ATI Catalyst 13.1 Black Screen/ BSOD

[ezekiel2517]

Hello, and thanks for your help. I recently upgraded my computer to Windows 8 (a clean install), and was updating all of my drivers. Everything was going fine until I got to the drivers for my Crossfire 6870/6850 graphics cards. During the installation of the latest (13.1) catalyst drivers, my screen flashes as normal during a driver update, but then freezes on a black screen. On a hard restart I get a BSOD on atikmpag.sys. This issue also occurred on windows 7 with anything past the 12.11 drivers. I tried manually installing the drivers in safe mode, which works but still BSODs on a restart. The most progress I've made was getting to my desktop with the 13.1 drivers manually installed, but the BSOD occurred after a restart. I'm not overclocking anything. Thanks in advance.

Specs:
Windows 8
AMD Phenom II x6 1075T (stock)
Crossfire HD6870/6850
128gb Crucial M4 SSD
Asus M5A97

Current drivers:
Catalyst 12.10
All other drivers (chipset, SATA etc) all up to date

 

[choruminho]

Hello, and thanks for your help. I recently upgraded my computer to Windows 8 (a clean install), and was updating all of my drivers. Everything was going fine until I got to the drivers for my Crossfire 6870/6850 graphics cards. During the installation of the latest (13.1) catalyst drivers, my screen flashes as normal during a driver update, but then freezes on a black screen. On a hard restart I get a BSOD on atikmpag.sys. This issue also occurred on windows 7 with anything past the 12.11 drivers. I tried manually installing the drivers in safe mode, which works but still BSODs on a restart. The most progress I've made was getting to my desktop with the 13.1 drivers manually installed, but the BSOD occurred after a restart. I'm not overclocking anything. Thanks in advance.

Specs:
Windows 8
AMD Phenom II x6 1075T (stock)
Crossfire HD6870/6850
128gb Crucial M4 SSD

Current drivers:
Catalyst 12.10
All other drivers (chipset, SATA etc) all up to date

Same problem here. 4 hours trying to resolve and nothing. :/

With the 12.10 works fine?

My Specs:
Windows 8 Pro
Asus M5A97 EVO
AMD Phenom II x4 965 BE (stock)
2x XFX XXX HD6850 (CrosfireX)
Geil Enhance Corsa 1600Mhz 8G (2 x 4G)
SevenTeam ZAF 750w

 

[ezekiel2517]

That's interesting, we have almost identical specs (same motherboard same OS, and similar crossfire setup) and the same problem. Could it be an issue with the latest drivers and our hardware?

 

[choruminho]

Yes, it could be. Maybe a new mobo BIOS resolve that. I'm using the latest version (1604), and you?

But, please, answer my question about the 12.10 driver version. It works? Because if not, I'll back for Windows 7.

 

[ezekiel2517]

Yes, it could be. Maybe a new mobo BIOS resolve that. I'm using the latest version (1604), and you?

But, please, answer my question about the 12.10 driver version. It works? Because if not, I'll back for Windows 7.

There is a 1605 version of my motherboard, the non-evo version. I might give that a try. Also, the 12.1 drivers work, these are the ones that windows auto-installs.

 

[DesperadoC]

I have the same problem. Only my PC now refuses to boot claiming hard drive failure. Boots fine on integrated GPU though!
I got blue screen during first 13.1 update attempt. Tried again and didn't blue screen, but after catalyst finished it said both display and hdmi audio drivers failed to install. I then tried to reinstall 12.11 beta driver, only to be greeted with another blue screen, and haven't been able to boot up on discrete GPU since!

Win 7
Intel i5 3570K
Radeon 7870 GHz Edition
ASRock Fatal1ty Z77
Sandisk Extreme III 120GB

 

[DesperadoC]

Doesn't look like its down to your setups!

 

[ezekiel2517]

I just tried to install the 13.2 beta drivers, with an interesting result. I got my computer to reboot after disabling all startup items. However, after another restart I got the same BSOD.

 

[philrom]

I just tried to install the 13.2 beta drivers, with an interesting result. I got my computer to reboot after disabling all startup items. However, after another restart I got the same BSOD.

Hello,

I did this today and it seems might be helping some of my driver issues. I will know more after some longer stability testing, but so far no more BSOD and it was usually happened soon after start up, so...

I found out that ULPS saves power by sort of disabling the second card when it is not needed.

Here is how to do it:

Start up the system in SAFE MODE so you don't BSOD again.

Go to registry and disable ULPS:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\ControlSet001\\Control \\Cl ass\\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]

Change "EnableUlps" to 0 under the 0000 and 0001 or 0003 keys.

Hope this helps

*FieldOfFire*

 

[philrom]

Oh and by the way, I am using 13.1 drivers, Win7 64bit and have 2X 6970's in CF.

 

[philrom]

Further more...

Every time you uninstall then reinstall any future drivers will reset the Enable ULPS back to '1', so bear this in mind next time you update drivers, as you will likely require going through the process once again.

 

[ezekiel2517]

I've managed to identify the problem! I unplugged my second graphics card and managed to install the latest drivers fine. When the card was plugged in, however, the issue came back. The issue is definitely with crossfire.

 

[philrom]

Once again, I too am using crossfire. Try out my method, let me know how it goes. You can always change it back. I always kept both cards in btw.

 

[03protege]

Thanks Phil, I disabled "EnableULPS" in safe mode, restarted, and it booted right up.

Also so everyone knows you can just search "enableulps" under the "Find" function in regedit. Make sure you edit the Binary registry entry and not the alphanumeric.

Also I only modified EnableULPS under "0000"

 

[M3TAl]

I'm on W8 and for the life of me can't install 13.1 or 13.2 beta. It freezes the entire system during install every time requiring a reboot, no BSOD though. On W7 12.11 betas would BSOD though. Have zero problems with 12.10.

Gigabyte 970A-UD3
Crossfire 5770's
X4 955

Haven't tried to remove one of the 5770's or the registry tweak. So for the registry tweak do you uninstall 12.10, boot safe mode change value, reboot and install 13.1/13.2 beta?

 

[ezekiel2517]

I'm on W8 and for the life of me can't install 13.1 or 13.2 beta. It freezes the entire system during install every time requiring a reboot, no BSOD though. On W7 12.11 betas would BSOD though. Have zero problems with 12.10.

Gigabyte 970A-UD3
Crossfire 5770's
X4 955

Haven't tried to remove one of the 5770's or the registry tweak. So for the registry tweak do you uninstall 12.10, boot safe mode change value, reboot and install 13.1/13.2 beta?

I too am wondering what the procedure is for the registry tweak. Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Hello,

I did this today and it seems might be helping some of my driver issues. I will know more after some longer stability testing, but so far no more BSOD and it was usually happened soon after start up, so...

I found out that ULPS saves power by sort of disabling the second card when it is not needed.

Here is how to do it:

Start up the system in SAFE MODE so you don't BSOD again.

Go to registry and disable ULPS:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\ControlSet001\\Control \\Cl ass\\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]

Change "EnableUlps" to 0 under the 0000 and 0001 or 0003 keys.

Hope this helps

*FieldOfFire*

I tried this both by uninstalling privious CCC changing enableUPLS to 0 then attempting install and by attempting install then changing enableUPLS to 0 in safe mode both are not working. I have also done a combination where after each step I make I ensure the value is still 0. During the install process the second time my screen goes black it doesn't recover and the BSOD comes.


Windows 7 home
AMD FX-4100 CPU (4x 3.60GHz/4MB L2 Cache)
2x AMD Radeon HD 6950 - 2GB - HIS IceQ X Turbo - Core: 840MHz - crossfire
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 -- AMD 970

 

[Faydes]

I tried this both by uninstalling privious CCC changing enableUPLS to 0 then attempting install and by attempting install then changing enableUPLS to 0 in safe mode both are not working. I have also done a combination where after each step I make I ensure the value is still 0. During the install process the second time my screen goes black it doesn't recover and the BSOD comes.


Windows 7 home
AMD FX-4100 CPU (4x 3.60GHz/4MB L2 Cache)
2x AMD Radeon HD 6950 - 2GB - HIS IceQ X Turbo - Core: 840MHz - crossfire
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 -- AMD 970

same issue here.

 

[M3TAl]

I would like some acknowledgment from AMD that this problem exists. They don't seem to be aware of it.

 

[Faydes]

i have been forced to use ati driver uninstaller and stay on 12.8.

 

[M3TAl]

I don't have that option. The uninstaller corrupts W8.

 

[Dargonplay]

Hello, and thanks for your help. I recently upgraded my computer to Windows 8 (a clean install), and was updating all of my drivers. Everything was going fine until I got to the drivers for my Crossfire 6870/6850 graphics cards. During the installation of the latest (13.1) catalyst drivers, my screen flashes as normal during a driver update, but then freezes on a black screen. On a hard restart I get a BSOD on atikmpag.sys. This issue also occurred on windows 7 with anything past the 12.11 drivers. I tried manually installing the drivers in safe mode, which works but still BSODs on a restart. The most progress I've made was getting to my desktop with the 13.1 drivers manually installed, but the BSOD occurred after a restart. I'm not overclocking anything. Thanks in advance.

Specs:
Windows 8
AMD Phenom II x6 1075T (stock)
Crossfire HD6870/6850
128gb Crucial M4 SSD
Asus M5A97

Current drivers:
Catalyst 12.10
All other drivers (chipset, SATA etc) all up to date

Hi people, You'll Thank me so Hard for this But I got the solution for BSOD On Catalyst 13.1 or above.

The problem is with Microsoft loading an old driver for new hardware when you first load the OS.

Only needs a simple fix, yet almost impossible to find. Catalyst Install Manager - ATI HDMI Audio Device will add an Audio device rather than replace the HDMI Audio Device driver Microsoft loads at OS install time. Or the driver is ignored all together because Microsoft already loaded a driver at install time for that device.

When installing the Catalyst Control Center choose custom installation and exclude the "HDMI Audio driver" (Which is causing your system to get a pretty BSOD When installing) I recommend a clean Installation.

 

[Faydes]

did dargonplay's fix work anyone?

EDIT: fix did NOT work, just wasted about an hour of my life doing that.

 

[M3TAl]

I've never installed the HDMI audio driver once, ever (I always do custom install and exclude Audio, SDK, etc.). So... not sure how that would affect me.

 

[ezekiel2517]

It seems like the ULPS tweak didn't work for me, or that I did it incorrectly. What is the correct procedure for it?