No automatic fan spinups on my very old ATI Radeon 4870 video card in Windows XP Pro SP3?

[Ant]

Hello.

I have a very old MSI R4870-T2D512 OC Radeon HD 4870 512 MB video card.
Recently, I have been having crashes with video signal losses even if I
am not gaming, but watching a streaming YouTube video in my Mozilla's
SeaMonkey v2.35 web browser in my very old Windows XP Pro SP3 machine.

I noticed my video card was very hot outside on its vent and inside the
case. I checked the very old Catalyst Control Center v8.60 (can't use
the newer versions since they hard lock up rarely and randomly [no video
signal losses], and noticed its ATI Overdrive's status showing its fan
speed is at 0% even though its "Enable Manual Fan Control" option is
unchecked for automatic fan speed control. If it the card is very hot,
then shouldn't its fan be spinning (not 0%) by itself? Currently, I am
testing it with forced 55% fan speed to see if I still get crashes and
video signal losses. I wonder if my video card is broken with its heat
sensor?

Thank you in advance. :)
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[Ed Light]

I have an MSI 4670. In catalyst 12.4 and 13.1 in Win 7, It always shows
0 fan speed. But looking at the fan itself, it's spinning. There is no
3rd wire for the tachometer on the fan.

I run it occasionally on 10.10 in XP. That contains 8.97. It runs ok so
you could find it and uninstall the old one from add and remove
programs, and reboot, then install it.

Also, I'd get the latest Flash as the previous was causing blue screens
from some videos in Win 7 .

In the Control Center under Over Drive you can see the card's
temperature. I don't think it should be allowed to go over 90C. Just
browsing, my 4670 is at 40C.

I'd open up the case and see if the fan is actually spinning, and clean
it out with an air can.


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[Ant]

Interesting. So, your video card's fan actually spin with automatic
settings. So far, no issues with the manual forced fan at 55% (CCC now
shows still at 58%, 67C degrees, and 0% activity as I type this
newsgroup post). Also, my room temperature is in the mid 80s degrees(F)
[about 29.4C degrees for 85F degrees].

On 9/7/2015 5:22 PM, Ed Light wrote:
> I have an MSI 4670. In catalyst 12.4 and 13.1 in Win 7, It always shows
> 0 fan speed. But looking at the fan itself, it's spinning. There is no
> 3rd wire for the tachometer on the fan.
>
> I run it occasionally on 10.10 in XP. That contains 8.97. It runs ok so
> you could find it and uninstall the old one from add and remove
> programs, and reboot, then install it.
>
> Also, I'd get the latest Flash as the previous was causing blue screens
> from some videos in Win 7 .
>
> In the Control Center under Over Drive you can see the card's
> temperature. I don't think it should be allowed to go over 90C. Just
> browsing, my 4670 is at 40C.
>
> I'd open up the case and see if the fan is actually spinning, and clean
> it out with an air can.
--

"An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox." --Mexican Proverb

[Ed Light]

On 9/9/2015 4:32 AM, Ant wrote:

> Interesting. So, your video card's fan actually spin with automatic
> settings. So far, no issues with the manual forced fan at 55% (CCC now
> shows still at 58%, 67C degrees, and 0% activity as I type this
> newsgroup post). Also, my room temperature is in the mid 80s degrees(F)
> [about 29.4C degrees for 85F degrees].
>

That seems ok, considering the room temperature. It might get really bad
if gaming!

You might check the temperature in your worst case scenario, such as HD
video* or Google Maps in Earth mode.

*where the hardware acceleration is working, as in right-clicking in
Flash Player and checking that it's on.

[Ant]

>> Interesting. So, your video card's fan actually spin with automatic
>> settings. So far, no issues with the manual forced fan at 55% (CCC now
>> shows still at 58%, 67C degrees, and 0% activity as I type this
>> newsgroup post). Also, my room temperature is in the mid 80s degrees(F)
>> [about 29.4C degrees for 85F degrees].
>
> That seems ok, considering the room temperature. It might get really bad
> if gaming!
>
> You might check the temperature in your worst case scenario, such as HD
> video* or Google Maps in Earth mode.
>
> *where the hardware acceleration is working, as in right-clicking in
> Flash Player and checking that it's on.

So far, no lock ups and weirdness with the force fan spin from causal
usage. I have not tried gaming. I rarely game though.
--
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[Ed Light]

On 9/15/2015 1:42 AM, Ant wrote:

> So far, no lock ups and weirdness with the force fan spin from causal
> usage. I have not tried gaming. I rarely game though.

I'm glad all is well.

[Ant]

Ed Light <nob...@nobody.there> wrote:
> On 9/15/2015 1:42 AM, Ant wrote:

> > So far, no lock ups and weirdness with the force fan spin from causal
> > usage. I have not tried gaming. I rarely game though.

> I'm glad all is well.

Yep, we'll see. I am surprised this video card still works well. ;)
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[Ant]

> > > So far, no lock ups and weirdness with the force fan spin from causal
> > > usage. I have not tried gaming. I rarely game though.

> > I'm glad all is well.

> Yep, we'll see. I am surprised this video card still works well. ;)

I tried the free weekend of Dead Island, I had the same crashes. Argh! I
even manually set the fan to 100%. Same results. :(

So, I decided to play another old game I used to play: Command & Conquer
3: Kane's Wrath. I had no problems after a couple hours. What the frak?
:/

[Ant]

Ant <ANT...@zimage.com> wrote:
> > > > So far, no lock ups and weirdness with the force fan spin from causal
> > > > usage. I have not tried gaming. I rarely game though.

> > > I'm glad all is well.

> > Yep, we'll see. I am surprised this video card still works well. ;)

> I tried the free weekend of Dead Island, I had the same crashes. Argh! I
> even manually set the fan to 100%. Same results. :(

> So, I decided to play another old game I used to play: Command & Conquer
> 3: Kane's Wrath. I had no problems after a couple hours. What the frak?
> :/

OK, I reproduced the same issue with old Crysis 1 by idling during my
late lunch. It looks like I need to clear my out dusty computers too. :/

[Ed Light]

On 9/19/2015 4:33 PM, Ant wrote:

>
> OK, I reproduced the same issue with old Crysis 1 by idling during my
> late lunch. It looks like I need to clear my out dusty computers too. :/
>

How hot does it get?

Yes, if you haven't cleaned the dust out of the card in a long time,
that's not so good.

Also, you could verify speed changes while it's open.

Maybe it has a fan and heatsink under a cover? You might have to take it
out and blow through there with compressed air, or better, take the
cover off and dig out all the junk.

And maybe put a fan in front of it blowing into it. Or get a zalman
bracket. It looks like this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000292DNG/?tag=reviewsofbo0a-20

Might be discontinued but they have one here, just the bracket, and you
use your own fan:

http://www.xoxide.com/zalfanbrac.html

[Ant]

> > OK, I reproduced the same issue with old Crysis 1 by idling during my
> > late lunch. It looks like I need to clear my out dusty computers too. :/

> How hot does it get?

Earlier today, my video card got up to 90C/194F degrees earlier with its
fan to the max (5K) in my ~85F degrees room. I made RivTuner graph the
temperatures. ;) Ouch, too hot. Amazingly, it didn't crash quickly like
yesterday. I was playing Steam's free weekend of Dead Island game before
it crashed. :P

> Yes, if you haven't cleaned the dust out of the card in a long time,
> that's not so good.

> Also, you could verify speed changes while it's open.

It doesn't change automatically. I have to force it.

> Maybe it has a fan and heatsink under a cover? You might have to take it
> out and blow through there with compressed air, or better, take the
> cover off and dig out all the junk.

I am still using the same fan and uhh plastic cover that came with this
MSI video card. I know the fan is loud and blow hard at 100% (5K RPMs)
for this fan when I force it through ATI's CCC software.

> And maybe put a fan in front of it blowing into it. Or get a zalman
> bracket. It looks like this:

> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000292DNG/?tag=reviewsofbo0a-20

> Might be discontinued but they have one here, just the bracket, and you
> use your own fan:

> http://www.xoxide.com/zalfanbrac.html

Yeah, I need to clean this computer and fix the cooling. :(

If the card is still crashing. I think I will just get a new PCIe video
card since this is so old. It might have damages too like seen with
those stickers.
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[Ed Light]

On 9/20/2015 2:57 PM, Ant wrote:


>> Also, you could verify speed changes while it's open.
>
> It doesn't change automatically. I have to force it.

I mean, you can do that and see if it's really changing.

> If the card is still crashing. I think I will just get a new PCIe video
> card since this is so old. It might have damages too like seen with
> those stickers.

That certainly solves it, if it's the card.

[Ant]

On 9/20/2015 6:49 PM, Ed Light wrote:
> On 9/20/2015 2:57 PM, Ant wrote:
>
>
>>> Also, you could verify speed changes while it's open.
>>
>> It doesn't change automatically. I have to force it.
>
> I mean, you can do that and see if it's really changing.

Oh, it is definitely changing since I can hear it loud when spinning at
higher speeds. At 5K, it is like an air blower in there. Hehe.

>> If the card is still crashing. I think I will just get a new PCIe video
>> card since this is so old. It might have damages too like seen with
>> those stickers.
>
> That certainly solves it, if it's the card.

Yep. Maybe I'll go back to NVIDIA. :P
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[Ed Light]

On 9/21/2015 12:35 PM, Ant wrote:

> Yep. Maybe I'll go back to NVIDIA. :P

If so, be sure to uninstall the ATI drivers from the control panel
programs app.

Let us know if the problems clear up!

[Ant]

On 9/21/2015 4:17 PM, Ed Light wrote:
> On 9/21/2015 12:35 PM, Ant wrote:
>
>> Yep. Maybe I'll go back to NVIDIA. :P
>
> If so, be sure to uninstall the ATI drivers from the control panel
> programs app.
>
> Let us know if the problems clear up!

Yep. I still haven't touched the stuff since I am not gaming. I have
other issues to work like real life, work, MacBook Pro's HDD(?), etc.
Argh! :(
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