Radeon HD 6850 "falls asleep" unexpectedly

[roykingtree 125]

I am having trouble with my graphics card, occasionally I will leave the room for a couple of hours and return my pc with the following characteristics and the steps I take to resolve them:

1. no signal from graphics card to monitor, unable to regain signal by replugging monitor in again or moving mouse

2. internal fans still running, LED's still illuminated

3. unable to shutdown or restart pc by holding power button

4. forced to turn off power supply

5. re-enable power supply and turn on computer

6. sits idle at a promotional picture of MSI

(*note, when working normally the MSI picture is displayed for around 10 seconds then proceeds to enter OS boot process)

7. because computer is idle, I am forced to restart (allows me to restart using button on front of tower, instead of a hard reset of power supply like in step 4)

8. after step 7, computer works fine

This is a problem because I often render large videos and I can't let my computer be unresponsive during a render.

HERE IS MY SYSINFO:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate

Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601

System Manufacturer MSI

System Model MS-7640

System Type x64-based PC

Processor AMD Phenom II X4 965 Processor, 3400 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)

BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. V18.5, 9/28/2011

SMBIOS Version 2.5

Windows Directory C:\Windows

System Directory C:\Windows\system32

Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1

Locale United States

Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"

User Name ROY-PC\ROY

Time Zone Central Daylight Time

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB

Total Physical Memory 8.00 GB

Available Physical Memory 1.07 GB

Total Virtual Memory 16.0 GB

Available Virtual Memory 7.33 GB

Page File Space 8.00 GB

Page File C:\pagefile.sys

*I am just copy/pasting this from my old unresponsive toms hardware thread, but I have installed all recent drivers for the above*

[[Gen]Adzic 241]

A few reasons could be that your PC/GPU is overheating and is causing it to crash or become unresponsive but what i think the problem is from the symptoms you provided is that your PC is going into hibernation after a certain amount of time.

Next time it it seems to be frozen or blackscreen... try to press Enter button, wiggle the mouse and wait a few minutes to see if windows comes back on. it may be that you just need to turn off hibernation.

Go to...

Control Panel > Power Options > Click on the 'Change when computer sleeps' (on side tab) > change settings to 'never' on the dropdown boxes.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Brave.arse

[roykingtree 125]

A few reasons could be that your PC/GPU is overheating and is causing it to crash or become unresponsive but what i think the problem is from the symptoms you provided is that your PC is going into hibernation after a certain amount of time.

Next time it it seems to be frozen or blackscreen... try to press Enter button, wiggle the mouse and wait a few minutes to see if windows comes back on. it may be that you just need to turn off hibernation.

Go to...

Control Panel > Power Options > Click on the 'Change when computer sleeps' (on side tab) > change settings to 'never' on the dropdown boxes.

Thanks for response, unfortunately I have already done that

[taco241 393]

This could be a stupid question but are you sure it'snot your monitor going to sleep?

I've had this issue where my monitor would not come back It still had power but would go to sleep and not turn back on.

I opened it up, and sure enough, a capacitor was done. I resoldered a new one and monitor now wakes up normally.

Not sure, but could be worth a look.

[roykingtree 125]

This could be a stupid question but are you sure it'snot your monitor going to sleep?

I've had this issue where my monitor would not come back It still had power but would go to sleep and not turn back on.

I opened it up, and sure enough, a capacitor was done. I resoldered a new one and monitor now wakes up normally.

Not sure, but could be worth a look.

Thats a good idea, I will take a look. I had that problem with a Samsung TV.