XFX radeon HD4850 grey screen ...... solution needed

[brianthesnail]

Hi guys
i purchased the XFX radeon HD4850(512mb) last week and initially things looked good... however when i ran the game "FEAR2" the game crashed to a grey desktop with vertical lines....... i was unable to access task manager so a manual restart was needed
however i managed to run 3DMARK03 without any problems so this indicates no problem with the actual card..... but other games also crashed to the grey screen and these included MEDAL OF HONOR 2010 and MAGIX MUSIC MAKER 17 .......
i have contacted ATI/AMD but at present no reply...... so whats causing this problem
my specs are :
INTEL CELERON E3300
4GB CORSAIR XMS DDR2
ASROCK G41M-GS
RADEON hd4850(XFX) .... ( using XFX HD5670 while i sort out this issue )
500W OCZ STEALTHSTREAM PSU
SOUNDBLASTER X-FI EXTREME SOUNDCARD
COOL-IT ECO ALC WATER CPU COOLER
NZXT M59 CHASSIS
2 X 320GB SATA II HDD

as you can see my specs are not amazing but do the job and the 500w psu is more than powerful enough to cope with the HD4850...... and from all accounts a hotfix was released for the grey screen issue... however this is for 5000 series cards... and anyway as soon as you try to access the download page it asks for a user name and password ........
i hope one of you guys can at least point me in the right direction.... any help will be much appreciated

cheers guys

[wez]

For latest drivers:
http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloa...downloads.aspx

[brianthesnail]

thanks wez..... however this was my first port of call...im way past the driver stage... however i have narrowed it down to my main pc.... as it runs ok on my spare rig......allthough i havent completed all the testing on the spare rig ...... i did hear a interesting solution today.... disable all desktop wallpapers and use simply "no" wallpapers,just the plain single coloured desktop ( which i think is black )
to be honest it makes a bit of sense... however so does the many other fixes for the "grey screen and vertical line corruption " ........ these include
1) update 10.2 ..... this was the first release to include a fix for this problem... however it hasnt worked for everyone..... and the HD5770 and HD5870 seem to be affected more than others
2) lower memory clocks ...... this is a simple enough procedure however its dropping performance which to gamers is out the question .... but hey it works
3) disable powerplay ..... the effect of memory and core clocks lowering and increasing have been blamed for the grey screens crashes ..... and powerplay can be disabled by using this guide : http://www.gamereplays.org/community...=4198980&st=0&
4) change monitor cable.... yes.... i also heard of changing from hdmi to dvi or dvi to vga have fixed these problems..... worth a go
5) using 6pin adapters..... instead of using a dedicated pci-express 6pin connector use the bundled molex to 6pin adapter and use a molex from each rail to even out power delivery ....... again theres no hard evidence but by this stage you would try tnt if it would work !
ive had many graphic cards over the years and ive never had so many problems with just one card... and from what ive found theres hundreds of others..... ok it may only be a small percentage of end users who are experiencing these problems but in terms of numbers this could be thousands.....
i shall continue to test my XFX HD4850 and anymore information i shall let you guys know

[SkullCracka]

uninstall thru control panel reboot. then install latest 11.7 drivers. after all the fiddling you have done once you get 11.7 installed goto top right of CCC hit preferences then restore to factory defaults. reboot again and all your problems will be solved..


next time you ask a question and someone tells you the answer. dont say your way past the solution if you dont even know what the answer is.

[brianthesnail]

thanks skullcracka
it cant be that easy ...... i installed the drivers initially when i got the card in the way you described.... however i never restored to factory defaults using the ccc... i shall try that ...... sorry about me rabbiting on ..... however ive been lucky in the past i havent had many problems when it comes to hardware...... so this has been annoying
do you also recommend using "driver sweeper" ? ..... ive had 4 other cards installed on this system and allthough i removed the drivers ect for each card as directed there may be redundant/old driver files still on the hard drive ...
my only question is "when removing ati driver remanants will this also remove the wddm ati drivers on the system" ...... that said you can use the basic vga driver in safe mode to install the 11.7 drivers.......
anyway many thanks to both skullcracka and wez for their input ..... its much appreciated
cheers guys

[SkullCracka]

it really is that easy... just follow what i said up there with uninstall reboot and get 11.7 once installed do the factory restor defualts and reboot again. that was a known issue with the drivers you say you are using.

no dont use safe mode. you can not install ati drivers in safe mode. you can use driver sweeper if you want. if all the cards have been ati its not really needed. the restore factory settings will take care of any left over settings.

[brianthesnail]

thanks for the speedy reply ...... in regards to previous drivers.... i was originally using the XFX GTS250... then when i replaced the stock cooler on this i used a geforce 8400gs on a temporary basis ...... then i used a legacy x1950pro for a few months followed by a XFX HD5670 around 2 months ago ...... so as you can see theres been a few cards on this system ....
is it worth using driver sweeper just incase any old nvidia drivers are hanging around ..... apart from that you have been a life saver and its much appreciated.....
finally whats different about the 11.7 release compared to 11.6 ........ and is the "grey screen/vertical line corruption fix" included on this release
many thanks mate

[SkullCracka]

11.6 cuased alot of problems with bsod's ect.... rolling back or even going to 11.6b or 11.7 did not get rid of the problem. but hitting restore factory defaults after the fresh install does.

yes on the driver sweeper if you used nvidia and that legacy ati on that system..... uninstall what ever driver your using reboot goto safe mode. run driver sweeper hit nvidia and ati to remove all. reboot. run 11.7 installer. reboot. do the restore factory defaults reboot again and you should be good to go.