Windows 7: XFX 6950 driver hell! Which version works?

Even though my problem had an easy solution I appreciate the thread on the detailed info.

You were close, it was the second monitor connected via HDMI off the video card causing all the trouble. Now another problem to deal with.

Thanks for all the info. That's the main reason I chose XFX and the 6950, not only can I do crossfire in the near future with a second 6950 most likely around or under 200 in 3-6 months, but it has a double lifetime warranty and a good rep on returns like you said.
I'm scared to death of bios updates, but I suppose it will need to be done sometime.

To be honest, this was my first full build from scratch, but I have done many upgrades on past systems so I'm familiar and comfortable with the hands on hardware part, but I have never had such trouble, not only with this but just the weirdness in general of Windows 7 and my mobo/video card software side. IDK It was aggravating to say the least.

I have a asus board as you can see, and it was a real pain getting right at the start.
There is a reward though, once you have it running solid, they are some of the best boards on the market hands down.

Revert to standar vga driver and reboot, the uninstall everything ati and reboot again, install catalyst 10.12.

Catalyst 11.2 which uses 10.11 works great for me now, the issue was the HDMI outpput on the 6950 needed to be clear, meaning I had to unplug it. I have no idea what the fix for that is though, so instead of 1 HDMI, 1 DVI and 1 Dispay Port outs I'm using 2 DVI and 1 Display Port outs. I wanted a 3-monitor independent system and I got it so I'm good. But if you know a fix to be able to use the HDMI out in conjunction with a multiple monitor setup let me know.

The problem may have to do with the hdmi audio driver, which actually gave me a little trouble when I first got this 5850.
My monitor speakers suck so I just removed it.
HDMI has been fine since then.

Yes, the pain and frustration was worth it in the end. I'm blown away by the performance of my pc. I'm also now in love with Windows 7 when just a few days ago I was hating it, XP was great but I'm glad I made the switch. I almost feel sorry for my old HP Pavilion P4 sitting on my kitchen floor ready to be sold to some stranger on craigslist, then I look at my new pc and look back again and want to kick it across the floor. Of topic question, "1 western digital 80gig -boot drive only" Can you explain this? Would a boot only drive just contain windows itself and what are the advantages? I'm fairly knowledgeable on most hardware but when it comes to raid or some other hard drive setup I'm clueless, going to have to study up on this over the weekend.

When you had it connected with DVI and HDMI, did you happen to try it with both of the DVI ports? If not try it with the HDMI connected and the DVI to the second (the one by itself) port like this,



You don't say which XFX 6950 you have but they have 4 different models,

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Video Cards & Video Devices,Desktop Graphics / Video Cards,XFX,Radeon HD 6000 series,Radeon HD 6950

all of which have 2 DVI ports, 1 HDMI port, and 2 displayports. They don't list it in the specs or show one anywhere, but most of the rest of the 6950 manufacturers show and include a DVI-VGA adapter which would make it a shared port with (most likely) the DVI port directly under the HDMI port, and also make it that you can't use that port for anything if the HDMI port is used.

My 6950 is the XFX 2GB. I will try that connection config when I get home and report back, I had my DVI connected to the top out, I will try the bottom. Thanks.