Gpu glitch problems. Is my card bad?

So, I've had my m17x r2 for about 4 months now, and I love it. Been running the graphics cards at 800/1100 since day one, with an arctic silver repaste. Just the other day, It was due for a fan cleaning so I repasted the entire thing with ic diamond. Tinkered with higher clock rates (never past 850/1150) but went to what I knew was safe. Played skyrim all day yesterday on one card, then played with some settings and switched back to xfire last night. No issues. Today, I fire it up and play for about 5 minutes and get some fuzzy lines and then the display cuts out. Backlight is still on, just a black screen. So I reboot- no screen at post. Then I think that maybe I didnt seat the mxm cards correctly/or needed to clean the contacts. Did that and fired it up while it was apart, got post. Turned it off, put it back together, no post. Took it apart again, searched google. I then noticed the the caps light was on, and the num and scroll were flashing. Followed a random response on google and reseated my ram. Post again, and again. Anyway, I'll be playing skyrim and my fans will kick up and fuzzy lines will come up lightly at first then really intense then stop completely. Sometimes when the fans are barely spinning. Doubt it's heat- my highest temp for gpu is 73 c. Just to be certain, I used the dell vbios flash utility and flashed the vbios back to complete stock. Same. Single card and xfire, same. When the issue happens, I can alt-tab out of the game and the problem is not present in windows, except for a tiny bit of fuzz on window borders. Problem is intermittent (about every 1.5-2 minutes) and only lasts about 10 seconds. Running ccc 11.10 cat 4. So, Any suggestions for me? I'm out of ideas. The only thing I can think of is a bad bga connection on the chip. When I was fixing xboxes, the same thing would happen- some fuzzy lines, then within 30 seconds the lines are so bad you can't see, then you get the red ring of death. Reflowing the gpu is something I can do though. Problem is, it is intermittent, and doesn't get worse each time either. So, I'm wondering if it's something else before I go and reflow my gpu. Right now, typing this, there is no issue at all. Just tried fallout new vegas and it didn't do it, but the temp didn't go up as high. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If I can't get it sorted out within two weeks (payday) then I'm going to pick up a 6970m.
Thanks everyone.

 

Hi!

First of all, what setup are you running?
ANyhow, out of the information you've provided, i'm betting my socks on the fact that youre running a crossfire 5870 system. They don't handle OCing well at all, especially not past 800/1100, some cards can reach that, other cards will allready malfunction on that state with the stock voltage.

I suggest you to flash your cards back to stock 700/1000 ,that will most likely fix your problem. (Or clock back through the OC-software you're using.)

You might need to do an re-flash and remove all drivers and install from scratch. If you're having problems with that, check the link that is provided in my signature.

For further help, please put your specs in your signature.. easier that way
- Scott.

 

I do need to update my profile specs, lol. I tried stock clocks before I posted. I read online that some drivers can cause that, and I just installed ccc 11.10 yesterday. I rolled it back to 11.9 today and ran the game for five minutes (the problem would start after a minute before) and it ran fine. I had to leave for work though. Perhaps a fluke. I won't know til I get home. I'll update tomorrow.

 

I think the cards are dead. I ran the secondary in the primary slot, flashed it as primary, ran fine, gamed fine. Shut it off to put it back together, 3 beeps. Now, no matter what config I use I get 3 beeps and flashing lights. Sad. Think I'm gonna buy a 6970m. Is the one from upgradeyourlaptop on Ebay one that works without issue, or is it going to need manual fan control? I'm seriously just thinking about selling my laptop as is, unless I can run that card without much trouble. Thanks for any input.