I just bought a brand new system with an HIS HD2900 XT. The VPU keeps on crashing and has to be reset. The last time it crashed (like 2 min ago), after the VPU Recover, I lost all hardware acceleration on my display.

My Motherboard: ABIT Fatal1ty F-190HD
My CPU: Core2Duo E4400 overclocked to 3.00GHz, temp @ 30C
CPU Cooling: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme w/ 90cfm 120mm fan
OS: XP x64
Case: Antec P180B, 3 fans
PSU: 600W Ultra X-Finity

I don't think it's a cooling problem - the video card doesn't seem very hot to the touch (I could keep my hand on it all day).
I don't think it's a power problem either, the mobo utility says I'm getting 11.97V to 12.03V on the 12V line.

However, the last time the VPU acted up and I lost all hardware accel on graphics, I opened the case to see how hot the card was... and after several seconds the system just shut off. It wouldn't turn back on until after I reset the PSU by turning it off and then back on. In the few minutes it has taken me to write this post, the VPU has not crashed.

The crashes started happening a few minutes as I was web browsing, after I watched a video on YouTube. They would mostly happen when I switched from one tab to another in Opera.

Is it a driver issue? I'm using the x64 drivers obviously, and I did hear there were performance isssues with the drivers for the HD2900.

Upon further inspection it seems to me that Opera is causing the crashes!

They only began after I installed Opera. And right after the above post, when I maximized Opera, the VPU crashed again. So I rebooted the system, and ran 3DMark06 Basic Edition to put the system through its paces. Everything worked like a charm. So I won't be using Opera for now to see if it that really is the cause...

XP x64 + Opera + HD2900 XT drivers = fatal combination???

id even recomend you give this bug to the catalyst crew, maybe its a unkjnow bug D:

try the new catalyst 7.5 driver.

That's the one I'm using. Downloaded from ATI/AMD website and installed last night.

I'm now 99.99% sure it was Opera - the VPU hasn't even as much hiccuped since I stopped using Opera.

Have you checked the system log? Also on the Startup and Recovery make sure the "Automatically Restart" is unchecked. This may help you figure out if it's SW caused.
When you mention that your system wouldn't restart until after shutting off and back on the PSU, this could be the CPU heating up. Check if the heatsink is seated right.

The system doesn't crash, just the VPU.

use mozilla firefox! much better!

The system doesn't crash, just the VPU.
actually, it sounds like a power problem with your PSU
shutting down and forcing you to reset the psu as happened to me before when my 450 watt died (now using antec, and will switch to a PC P&C silencer soon)


and honestly, if it crashes, it crashes, so its not just a matter of "only my VPU crashed!"...

and btw, there were some reported bugs with the "VPU RECOVER" under certain circunstances, try to dont OC for now, and keep vpu recover OFF.

Ya, there are a lot of you with the same problem.

The solution? 8O


Buy a nvidia 8800 card, for sure will help.......
Take care......

It is actually. If only my VPU crashed, there is no point in doing anything with Startup and Recovery or with Automatically Restart option. That's for when Windows crashes. As for the logs, I checked them but didn't find anything.

FYI, my system has not crashed, neither has the VPU, and I haven't had any power problems either, since I stopped using Opera. Perhaps this is an incompatibility issue between the Catalyst 7.5 x64 drivers and Opera?

Update: My bro was checking out the inside of the case when the PSU shutoff. I just asked him, and he mentioned he probably accidentally touched a loose PSU power cable to the chassis, short-circuiting and tripping the PSU. So the PSU and power supply problems are not related to this at all.

I have order a HIS HD2900XT to.
But I read about opera problems on other forums to.

Lucky I'm not a opera user.

I also orderd a eVGA 8600GT and some other stuff

I don't think most software can run on a 64bit OS, as the driver support just isn't there yet. What a VPU? Do you mean GPU?

one of my hdds died hen opera crashed.daeth to its authors

Not really, even the Mozilla firefox team admits that Opera is ahead of them in security and features, but I do find that Firefox works better for me.