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

 

[StraToN]

Hi ! Just a word to add my voice to the subject, as I am concerned as well with this issue.
Config :
CPU : FX8150
MB : M5A7 LE R2.0 (chipset 970)
CrossfireX HD9750

For the moment, I unplugged the crossfire bridge between my 2 GPUs. But, if I reset it and try to activate Crossfire in CCC, I get a black screen. All I can do is hard rebooting, and the screen goes black on Windows login screen. Updating CCC produces the same effect.
Interestingly enough, I also use Ubuntu/Linux and the problem doesn't occur when CrossfireX is activated.

 

[M3TAl]

Works in Linux, that is indeed very interesting!

 

[kickthedamcat]

This sucks

Update: this sucks

 

[arkj93]

yes this does suck. AMD reportedly updated 13.6 beta again yesterday, has anyone tried it yet?

UPDATE: catalyst 13.6 BETA2 still doesn't correct the issue. I understand a beta driver not being able to fix the issue yet but if AMD releases their next stable driver pack without fixing this issue I am going to switch to intel/nvidia.

 

[kickthedamcat]

yes this does suck. AMD reportedly updated 13.6 beta again yesterday, has anyone tried it yet?

UPDATE: catalyst 13.6 BETA2 still doesn't correct the issue. I understand a beta driver not being able to fix the issue yet but if AMD releases their next stable driver pack without fixing this issue I am going to switch to intel/nvidia.

Yea i'm gonna stick with amd motherboard for now (processor only try and get nvidia chipset) only because amd processors are a lot cheaper but as for graphic cards it will be NVIDIA and i'm not trying crossfire or sli ill just buy 1 decent nvidia graphic card

 

[arkj93]

That sounds like a wise decision, maybe I will do that too as it is too expensive to buy a new mobo, intel processor and graphics card. Seems like AMD has a serious problem as a company though if they can't get chipsets DESIGNED to work with their processors/GPUs to work. If they can't fix it in 13.5 or 13.6 stable then I will never be supporting them again.

 

[swagswagswag]

That sounds like a wise decision, maybe I will do that too as it is too expensive to buy a new mobo, intel processor and graphics card. Seems like AMD has a serious problem as a company though if they can't get chipsets DESIGNED to work with their processors/GPUs to work. If they can't fix it in 13.5 or 13.6 stable then I will never be supporting them again.

thats what i started to think. have not played games on my amd system more than half year and later then thay call it too old.

 

[antony209494]

OK I couldn't wait anymore and upgraded to an 990FXA-UD3 with a pair of 4GB Ripjaws 1600Mhz and I finally got rid of the problem. I will keep following this thread however because this is something that has to be fixed pretty damn quick and I am interested to see if AMD actually cares for their customers.

 

[kickthedamcat]

man I understand they want to put amd graphics hardware in the new playstation and maybe the new xbox, that sounds crazy to me lol.

 

[Mahisse]

man I understand they want to put amd graphics hardware in the new playstation and maybe the new xbox, that sounds crazy to me lol.

Not really though since their APUs are quite powerful and this would never happen for a console since all driver updates for the hardware would be tested thoroughly before release. But I understand your point

 

[kickthedamcat]

No one had any luck with there crossfire yet. no workarounds or any thing.

 

[elroy71]

Nope. No progress here and im loosing patience fast. If i am forced to buy a new motherboard there is no way in hell its gonna be a 990FX, im going x87 and i5 after this mess.

 

[kickthedamcat]

Nope. No progress here and im loosing patience fast. If i am forced to buy a new motherboard there is no way in hell its gonna be a 990FX, im going x87 and i5 after this mess.

understandable.

 

[M3TAl]

I got rid of crossfire and went with a 7870 XT. Don't think I'll be going back to crossfire or sli for a very long time. Too much hassle, even not including this driver debacle.

Some games simply either don't work with crossfire or half work...

 

[mpgrimes]

Now I have run the system image restore, it still doesnt work.

I cant boot to Windows without the BSOD with both cards plugged in.

Works fine on 13.1 with just the one card, but with both, no chance.

I dont understand how trying to install 13.3 has corrupted my Windows install, and my image restore?

**edit**
Have now run system image restore again, this time chose the format C: option instead of overwrite files.

Works fine. Im now running Win 8 with driver 13.1 and HDMI audio working fine and both cards installed. CCC has X fire enabled and it is working.

Very strange. Im not going to try and install 13.3 again in case it corrupts my install.

Can you tell us if it worked for you ?
I have the same trouble with the 13.1 or superior drivers, BSOD with a Crossfire of 6850.
I went back to 12.10 and it worked but i do want to update.
Is a new installation of Windows solved the issue ? New windows and then install 13.1 or 13.3 drivers should work ?

system spec :
FX-8120
2x 6850
Asus M5A97Pro

funny, i am having this same issue, im thinking it is not juts a driver issue, but a driver/970 chipset issue, i have 2 6850, worked with all drivers fine on win 7 x64 when using it on my older q9450 intel board, crossfire and eyefinity, as soon as i changed to this 970 chipset amd board w 8120 cpu, it will not work when both cards are installed.

 

[kickthedamcat]

7870 looks like a good card, should be playing the latest games on high or highest settings with that(depending on your other hardware of coarse) , and you are right about xfire and games, for me only about 1 out of ten games had noticeably better performance and as for the other 90% there was either no difference in the frame speed or it was a lot lower. In saying that though the small amount of games that worked well with crossfire were defiantly worth having it.

 

[kickthedamcat]

Now I have run the system image restore, it still doesnt work.

I cant boot to Windows without the BSOD with both cards plugged in.

Works fine on 13.1 with just the one card, but with both, no chance.

I dont understand how trying to install 13.3 has corrupted my Windows install, and my image restore?

**edit**
Have now run system image restore again, this time chose the format C: option instead of overwrite files.

Works fine. Im now running Win 8 with driver 13.1 and HDMI audio working fine and both cards installed. CCC has X fire enabled and it is working.

Very strange. Im not going to try and install 13.3 again in case it corrupts my install.

Can you tell us if it worked for you ?
I have the same trouble with the 13.1 or superior drivers, BSOD with a Crossfire of 6850.
I went back to 12.10 and it worked but i do want to update.
Is a new installation of Windows solved the issue ? New windows and then install 13.1 or 13.3 drivers should work ?

system spec :
FX-8120
2x 6850
Asus M5A97Pro

funny, i am having this same issue, im thinking it is not juts a driver issue, but a driver/970 chipset issue, i have 2 6850, worked with all drivers fine on win 7 x64 when using it on my older q9450 intel board, crossfire and eyefinity, as soon as i changed to this 970 chipset amd board w 8120 cpu, it will not work when both cards are installed.

file a bug report with amd and also ask for support. http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D20B2F3EBB and http://support.amd.com/us/contacts/Pages/global-technical-support.aspx

 

[M3TAl]

7870 XT is actually even better than the 7870 . It's Tahiti LE (chips that didn't make the cut to be 7970's/7950's) and when oc'ed beats a stock 7950. Of course once you overclock the 7950 it beats the 7870 XT by the same margin as stock vs stock.

The games crossfire did work in was nice, nice indeed. BF3, Crysis1 & Warhead, etc... But all the games from that Humble Bundle with THQ games.... was horrible. Either didn't work at all or sort of worked but less performance than a single card.

Played Saints Row a ton (was a lot of fun) and it was worse than a single card. Graphics flickering/corruption in Darksiders, horrible performance in Red Faction.

 

[pbjenkins]

I'm sick of this. I've been dealing with this for 5 months. The GeForce GTX 760 was announced a couple of days ago. I will have mine on Monday via NewEgg. Sorry ATI you effed yourself and I will never buy another one of your cards again.

 

[kickthedamcat]

I'm sick of this. I've been dealing with this for 5 months. The GeForce GTX 760 was announced a couple of days ago. I will have mine on Monday via NewEgg. Sorry ATI you effed yourself and I will never buy another one of your cards again.

yea I'm doing the same, have my eye on a GeForce GTX650 Ti Boost 2gb new that I can get for a good price, my other cards I will keep one as a spare and sell the other to a friend, lol who will give me 100 Australian dollars

 

[kickthedamcat]

but at the same time I'm not in a hurry because one of my hd 7750 does good in newest games

 

[Lumpido]

Hi Guys .. I have been following this thread and interesting enough I wonder if this issue is the same one I am experiencing with a bunch of other people.

6850m + Intel HD 3000 120Hz .. drivers from around 13.1 onwards give a black screen (no backlight) during installation and on start up. People that have the 60Hz panel experience the backlight cutting out too but after restarting the laptop it works fine. I am trying to determine the root cause to this and the non working driver versions match up with the experience you guys are having. Please note that it is the backlight that turns off (you can still see the faint icons with a flashlight + no blue screen).

Just my 2 Cents. Maybe someone can shed more light on this.

 

[kickthedamcat]

Hi Guys .. I have been following this thread and interesting enough I wonder if this issue is the same one I am experiencing with a bunch of other people.

 

[kickthedamcat]

sorry messed up last msg mst have deleted text code

your problem does sound different to ours but maybe your issue is linked into a flaw similar to what we experience in the 13.1 ccc or lap top equivalent drivers, please tell amd. also from memory I had a similar problem with atikmpag.sys file or something similar and what I did to get around it and use my oldish laptop was to run msconfig and turn of start up items that disabled catalyst control centre ( stop all automatic processes for ccc from starting ) don't stop actual graphic driver though. that worked, but in doing so I had a power issue for windows powering down the display.

our problem is more the entire pc stops responding and I think I hear my hard drives park which would mean my pc turns off without telling the psu to cut power, maybe this is a power issue for both of us ?

 

[kickthedamcat]

also a question. I know your back light turns off and it is very hard to see but is your laptop actually still responding? and also after this happens is there any hard drive light activity and if your wireless network light normally shows signal strength (light on laptop cover only) does it still change?