ATI Crashes - Compatibility or just the norm?

[trentlad]

So I've been using my Visiontek 4870 512MB card for over three years and crashes have been an everyday occurrence. In XP it almost never occurred but as soon as I moved to Vista and then Windows 7 64-bit I've had daily crashes at least once every five times I play a game.

The game simply freezes and after a few seconds the desktop appears with a message "Your display driver had stopped and has been successfully restored". Then it's back to normal.

Two very close friends owned Nvidia cards since their first rig and recently moved to an ATI card. The first friend said he was incredibly happy with his new 4870 card and the performance boost was incredible. It was only after I told him how my card was crashing everyday that he said he also was experiencing the exact same crashes on a regular basis.

The other friend just had a new Core i7 rig built by his local computer store and the very first thing he mentioned was the amount his 5850 ATI card is crashing in the exact same manner.

I've gone through about 30 driver updates and these crashes have always been present (except in XP).

What's the deal? Any suggestions about getting this working? Is this common for all ATI users? Is it down to 64-bit drivers? Could this be compatibility issues (I have nothing overclocked and RAM was stated as compatible with my mobo)?

[dengyong]

This may help.

[trentlad]

HMM!!

I just opened that tab and the option was already unchecked, but I checked it and hit Apply then unchecked and hit Apply. Fingers crossed it makes a difference. Thank you!

I can't help but think it's something a bit deeper (especially since it was already unchecked). Feel free to carry on with suggestions please.

[sjohnson]

Got an Asus 4870/1Gb card under Win 7 here, OC'd to 750GPU/950mem and never a crash. All the HL, all the Stalkers, FEAR, Far Cry, Metro 2033. Sorry, since no crashes, no help. Catalyst 10.8, but have progressed from 10.4 on up.

[Blkout]

Something in your system is unstable, and its not the video card drivers. Is everything in your PC at stock settings and proper voltages and frequencies?

[trentlad]

That's right all the hardware is running at stock nothing is overclocked.

As far as stability goes, what could be unstable?



Heat/Airflow - I'd say I have pretty good cable management in there
OCs - all running at stock
OS - Clean install of W7 64-bit about 5 times already, but XP 32-bit worked fine
Drivers - I've updated the drivers and had crashes on every single one of them
HDD errors - I used a single HDD system for two years and recently moved to a RAID array. Had same issues on both

[Blkout]

If everything is at stock settings, I would make sure the voltages are set correctly. Also, you might want to make sure you're using a quality power supply with enough wattage for your system.

[i5L4ND]

Well if my computer crashed everyday I'd think it was in effect broken.
You ask is it common with ATi cards, I'd hazzard a guess that 99% of people on this forum, have fully functional machines, so no I'd say what your describing isnt that common.
What is causing it on your machine, could be quite a large number of things and thers no point in me just guessing.
If I or one of my friends has what we think is a hardware problem we use a combination of switching components, testing spares or taking stuff back to the shop where we bought it from.
Software problems like drivers, would just be a basic trying different ones.
Sorry not much help really, maybe someone who has had the driver has crashed thing can help, it might be classic sign of something, Ive never had it.
Also what are the big round things under the motherboard mounting screws in the picture? just wondering.

[trentlad]

This is the bugger that I see again... and again... AND AGAIN... AND AGGAAAAIINN. (except its for ATI and I don't get a file name as displayed below )




So far several online sources have stated this particular issue is caused by:
1) A particular Vista update which can be corrected with yet another update
-> I'm using W7 so the update does not apply
2) Installing the driver alone (without CCC)
-> I've tried that and still get the same error
3) A HDD issue
-> I switched to brand new HDDs several weeks ago with no resolution
4) Uninstalling old drivers
-> nope
5) Overclocking PC components
-> Everything is running at stock

Any other ideas... come on where are the skilled tech folk.

[dengyong]

This is the bugger that I see again... and again... AND AGAIN... AND AGGAAAAIINN. (except its for ATI and I don't get a file name as displayed below )




So far several online sources have stated this particular issue is caused by:
1) A particular Vista update which can be corrected with yet another update
-> I'm using W7 so the update does not apply
2) Installing the driver alone (without CCC)
-> I've tried that and still get the same error
3) A HDD issue
-> I switched to brand new HDDs several weeks ago with no resolution
4) Uninstalling old drivers
-> nope
5) Overclocking PC components
-> Everything is running at stock

Any other ideas... come on where are the skilled tech folk.

You can try the driver at this link http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=143
I'm running it now and it works well... best I've seen so far. just follow the included instructions

[demowhc]

video card is overheating imo

[trentlad]

I would consider taking apart the stock fan and repasting. There was a moment when I would have bought a new fan but they cost about the same as a second hand 4870 1Gig!!!!

[SimonD]

Why not try running it from the top most PCIE slot? that way you do have more cooling going to it.

[trentlad]

I was concerned with the heat from the GPU (80 idle remember) bleeding over to the CPU and RAM. However, that's an option I haven't tried so I'll definitely test it out and see if it makes a difference.

[trentlad]

Also what are the big round things under the motherboard mounting screws in the picture? just wondering.

It's just a washer ring the mobo manual asked me to put on the face side of the board. I think the rear side is exposed to use the case contact as ground.

[trentlad]

My biggest concern is that this NEVER (ok maybe about 3 times EVER) occured on XP. It's only been an issue since upgrading to Vista and the issue remained when moving to Windows 7

I'm almost 99% certain it's to do with the OS. I know Windows 7 and Vista share the same drivers so I'm guessing they are both using the same underlying platform. Hence it's understandable that my GPU issue on Vista would still remain in W7.

I've also been researching and found a lot of people claimed they solved this issue with a Vista fix. Obviously you can't apply a Vista fix to W7 so I'm trying to find the equivalent.

[i5L4ND]

Keep looking into the software fixes and stuff, but can you try this for me.
Go into CCC and underclock your card a good amount, then do what you normally do when it crashes, then tell us if it still does it or does it less.
That might give us some slight indication if its the card, its a long shot and doesn't really prove anything, but hey its worth checking everything you can out.

[dangaroos]

I had a similar problem 9-10 months ago with ATI cards and a Gigabyte P35 DS3 mobo + e6550. Everything worked perfectly under Win XP but after upgrade to Windows 7 (32bit) this same error (ati driver stopped responding) showed up any time a 3D game was started (usually in just a few seconds).

Everything was at stock, tried replacing PSU and memory and tested countless versions of ATI drivers and MB bios updates, but I never managed to fix the problem and ended up swapping the mobo for a Gigabyte MA770-DS3 with some dual core AMD chip and after that I never saw this error again .

I tried both a 4670 and a 5770 in the P35 mobo but no ATI card ever worked in 3D games on that box with Windows 7, even if it worked perfectly with both a nvidia 7300gt and a 8800gts

The 4670 and 5770 ATI cards have worked perfectly in other motherboards, including other s775 boards from Gigabyte.


So I have seen those problems before, but sorry to say have no solution for you.


D.

[trentlad]

Ok, I'll try that out and let you know if it helps. I really hope so.

[Ket]

Uninstall ATI drivers
Download driversweeper 2.1 and run it from safe mode
Restart, delete any remaining ATI folders
Install Cats 10.9 hotfix

If that doesn't work, I would keep an eye on how hot the GPU is getting idle/load. Chances are you likely need to remount the cooler with new TIM.

[Razrback16]

Yeah I'm curious about your idle/load temps of the GPU. You said in post #14 that it idles @ 80* (assuming you mean celsius?) -- if so that is just crazy hot. Crank up the fan speed manually if you need to and see if that makes a difference. I'd never feel comfortable with my vid cards idling at 80*C -- MAYBE load temps with the stock cooler.

[trentlad]

I've found that this fix is working at the moment but we'll see how long it lasts. I actually found two inf files in the drivers folder so the OS may have picked the wrong one.

http://www.youtube.com/v/d4kqo777iZo

I've been playing a few games since this driver selection process for two days now and I'm yet to have a crash! I'm really surprised tbh.

Trust this to happen just as I sent my RMA request and they replied with an offer to accept a return under warranty since it sounded faulty. I suppose there's no point sending it to them right... or would it still be wise to return since the 80oC idle is bad and there may be other underlying issues that aren't really fixed?

Do they just repair your old GPU or send you a new one if the old one was faulty?

[Dimitriman]

ive owned many ati cards and ive had this same problem with many of them as well especially as they got old. i was never able to solve it and i know for a fact many other people complain the exact same especially users who used to have nvidia all their lives then switched to ati. i doubt you will be able to rma this also since their tests usually never finds a problem when its this. i was always denied rma for my cards for this reason.
sometimes i do think it is the norm and most people just ignore it. try to disable vpu recover and reporting.
or go into a store buy a 460gtx. test it and return same day for full refund (stores must refund by law within 7 days).
regards.

[Ket]

I've found that this fix is working at the moment but we'll see how long it lasts. I actually found two inf files in the drivers folder so the OS may have picked the wrong one.

http://www.youtube.com/v/d4kqo777iZo

I've been playing a few games since this driver selection process for two days now and I'm yet to have a crash! I'm really surprised tbh.

Trust this to happen just as I sent my RMA request and they replied with an offer to accept a return under warranty since it sounded faulty. I suppose there's no point sending it to them right... or would it still be wise to return since the 80oC idle is bad and there may be other underlying issues that aren't really fixed?

Do they just repair your old GPU or send you a new one if the old one was faulty?

Try remounting the cooler with new TIM. Also manually set fanspeed to at least 40%. Do GPU temps start to drop? If so, no need to RMA.

[trentlad]

HAHA! If I do that then I'll invalidate the warranty and won't be able to RMA. Right?

I'm a little hessitant to RMA now after what Dimitriman stated. I had feared it was a common issue amongst most users that was just acccepted, and you're right about previous nvidia users pointing it out. It will also costs about $20 in shipping fees alone to RMA which is a hell of a lot.

I feel like a mug for paying $300 for this after 6 months of it's release.