ATI Radeon HD 5000 series crash - Detailed problem description -

[Goodkat203]

Hello,

I am having a serious problem with my graphics card. I have serached and searched and cannot find a solution, so I am to the posting stage.

MY COMPUTER:

MSI 790FX-GD70 Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Processor 3.20GHz

4.00GB DDR3 RAM 1600

ATI Radeon 5770 1GB Video card

Windows 7 64 bit OS

OCZ600MXSP 600W PS


THE PROBLEM:

I recently (1 week ago) switched from Windows XP to Windows 7 and at the same time put in a ATI Radeon 5770 card. Since day one with Windows 7, I have been plagued by frequent graphics crashes. These crashes are often accompanied by a message saying the "display driver has stopped responding and has recovered." These crashes can occur at any time. I have had several of them while browsing the internet. They occur much more frequently, however, when the card has to work hard. I got the new game Skyrim and the crashing happens much more often while I am playing that. Sometimes I can play the game for up to an hour with no problem and other times it crashes after less than a minute. Sometimes the entire computer will crash after one of these problems but that is rare.


POTENTIAL CAUSES:

DRIVERS:

As far as drivers go, I have tried 4 different ones with the same results. I have tried the ones on the original disc, the ones that Win7 downloads automatically, and the two newest ones on AMDs website. I am not saying for sure that the problem is not drivers, but I don't think it is.

Also, I have tried two different drivers for the motherboard, the Win7 ones and the latest from MSI site.

HEAT:

I am 99% sure it is NOT a heat issue. The hottest I have ever seen the card is 64C and I have had several crashes while the card ( and the rest of the system) was in the upper 30s.

FAULTY CARD:

I am 100% sure it is NOT a faulty card. I happen to have a second 5770 (in my wife's) and I have the same problem with both cards.

THE CARD MODEL:

It is not just the 5770 model that does this. I also tried my 5750 and had the same problem.

WINDOWS 7:

I am pretty sure is has something to do with Win7 as my above mentioned 5750 worked with the same hardware on WinXP for 2 years without issue.

MOTHERBOARD/CPU:

It might also have something to do with this. My wife's computer has the same card and Win7 64 bit and I tested Skyrim on her computer for 15 or so total hours ( fun testing =P ) with no problems whatsoever. Her computer stats are as follows:

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66Ghz

6.00GB DDR2 RAM 800

SAME VIDEO CARD

SAME OS

Hipro 630W PS



I think therefore, it may be something with the video card, the OS, and the Motherboard/CPU combination.

video card + MSI/AMD + WinXP = fine
video card + Gigabyte/Intel + Win7 = fine
video card + MSI/AMD + Win7 = crash

Please help. I'm becoming quite frusterated. Thank you.

 

[funguseater]

Hi Goodkat203

I had the same issues with my HD5750. In my (and most others) case it was a bad BIOS that shipped with the card. Whenever it would change operating states the voltage would drop to .95 V and CRASH! The crash will usually happen when using regular old 2D (webernet, office)

Have you checked the manufacturer's website for BIOS updates? You might want to contact tech support if you're still covered because doing ANYTHING to your BIOS will void your warranty, and if they are nice they may send you an updated bios so you don't have to edit it. I had to use a program called RBE (Radion Bios Editer) and set all of the voltages for all levels at 1.1 V.

I also had to lower the speed of the memory on my card (mostly a problem with 5750 not 5770 though)

Even tho I had to under-clock the RAM I went from 700 to 900 on the core frequency.

 

[Goodkat203]

funguesater,

Thanks for the reply. I have heard about the voltage thing before, but did not think that was my issue since mine mostly happens during gaming and not web browsing, but it could be it. The card is not under any warrenty any more.

How do I do anything with the BIOS? Who do I contact to get updates? I don't know what I am doing with regards to that. Could you provide more detailed instructions? Thanks for help.

 

[funguseater]

OK GoodKat203 let's have at er

You need to look inside your case and find the model number and brand of your GPU, then we can check for specific fixes before attempting to change BIOS because it is possible to turn your GPU into a paperweight, through no fault of your own.

If you are doing any CPU overclocking you need to disable it, if you have catalyst control center loaded double-check that GPU Overdrive is disabled. If you have MSI Afterburner please uninstall it.

I would recommend you download the Free "System Information for Windows" after installing it, on the left pane under the software heading, there is a section for EVENT VIEWER, open it up and this will show you what exactly is failing (shows hardware and software faults) after you get that info let me know and we can go further...