Originally Posted by machior
After a lot of searching and annoyance I have finally found a solution to an issue that kept me from using my new graphics card. As the title already mentions the graphics card I'm talking about is the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870.
The issue I had with the card was the following:
 
When running any kind of 3D game (WoW, WAR and others) my system would completely lock up after an undetermined amount of time sometimes it would lock up 1 minute into the game, while other times I could play for around 5 hours without a problem. Either way, whenever the lock up occurred all that I could do to fix it was a hard reset.
When the lock up occurred sometimes the screen would go completely black and hang the entire system, other times I would get brown/grey vertical bars over my screen, and other times again it would pixelate the entire screen and then go black again. It was also possible that the game would sometimes keep on running in the background, but without being able to see anything it's pretty hard to play.
 
The first thing that came to my mind about this problem was that the card was overheating, even though I found it odd as the game could crash not even 5 minutes into the game. But to exclude it I checked my temperatures either way, with RivaTuner and GPU-Z, and found that my temps were indeed not overheating. The hottest temp I had going at any given time was 55 degrees Celsius on my VRAM, the rest (GPU Core etc.) was either at 50 or below. I have to note here that I had RivaTuner apply a Fan profile to keep it running at 40% all the time, hence the pretty cool temps.
 
After it turned out it wasn't overheating I started searching the Internet for people with the same problem and hopefully a fix. I found that I wasn't the only one, but I also discovered that fixes were not easy to come by. However in the end I found a solution and one that actually works, even better yet I found 2 solutions.
The actual problem, which some people started calling the PowerPlay problem, was that the ATI card would keep switching the GPU clock speed between 500 Mhz and 750 Mhz. This would cause the card to, at some point, stop responding as it couldn't cope with the switches. As these switches happened nearly every second when running a 3D game. The switching is normally required when running either a 2D application (500 Mhz, require less GPU) or a 3D application (750 Mhz, require more GPU).
 
 
Workaround Solution, should work with any ATI card
 
The first solution is the easier and safer solution to do. Also this should work on any of the other ATI cards and is not limited to the Sapphire cards only. The solution for this is to fixate the GPU clock speed at 750 Mhz via RivaTuner. To do this the following steps are necessary.
 
1. Download and install RivaTuner, http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163
2. After installation, start up RivaTuner.
3. Click on the expansion symbol, in the greyed out text box. This will bring up a list of icons.
4. Click on the first icon in the list shown, it's called Low-level system settings.
5. In the Overclocking tab, tick the "Enable low-level hardware overclocking" box to on.
6. It might be smart to reboot if you have been playing some games / running some apps, either way let RivaTuner detect the speed.
7. Set the core clock speed to 750 Mhz (the speed required for 3D apps)
8. In the section "Overclocking profile settings", type in a profile name (fex. WAR) and click on the disk icon to save the profile.
9. Press OK to be returned to the main RivaTuner screen.
10. Go to the Launcher tab and click on the green + symbol.
11. Choose to add a "Regular item" and press OK
12. Type in a name (fex. WAR), the other boxes should be enabled now.
13. Tick the box "Associated overclocking profile", and select the profile we made in step 8.
14. Tick the "Associated Application" and fill in the path and filename of the warpatch.exe (fex. "C:\Program Files\Warhammer Online - Age of Reckoning\warpatch.exe" )
15. Click OK to save the settings.
 
 
What we have done now, is create a shortcut inside RivaTuner that we can click on to start up WAR with the changed GPU clock speed. This means that whenever you'd like to run WAR, you should start it via RivaTuner's Launcher tab.
Alternatively, it's possible to have RivaTuner automatically apply the clock speed at the startup of Windows every time you boot. To do this, do everything up until step 7, and then tick the "Apply overclocking at Windows startup" box, and press Save. This will make the GPU clock speed at 750 Mhz all the time. While this is easier, since you don't have to run specific applications, or apply the profile each time, it lets the GPU run at an increased speed even if it's not required.
__________________
 
Permanent Solution, ONLY for Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB DDR5
 
!Important to note for this solution is that this works ONLY for the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB DDR5!
This is because this solution requires a BIOS update of the card, which is provided by Sapphire.
 
So, to make sure you have the correct card, it's easiest to consult the box where the card came in. On the box you will find a green sticker with some barcodes and some serial numbers. The BIOS update is only applicable if on your sticker the serial numbers are:
 
* PN 188-01E85-001SA
* SKU# 11133-00-20R
 
 
Also you can check these settings in the ATI CCC:
 
* Original BIOS on board with date: 24.07.2008
* BIOS version: 011.006.000.003.000000
 
 
If all of this checks out for your card the BIOS update can be done. To do the BIOS update we will need a few things:
 
1. The BIOS update from Sapphire, http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/support/drivers.php
2. An alternative download from RapidShare, http://rapidshare.com/files/14833927...rking.zip.html
3. ATI Win Flash, for easier BIOS updating in Windows, http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads...h_2.0.1.2.html
 
 
With both these we can perform the BIOS update. Note that it is also possible to flash the card via the regular ATI flash but I decided to go for the WinFlash solution. As it doesn't require the creation of a Boot Disk.
The steps to undertake to flash the BIOS.
 
1. First, make sure to end all applications which do something with the GFX card (such as RivaTuner or any game)
2. Install ATI WinFlash to a "simple location" (fex. C:\WinFlash)
3. Unzip the contents of the BIOS update into a folder
4. Copy/Paste the file named 1e8501sa.002 from the folder where you extracted the BIOS update, to the ATI WinFlash install folder
5. Click on the Start menu and select Run
6. Type in "cmd" (without the quotes) and press OK
7. Browse to the install path of ATI WinFlash (fex. C:\WinFlash)
8. Run the BIOS update by executing: atiwinflash.exe -f -p 0 1e8501sa.002
9. Wait until the flashing finishes, should it fail do NOT reset, yet try to flash again
10. If it worked, reboot your system.
 
 
A note about the WinFlash utility, if your card is not in the top slot, or if you want to update two cards you can do so by changing the command line. The third parameter in the list is the PCI-E slot (the 0), where 0 is the top slot, and where 1 is the PCI-E slot below it. So if you were flashing your card in the second slot the command line would look like: atiwinflash.exe -f -p 1 1e8501sa.002
 
Edit:
Flashing the 4870 in DOS, with a bootable USB stick
 
As Maeror had an issue with his card where he could not flash it in Windows anymore, I added this section as well. This details flashing your 4870 BIOS via a DOS boot. It requires you to have a USB stick which you can use to create it as a bootable "disk".
Also please note that this solution requires the ATIFlash utility! This is not the ATIWinFlash utility, which I mentioned in the other Flash solution. The ATIFlash is a DOS only program and needs to be run from there. It can be found in the BIOS update that is downloaded from the Sapphire website.
 
The instructions to do this are as follows:
 
1. Create your USB boot stick in windows with USB Boot drive (HPUSBFW), found at: http://www.elektroni.fi/Stilt/Asus_Rampage/HPUSBFW.zip
2. Download the boot files and extract them to a folder of your choice from: http://www.elektroni.fi/Stilt/Asus [...] B-Boot.zip
3. Run the HPUSBFW program. Select the correct USB device from the drop-down menu, set file system to FAT32 and check Create a DOS startup disk. Then browse for the extracted boot files (now in the folder of your choice) and press start to begin formating it.
4. Copy ATIFlash and the BIOS file to the USB stick under Windows
5. Restart the computer
6. Enter the Motherboard BIOS (by pressing the Delete key at startup) and set the first boot device to the USB stick that you created
7. Save that settings in the MoBo BIOS and exit
8. Your PC will then automatically boot to DOS
9. Flash with the command as described: "atiflash -f -p 0 1e8501sa.002" (without the quotes). And then wait till it prompts you that you need to restart the PC
10. When rebooting, go back to your MoBo BIOS and change first booting device back as it was before
 
 
After having flashed my BIOS I have been able to play all day yesterday without a single problem. Also the reports I've heard from other people who applied this fix are only positive. Either way I can finally (after having my ATI card for about a week or so) play the game without having to rely on my older card.

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