Graphics Problems

[cooper795]

Not specifically a graphics card related thread, but is relevant to graphics, advise me if I should have posted somehere else!

Anyway, as you've gathered, I've got some problems with graphics on my system, which I believe is due to the fact that I still have my onboard graphics enabled, as well as my two graphics cards. Ordinarily, I'd go into the device manager and disable the 'standard VGA adapter' (or whatever its called) under the display adapters section, but they're not there... I can only see my Radeon HD 5800 series, meaning I can't disable the onboard ones. So is there any other way of disabling them?

My system spec is in my siggie, running Windows 7 Professional which I've just bought if it helps.

Help would be appreiated, thanks!

P.S. I've had this problem before on Vista, when I first built the system and I solved it by installing a clean copy of Vista and before installing any ATI drivers, disabling the onboard graphics. The standard VGA adapter appeared on Vista before I installed any 5800 series drivers, but don't on my new OS. Halp!

 

[cooper795]

Bump:

Surely someone knows how to help me?

 

[cooper795]

Now I'm really confused. When I first install windows, before any ATI drivers are installed, an option comes up in the device manager to disable standard VGA adapter. If this isn't onboard then what is it?

 

[cooper795]

Ahh I see.

Well, the problems I'm having include:

Poor quality text on some sites e.g. facebook, the writing isn't clear at all, and strangely, the text in my siggy on this site shows as the times new roman font rather than what I actually set it to. On my laptop it shows it all fine.

And most importantly I can't run games, FPS is extremely poor. Its as if I don't have the graphics cards installed properly, although I obviously do as they ran fine 48 hours ago on Vista and I've got the latest drivers... I had the same problem on Vista a while back, but that was somehow miraculously solved by a simple OS re-install, but that's not working this time.

I'm now worried I may have installed windows 7 twice now aswell (I've read this is possible but not 100% sure it actually is), when I did the last re-install it didn't ask for a product key and on the boot screen it showed 2 windows 7 OS options before quickly loading one. I'm so confused/clueless about software.

 

[cooper795]

Have you set your output resolution to match that of your monitor?

If you have a 1920x1080 monitor then you should set the output resolution to the same.

If that's not it have you tried a different cable? Which connection are you using?

Yeah the resolution is okay, its been at 1680x1050 for about 3 years, as the monitor was also used on my old system.

Not sure what you mean by connection, do you mean the cable from the monitor into the back of the PC? If so its just the one that came with the monitor, I think. But I bought the monitor a long time ago and therefore I'm not 100% sure.

All power cables connected to the graphics cards?

Crossfire bridge fitted?

Are you sure you have the correct drivers - correct operating system and 32 or 64 bit?

Download the drivers again. Start the installation and when it gives you the option uninstall the existing drivers. Restart the PC and then install the drivers again.

If this doesn't help try each card separately to make sure one isn't faulty.

I checked the cards last time I had the problem, all cables and the bridge etc were fine. I tried both cards separately and in different slots and the problem was still there.

I'm 100% sure I've got the correct drivers as they're still in my downloads bit on firefox, and I've checked them against my OS stated in the dxdiag and they're correct.

I'd absolutely love to know how the problem was solved by a simple re-install of my OS last time.

Edit: Could it be that I don't have things like flash player and Java installed at the moment? I'm clutching at straws here as you can see...

 

[cooper795]

Make sure you have ClearType turned on.

Control Panel > System and Security > Appearance and Personalization > Display > Adjust ClearType Text

Turn on ClearType (if it isn't already), click next and adjust the settings.

If you're using a VGA connection I thought you might get better results with DVI or HDMI if your monitor has these options. If you're using VGA possibly the cable is at fault.

Adjusting cleartype has just changed what the text looks like, but the problem still remains.

Not sure what type of connection I'm using, above where the cable is plugged in on the monitor it says 'DVI-D' if that helps.

If the problem exists with each card individually then it's nothing to do with Crossfire.

When you say you get poor FPS what sort of numbers are we talking about?

Like 5 FPS on Shogun 2, i.e. it doesn't run at all.

What's the rest of your system?

Intel Core i5 2500k
Gigabyte P67A-UD4-B3
OCZ Special Ops 4GB 1600mhz
2x Sapphire HD 5850 CF
500GB HDD

i5-2500k at stock at the moment just to make sure that isn't causing any problems.

I can't understand anything that could've changed simply from installing windows 7, especially as I had the problem before and that was solved with a simple re-install of my then OS.

 

[cooper795]

Yeah it does, the problem still persists though.

 

[cooper795]

Here's some images if they help:

Image 1

As you can see it recognises the cards fine, and when I click on them it says 'device working properly'.

Image 2

This one shows how the font in my siggy is showing in times new roman, instead of what I actually set it as? When I solved the problem last time this started showing correctly again: really confusing.

Image 3

Shows how the text on facebook is of poor quality, although to be honest its probably not that visible on here, compared to real life.

EDIT: I did a re-install of windows earlier in hope that the problem would miraculously solve itself again. For the first time an error message came up, it was in very technical terms so to be honest I had little clue as to what it meant, but it mentioned ATI and CCC quite a lot in the error log, which leads me to believe this may be the problem. If it appears again I'll take a screen shot.

 

[cooper795]

All a bit of a mystery.

Something seems to be messed up but I don't know what it is.

Perhaps you should try re-installing again.

Yep, I will do a re-install tomorrow, or after my exams, if I fail due to lack of revision I'm blaming this PC!

If the error message comes up when I re-install I'll post it on here, see if anyone cleverer than me knows what it is. If not I'll probably take it to an IT shop. Its my first build so I bet I've done something monumentally stupid/simple that's an easy fix.

 

[cooper795]

Okay, the problem has once more miraculously fixed itself.

I literally changed nothing, other than plugging in my younger brother's monitor to see if it was the cables that were the problem. When I plugged his monitor in, the problems still remained, but when I plugged mine back in a few hours later I booted up and all the problems had miraculously disappeared.

I am so confused, but happy confused!

 

[cooper795]

Hmm Starnge, but glad this "plug brothers monitor into it fix" worked for you.
Has this cured all the problems of the wrong font problem, poor fonts in facebook and the low FPS's in games problems?

Yeah, every single one fixed at the same time.