Games won't run on Win7 x64 ANY of them

Please some one help me, I got this new laptop with Win7 RTM x64, it has all the drivers, I successfully downloaded and installed the latest version of Catallyst, I'm positive that it's not a cooling or GPU compatibility issue. I just downloaded and installed the SP1 but it didn't help at all. Games crash after 5 min of gameplay, I'm still able to open the task manager and kill the game without further problems though.

When it crashes I get the infamous "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" message.

Anyone know how I can fix this? :sarc:

The games I've tried to Play are: Resident Evil 5, Age of empires III, Call of Duty World at War.

My specs:

Sandy Bridge Intel Core i7 2630QM (quad core @ 2.0 Ghz, 2.6Ghz with turbo boost), AMD Radeon HD 6850M 2Gb, 12Gb DDR3 RAM.
*DirectX 11, Windows Experience Index of 5.9 (if such information helps)

Thanx in advance!

Can you tell us the games that are crashing?

Also have a look at this, especailly step #5 - Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues

Edit: I see the games. Not sure how old those games are but some older games struggle under Windows 7, especially a 64-bit edition. Updating your DirectX file "might" help. Again see step 5 in my guide.

Tlakoyo said:

Please some one help me, I got this new laptop with Win7 RTM x64, it has all the drivers, I successfully downloaded and installed the latest version of Catallyst, I'm positive that it's not a cooling or GPU compatibility issue. I just downloaded and installed the SP1 but it didn't help at all. Games crash after 5 min of gameplay, I'm still able to open the task manager and kill the game without further problems though.

When it crashes I get the infamous "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" message.

Anyone know how I can fix this? :sarc:

The games I've tried to Play are: Resident Evil 5, Age of empires III, Call of Duty World at War.

My specs:

Sandy Bridge Intel Core i7 2630QM (quad core @ 2.0 Ghz, 2.6Ghz with turbo boost), AMD Radeon HD 6850M 2Gb, 12Gb DDR3 RAM.
*DirectX 11, Windows Experience Index of 5.9 (if such information helps)

Thanx in advance!

Click to expand...

Hi,

Have you tried the driver found on the Acer website? (See screenshot)

Acer Support: Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 5950G

The page shown can be found above.

It does sound like a driver problem and may just be a case of finding the 'right' one for your system. Another tip is to try compatibility mode. Just right click on the game 'exe', choose properties and then compatibility. You'll then be able to choose the os of choice ..

Ok now, how do I get the DirectX 9 necessary components without installing the whole package, which would be overwritten and thus "erasing" the DirectX 11 install? I know I sound pretty n00b, but I'd really appreciate your help

is it the DirectX 9 Runtime thing??

OK, this may or may not help.

First of all, I am still using Win 7 Ultimate 64 RTM w/o a single issue and I have played almost all the FPS games out there... with the exception of a couple that I have had to use Compt mode.

Every time you install a game you should install with Elevated Admin Rights (Right click exe and use Run as Admin) and if the game asks you to install Directx, do so, it won't break or do any damage to your Dx10/11. Being said this, some games do no like to be install from the exe file but they do install correctly if you do Autorun... YMMV.

Now, one thing I have noticed when it comes to ATI Catalyst is that is SUCKS big time. I thought it was just me because I almost always use Nvidia video cards so I don't know much about ATI but I see more and more that it may not be the case.

I just finished a new office built PC, the board came with integrated ATI card. I install the drivers that came with the Board CD then, I went to ATI and downloaded the latest drivers for the card and after doing this (I also kept installing apps and software I needed for my office work), all Hell broke loose... Blue Screens every so often and all had to do with the ATI video driver.

How I solved the issue (at least for my problem)? I uninstall the Catalyst from Control Panel, restarted in safe mode, used CCleaner to get rid of any instances on the registry, restarted again, went to windows Device Manager/Display Adapter/Drivers and clicked on the Uninstall tab. Restarted again, and use the drivers that came with the CD.

Now I have only the video drivers w/o the whole Catalyst crap and I have not had 1 instance of the blue screen problem. Hold on... looking for wood to knock on!

Again, understand that it may very well be me doing something wrong when installing the Catalyst but since I don't know any other way to install it (I assume that it should be the same way you install Nvidia Control Panel software), I just kicked it to the curve (so to speak)

Hope that helps.

kemical said:

Hi,

Have you tried the driver found on the Acer website? (See screenshot)

Acer Support: Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 5950G

The page shown can be found above.

It does sound like a driver problem and may just be a case of finding the 'right' one for your system. Another tip is to try compatibility mode. Just right click on the game 'exe', choose properties and then compatibility. You'll then be able to choose the os of choice ..

Click to expand...

I downloaded and installed that file, it seems to be the same driver that is already installed when I got the notebook since that driver download was posted on december last year, and yeah reinstalling it didn't change anything, the games still crash after 5 min, thanks for the reply though

AstaLaVista said:

Now, one thing I have noticed when it comes to ATI Catalyst is that is SUCKS big time. I thought it was just me because I almost always use Nvidia video cards so I don't know much about ATI but I see more and more that it may not be the case.

I just finished a new office built PC, the board came with integrated ATI card. I install the drivers that came with the Board CD then, I went to ATI and downloaded the latest drivers for the card and after doing this (I also kept installing apps and software I needed for my office work), all Hell broke loose... Blue Screens every so often and all had to do with the ATI video driver.

How I solved the issue (at least for my problem)? I uninstall the Catalyst from Control Panel, restarted in safe mode, used CCleaner to get rid of any instances on the registry, restarted again, went to windows Device Manager/Display Adapter/Drivers and clicked on the Uninstall tab. Restarted again, and use the drivers that came with the CD.

Click to expand...

Something tells me that it indeed is the Catalyst driver that is creating some sort of conflict with the games, since it has its own anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering settings, why would I want that? Each game has its own settings, forcing any other would create conflicts! (I'm so pissed off XD maybe that isn't even the problem) But yeah, even if I disable everything on Catalyst the game still crashes. I tried uninstalling Catalyst but then I had no driver for the GPU, I even lost the aero and everything, how can I get rid of Catalyst but still be able to use my GPU?? I have no installation CD's, I asked for them but they told me everything was on the Acer website ... but it's the same, it doesn't work

heeelp

Tlakoyo said:

Ok now, how do I get the DirectX 9 necessary components without installing the whole package, which would be overwritten and thus "erasing" the DirectX 11 install? I know I sound pretty n00b, but I'd really appreciate your help

is it the DirectX 9 Runtime thing??

Click to expand...

Web installer - DirectX End-User Runtime

The whole package - DirectX Redist (June 2010)

Try the first link. If you have issues use the second one. Yeah it't the whole package but it will only update what needed as well.

AstaLaVista said:

Now, one thing I have noticed when it comes to ATI Catalyst is that is SUCKS big time. I thought it was just me because I almost always use Nvidia video cards so I don't know much about ATI but I see more and more that it may not be the case.

Click to expand...

Other than people having driver issues like any other driver issue they may experience with a whole host of hardware including Nvidia, or cough cough Windows itself. Where is proof that CCC "sucks" other then your conjecture???

Yes, ATI's CCC/drivers can be problematic.... but so can every other driver in existence!!!

BTW I could make the same arguments about Windows itself based on the complaints posted here!

The OP needs real world help with a real world issue..... not an opinion on a piece of software you don't use.

My two cents.

sygnus21 said:

Web installer - DirectX End-User Runtime

The whole package - DirectX Redist (June 2010)

Try the first link. If you have issues use the second one. Yeah it't the whole package but it will only update what needed as well.

Click to expand...

Ok, I downloaded and installed both now buy they didn't work, any more ideas of what it could be? I've googled it several times, and this indeed seems to be a widespread problem, games and windows 7 x64 certainly don't like each other, why is that? What should I do? wait until AMD or Microsoft release some patch or actualization? or install Windows XP or win7 32 bit? But if I install WinXP I won't be able to install DirectX 11 right? Therefore I won't be able to fully squeeze the juice out of my GPU and the quad core right?? (I do know it has to be a directx 11 enabled game too though) ...

Tlakoyo said:

kemical said:

Hi,

Have you tried the driver found on the Acer website? (See screenshot)

Acer Support: Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 5950G

The page shown can be found above.

It does sound like a driver problem and may just be a case of finding the 'right' one for your system. Another tip is to try compatibility mode. Just right click on the game 'exe', choose properties and then compatibility. You'll then be able to choose the os of choice ..

Click to expand...

I downloaded and installed that file, it seems to be the same driver that is already installed when I got the notebook since that driver download was posted on december last year, and yeah reinstalling it didn't change anything, the games still crash after 5 min, thanks for the reply though

AstaLaVista said:

Now, one thing I have noticed when it comes to ATI Catalyst is that is SUCKS big time. I thought it was just me because I almost always use Nvidia video cards so I don't know much about ATI but I see more and more that it may not be the case.

I just finished a new office built PC, the board came with integrated ATI card. I install the drivers that came with the Board CD then, I went to ATI and downloaded the latest drivers for the card and after doing this (I also kept installing apps and software I needed for my office work), all Hell broke loose... Blue Screens every so often and all had to do with the ATI video driver.

How I solved the issue (at least for my problem)? I uninstall the Catalyst from Control Panel, restarted in safe mode, used CCleaner to get rid of any instances on the registry, restarted again, went to windows Device Manager/Display Adapter/Drivers and clicked on the Uninstall tab. Restarted again, and use the drivers that came with the CD.

Click to expand...

Something tells me that it indeed is the Catalyst driver that is creating some sort of conflict with the games, since it has its own anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering settings, why would I want that? Each game has its own settings, forcing any other would create conflicts! (I'm so pissed off XD maybe that isn't even the problem) But yeah, even if I disable everything on Catalyst the game still crashes. I tried uninstalling Catalyst but then I had no driver for the GPU, I even lost the aero and everything, how can I get rid of Catalyst but still be able to use my GPU?? I have no installation CD's, I asked for them but they told me everything was on the Acer website ... but it's the same, it doesn't work

heeelp

Click to expand...

Ok first of all what driver version is being used ?

Second since the 6800 series came out the drivers have been nothing but trouble .

From experience ,I think you should choose the 11.1 and install the hotfix that pretty much will make it stable .

I might add did you OC your rig ? If not it is the driver the best worst case scenerio here is to push drivers back to the 10.10 which is the first driver that was made for this series .

One more thing please don't blame the program all together as nothing ever trully works like it should all the time ,you should be open to all sorts of issues especially when putting together a machine like your's.

Finally ..........If you let windows select the driver for you that is probally why it doesn't work ,I know you are asking us for help but i would do a little more reseach on the drivers before blasting the whole thing to hell ,just a little advice from someone with issues with the ATI drivers



By the way any of these games happen to be steam games ?

you can right click on the game and verify integrity game cache ...this also crashes alot of games if your files are corrupted but only if you use steam to launch the games though

I run in 64bit and games run fine..
Is your machine running the latest bios update? Also drivers such as chipset, networking and sound are all equally as important as the gpu version so please make sure these are updated. (apologies if you have already done so).

Lastly I know you said you were sure it wasn't a heat problem but do you know what your actual temps are?

sygnus21 said:

Other than people having driver issues like any other driver issue they may experience with a whole host of hardware including Nvidia, or cough cough Windows itself. Where is proof that CCC "sucks" other then your conjecture???

The OP needs real world help with a real world issue..... not an opinion on a piece of software you don't use.

Click to expand...

I thought I was giving him real world help since I just had the issue.
I didn't want to type or post the many sites I visited and read on that problem so I thought I just shortened it a bit but you are right, Nvidia has had issues as well but I find it easier than ATI to find stand-alone drivers instead of having to download the whole Catalyst thing from the ATI site. Again, this could be because I hardly ever use ATI so I was hoping you guys would jump in and point him to the driver only

If you have a direct link, I would also like to have it as I would like to update my own drivers w/o the need to install the CCC.

AstaLaVista said:

If you have a direct link, I would also like to have it as I would like to update my own drivers w/o the need to install the CCC.

Click to expand...

As for installing ATI drivers without CCC - Let me post that for you - ATI Radeon

As for finding drivers, you coud just go to AMD.com and click "Support & Drivers" - Global Provider of Innovative Graphics, Processors and Media Solutions | AMD

Solarstarshines said:

From experience ,I think you should choose the 11.1 and install the hotfix that pretty much will make it stable .

Click to expand...

Ok let's see, no, I'm not doing OC'ing or any other fancy maneuver whatsoever , the stock frequency of my processor is 2.0 Ghz and it goes up to 2.6 Ghz with the Turbo boost thing (it does it by it self and that seems to be how it works on default settings). I've been looking for a suitable driver by myself, I'm not relying on windows to do it itself, and these are not steam games.

Yeah I've been doing research and tried many drivers, patches for the games, actualizations (windows', the games' and catalyst's), and compatibility modes, but none have proved efficient

Btw I downloaded and installed the 11.1 Catalyst install and the hotfix but it does not work what should I do now?

Since you have a laptop you need to go to your laptop manufacturer and get the Windows 7 drivers for your AMD Radeon HD 6850M video card. This whole issue you are having is because you are trying to use the wrong drivers!

"M" is for Mobility thus you need the "mobility" drivers. None of the drivers listed below will work for your card!



Bottom line is you need to first try and get the drivers from Acer. If that doesn't work you could try here.... AMD Radeon - though I didn't see the 6800 Mobility series drivers.

Good luck.

sygnus21 said:

Bottom line is you need to first try and get the drivers from Acer. If that doesn't work you could try here.... AMD Radeon - though I didn't see the 6800 Mobility series drivers.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

You're so right, the driver provided by Acer is the one that works the most , it is also the one that I had from the beginning and brought me to this forum looking for help this 6850M driver provided by Acer is the one that leads to my games crashing after 5min of gameplay, any other driver, catalyst version or hotfix proposed through this post led to my games not even starting up, so I'm here again after all this installs and uninstalls just where I begun

About the AMD website, they indeed just show you the mobility graphic cards specs and features, but no driver whatsoever...

Looks like I'm having no luck so far...

kemical said:

I run in 64bit and games run fine..
Is your machine running the latest bios update? Also drivers such as chipset, networking and sound are all equally as important as the gpu version so please make sure these are updated. (apologies if you have already done so).

Lastly I know you said you were sure it wasn't a heat problem but do you know what your actual temps are?

Click to expand...

You got 64bit and your games run fine.. what is you GPU? is it AMD (mobile version)? cuz I think that's the problem, these drivers don't work properly and there seems to be no update or patch for it so far... I now updated the BIOS but the problem persists, thanx for the advice though

And yeah, I may be wrong since I don't actually know the current temp nor do I know what temp it should be, but I have done no modifications to the hardware so it has the manufacturers default config, and I got the notebook 2 weeks ago. I mean, I don't do any CPU or GPU intensive tasks for hours and then jump into gaming right after ... the laptop belly doesn't feel specially hot (I know I'm being too subjective, but c'mon I don't think that's the problem)... I'd say its a drivers problem.. right?

Needless to say, the games crash after 5 min of gameplay, is that enough for it to overheat? I hear the fan working with a consistent and smooth bsssssss like a whisper in your ear XD

Tlakoyo said:

You're so right, the driver provided by Acer is the one that works the most , it is also the one that I had from the beginning and brought me to this forum looking for help this 6850M driver provided by Acer is the one that leads to my games crashing after 5min of gameplay, any other driver, catalyst version or hotfix proposed through this post led to my games not even starting up, so I'm here again after all this installs and uninstalls just where I begun

About the AMD website, they indeed just show you the mobility graphic cards specs and features, but no driver whatsoever...

Click to expand...

As for video card drivers if Acer is the only one that has the 6850M drivers for your card you'll have to use them. Why there are giving you problems I don't know. But if you'll suffering heating issues ie card overheating after five minutes you could have a cooling issue. Notebooks do tend to get hot but I don't understand why you shouldn't be able to play a game for more than 5 minutes. You might give Acer tech support a call.

As for not finding Mobility Drivers at AMD's site.... did you click any of the drop down boxes? cause this clearly shows mobility drivers.....



Unfortunately they don't show the 6800 series drivers though

Tlakoyo said:

kemical said:

I run in 64bit and games run fine..
Is your machine running the latest bios update? Also drivers such as chipset, networking and sound are all equally as important as the gpu version so please make sure these are updated. (apologies if you have already done so).

Lastly I know you said you were sure it wasn't a heat problem but do you know what your actual temps are?

Click to expand...

You got 64bit and your games run fine.. what is you GPU? is it AMD (mobile version)? cuz I think that's the problem, these drivers don't work properly and there seems to be no update or patch for it so far... I now updated the BIOS but the problem persists, thanx for the advice though

Click to expand...

As for gaming on Windows 7 64-bit..... I game just fine with my ATI 6950 using the latest Catalyst drivers (11.2). Most gamers here are using the 64-bit version just fine for gaming.

Some of the older games played on the OS.....
Deus EX - (though graphics need tweaking)
Far Cry (the original)
All the FEAR games
Half-Life 1 & 2 series (steam versions)
Crysis

New(er) games
Dead Space 1 & 2
Fallout 3/Fallout New Vegas
Mass Effect 1 & 2
Bioshock 1 & 2
Dragon Age/Dragon Age 2 demo

Point???? Windows 7 handles games just fine if you have the right hardware. See my system specs.

Anyways I have no other suggestions for you at this moment but you can check this site/forum here - Radeon Mobility support - Rage3D Discussion Area. Maybe they can help. I'm also registered there but I don't visit that section since I don't have a laptop.

BTW have you looked through my tips guide? - Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues

Good luck

Tlakoyo said:

sygnus21 said:

Bottom line is you need to first try and get the drivers from Acer. If that doesn't work you could try here.... AMD Radeon - though I didn't see the 6800 Mobility series drivers.

Good luck.

Click to expand...

You're so right, the driver provided by Acer is the one that works the most , it is also the one that I had from the beginning and brought me to this forum looking for help this 6850M driver provided by Acer is the one that leads to my games crashing after 5min of gameplay, any other driver, catalyst version or hotfix proposed through this post led to my games not even starting up, so I'm here again after all this installs and uninstalls just where I begun

About the AMD website, they indeed just show you the mobility graphic cards specs and features, but no driver whatsoever...

Looks like I'm having no luck so far...

kemical said:

I run in 64bit and games run fine..
Is your machine running the latest bios update? Also drivers such as chipset, networking and sound are all equally as important as the gpu version so please make sure these are updated. (apologies if you have already done so).

Lastly I know you said you were sure it wasn't a heat problem but do you know what your actual temps are?

Click to expand...

You got 64bit and your games run fine.. what is you GPU? is it AMD (mobile version)? cuz I think that's the problem, these drivers don't work properly and there seems to be no update or patch for it so far... I now updated the BIOS but the problem persists, thanx for the advice though

And yeah, I may be wrong since I don't actually know the current temp nor do I know what temp it should be, but I have done no modifications to the hardware so it has the manufacturers default config, and I got the notebook 2 weeks ago. I mean, I don't do any CPU or GPU intensive tasks for hours and then jump into gaming right after ... the laptop belly doesn't feel specially hot (I know I'm being too subjective, but c'mon I don't think that's the problem)... I'd say its a drivers problem.. right?

Needless to say, the games crash after 5 min of gameplay, is that enough for it to overheat? I hear the fan working with a consistent and smooth bsssssss like a whisper in your ear XD

Click to expand...

It is not unknown for temps to be high even with new machines and so just for peace of mind I'd rather know than not.
Try this free app:
MSI Afterburner

This will allow you to monitor temps as well as a whole host of other features.

Lastly, if this machine is only two weeks old I would ask if it has a warranty? If so, why not return it and let them sort it out... After all you've paid good money for what should be a working machine.

Hi

I may not help but- I was reading thinking. All you guys talk about is the gpu. What about the min cpu specs for them games. Would not most older or newer games min be like 2.4 or 2.7gig. Is turbo boosts meant to run for hours of gaming- if so how long can a lap top put up with the heat. Folks have heat probs in full tower cases 100 fans or wet cooling when gaming. how much more of a prob can heat be for a lap top?

I mean no harm- I am just asking my self and trying to help maybe- but I have never had a lap top- maybe they are special or something min specs do not matter so much, but again you are talking about gaming on a lap top and not just cards 5 card draw what ever. I do know mobile stuff uses less power- less heat etc. My lap top would be like a large phone for surfing the net. maybe play hl2 if need be but thats it.

I use amd intel ati nv what ever is best for my money budget- I prefer nv vid cards mostly for physx maybe- nv seems to have less game problems in general. I think the largest prob is gaming on lap tops, maybe if the cpu was 2.7 gig or more would help- All the other specs seem nice- great for general web surfing what ever- not a real game machine.

Have you tried maybe a valave game like hl2- it has low system specs- you can try it just to see if it works- Maybe you can lower game quality settings in them games- Google- maybe you can start the games in dx9 just to see if they work. I am not sure if you can right click the game exe' or not and get them to start in dx9 maybe- but you can google or some here might know.

Maybe you can tweak the game' from its main file before trying to run it. Check for some tweak guides for the games- might be the best for fastest way to find to the right files and line to change with note pad what ever. Lower shadows to medium lower other settings to medium if need be. It might not start at all if your cpu is not powerful enough?

It could be as simple as your cpu is not enough for the games- maybe turbo does not kick in or count until after the game has started- maybe it is seeing just 2gig and does not even try- I dont know. I would also guess drivers- chip set- or sound maybe.

I hope you get it going- seems near half the game probs are lap tops. Good luck.

@ ezeht, I would agree. However the OP has stated he has a GPU drivers issue.

Anyways if you look through my tips guide - Tips on Troubleshooting Game Issues (which was linked) systems requirements are at the top of the list

Now, a word about Minimum Vs Recommended system specs for games. Most gamers are aware that in order to get the best possible performance out of a game they need to "exceed" the "Recommended" requirements of said game. Notice I said "exceed the Recommended". Check out Fallout 3's System requirements. Really??? I think we can all agree that Minimum means barely plays at the lowest settings. Honestly….Don’t expect too much out of today’s games using "Minimum" System Requirements. My opinion

Click to expand...

Whether the games the OP is trying to play meets the minimum system requirements or not is something they need to check out for themselves. If you are going to buy a game you should know if your system can run it.... before hand.

The other thing you bring up is the load put on a laptop during a gaming session. I've never had a laptop myself, but if you're going to do some intensive tasks like gaming, then you need to make sure the PC is properly cooled. Since we don't physically have the machine we can't say if the machine is properly cooled or not.... If the OP says the system is cooled, then we have to take his/her word for it.

Anyways I'm of the mind that if the machine is designed to game, then it should be designed with cooling in mind. Since the OP has a 6850M GPU I'm of the opinion that cooling isn't an issue, and that the machine should be able to game longer than an hour.

My two cents.