Asus 7950 Display Problem After Asus Xonar Sound Card Install

[citizenlee]

Hi,

I just installed an Asus Xonar Essence ST last night but now I'm getting weird display crashes with my Asus HD 7950.

Before I describe the problem here are my system specs:

CPU: Intel i5 2500K
Mobo: Gigabyte Z68AP-D3
Cooler: Arctic Freezer 7 Pro (I have an Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom to fit when I get the chance)
GPU: Asus HD 7950 3GB V2
Sound: Onboard, until I got the Asus Xonar Essence ST
PSU: Antec TruePower 550w (I have a Corsair HX750 to fit when I get the chance)
RAM: Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB
SSD1: Crucial M4 64GB
SSD2: Crucial C300 128GB
HDD1: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB
HDD2: WD Caviar Green 2TB
Case: Fractal Define R3
Monitor: Dell U2312HM
OS: Windows 7 64bit

So, first thing I did was uninstall RealTek and disable onboard audio in the BIOS as per instruction manual. I then fitted the Xonar and rebooted the PC. Everything was fine until after installing the Xonar driver and doing the next reboot. After that it would get as far as the Windows log-in screen but then it would crash with blue/green vertical lines.

Onboard HDMI worked fine, and the sound card worked great when I could get into Windows. It even worked with my old Asus HD 6770.

I did get the 7950 working via DVI after a system restore, but upon trying the HDMI again I got the same crash, and after that DVI didn't work.

Onboard audio, ATI HDMI audio and RealTek HD audio were all disabled but that didn't help. I also did the usual driver update for the GPU and sound card, but again no joy.

I then removed the Xonar and reset everything back to how it was prior to trying the soundcard, but I'm still getting the display crashes! It did work without ATI drivers and when in Safe Mode, but that's no use.

I finally decided to try a full system restore from a back-up image and let it run over night, and was greeted with this when I woke up this morning:

I'm still using my Antec 550W PSU, so I'll fit the replacement HX750 tonight after work to see if that helps. It's weird that it only appears after plugging in the HDMI cable though, so I don't know if the PSU is to blame. Plus, if it was the PSU then there should be no problem now I have removed the sound card right? Or might it have fried the GPU? If so then why not in Safe Mode and when not using the ATI drivers?

Usually the 7950 is connected to my PC via HDMI>DVI and my TV via DVI, and I've never had an issue with it until tonight, although I have only ever used onboard sound.

Doing some more Googling this afternoon has lead me to Hardware Interupt Requests (IRQs).

I found that the Gigabyte Z68 boards use a PCI-E-to-PCI bridge rather than the usual PCI controller. This was on an Ubuntu forum however, so it soon got into linux kernels and such which is beyond me. Info here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/946230

Even if the PCI-E was hogging the whole array, surely it would just be Xonar that didn’t work in it’s PCI slot? Also, why would the 7950 continue to not work after removing the Xonar and performing various restores and re-images?

I’m not at home to check what my current settings are but here are the available options in the BIOS:

Onboard Serial Port 1
Enables or disables the serial port and specifies its base I/Oaddress and corresponding interrupt.Options
are: Auto, 3F8/IRQ4 (default), 2F8/IRQ3, 3E8/IRQ4, 2E8/IRQ3, Disabled.
Onboard Parallel Port
Enables or disables the onboard parallel port (LPT) and specifies its base I/Oaddress and corresponding
interrupt. Options are: 378/IRQ7 (default), 278/IRQ5, 3BC/IRQ7, Disabled.
Parallel Port Mode
Selects an operating mode for the onboard parallel (LPT) port. Options are: SPP (Standard Parallel Port)
(default), EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port), ECP (Extended Capabilities Port), ECP+EPP.

I’m completely lost now! Can anyone help?

I can RMA the 7950 if it’s dead, but I’m sure there must be something I’m missing that will make it all work nice together.

Cheers,

Lee