minutes and then it would freeze-up/crash the whole pc. I thought it was the games problem but after updates and things i finally figured out that if i ran the game in windowed mode it wouldn't crash. I discovered this happens when playing The Sims 2, Champions Online, and Diablo 2. When i play these in windowed mode they seem to play just fine. Then i just recently purchased The Sims Medieval and the game crashes as well after 2-5 mins. I play it in windowed mode and it seems to run for close to 30 mins then crash. Now im thinking its my graphics card thats acting up. I don't know if there are any settings i can change under the ATI CCCenter or what? I have previously updated the video drivers, but when i looked for updated drivers yesterday on the AMD site it takes me here: ATI Radeon? Video Card Drivers
which I found out the hard way is not the drivers I need. So im not sure if there are newer drivers or not either. Im hoping that my card isnt messed up and that maybe there is some simple things i can do to get it working.

Here is my current set-up:
OS: Vista Home Prem 64bit
MBoard: Asus P5k Deluxe Wifi-AP P35
GPU: Asus Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
MEM: Adata 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
PSU: RAIDMAX Hybrid2 RX-730SS 730W
HD: Seagate 250G 7K 16M SATA2
(more detail under my profile)

If you have any questions ill gladly answer and i hope someone can help me

**kris23** · Jun 26, 2011, 05:51 PM

have you tried reformatting the drive?

zerojjc · Jun 27, 2011, 12:19 AM

No I haven't tried reformatting my hdd, i really dont want to erase everything on my pc. I was hoping i could get this fixed without doing something so drastic.

But as an update to my last post: I did finally find the driver update for my card, and when i installed it i ended up in the same place as before. After the install and system restart i get a black screen, no signal to monitor. I have to use windows disk to do a system restore to fix it. So now im more confused because i realize that there is definitely a problem somewhere.

**kris23** · Jun 27, 2011, 05:33 AM

it does seem to be that the drivers are being interfered with by something in the system, anything from remnants of old drivers, registry errors, to programs that have no business working with the GPU can cause trouble.

if you do not want to find a way to back up the system and reformat, i recommend trying to find a way to install the latest 11.6 drivers, then look up registry cleaners to see what may be helpful.

i personally like avoiding all this as much as possible so i partitioned my system into 3 sections, 1 being the OS partition, 2 being the storage partition, and 3 being the partition loaded with executables and disk images for programs and drivers.

Tyrsonswood · Jun 27, 2011, 01:43 PM

A few people have been having some problems with the 11.6 (not this problem specifically, but who knows?) You may want to try the 11.5 instead and do the REG cleaning and driver cleaning as well.

For the black screen after install have you tried switching video jacks?

zerojjc · Jul 26, 2011, 03:40 PM

Hey guys thank you both for your responses. And I didnt try switching the jacks the first few times but did try later on.
But, I finally figured it out and wanted to share incase someone else has a similar problem. I had to update my bios. I went to my bios website and read about the newest updates and saw that there was a fix for running dual graphics cards. After i updated my bios i have no problems with any game in any mode. I was also able to update my video drivers just fine.
So in other words, my Asus P5K Deluxe mother board wasn't fully supporting the dual card, and the bios update fixed it

Tyrsonswood · Jul 26, 2011, 05:29 PM

Glad you got it sorted, enjoy!

Jun 26, 2011, 04:39 PM	#1
zerojjc HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Radeon HD 3870 X2 problem Hey everyone, im hoping someone here can help me. I saw that this site did a great review on this card, so i figured you all would know a good bit about it. I have had this graphics card (Radeon HD 3870 X2) for 2 years now and i am starting to think that something is wrong. The card works wonderful with mid to higher graphic games, but when i run low end games it seems to crash my pc. I first noticed this with the game SPORE. I could play the game for 5-15 minutes and then it would freeze-up/crash the whole pc. I thought it was the games problem but after updates and things i finally figured out that if i ran the game in windowed mode it wouldn't crash. I discovered this happens when playing The Sims 2, Champions Online, and Diablo 2. When i play these in windowed mode they seem to play just fine. Then i just recently purchased The Sims Medieval and the game crashes as well after 2-5 mins. I play it in windowed mode and it seems to run for close to 30 mins then crash. Now im thinking its my graphics card thats acting up. I don't know if there are any settings i can change under the ATI CCCenter or what? I have previously updated the video drivers, but when i looked for updated drivers yesterday on the AMD site it takes me here: ATI Radeon? Video Card Drivers which I found out the hard way is not the drivers I need. So im not sure if there are newer drivers or not either. Im hoping that my card isnt messed up and that maybe there is some simple things i can do to get it working. Here is my current set-up: OS: Vista Home Prem 64bit MBoard: Asus P5k Deluxe Wifi-AP P35 GPU: Asus Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 MEM: Adata 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) PSU: RAIDMAX Hybrid2 RX-730SS 730W HD: Seagate 250G 7K 16M SATA2 (more detail under my profile) If you have any questions ill gladly answer and i hope someone can help me

Jun 26, 2011, 05:51 PM	#2
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,016 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	Re: Radeon HD 3870 X2 problem have you tried reformatting the drive? __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Jun 27, 2011, 12:19 AM	Thread Starter #3
zerojjc HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: Radeon HD 3870 X2 problem No I haven't tried reformatting my hdd, i really dont want to erase everything on my pc. I was hoping i could get this fixed without doing something so drastic. But as an update to my last post: I did finally find the driver update for my card, and when i installed it i ended up in the same place as before. After the install and system restart i get a black screen, no signal to monitor. I have to use windows disk to do a system restore to fix it. So now im more confused because i realize that there is definitely a problem somewhere.

Jun 27, 2011, 05:33 AM	#4
kris23 Going Insane..... Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 6,016 Rep Power: 131 System Specs	Re: Radeon HD 3870 X2 problem it does seem to be that the drivers are being interfered with by something in the system, anything from remnants of old drivers, registry errors, to programs that have no business working with the GPU can cause trouble. if you do not want to find a way to back up the system and reformat, i recommend trying to find a way to install the latest 11.6 drivers, then look up registry cleaners to see what may be helpful. i personally like avoiding all this as much as possible so i partitioned my system into 3 sections, 1 being the OS partition, 2 being the storage partition, and 3 being the partition loaded with executables and disk images for programs and drivers. __________________ Hardwareheaven Super-Moderator Building a new computer system and not sure where to start? Click Here! last updated (5/18/11) Rosewill FUTURE case replaces CM 690 II with its greater interior length. Building a PC: Step by Step Guide Written by Kristopher Pedemonte and Nathan Marks-Forder Edited by Allan Campbell Questions or Comments? feel free to post them in the forums!

Jul 26, 2011, 03:40 PM	Thread Starter #6
zerojjc HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: Radeon HD 3870 X2 problem Hey guys thank you both for your responses. And I didnt try switching the jacks the first few times but did try later on. But, I finally figured it out and wanted to share incase someone else has a similar problem. I had to update my bios. I went to my bios website and read about the newest updates and saw that there was a fix for running dual graphics cards. After i updated my bios i have no problems with any game in any mode. I was also able to update my video drivers just fine. So in other words, my Asus P5K Deluxe mother board wasn't fully supporting the dual card, and the bios update fixed it