Defective Graphics Card?

Alright so I just got my 5870m in today shipped right from dell. Prior to installing it I uninstalled my drivers for the 260m. Ran driver sweeper in safe mode. Put my wrist strap on, power drained the M15x and got to work. I popped the 5870m in put some thermal paste on it, reinstalled everything and turned it on. To my surprise the alienware boot logo is a funky looking color. Then when I get to the desktop all the colors are practically inverted. I decide to continue with the installation of the drivers and then reboot. Same issue inverted looking colors and distorted picture. I take it apart again and do a CMOS reset. Same thing is still happening. Put my 260m back and it works fine, no distortion. So my question is, what else can I do to maybe get the card working. I've been waiting for this card for almost 3 weeks because Dell tech support doesn't understand anything. I figured it is in fact the card and I inevitably have to call dell to get another one. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

EDIT: To add some more thorough information, the colors look inverted but are not inverted via windows. Also there is tiny pixelation randomly on the screen, it switches from spot to spot. This does not happen when I have the 260m in.

 

Which BIOS do you have? Which drivers did you use?

It may really be bad luck and you got a dead card... this happens from time to time. I hope they sent you a new one and not a refurbished...

 

Bios is a09 and the drivers i used the ati catalyist utility and it download the drivers for me.

 

Hmm... in this case I guess you really get a defective GPU... especially as everything seems to be fine with the 260m.

 

Yeah... Go figure. Time to spend an hour talking to dell reps...

 

try reseating the card.

 

I actually tried reseting the card a couple times and still no go. The funny thing is when I check GPUz it doesn't show any info about the card. And when I open CPUz it says theres a 5800series card in there but the only thing displayed is memory which is only 1024bytes. Very weird :'(

 

ouch. I had a similar situation when I first bought my card. They probably will send a refurbished one as well. I got a refurbished one but it worked perfect when the brand new one was doa. I have no complaints with refurbs as long as they work well. Just make sure to test it out when you get it.

 

I just got my 5850 from Dell. The rep I spoke to said the card would be new but that it would have a refurbished sticker on it. That they all did coming from spare parts.

Anyway, my card worked well. I am guessing that even if it says refurbished it may be new? Or maybe the dell rep I spoke too was full of it? I didn't notice a refurbished sticker on my card....and I paid 280.00 US for it.

 

So I called Dell and the new card should hopefully be here soon. They didn't really say anything about how to return the defective card... They just gave me an order number and pretty much said it'll get in 8 days max...

 

Usually you get a shipping label with the new part. Last time I didn't get one and they called a few days later asking for their part. I told them they didn't send me a lablel and they got one out to me by email. It was some sort of dell recovery team or something.

 

Oh ok lol, thanks for clarifying. Not that I could use that card anyway lol.

 

Wow really?

That's a good price, i paid a lot more for mine. Anyway, i think that rep was full of it. The one i spoke to originally about the refurb crap said "Oh it says refurbished but they are like new!".

They're idiots. I would have fought it more if i wasn't so content with my current card.

 

So my replacement for the defective 5870m just got in and what do you know, it's doing the same exact thing. I followed all the previous procedures to the T and still showing up with discolorations and distorted picture. Is it possible I am doing something terribly wrong or is this just another defective graphics card... Words can not express how fed up I am with Dell right now, so any words of advice and help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Maybe your mobo isn't liking it? At any rate, call them again. Maybe even ask them to get a "tech" to install it, just to make sure you're not missing something.

 

I think at this point I'm just gonna return it and leave it as it is. I'll just save up and buy a M18x if and when that comes out.

 

Is it automatically installing drivers for the card after you boot up? I know that when I first put in my new 5850 the screen was all screwed up. It installed some drivers (about a 5 minute process). I rebooted and then everything was fine.

 

I don't believe it is. And this distortion and coloration happens outside of windows as well like in the bios so I'm pretty sure its not a driver issue :-(.

 

You need to somehow get a hold of the old A00 VBIOS for the 5870M. The newer VBIOS will cause this issue on the M15x. The 5870M VBIOS A02 is only meant to work on the M17x R2.

All the 5870M's from Dell most likely come with the new A02 VBIOS. I do not know if you can flash back to the old BIOS or not. I think someone had the A00 VBIOS posted here somewhere.

I think that is the problem.

 

Thanks for the response but it's a bit late lol already returned both of mine.

 

Yea I noticed it was a week old....but I figured I would still reply. LOL. If only I read it sooner.

But I am sure that was definitely the fix for it. I remember many other users having the same problem.

The only thing I was not sure of was being able to flash backwards. And of course, finding someone who had the A00 VBIOS.