Hello!
I can't see if the problem is software or hardware, and therfor this section might be wrong. The problem is described further down the post, first background check.

I just bought a new computer. Build it together myself and to help you help here is the system:

Intel Duo E8600 3.0 Ghz
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4
Corsair XMS2-6400 TWIN2X4096-6400C5 (4gb)
HIS Radeon HD 4870
Seagate Barracuda ST3750330AS 7200.11 1tb
Corsair HX-series, 520W

* * * * *

Problem

The core of the problem is that I have a hard time booting my Windows OS. The OS loading gets as far as that loading screen of Windows is done, and right before the Welcome screen or login screen, the problem hits me. Also note that the problem only started after the GPU drivers were installed

I tried to install Vista Ultimate x64, but problems at boot were there as well. This time it usually came up with a Blue screen of Death referring to the process atikmdag.sys.

I also tried to install both Windows XP x32 and XP x64, but this time the BSOD wasn't there. This time a black screen was the problem, and sometimes I got a memory dump in white font color (maybe that is somekind of invisible BSOD).

After a day or so, I noticed that the freeze/BSOD only happened every third or so time I tried to boot the OS.

Note that when not installing the drivers, booting the OS went smoothly. The drivers I got were from the CD, or inofficial hot fixes, or general drivers from AMD's site, all have the same problem. But the problem happened less frequently with the general drivers.

The drivers were installed on fresh systems, so I doubt any problems had to do with newer drivers being installed upon older ones.

* * * * *

I have run memtest86 to check the RAM, and the test passed twice without any errors.

I have checked the CPU temperature and both cores idles arround 35-40 degrees celsius (far from abnormal). I have Thermalright extreme as heatsink, and put on Arctic Silver 5 paste. System temperature idles around 45 degrees celsius.

The GPU is in the right PCI-E x16 slot.

Two PCI-E cables from the PSU is connected, and those two cables goes straight to the GPU (they aren't shared with an other device).

I've tried to do a HDD-test with SeaTools Enterprise, but they can't find a disc ("No HBA has been detected" ).

Here is a print screen of the BSOD I get in Vista x64. Sorry I can't provide one from XP, since it's all black.

http://img168.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bsodoe5.jpg

What BIOS version?

Did a google search on atikmdag.sys, and got a ton of hits.

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-hard [...] g-sys.html

Above is the most relevent link I found in the 5 minutes I could afford to look. Still, this is why ATI gets a bad rep when it comes to driver support...

That link is in refrence to vista beta 2, its relevance is...very little.

That because i stupidly copied the wrong link..and now can't find the one I want...

Essentially, its a driver issue. Can't find a decent fix (of course, this is why I always buy NVIDIA's...)

The BIOS version is
Award Software International, Inc
F4
05/28/2008

I've done Google searches as well. I've found many problems that resemble the one I have, but no solution that works for me.

I didn't come to this forum the first thing, but after perhaps 50 hours of trouble shooting. I would appreciate any input you have.

PS. I will install a fresh XP x32 soon, plus the official drivers that now have been released on ATI's website. Will get back to see what happens. DS.

Um nVidias drivers are not any better. I used to get BSoD in 2K and XP with nVidia cards. ATI used to have much better driver support but has been lacking recently.

I would think that the new 8.7 would resolve a few issues like these. The driver itself is causing something to go wrong (BSoD is hard to do in XP and even harder in Vista so yea.....). I would consider the 8.7 the first official HD4800 series drivers.

Good luck and let us know the results.

Aren't you something. Maybe I should write Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 3.0 Ghz so even you understand which processor I'm talking about.

Asking for troubleshooting and being accused is pretty damn unpleasant. I haven't had a NVIDIA driver for years (the last one was Radeon 9800 pro), so being a "fanboy" is pretty silly, and especially considering I have a genuine problem with my new system.

But thanks for the advice anyway, I will check the voltage. Spare me the attitude, though.


News update about my problem
I tried installing Vista and the new official drivers that came with did not work. The same problem occured.

However, I tried installing XP x32 too (with new drivers, obviously), and I've rebooted the system with the new CCC and display drivers. So far so good from four-five rebooting. No faulty booting yet, and if I had the last drivers installed at least eight black screens would come up by now.

Hopefully this will solve the problem, but I will get back if troubles show up again.

Thanks for the help so far.

EDIT: Anyone knows why I can't see the ATI Overdrive in CCC? I've set that ATI Hotkey to Automatic in Services.

Hi Gurre,

We put together a similar setup (Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 and ATI 4870) today and had similiar problems with Vista Ultimate 64 bit. Seems every second boot or so BSOD. We are a computer shop and normally would have not been so silly, but we were today. Anyways to make a long story short our Gigabyte board out of the box had the oldest bios on it. We updated to the F6 from the website and have had over 15 starts without a BSOD.

I just checked and it appears for your board there is an F7. I think it is at least worth a try to update it and see how it goes.

Thank you for your help. I will try to update my BIOS and install Vista Ultimate x64, and hopefully that is it. I really want it to work out because right now I can't use all of my RAM!

I'm not sure if this is much help (it sounds too easy for a start - lol) - but I got BSOD's on when reinstalling Vista x64 this week - after I took delivery of a new 4870.

Tried a few different things and it always blue screened. However, I changed the BIOS option of 'Plug & Play O/S?' back to 'Yes' as I've always ran it set to 'No' and it didn't blue screen once after that.

Just my 10p worth.

I've just updated my BIOS to version F7, and also installed Vista x64. I've rebooted the system 7 times and still no BSOD or black screen, which would have happened probably all 7 times before. I've also installed the latest, official drivers from ATI's website (but that wasn't the solution, I tried those before updating BIOS and the problem still occured).

Thank you for helping me out. Hopefully I wasn't lucky, but that this actually was the true solution of the problem.