ATI Driver Crashing

Zerxer · 26 Jun 2010

Alright, time for an update here. I finally got her to uninstall the video drivers. Before she had a chance to restart the computer (but after the uninstall said it completed successfully), the computer crashed and restarted itself. By this point then, the drivers should be uninstalled. After it booted back up, it crashed again shortly after. After the 3rd bootup (while I had her downloading memtest), she got the popup notification from the system tray again saying that the ATI Driver has crashed. By this point, we didn't reinstall the fresh drivers, so there were no ATI Drivers installed (except the generic ones I guess). I'm not sure if this means something much worse.

Anyways, memtest is currently running. It's done about 2 passes so far and 0 errors. I'm really hoping it does error at some point. Replacing the RAM would be easy enough.

EDIT: Also, figured I'd mention that it seems to be getting worse. It's never just crashed right away like it's doing now. And it's even messing up on her in-game, see this screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/jrq2j.png. The weird thing about the screenshot is that the game was actually black for her when she took it. When she pasted it in paint though it was like that.

Faladu · 27 Jun 2010

Just in case too, I'd fall back to Catalyst v10.3, I had to for Future Pinball, 10.4 and later, doesn't render the table graphics.

Always fall back a driver version or two when weird issues occur is my motto.

All current and old drivers and video card utils can be found at guru3d.com

Zerxer · 27 Jun 2010

Last update (hopefully). Left memtest run all day and night. It ran 20 passes with 0 errors. Noticed that her resolution was still at 1680x1050 even after uninstalling the drivers, thought that was a bit odd. Got her to get driver sweeper and run it, which knocked her resolution down, and had her watch some YouTube vids before reinstalling. No crashes or errors or anything. Got her to install the latest drivers (since there were newer ones out now anyways) and well so far so good, no problems yet.

Thanks to all the responses here. Seems to definitely have been corrupt drivers. At least, we're still hoping. It's only been maybe 45 minutes since doing it but still no crashes or messed up colors.

Zerxer · 27 Jun 2010

Ugh, I hate to do this, but another update... she checked back on the computer after a couple of hours (left it on to download a game on Steam) and the colors were messed up again. Rebooted and went into a game and it crashed shortly after. Did this two more times as well. So, it's not the RAM and not the video drivers (I'm guessing?). Is it now possible that the video card is just dying? Let's see.. I bought it last August and then replaced it with a 5870 in December. Between December and May, it had been doing nothing except sitting around in one of those static bags that they package the video cards in. Then I put it in that computer. I don't know what else to think of.

Fumz · 27 Jun 2010

What psu are you using in the rig?

Zerxer · 27 Jun 2010

Fumz said:

What psu are you using in the rig?

Uhhh.. I'm pretty sure it's this. I know it was an MSI TurboStream and I'm pretty sure 600w.

Newegg.com - MSI TurboStream 600W 600W ATX 12V V2.2/ EPS 12V/ BTX SLI Ready Active PFC Power Supply

I never had any problems with it though. Even used it in my current rig until I swapped it for a 750 corsair.

Fumz · 27 Jun 2010

Do you have access to a power supply tester? I'm not saying the problem lies with the psu, but it's possible. This one has an exceptionally short warranty of only 16 months.

Here's the psu: MSI Turbostream 600 W Power Supply Review | Hardware Secrets, and here's some background on the actual makers of the psu, Solytech, which is just one of their many aka's: Allied AL-D500EXP 500W power supply review Review

If I were you, I'd see if you can a) test the psu and b) if possible, test the machine out with a different (read: better) psu, like the one you're using now.

It could still be your RAM? Just because it passes memtest doesn't necessarily mean it's all good. Have you run any benchmarks/burn in apps/stress tests in Windows? Also, I'm not sure if you mentioned it before, but, having tried several driver versions on this machine, have you run driver sweeper in safe mode to clean out all traces of previously installed drivers?

Zerxer · 27 Jun 2010

I personally can't do anything. I'm in Pennsylvania and she's in Texas so I've basically been trying to walk her through everything so far. I'm not sure if she has access to a tester, most likely not. I had replaced that PSU because I was having issues with my own PC and thought that might be the problem. My PC would randomly shut off, but not completely. Anyways, turns out my problem was a known problem with my old motherboard.

Testing the computer out with different hardware (PSU, video card, RAM) would be very ideal but since I can't physically access it, we've been trying to pin it as a software problem. I don't have any spares of either of those components to just send to her to test out either.

I'm still kind of hoping it's just the RAM. I would think colors going screwy and sometimes completely crashing would make the RAM a highly likely suspect, just wish memtest would have failed as to make this easier. Haven't done any other kind of tests like that though.

She ran driver sweeper in safe mode before installing the latest drivers (10.6). She hadn't run it when reinstalling the 10.4 though the first time we tested different drivers.

Fumz · 27 Jun 2010

You said you had to manually set the timings; what did you set them to and what voltage were you giving it?

1.8 volts, 7-7-7-20? OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 Platinum Edition OCZ Technology

**edit**

Also, did we find out if the memory ever made the qualified vendor list? Some boards just flat out do not like certain kits/timings. This may very well be the case... both products are just fine independently, but together,

These timings are a bit high for 1066MHz, which you typically see running 5-5-5-15 or lower... or are they running at 1333MHz?

Zerxer · 27 Jun 2010

Yeah, I set them to whatever OCZ listed. I didn't have to change the voltage since it was already correct. You can see the RAM info from this picture she sent me of memtest working: https://i.imgur.com/9nU9W.png

Someone on the first page mentioned that it's not in the qualified list for that motherboard, actually. I figured memtest might fail if that were the case though. As I mentioned earlier in the thread too, I did have problems with this RAM initially. The computer would just lock up and I'd have to turn it off. Did the same thing in my PC. But that was because the bios didn't have the correct timings entered so I guess that's sort of moot.