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ATI Driver Crashing - Any Help?

DAnDan

DAnDan

DAnDan

Soldato
Joined
22 Feb 2008
Posts
4,473
Sorry to post a topic like this, but I'm not really sure how to go about fixing this.

Whenever I play a game, which at the moment is mostly WoW, I will randomly get driver crashes, involving the screen freezing for a few seconds, and then going all colourful and then black, then back to normal play, this doesn't crash the game, or the computer.

I've tried different driver sets, ranging from 8.X to the newest 9.3s, and the effect is always the same.

I'm using an ATI 3870, with a decent 500W PSU, and a E4500 @ 3.1GHz, 4Gb Giel ram at 840MHz.

I'm not sure if a dodgy overclock on the CPU would cause these errors, or is it purely a borked driver?

Any input would be great thanks, as I'm rather stuck about how to fix this one.
 
PCI-E is set at 100MHz, so isn't that.

I'll try knocking the clock down tomorrow morning and see what it brings. Anyone else had a similar problem to this?
 
Haven't had a chance to check the lower clocks yet, but if it's worth anything, the computer handles a prime95 blend test without any problems, so I'm guessing the overclock is stable?
 
DAnDan said:
I will randomly get driver crashes, involving the screen freezing for a few seconds, and then going all colourful and then black, then back to normal play, this doesn't crash the game, or the computer.
Click to expand...
I wonder if its a sign the monitor is faulty or not connected properly? :confused:
 
I used to get your kind of errors with an older Ati 4870 1Gb I had. Three simple steps for you to try if you want:

1) Uninstall drivers (with whatever tools/methods needed)
2) Install ONLY the display drivers, not the CCC crap.
3) Install RivaTuner and Ati Tray Tools or for D3D settings, fan control, etc.

That solved my problem, had no issues at all after, quiet, powerful and rock solid. Good luck! :p
 
Last edited:
Shikyo said:
I used to get your kind of errors with an older Ati 4870 1Gb I had. Three simple steps for you to try if you want:

1) Uninstall drivers (with whatever tools/methods needed)
2) Install ONLY the display drivers, not the CCC crap.
3) Install RivaTuner and Ati Tray Tools or for D3D settings, fan control, etc.

That solved my problem, had no issues at all after, quiet, powerful and rock solid. Good luck! :p
Click to expand...

I've tried uninstalling and using just the drivers, without CCC, before, and always the same results. Really frustrating.
 
All the clocks on the card are at default, CCC refuses to overclock it anyway, if I move the sliders and click test they just go back to the original.
 
Still getting this error. Getting ridiculous now.

No matter what driver set I use, the same happens, driver cleaner, no driver cleaner, you name it, I've tried it. Google throws up nothing helpfun either.

Just praying someone has a magical fix for ATI's driver fail.
 
Not sure if this is relevant, but I seem to get less crashes when using lower AA (1x compared to 4x in WoW).

I may get one error in a half hour, instead of possibly several a minute if I'm in an area that gives errors.
 
Hey DAnDan,

seems you not having a good time! :(

Um I wonder, what you are describing could *possibly* be a over-heating component of some sort?

I've recently run into some hardware issues on overclocked machines that started crashing? when the settings were known good and working. It turned out the extra summer heat had started pushing a few temps up, especially the northbridge which as I'm sure you know has a big impact on gaming stability.

How is the cooling in your system, have you got the case side off? have you carefully placed your finger-thermometer on the graphics card, northbridge, memory sticks etc? Be careful as there is a good chance you may be touching something as hot as an Iron so caution! :eek:

If it does turn out to be an overheating component then there is plenty of ways to add on-the-spot cooling, you just need to get some thermal diagostics out the way for trouble-shooting purposes as I am thinking either the graphics card (mosfets), the Northbridge or the memory is melting!

Let us know! :cool:
 
Thanks Wayne, from software readings nothing is going above around 60%, my case has 4 case fans, which are all 120mm. The graphics card has a zalman style cooler on it, which is not uncomfortable to touch even when these crashes are happening.

Once my exams are finished I will probably end up doing a full re-install of vista to see if it helps, as something must have screwed itself up somewhere. There is a lot of reports of this error from around the internet, but all the "fixes" are the sort of "this worked for me" but usually only just for that person. So it seems a pretty persistant error once it's happening.

I don't mind doing a re-install of vista if it fixes this stupid problem, but I don't think it's something I should have to do just to get a working graphics card!
 
DAnDan said:
Thanks Wayne, from software readings nothing is going above around 60%, my case has 4 case fans, which are all 120mm. The graphics card has a zalman style cooler on it, which is not uncomfortable to touch even when these crashes are happening.

Once my exams are finished I will probably end up doing a full re-install of vista to see if it helps, as something must have screwed itself up somewhere. There is a lot of reports of this error from around the internet, but all the "fixes" are the sort of "this worked for me" but usually only just for that person. So it seems a pretty persistant error once it's happening.

I don't mind doing a re-install of vista if it fixes this stupid problem, but I don't think it's something I should have to do just to get a working graphics card!
Click to expand...

You'll find graphics drivers can be a pain to get running sometimes.

I had a 2900XT before upgrading to a 3870X2, and I had the same issues as you when I done a simple unstallation of drivers, swap card and reinstall.

I ended up re-installing windows, as it's far quicker than troubleshooting for hours and it sorted those problems.

I ended up sending my card back for a refund after an RMA confirmed it was faulty, I got a refund because the 4800s were out a few months later, and I prefered to have a rubbish X1600XT for a few months than have a 3870X2 only for the 4850s to come out and 4850 crossfire be twice as fast as the X2 for less cost.
 
Once again just put card to default setting’s used uninstaller in the latest cat’s 9.6 to uninstall cats 9.5 ran the reg cleaner in CCleaner, did a reboot. Installed cat’s 9.6, reboot all’s well that’s all l ever do to update GFX driver’s. Installed this OS:Aug/08, played 2142 for a couple of hour’s no problem’s at all, with over clock applied again, fan speed idle set at 30% using CCC > Sapp ATI 4850.
 
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