6870 BSOD HELP

[zerg]

Ok so I recently upgraded from 2x crossfired Sapphire 5450s, to a 6870. The first time I booted up it loaded fine because no drivers were installed, now whenever I install a driver, and reboot, I get BSOD just on my windows login page. Once I uninstall the driver and driversweep again it works fine, but I can't load any games because it can't detect my adapter or something.

I'm pretty sure it's software related, and after trying old drivers such as 10.1 and newer ones like 11.8 - 11.3, it gives the same problem.

 

[Surveyor]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Have you plugged the PCI-E power cables into to HD 6870?

Are you using molex adapters?

What make and model of PSU do you have?

 

[zerg]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Have you plugged the PCI-E power cables into to HD 6870?

Are you using molex adapters?

What make and model of PSU do you have?

Yes.

Yes

500W Raidmax PSU


However, why would it be a PSU problem if I only get this when installing drivers?

 

[Surveyor]

I'm thinking that until you install the drivers the GPU is just treated as a standard VGA adapter and isn't using a lot of power.

Once you install the drivers the card is recognised as a HD 6870 and perhaps uses more power.

Just thinking out loud really.

What version of Drive Sweeper are you using?

I believe that some versions can screw things up badly for AMD/ATI cards as they delete files which are needed.

 

[zerg]

I'm thinking that until you install the drivers the GPU is just treated as a standard VGA adapter and isn't using a lot of power.

Once you install the drivers the card is recognised as a HD 6870 and perhaps uses more power.

Just thinking out loud really.

What version of Drive Sweeper are you using?

I believe that some versions can screw things up badly for AMD/ATI cards as they delete files which are needed.

I think I'm using version 2. I really don't want to buy a new PSU unless it is necessary, I remember once getting it to start up with a 11.?? driver, and then I got it going, played some WoW got around 105 FPS, and then when I switched user, my screen went blue, so I restarted my PC and then I got the BSOD again. That was my only succesful try I also pushed the fan speeds up to 100% and ran it for 1 - 2 minutes straight, and I'm guessing that consumes more power, I just reduced it to 25% again when I didn't want to over do it, and it sounded like a jet engine anyway.

Really need a fix for this

 

[Surveyor]

Is it this PSU?:

 

[zerg]

Is it this PSU?:

No it came with my Raidmax Katana Case, it's not high end at all, and is a cheap PSU. What you said about it being a standard VGA adapter sounds reasonable, however why would it have ran once out of 50 tries, and loaded games etc, but then not work any other time

 

[Surveyor]

No it came with my Raidmax Katana Case, it's not high end at all, and is a cheap PSU. What you said about it being a standard VGA adapter sounds reasonable, however why would it have ran once out of 50 tries, and loaded games etc, but then not work any other time

Who knows, sometimes things work and sometimes they don't.

Yours mostly doesn't.

Driver Sweeper is on version 3.1 I think.

Driver sweeper 2.0 is donkeys old.

As I said, earlier versions of Driver Seeper can cause problems with ATI/AMD cards.

Do you have a System Restore point you can go back to before you ran Driver Sweeper? If you have do it.

Depending on the age of the drivers you have after a restore you should just be able to remove the 5450's and plug in the HD 6870 and it will be recognised.

You'll have to see then if your PSU is up to the job.

 

[zerg]

Who knows, sometimes things work and sometimes they don't.

Yours mostly doesn't.

Driver Sweeper is on version 3.1 I think.

Driver sweeper 2.0 is donkeys old.

As I said, earlier versions of Driver Seeper can cause problems with ATI/AMD cards.

Do you have a System Restore point you can go back to before you ran Driver Sweeper? If you have do it.

Depending on the age of the drivers you have after a restore you should just be able to remove the 5450's and plug in the HD 6870 and it will be recognised.

You'll have to see then if your PSU is up to the job.

Hmm, I don't think it is driver sweeper since from the day I swapped out the 5450s to my 6870 i have been getting the BSOD on bootup(with drivers). I then removed some drivers with just the uninstall, and deleted the AMD folder, every time, still gave the same errors, then I used driver sweeper and it didn't change anything it was still deleting the same files in the AMD folder.

I really don't want to buy a new PSU if it is not the cause of this problem.

 

[Surveyor]

You could always try a clean installation of Windows to rule out any software issues.

Other than that the best guess I would have is the PSU.

Perhaps someone else will come along with other ideas.

 

[nick-fury]

Cant you try the card in someone else' PC, a family member or friend perhaps ?

 

[Surveyor]

Cant you try the card in someone else' PC, a family member or friend perhaps ?

Someone with a decent power supply?

 

[zerg]

Cant you try the card in someone else' PC, a family member or friend perhaps ?

No the rest of the PCs in my house are macs, or laptops . I'm really confused what the problem is, I'm hoping its the PSU since that is easily fixable, I'm also thinking it could be a software issue. The thing that is bugging me most is why it worked once, with drivers etc, that was like my 25/50 try, and it played games, this is what is making me doubt it's my PSU.

Would molex > PCI-E adapters be the problem btw?

 

[Surveyor]

No the rest of the PCs in my house are macs, or laptops . I'm really confused what the problem is, I'm hoping its the PSU since that is easily fixable, I'm also thinking it could be a software issue. The thing that is bugging me most is why it worked once, with drivers etc, that was like my 25/50 try, and it played games, this is what is making me doubt it's my PSU.

Would molex > PCI-E adapters be the problem btw?

A clean install of Windows is the way to rule out software issues.

Molex adapters are not the ideal way but they should work provided you have enough grunt in the PSU.

If you have more than 1 cable from the PSU with molex connectors try running the PCI-E adapters from molex connectors on different cables.

 

[zerg]

A clean install of Windows is the way to rule out software issues.

Molex adapters are not the ideal way but they should work provided you have enough grunt in the PSU.

If you have more than 1 cable from the PSU with molex connectors try running the PCI-E adapters from molex connectors on different cables.

I have a spare hard drive, I will do a fresh install onto that. Then install drivers and test it, if it doesn't work, then are you recommending the first thing I do is get a new PSU?

 

[Surveyor]

I have a spare hard drive, I will do a fresh install onto that. Then install drivers and test it, if it doesn't work, then are you recommending the first thing I do is get a new PSU?

If a clean installation doesn't get it working then I'd have to say it was a hardware issue.

Given your setup the most likely suspect is the PSU.

Of course it's always possible that the graphics card is faulty but the more likely scenario is that it's the PSU.

 

[zerg]

If a clean installation doesn't get it working then I'd have to say it was a hardware issue.

Given your setup the most likely suspect is the PSU.

Of course it's always possible that the graphics card is faulty but the more likely scenario is that it's the PSU.

If the card was faulty, then wouldn't it just not work without drivers to? I don't see many people with these problems, with faulty cards. Most people with faulty cards tend to have a completely black screen, or like wierd shapes across the screen, so hopefully it's not faulty really can't be bothered to send it back to XFX if it is.

 

[Surveyor]

If the card was faulty, then wouldn't it just not work without drivers to? I don't see many people with these problems, with faulty cards. Most people with faulty cards tend to have a completely black screen, or like wierd shapes across the screen, so hopefully it's not faulty really can't be bothered to send it back to XFX if it is.

Which is why I said the most likely suspect is the PSU.

The % of faulty graphics cards would be quite small.

The chance of your PSU not being up to the job would seem quite high given what you say about it.

Does the PSU have a label on giving the Amperage of the differnt rails?

What is the Amperage on the 12V rail(s)?

What's the spec. of the rest of your system?

 

[zerg]

Which is why I said the most likely suspect is the PSU.

The % of faulty graphics cards would be quite small.

The chance of your PSU not being up to the job would seem quite high given what you say about it.

Does the PSU have a label on giving the Amperage of the differnt rails?

What is the Amperage on the 12V rail(s)?

What's the spec. of the rest of your system?

It says +12v = 17.0A

and -12v = 0.8A

8GB DDR3 1333mhz, Intel core i3 2120, 3.3ghz(slight overclock to 3.5ghz). asus p8h67 micro atx - pro

Just finishing up fresh install on my other harddrive, btw you have been very helpful, and seem a great guy

 

[SuperSaiyan4]

You know what I reckon it is your power supply, I was using a Hiper 630w and my 6870 wouldnt work at all in fact the PC would not even boot! Since you have a 500w and not a major brand I think you should seriously try to get a better power supply, I got one today as I just recently purchased a 6870 but my card turned out to be faulty

The website says the minimum power supply should be 500w, but considering the kind of setup people have these days with that kind of graphics card I would say 600w or higher of a well known reliable brand like OCZ or Corsair.