Faulty GPU or Faulty MOBO

[The Black Reaper]

So in my last thread i deduced the problems with my computer to a GPU or a MOBO problem.. to make things easy for me i just ordered a new XFX radeon hd 6870. BUT i had a question.

If my computer works fine without the ATI display drivers, does that point towards a faulty GPU or a faulty MOBO? I got my drivers both from the sapphire and amd website and both crashed in similar ways when i had them installed.

EDIT: I know this was the more expensive route to try and fix my computer, but with this purchase i get lifetime warranty and a guarantee to find a fix to my problem. If the gpu doesn't work i got a faulty mobo that i can RMA through Asus and two 6870's that i can now run in crossfire..

one last question. Can a faulty PCI-E slot destroy a gpu?

[PoleCat]

Generally if you remove drivers and then your problem seems to go away then the drivers were at fault. In this case it sounds like you had either bad drivers or something was wrong with the GPU. As you've ordered a new one then problem solved - at least for the moment. But remember correlation does not equal causation so we'd really need more info to tell from this side of the screen.

And yes a faulty slot can kill a GPU. I've had it happen in the past but while it can happen I've generally found that it's uncommon if you catch it in time. Good luck!

[The Black Reaper]

it was hard for me to pinpoint it towards bad drivers since i downloaded the drivers from the sapphire website and the amd website... Same error occurred... Can the opposite happen where the gpu destroys the pci-e slot?

i tried multiple times to get a picture of it while the error happened.. all i can describe it are artifacts going across the entire length of the monitor and there are a few more at different points below the top one.. It was really bad.. I also had UI issues on windows 7 where there were green artifacts near the start menu button and when i clicked on it there were more artifacts on the actual menu

[The Black Reaper]

ok so everything was solved... ended up being my gpu. Bought a new 6870. since my warranty was voided on my card i decided to bake it in the oven to see if i could fix it.. lo and behold it worked. I didn't have any thermal compound so i took it out and am waiting for my arctic silver 5 compound.

I want to crossfire my two cards in the same system now BUT i want to know if the faulty yet working gpu can destroy the other one in crossfire. is it possible for this to happen?

also idk if this is significant but the vddc, vddc current, vreg temp 1, and vreg temp 2 sensors in gpu-z all disappeared from gpu-z while i had the card in the machine without thermal compound. Good or bad? (and yes i know i shouldnt have had it in there without any compound. I just wanted to see if it actually booted up)

[Crazyeyesreaper]

no it wont hurt the other gpu it will just eventually die again, thats all the new one will be unaffected.

baking the gpu just gives you some extra life out of it they seem to die out around 3-6 months if it lasts longer it was just a minor solder crack and your aok if it does die in 3-6 months the cards just faulty seen it happen a few times.

and thumbs up for baking the GPU, always nice to res a dead card from the grave lol