Solved XFX 6950 driver hell! Which version works?

[psychotron]

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.

 

[Sardonicus]

This is the link, maybe try it again
ATI Radeon

Try just the driver
http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx#2

 

[psychotron]

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.

 

[Sardonicus]

I know you probably already checked, but are you power connections to the card, OK?

 

[psychotron]

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.

 

[Sardonicus]

That sound's like a good idea.

 

[Shark007]

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

 

[BugMeister]

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..

 

[Maguscreed]

If the problems persist, the reason I still use XFX is because of their good rma policy.
They will put you through some steps, but if the card continues to give you issue they will accept a rma and are rather quick about it too. When I got this 5850, the first one had a strange performance issue and would sometimes not detect on the system at boot.
I had a replacement 7 days later. With a much more recent revision that has worked beyond expectation ever since.

You also may need a bios update, ASUS released a lot of bios updates for support of the 5xxx and 6xxx cards.

I've been in the same situation as you very recently, bios update first.
I don't normally recommend them, but in this situation I believe you may NEED it.

 

[psychotron]

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.

 

[psychotron]

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

 

[psychotron]

I know you probably already checked, but are you power connections to the card, OK?

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.

 

[psychotron]

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 W7 and my mobo/video card software side. IDK It was aggravating to say the least.

 

[Maguscreed]

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.

 

[OldMX]

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

 

[psychotron]

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.

 

[Maguscreed]

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.

 

[psychotron]

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.

 

[stormy13]

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.

 

[psychotron]

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.