MSI R5970-P2D2G Woes: Lockups in 3D Applications + Fan Controt doesn't work.

Question

Hello,
Yesterday (5/10/10) I received my MSI R5970-P2D2G in the mail. I've been in the market for a HD5970 for quite a while, but living in Latin America it's been next to impossible to get one. I finally managed to get a brand new R5970 through the Amazon marketplace. Anyhow, since the card arrived yesterday I've been trying to get this thing to run properly.
The card locks up mere seconds into any 3D application, roughly when the GPUs reach around 75C. A Furmark multi-GPU stability test will make the card hard lock my system in mere seconds, whereas 3D Mark Vantage actually manages to get through most of GPU Test #1 before hard locking. It usually hard locks somewhere in between the end of GPU Test #1 and the beginning of GPU Test #2. I've only been able to complete the 1-minute Furmark benchmark once. Let's not even get started with trying to play any games. My system just hard locks minutes in.
The other problem I have is fan control. Manual fan control through CCC doesn't work. If I tick the "Manual Fan Control" checkbox and try to move the slider and hit "Apply", the fan immediately jumps to 100% speed regardless of where the slider is. Unchecking "Manual Fan Control" leaves the fan running at 100% for a few minutes before it starts slowing down. MSI's own Afterburner utility doesn't even let me move the fan slider (odd, because it lets me do it on my Diamond HD5870).
My PSU is overqualified to run this card. I've run it through OCCT's 1 hour test with no problems. Same deal with my CPU/RAM overclocks: they've endured hours of Prime95 as well as OCCT with no issues at all. My mobo's BIOS is updated to the last version. I don't think it's a hardware problem.
I've tried:
-Using my old 5870 to uninstall ALL ATI software and drivers, then running CCleaner and Driver Sweeper to get rid of all ATI driver remnants. Shutting off the PC, switching to my R5970, and installing brand new drivers.
-Using a spare drive with a fresh installation of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bits to try and get the card to run.
-Underclocking the card to see if it ran stable.
-Returning my CPU/RAM to stock values.
-Checking all connectors, trying different PSU connectors, and physically examining the card for any signs of damage.
I made a similar thread over at Anandtech asking for help: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=29817320#post29817320
You can go check it out if you want to find out all the stuff I've tried.  About the only thing I haven't tried is flashing the video card BIOS, but there's nothing to flash it too! AFAIK there is only one version of MSI's BIOS for the R5970.
Basically, I'm sort of stuck with a $700 paper weight right now. The few seconds (or minutes) the card manages to run, FPS is sky high and it works like it's supposed to. It always causes a hard lock when GPU temps are nearing 75C though, although I've tried "manually" changing the fan speed to 100% and it still crashes after what seems like a set amount of time. This is all at stock values, mind you. I haven't tried OCing at all. I'm just baffled at the whole thing, as the card is clearly capable of running like it should, it just seems like it can't handle running like it should for more than a few seconds or minutes in some cases. To me, it really seems like the card is borked. Oh yes, the VDDCI Phase #1 sensor doesn't work, reporting a flat 0 on GPU-Z.
Any ideas before I contact the person that helped me buy this card to arrange for a return?

Answer 1

My MSI HD5970 is working like it should, tested it all day.
I used MSI Afterburner and MSI Kombustor to watch the temps on full load, the fan is working and no problems.
(at 65C, 70C, 75C, 80C the fan goes faster, 81C was my max temp on full load)
Maybe i am lucky