XFX 6950 driver hell! Which version works?  

I just completed my new build and everything went great. W7 started up and I began the mobo driver updates and extras that come on the Crosshair 4F disk. I put in the AMD Radeon graphics driver disk and it told me the version on the disk was old and to download the new one, I chose the version for W7 64, I believe it was 11.1 or .2, downloaded and installed, reboot and the black screen of death. I could tell windows was there, I even typed in my password and hit enter but then the windows logo just sat there and stayed, nothing else. I had to go into safe mode and "roll back" the drivers, after I tried to update them in device manager which failed, then it loaded up and displayed fine after the roll back but told me the proper drivers are not found and I should install the latest ones which I had just done. I then just decided to install the ones straight from the dvd, installed, reboot and same black screen. Did the safe mode thing again just so I could get online to search for the cure, I cannot find one. I tried the last three versions of drivers going back by date, no go. I said F-it and with no security logged into here to post this. My specs are in my profile, but I know all my parts are compatible with each other. What version of drivers should I try? All installs on the crosshair disk went fine, many reboots with the display and W7 starting up fine. It was not until I installed the AMD drivers for my video card that the black screen started. Hardware build went great, software build no going so well. Any advice appreciated.

Current version video card drivers are 8.801.0.0 I can longer "roll back" so I'm stuck in safe mode.

p5bdkw said:

This is the link, maybe try it again
ATI Radeon

Try just the driver
ATI Radeon

Yep, did both newer versions already, I beleive one is missing APP which is opencl I think, the other is the full version, neither worked. I'd love to try just the driver but in safe mode it refuses to install. I'm in network safe mode, if I downloaded it and switched to command prompt safe mode may it work? No idea, I've been at this for many hours and don't have much left in me. I may just RMA the card and try a new one, replacing and installing new drivers has never been this difficult for me before.

I believe so. My card has two 6-pin pci-e power adapters and both are snug. My PSU is 850watt with good amps so I know that's not the issue. My next idea though is to just disconnect the card entirely and reattach it and see what happens. I really can't think of anything else to do.

I'm going to reinstall W7 first, then do all the updates and try the new 11.1 driver package. I'll let you know.

Disconnect any secondary display device such as a TV/projector etc (if you have one connected).

recommend you read this guide:
TweakGuides.com - ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide

- make sure that you have .NET Framework installed..
- do a complete removal of all existing ATI drivers,
- scrub the system with CCleaner and start again from scratch
- it's a bit fussy but the guide gives full instructions..

Shark007 said:

Disconnect any secondary display device such as a TV/projector etc (if you have one connected).

I tried the easiest solution first and what do you know, it worked. Thanks a million.

I did have my second monitor connected via HDMI and I just disconnected it and reinstalled new driver package and boom, worked. On restart my screen did freeze and I had to hard start it but I had to download and install a few more updates where I had to restart a few times and it works great. Funny thing is, now when pc is on I reattached my second monitor via HDMI and the screen froze, I disconnected it and it went back to normal. What's with that? Now I'm going to have to troubleshoot and maybe start another topic on how the heck I can get my second monitor to work, not to mention my third which I bought a DVI-mini Display Port adapter for because I was told to run three monitors independently on W7 I needed the third to run off one of the two mini Port Displays instead of my second DVI.

Thanks again. Will be sure to give you a bump or whatever they call it on here.