# ATI Radeon 6970 2GB - 100% fan speed, no screen.



## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Alright, so I recently bought the newly released ATI Radeon 6970, hoping to get a good upgrade from a NVIDIA Geforce 8800GTS (320mb).

So, I went through the standard procedures of removing my drivers, taking computer a part and swapping the GPUs over, but when I put it in the 6970 fan was going at 100% and screen would not come on.
The single short beep from POST to indicate everything was A-Okay went and all lights are on. This is about a week ago. At the time, I called my mate over who is much more familiar with PC hardware than I am.

He did some tinkering, checking all cords were in properly and he did his meddling. In the end, it just starting working after we had repeatably turned computer off and on during his tests. I thought everything was magically solved, so I went online, got the 6970 drivers, installed them, no problem. Played Crysis and some other games on high settings, no problem.

I put the PC into sleep mode and go to sleep myself. When I wake up in the morning to wake up my computer from sleep mode, fan starts running again at 100% and screen won't come on.

So, I turn off the PC and turn it back on to no avail. I am quite confused at this point.

Now, before every starts saying tldr, lets get down to what I've done to try and fix the problem.

I've reset the BIOS, but that didn't work. I've thrown a different PSU in (I have a 1200W) and it DID work but at one point after testing the results were consistant, it went back to 100%. Turned off/on again a few times and started working.

I've also moved the RAM chips around and such.

Everything works fine with the 8800GTS, no problem. I've thrown at Geforce 570 in my comp (my mates), and it works. I've thrown my computer into my other mate's computer who has the same MB as me and it works.

Anyway, it is too long to list everything I've done or you'd be here forever, so just ask and I'll answer.

Here are the rest of my specs:

MB: ASUS M3N-H/HDMI
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+ (2 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
GPU: Geforce 8800GTS 320mb / ATI Radeon 6970 2GB
PSU: CTF opening case at the moment, but it is 1200W.
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

Couldn't seem to edit my post so my PSU is:

Topower Power Train 1200W (http://hi-techreviews.com/index.php...topower-powertrain-1200w-psu-review?showall=1)

Help?


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## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

I believe the problem is the nvidia chipset not playing nice with the ATI drivers/card.

After you delete the nvidia drivers make sure you use driver sweeper to make sure they are gone.

Disable onboard in bios, put pci to first display.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Thanks. I'll give that a try. Should I also remove the NVIDIA chipset?


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## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

You cant physically remove the chipset, Try and remove any drivers you find by nvidia. Driver sweeper should find all of them for you


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

All done, and it didn't work. :4-dontkno I accidentally removed the chip-set, so I had to re-install that. 

By the way, what did you mean by "put PCI to first display"? I only have one screen, I've tried both DVI ports, and forgive me if I am misunderstanding, all my video cards slot into my ONLY PCIe slot.

There are only two options left, I believe. Flash the GPU BIOS, though I have yet to find an updated version of the BIOS, but perhaps I should do the MB BIOS as well?

Or, wipe the hard drive and re-install windows.

So, what now?

P.S. I have an NVIDIA chipset, though I assume you know - does that matter; having a ATI card with an NVIDIA chipset?


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## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

It sometimes causes issues, usually if i am dealing with an nvidia chipped board I would just use a nvidia card same with ati.

Remove the nvidia chipset and try it that way. In bios there should be an option to set pci as first display or disable onboard all together


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

I did remove the NVIDIA chip-set, I had no internet connection because of it. Even then, the 6970 didn't wish to cooperate. As for disabling onboard, I checked device manager, and it wasn't on the display adapters list. I went to BIOS and there wasn't a diable option for it, only "Auto" and "Always on".

Even if that was the case, in regard to NVIDIA chip-set/GPU or ATI chip-set/GPI, my friend had the same MB as me and it worked fine on his. :/ And my other mate who has a Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe had no problems with my 6970.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

I set my "Primary Display Adapter" to PVI from PVIe. No luck.


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## shotgn (Aug 10, 2008)

Some boards are more picky than others. You can try a reinstall of windows but im afraid that wont solve the problems.

I will ask someone else to come in and give their thoughts


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Very well, thank you. It seems Wrench97 is lurking, so I'm assuming he's my man.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

If you have no display before windows loads, the Asus splash screen or the bios setup pages for example it's not a windows or driver issue, I never had a lot of luck using ATI cards on Nvidia chipped boards but it's always been a driver/BSOD issue rather then no video output, the fact that your board has Hybrid SLI Support with the integrated video and no bios option to disable it(Auto or Always on) I think your going to have issues.

In the Bios set the Primary Display Adapter to PCIe not PCI.

Do you have the 6 pin and the 8 pin PCIe power cables connected to it?

The next step would be to test the card in a non nvidia board if works there I would tend to think it's compatibility problem with your board.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

I read the explanation of "Auto". It is basically disable. A rough quote of what it said is, "If there is physical card connected it will use that, if there isn't, it'll use the onboard".

My 6970 has a 6+2 pin and a 6 pin connector to it. As for testing it on a non-nvidia board, I'm not sure I could get my hands on one.

Also, I'll make sure to switch the setting back to PCIe.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

What bios version are you running?

Version 1201 is fix for reverting to onboard even if a PCIe card is installed, as long as you have 1201 or higher your good the rest are all to update CPU microcode for newer cpu's.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

If you're refering to my MB BIOS version, in system information it says: "Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS M3N-H-HDMI ACPI BIOS Revision 0601, 26/04/2008.

I'm going to assume that mean I have quite an old bios version.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

6+2 is an 8 pin connector PSU manufacturers do that so the model will fit more applications.

Auto is not disable, it sets the PCIe to primary if installed, but the integrated is still enabled also thus hybrid sli.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Ah, okay. Thank you for the lesson.  So, there is no way to properly disable onboard, if it actually isn't disabled at this point in time? Also, I was under the impression my MB wasn't cabable of SLI as it only had one PCIe slot.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Yes 1201 is from Aug of 2009, update it to the latest which is 2603 from July of 2010.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Okay. And then test the card?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

givemelime said:


> Ah, okay. Thank you for the lesson.  So, there is no way to properly disable onboard, if it actually isn't disabled at this point in time? Also, I was under the impression my MB wasn't cabable of SLI as it only had one PCIe slot.


That's correct, some boards have the option to Enable, Disable or Auto.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

givemelime said:


> Okay. And then test the card?



Yes update using the old card then reinstall the new card.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Okay. Um, so how DO I update the BIOS?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Use the EZ flash method do not flash from inside of Windows.

If you don't have the manual get it here> http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?modelname=M3N-H HDMI&SLanguage=en-us Page 4-2.

Down load the bios file and put it on a USB thumb drive, reboot pressing ALT+ F2 as soon as you turn the PC on, on the ex flash utility screen select the drive letter of the usb device, then the file, press enter to update.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Okay. I just have to locate a USB that uses FAT32, because my eternal hard drive uses NTFS.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

USB stick only a external HD won't work correctly, follow the directions exactly.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Okay, so I got the USB stick. It uses FAT. That's FAT32, right? Or does it have to say FAT32. I put the update .bin file on the USB stick, went into EZ Flash and everything. I have the standard blue screen with listings of drives to the left, the 'controls' on the bottom. I can't use my keyboard for some reason.

I'm assuming the either it is looking in the listed drives for the update file, or because the USB stick is not Fat 32/16, as the manual specifies is needed.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Fat is either 32 or 16. 

USB or PS2 keyboard, you may need a PS/2(round plug) keyboard.

In the bios under USB configuration set Legacy USB support to enabled and see if the KB works.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Well, I already formatted the USB to FAT32, so that shouldn't be a problem. The Legacy setting was already enabled but no luck. I still can't use my keyboard. Can't even Esc out of the program.

And I don't have a PS/2 port.

I may have to boot from CD. :/


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

You'll still need the keyboard, see if you can borrow a PS/2 keyboard or a USB to PS/2 adapter.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

I plugged in a PS/2 keyboard, but it didn't work. My friend said I'll have to boot from a CD, as the USB isn't playing nice.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Burn bios .rom to a cd and try the same method using the cd .


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

That's something that's been bugging me. I keep seeing that the BIOS file is meant to have a .ROM extension, yet the file I downloaded, and I know it is the correct one, has a .BIN extension.

:/ I DO have the correct file, don't I?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Yes .bin is also used, try using the Award flash utility(Asus D/L page under Bios utilities) on a CD you'll have to burn it as bootable CD.

It still bothers me that the KB doesn't work in the exflash utility, does it work in the bios?


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Sorry for late reply (sleeping). Yes, I figured I'd have to burn it to a CD. My mate told me how to do it and yes, my KB works in BIOS. Alt+F2 didn't work, so I always had to go through BIOS to get to EZ Flash.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

I updated the BIOS finally. What now?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

I take it the card still does not display anything?

The bios update was a fix for not reverting from the integrated to a card so if you still have no display return the card.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

Aye, my video card still goes at 100% fan speed and no screen display when put into my computer. It works fine in other PCs, even my mates who has the same MB as me, as I said.

So, still return it?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Nvidia cards do work in your board correct?

If so I would swap it for a Nvidia card.


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## givemelime (Jan 6, 2011)

It was my plan to replace my 6970 for a NVIDIA 570, which we tested in my computer and it worked.

Of course, they'll charge me $25 to do tests to see if my card is faulty at all. Considering it has worked in different PCs, they'll probably decide my computer it at fault, not the GPU and deny me, but I got nothing to lose. Worse case scenario, I lose $25, plus post-and-handling and try and sell it on ebay or something.

Though, now that you can hack the 6950, why buy the 6970?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

If you hack the 6950 it'll void the warranty, Nvidia in the past has done the same thing with different cards either by overclocking and giving it a different model number or altering the bios on the card.


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