I thought I'd keep everything together here in one place in case someone else had a similar issue.
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ORIGINAL ISSUE:
case: silverstone ft02b
psu: corsair ax750
mobo: asus p8p67 pro
cpu: i7-2600k
cpu hsf: cm hyper 212+
ram: g.skill ripjaws x 2x4gb ddr3 1600 8-8-8-24
gpu: msi r6950 (soon to be xfired)
sound card: undecided
ssd1: 64gb adata flash / sandforce 2nd gen controller
ssd2: 120gb intel x25-m
storage: samsung spinpoint f3 1tb (coming soon)
optical: samsung sh-222ab (dvd rw)
((R6950-2PM2D2GD5))
When attempting to load web browsers or go to visually demanding sites, I experience a LOT of display driver crashes, sometimes many times in a row, and sometimes without recovery.
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 - 1920x1080 @ 60hz
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Ok, I apologize for my long absence, but I've done a lot and has some other stuff to take care up. So here's my update.
After trying almost every CCC patch under the sun in an attempt to solve my 'web browsers causing display drivers to crash randomly' issue, I tried to run my XFX HD 4670 in my new comp to make sure that there was nothing wrong with it. Unfortunately I ran into some issues where my comp was unable to properly recognize the hardware while installing drivers. Looking back I think that was my fault for enabling a policy restriction that stops windows from automatically installing its own drivers for hardware. There is a workaround for that, at least I think so. Either way, I scrapped that and decided to give the new MSI r6950 a go in another of my comps, a somewhat newer one, though small. While installing the card into the case, it was such a tight fit that I accidentally unplugged the main HDD and didn't know it. So it booted up from an older, messed up vista HDD and I became thoroughly confused, and attempted to install drivers running into all sorts of issues with host process stopping and... It was just an unholy mess. Eventually I figured out what I had done, set up properly on the normal Windows 7 HDD, and by now noticed some newer 11.5 drivers were out so I figured why not. So I gave them a shot, everything set up fine but when I tried to run firefox, bam! Display driver crash! So by this point I'm thinking well damn, maybe it's the card. As much as I didn't want it to be, because I'd be cardless while waiting for my 2nd to arrive.
I was about to put the card back into my new rig when all of a sudden, my door bursts open and a gust of wind blows my papers everywhere. I look to see what douche bag was responsible only to see some crazy glowing dude standing in the door way with a large brown package in his arms. His name tag read, "Roberto" and he had the appearance of an overly humbled Mexican laborer, with a glorious mustache to prove it. I knew right away what he had brought me, and earlier than I had expected. It was my salvation, the 2nd card. Normally I would have been above showing the delivery man any sort of affection, though, this time I thought some form of gratitude was in order. I gave him the mightiest of hugs. He shot me a thankful grin that said, "I understand, you're welcome." Though I'm sure he himself probably would not have been able to piece those words together. And, with that he was off.
Now came the moment of truth. All my burning hatred and angst for AMD/ATI and their drivers was at the boiling point, despite that I had to show the gentle care of a loving mother. I carefully removed the smaller box from the shipping box, removed the thick plastic cover, and lifted the card containing plastic bag from its foam enclosure, slid the card out of the bag into my hands, pulled free the little plastic blue protectors from all of the ports and such. The case was already on its side so I popped the new card gently into its PCI-e slot, screwed it tight against the case's frame, plugged the PSU into the card and proceeded to set the case upright afterwards plugging my beastly Monoprice HDMI cable into the card.
I was previously tinkering with the CMOS battery, which I have no idea how to operate. I was only trying to figure it out without having to read any more than I had already that day, but apparently I did reset it, so the startup sent me to the BIOS, I set all the normal stuff, boot order, X.M.P, BIOS admin password, and that's about it, saved and reset. Started up fine, nothing different there, checked to make sure everything was functioning, yep yep. (I had previously done a thorough AMD/ATI driver removal) Now came the time to install drivers, I was curious at the time about 11.4 vs 11.5 so I did a quick google check for info and discovered a thread talking about 11.5, 11.5a, and 11.4 cap2. It suggested using 11.5a hotfix with 11.4 cap2, installed in that order with reboots in between for a small performance gain, so that's what I did. After all was set and done, I first started Internet Explorer, no issues.. Then I started Firefox... Still none. Then I went to a visually demanding site, the Blizzard's Diablo 3 site seemed pretty decent for making it crash before so I went there. No problems, I watched some of the trailers/movies there. Crisp and quick, I was happy. I started 20 Internet Explorer windows, and 20 Firefox windows while watching a trailer. GLORIOUS SUCCESS!
I was even finally able to run a Windows Experience Index test, before it failed leaving graphics at 1.0 saying something like failure to test video playback or something. 7.9 and 7.9 for graphics. Yay!!!
So I guess I did indeed have a bunk card, which I now need to replace. I'd like to get the same revision of my card which seemed to be running low on stock at the time that I ordered before. Should I contact Amazon.com about a replacement, or MSI? Whatchu guys think? I'm still within my 30 days, so I'd think Amazon, that way I get to keep my 3year warranty? I definitely want to get the same card to match my current so that I can unlock their shaders and xfire em.
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