4870 X2 Resurrection

[Outback Bronze]

Hi guys,

Just wondering if this old girl can be revived? As you can see its not completely dead. Its being run as a slave card as it wont display as primary atm. I've tried booting with DVI only but this includes DVI - HDMI, RGB - DVI adaptor and DVI -DVI. I've also played with the little dip switches close to the crossfire port with no success. I have not removed the heatsink/cooler as of yet.

I'm no stranger to bios flashing if need be (I will be rusty haven't done for ages) and I have never baked or heat gunned a card before if you think this may be necessary? Will need some advice on the latter.

Pics.

If I bake/heat gun the card I have heard its only short lived but that fine with me as it will just be a collectors card so to speak.

Its just to get a display and run a few benchmarks here and there and then store away.

Can upload pics of card later if anybody requests.

Any advice is much appreciated : )

Cheers.

 

[mtcn77]

The vrms are volterra digital and are very fragile. My 4890 broke unbeknownst to me while bolting a screw too tight.

 

[QuietBob]

Rather than using Win10, I'd try troubleshooting the card in Win7 (CSM installation) or XP, with the latest AMD driver. You'd want to rule out UEFI.

 

[Outback Bronze]

The vrms are volterra digital and are very fragile. My 4890 broke unbeknownst to me while bolting a screw too tight.

You thinks she's cactus? No point trying?

Rather than using Win10, I'd try troubleshooting the card in Win7 (CSM installation) or XP, with the latest AMD driver. You'd want to rule out UEFI.

Will do. Got and old Win 7 and XP os here. Ill try both when I get the time. Just to see if it boots up or to trouble shoot?

 

[mtcn77]

In my honest opinion, and honest to God, I think you shouldn't disassemble it, nor assemble it. It is fitted with thermal wax which is very finnicky to work with, like gummed up epoxy.

You thinks she's cactus? No point trying?

I have come across several accounts where the gpu kept on working at a lower speed after a vrm failure. Thus, I attributed the pertaining reason to vrms working in series. Like, when duty calls all 5 work, only 1 main vrm work when at idle. Though, I cannot give guarantees since R700 is so old it didn't have even have zerocore.
Anyway, if you are going to work on it, you need to have a bga workstation that is doing it all for you automatically. You also need the original parts, I got mine from my OEM by blackmailing him I was lucky it broke since it used so much electricity. He told me I wouldn't make use of it. I think you can come in contact with bga repairmen in TPU. A lot has changed in a decade.

 

[Outback Bronze]

I think you shouldn't disassemble it, nor assemble it.

Yeah fair call ill listen to that sound advice, the problem is if somebody has already disassembled it? How am I going to tell and I bet my ass its already been done as most enthusiasts buy cards like this.

 

[mtcn77]

the problem is if somebody has already disassembled it?

I would source the thermal compound they used in the assembly line, for reassembly, and cross my fingers rubbing alcohol cleans the leftovers from the stock application.

 

[Melvis]

I still got one of 2 original 4870 X2's from back in the day, I have never run it on W10, only on 7 and XP. If I can remember correctly the last ever driver they put out for W7 the clock speeds would mess up on one GPU and it wouldnt clock back down, it would run 1 GPU at max at idle and you would need to run a made up batch? file after you booted into the OS for the GPU clock speeds to be reset to there proper clock speeds. So just a heads up for that.

Also I remember stripping my second card (both HIS cards) and replacing ALL the thermal pads with new ones and the thermal paste, took along time and there is a shit ton of pads to replace but it saved the card for another 6-8months before it finally decided to die, my original card still works fine but the fan is noisey AF and needs a change.

When it comes to your issue im really not sure sorry

Not sure what mtcn77 is on about when it comes to compound and glue?

 

[Outback Bronze]

I still got one of 2

Is yours still firing on all cylinders?

Also, have you tried booting it up on a modern UEFI bios? Pretty sure it shouldn't really matter.

From what I've been reading, they were very problematic cards. Its just hard to find articles/posts now being 13 years ago.

 

[Melvis]

Is yours still firing on all cylinders?

Also, have you tried booting it up on a modern UEFI bios? Pretty sure it shouldn't really matter.

From what I've been reading, they were very problematic cards. Its just hard to find articles/posts now being 13 years ago.

The last time I used it it was firing on all cylinders but its been many yrs.

Ummm I think the last Mobo I booted it on would of been my AM3+ 990FX board and I dont think it has a modern UEFI Bios?

Well for me they ran rock solid for yrs even in quad crossfire, just loud and hot (80c) but never had any real issue till there end of life when AMD stopped supporting them with there drivers, I had less issues with those cards then I did with my 7930's and then 280X's, 280X's where a major pain! and made my go back to Nvidia.

 

[QuietBob]

Will do. Got and old Win 7 and XP os here. Ill try both when I get the time. Just to see if it boots up or to trouble shoot?

The X2 cards were quirky on their own. Testing an unknown card in an unsupported system is asking for more trouble. The current GPU-Z readings are of no use since there is no Win10 driver for this GPU. Try the card in a supported environment. If it boots and the driver installs correctly, we could diagnose it further. Good luck and please report back!

 

[Outback Bronze]

Shit your right. I didn't even notice there was no support for win 10 for this card. Just checked drivers then. Maybe I was on auto pilot and saw Win 8 there assuming it was win 10 lol. Getting old mate..

I've got a P5Q here that ill boot it up with later tonight. If I can get it to display/post ill find a HD and install XP and see if she can let me install drivers.

Cheers.

Ok guys Update..

So I had an old Boxed P5N72-T Premium outback so chucked in a Q6600 some DDR2 and an N210 just to boot up and she did.

Some pics of the card. I had to resize these images because my phone did a res of 4032 x 3024. Resized is 1400 X 1050.

Ok and I noticed this.

So I cleaned it up (isopropyl and some CLR) and put it in the original board I made this thread with just to see if the two GPU's were in device manger and they were so the cleaning process was successful.

Now, I chucked in the 4870 X2 in the P5N72 and she didn't boot : ( tried both DVI ports. This was using a HDMI - DVI cable. So I tried a RGB cable with a DVI dongle with no success.

I ended up trying both cables and both DVI ports on the card at least 5-6 times. This is where I took out the 4870 X2 and pretty much gave up. She wasn't Booting. I put the N210 back in to make sure the board was still able to boot

So I was using the RGB - DVI dongle with the N210 and it was not booting. I was like shit don't tell me the board just died. I went back to the HDMI - DVI and she booted. Phew.

Now this is where it get interesting. So I I went back to the RGB to DVI dongle cable on the N210 because I know it works and it did boot up but it made me think hey was I mainly using the RGB to DVI dongle with the 4870 X2??

So I put the 4870 X2 back in the P5N72 for one last shot at it with the HDMI - DVI cable and no boot off the first DVI port.

So one last shot at the second DVI port on the card and holy fuck me....

She Booted!!!!

It wasn't pretty but I got my first display! So it sat there in bios while I got my phone to take some pictures for this thread.

Now. You would think this card was cactus with that screen right?

So I Alt,Ctrl,Del to reboot and guess fucking what???

Screen is perfect. WTF???

So I rebooted a few times to make sure I was seeing right and I couldn't believe it.

So.. Now on with the XP install to See if this old girl still has a heart beat.

Setup.

Found some nice ram in the Box I had no idea was in there : )

Haven't seen this screen in a while..

So far so good.

Drivers. Looking good.

Running. Went easy on the old girl with 03

Complete.

Ok guys I'm officially stocked!

I honestly cant believe it finally booted and could run a Futuremark.

Was it the slight corrosion that I removed and it just needed time to warm up?

What was with the first bios screen of pixelated crap and then POOF is fine?

I honestly don't get it but hey, I'm not complaining : )

Cheers to all that helped and happy days : )

The X2 cards were quirky on their own. Testing an unknown card in an unsupported system is asking for more trouble. The current GPU-Z readings are of no use since there is no Win10 driver for this GPU. Try the card in a supported environment. If it boots and the driver installs correctly, we could diagnose it further. Good luck and please report back!

All I did was take of the bracket that hold on the GPU to clean underneath it. Didn't take the cooler off.

Please see above Guys. Plenty of info with pics.

Was supposed to make a new post but I must have accidentally clicked the edit button on my last post as I was full of excitement : )

The vrms are volterra digital and are very fragile. My 4890 broke unbeknownst to me while bolting a screw too tight.

Resurrected : )

 

[mtcn77]

Good to see. One more thing to mention is don't run power virus benchmarks, not to make those artefacts permanent.

 

[Outback Bronze]

Good to see. One more thing to mention is don't run power virus benchmarks, not to make those artefacts permanent.

So wtf happened with that hey? Once you get artefacts like that there is pretty much no going back. Its like it was just kicking itself in to gear.

 

[mtcn77]

So wtf happened with that hey? Once you get artefacts like that there is pretty much no going back. Its like it was just kicking itself in to gear.

Don't run anything without v-sync.

 

[Outback Bronze]

Don't run anything without v-sync.

I doubt Ill be doing much else with it mate. I revived it and that's all I really wanted to do. Its now alive. It not a paper weight any more : )

 

[Mr.Scott]

The pixelation is usually vram related.
Me personally, I would disassemble and clean the crap out of that card and reassemble with new tim and pads.

 

[mtcn77]

The pixelation is usually vram related.
Me personally, I would disassemble and clean the crap out of that card and reassemble with new tim and pads.

They don't have pads, technical name is thermal wax.

 

[Outback Bronze]

The pixelation is usually vram related.

Yep my thoughts exactly, although sometimes you see sharding if you know what I mean? You get it when you OC mem too much.

I would disassemble and clean the crap out of that card and reassemble with new tim and pads.

You think it wont hurt the card? I want to I really do it's just that I have been recommended not to.

 

[eidairaman1]

That SMD cap being the way it is I would have it replaced

 

[stinger608]

That SMD cap being the way it is I would have it replaced

That's what I thought as well. Looks to be a bad cap and leaking.

But, at least it's up and running, which is frigging awesome @Outback Bronze

 

[QuietBob]

I'm glad you got it to work - and thanks for the photos! I've got a couple more observations still.
First, for troubleshooting you shouldn't be using any video adapters/converters. Straight DVI-DVI or VGA-VGA cable is usually your best bet with older cards. That said, your HD4870 X2 does support VGA out, but you need a proper plug. Does your dongle look like one of these?

Second, what power supply are you using with the card? The X2 has quite steep power requirements, it'll draw up to 300w from the 12v rail alone. You'll want an adequately rated PSU from a reputable manufacturer.

Third, I don't like the idle temp much, 71c seems too high:

These cards did run hot, mind you. If it was mine, I'd take it apart and give it a thorough clean, re-apply the paste and change the pads. Otherwise, watch your load temps.

 

[eidairaman1]

I'm glad you got it to work - and thanks for the photos! I've got a couple more observations still.
First, for troubleshooting you shouldn't be using any video adapters/converters. Straight DVI-DVI or VGA-VGA cable is usually your best bet with older cards. That said, your HD4870 X2 does support VGA out, but you need a proper plug. Does your dongle look like one of these?

View attachment 222219
Second, what power supply are you using with the card? The X2 has quite steep power requirements, it'll draw up to 300w from the 12v rail alone. You'll want an adequately rated PSU from a reputable manufacturer.

Third, I don't like the idle temp much, 71c seems too high:
View attachment 222220
These cards did run hot, mind you. If it was mine, I'd take it apart and give it a thorough clean, re-apply the paste and change the pads. Otherwise, watch your load temps.

It's dual link DVI-I (All 4870X2are reference design)

Radeon HD 4870 X2: Four Cards Compared

Not only do we have four super-fast Radeon HD 4870 X2s to test, but also a list of 31 other graphics configurations including CrossFire and SLI setups. If you're in the market for AMD's fastest card available, you'll want to see this.

www.tomshardware.com

Iirc the GPUs came with DVI to VGA adapters

 

[Felix123BU]

awwwww, cute, still have a working 4870 512mb card, loved it back in the day

 

[droopyRO]

That was my dream build 10 years ago to play STALKER Call Of Pripyat. I had a GTX 8800GTX back then. Would love to get my hands on a 4870X2 someday.