I think all the problems are caused by the fan control in the drivers via cards bios. All my locking/freezing problems started when I put the EK block on my 5970, before that it was fine and rock stable. After days of windows locking up in 2D desktop with artifacting and then getting to the point of not even being able to run any 3D game without system hardlocking I decided to try something.
Did a fresh os install with EK block still on the card, installed latest cats and tried to run some 3D benchmarks - 3DM06, stalker COP etc.....all hardlocked yet if I disabled Catalyst A.I and ran single core there was no lockup
Took off the EK block and put stock cooler back on with THE FAN CONNECTED and bingo, NO MORE PROBLEMS!!!!
Looks like the cards bios and drivers gets confused when there is no fan connected to the fan pins when watercooling the 5970 and this seems to result in all sorts of problems.
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