Is this HD 5850 overheating?

Ok here goes. I just got a new HD 5850 off that recent 1saleaday deal for 119.99. I was going to set up crossfire today but this happened http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2480391#post2480391

I decided to test the new card and make sure all is well. Unfortunately all is not well.
I tried furmark for starters and it quickly locked up the system with a grey screen and other artifacting. I tried a game of street fighter 4 ae and similar artifacting took place. Tried MSI Kombustor and well you get the picture.

I decided to try running the fan at 100% and try playing the game and what do you know it works without issue. Tried Kombustor and it's working with the fan at full again.
My question is can I find a fix myself? Maybe removing the cooler, cleaning the stock gunk and putting on some of my MX2, any suggestions are welcomed. I am in the Caribbean and to RMA this back to the US is going to be a hassle and very costly. I'm also wondering if the vendor would even let me return it as I have taken it out of the US.

Thanks again for any suggestions.

I noticed that the issues would occur at around 60C but I afaik that temperature should be fine for this card. Unless there is some error with the temp sensors.

DragonBorn said:

Is your p.c. Case well vented with fan,s ?

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I don't think ventilation is an issue. I have two 140mm fans and a 120mm and as I am just testing this card the case is wide open.

It has gotten worse. Random system lock up at the desktop, rebooted once, vertical lines, grey screen, black screen, cries for murder at any 3d application. Needless to say I've taken it out and put back old faithful.
Now to see if I can RMA from the Caribbean.:shadedshu

Radical_Edward said:

I'd take the cooler off and clean it, I'd also replace the thermal paste and make sure the heatsink is making good contact with the GPU.

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Done that with the same behavior. Tried other bioses for the HD 5850 and nothing works
I put it in my X58 setup after letting it cool a while and had it running furmark for over a minute then the same crap started again.
It had gotten to 75C at this point. I still wish someone could pinpoint what may be wrong here, just for the knowledge, as I'm pretty sure this is no user fixable issue now.
My main concern now is if they'd let me RMA it from outside the US.

de.das.dude said:

im sorry, it seems to be your card. amd says their GPUs are good till 100C

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I'm wondering if a bake may help but I'll only be doing this if I cannot send it back.
I once had at 250 GTS which had similar issues when taxed by 3D applications that
was fixed by baking.
Grasping at straws here.

I think I may have fixed it! (knock wood).

Here's what I did

1. I first removed the cooler on the new card and applied MX2. This did not help.

2. When I removed the cooler I observed that the thermal tape/pad that should be in contact with the ram was undisturbed. It was as if the ram chips were not making contact.

3. I decided to take a look at my working card's cooler to compare. Sure enough the thermal pads for the ram looked thicker and clearly showed indentations caused by the ram chips. I then mounted the old cooler to the new card. There was no display!:shadedshu

4. Undaunted by this setback I thought to myself what the hell is the difference between these coolers. Is the thicker thermal pad causing this issue? Then I thought what if the fan on the old cooler is somehow not compatible with the new card... longshot.

5. This step was just to confirm if the old fan on the new card was a problem (but pretty silly). I disconnected the fan and plugged in the card with the old cooler. DISPLAY!... seconds later CORRUPTION!

6. Intermission. (Went Christmas shopping with the wife.)

7.Got back home and quickly switched to the new fan. I hope you're following this.... I have the old cooler with the thick thermal pad and new fan on the new card.

8. Result? I ran Furmark and Kombustor without any problems and also without running the fan at 100%. Right now the card is running the demo loop of street fighter 4 arcade edition and had been doing so for about 30-45 minutes.

Conclusion.... I think it's to early for a conclusion but in my search for fixes for the problems I had with this card I discovered that several users of the HD 5850 had similar problems when the card was initially released so I must wonder if it was due to inadequate cooling of the memory on the card.

Fingers crossed that this is a permanent fix and I hope this information is of help to someone in a similar situation.

P.S I setup the old HD 5850 with the new cooler, but before doing so I used some double sided tape (which I bought on the aforementioned shopping trip)to thicken the thermal pad and it works without issue. Using it as I type.

Happy Holidays.

I tried about 5 different bioses and none of them solved the problem.
It really seems this was just the ram overheating because of a poorly
designed thermal solution. It was so obvious that the pads weren't
in proper contact with the ram chips. It's still running the Street Fighter
demo as I type and that is getting to 2 hours now.

Fingers still crossed.

ReaperX87 said:

Your cards isnt overheating at all I have a XFX 5870 XXX and this card in BF3 for 4 hours doesnt go over 75c, and idles at 58. Its not a heat problem, roll back your drivers to an older version 11.10 or older and give it a shot.

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Did all that. All the temps seemed fine but something must have still been too hot when running 3D applications. The thicker pads seem to have done the trick. Will report if it goes kaput. But for now just wish me luck.