REPOST- sapphire radeon hd 4850 w/ hdmi 512

[jazzninja]

Okay, I am usually pretty good about figuring out my own solution to things but this has kicked me in the butt. I recently purchased a Gateway DX4200-09 product page: http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668220.php

I then decided to upgrade the power supply and graphics card to a Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 W/ HDMI 512 mb. The problem I am having is repeated blue screen errors, if I have the vista provided radeon 4800 series driver applied i get the memory management blue screen and if i have the vista provided hd 4850 driver applied i get the atikmdag.sys blue screen. Neither driver is what i want but apparently all i can download off of the sapphire website is catalyst control center which doesn't update any drivers whatsoever and if it installs drivers they are nowhere to be found.

Please help me all i want is my actual driver on my computer not the vista provided ones!

I re-posted this because people seem to be coming here to talk more about ati "trying to hard" then assisting people with their issues.

 

[jennyh]

http://www.amd.com/uk/Pages/AMDHomePage.aspx

The drivers are downloaded at the top right of the screen, it couldnt be easier.

Graphics/OS/Radeon/Radeon HD4800 series.

Personally I think that blue screening is indicative of a hardware error and not drivers. Chances are you will be RMA'ing that 4850, but give the official catalyst drivers a go first.

 

[EXT64]

Yes, use the drivers from ATI, or the ones off the disk. Don't use the Microsoft Vista Drivers. Also, I assume you were using the onboard 3200 originally? If so, that is good because we won't have to worry about old NVidia drivers. Also, what was the new PSU you bought? Bluescreen errors can also be PSU. And yeah, that trying too hard thread was pretty pointless. If only half the effort were put into helping people, but oh well, these big video card releases are only once a year or so.

 

[jazzninja]

It was a 750 W Rosewill green series 80 plus certified. Definitely enough power to the system and a well rated PSU. I ended up RMA'ing the card and we will see. I have had the computer running without the card with absolutely zero errors so I think it is a pretty clear sign that the graphics card was the issue? Right?

 

[EXT64]

Certainly plausible. My first 4850 was bad, but it had a short in it so it wouldn't even get to post. If the rest of the system is fine I guess it would have to be the card or the PSU (and yes, that PSU is enough if working correctly, it is possible it was damaged and can't work at higher load, but that is not likely). If you still have problems after RMA, I'd suggest doing a careful uninstall and reinstall of drivers or maybe (the most likely way to get results) a full reformat and reinstall.

 

[mittewi]

Certainly plausible. My first 4850 was bad, but it had a short in it so it wouldn't even get to post. If the rest of the system is fine I guess it would have to be the card or the PSU (and yes, that PSU is enough if working correctly, it is possible it was damaged and can't work at higher load, but that is not likely). If you still have problems after RMA, I'd suggest doing a careful uninstall and reinstall of drivers or maybe (the most likely way to get results) a full reformat and reinstall.

I'm facing a similar issue on a 4850. All was fine and dandy until I started Assassin's Creed one night about a week after installing the card. Everything ran fine until then and everything runs fine now back on my old card. Should I start into two days of Memtest, should I try a different PSU, or should I just RMA the card?

 

[jazzninja]

RMA the card. Wait- what kind of psu are you running?

 

[mittewi]

It's an ULTRA Xfinity 600Watt - I forget the exact make/model but it has dual 12v rails.
Rail 1 is an 18Amp that has SATA, PATA, and the main motherboard connector; rail 2 is a 20Amp with the Processor's MB connection and the PCI card.
Between the two 12V rails, it's supposed to be able to put out 420W just on them; with the other 180W spread between the other 3.3V, 5 V, etc.

I also think I'm going to try disconnecting my older PATA Hard drive and DVD drive to try running the card off of Rail 1; but I have tried the 6-pin connectors from both rails with everything hooked up. The power supply shows good voltage both in the BIOS and from within Windows, but neither shows me the separation of the two 12volt rails.

 

[EXT64]

They don't show a separation because there probably isn't one. Most multi rail PSUs are not actually multi rail, I've heard. Also, I run a 4850 (and could even almost run a 2900XT!) on my Ultra 550W PSU. What happens now when you try to boot with the possibly defective card? What was your old card?

 

[mittewi]

The old card I have is a Nvidia 7600GT that I kept as a backup, and that works fine. When I try to boot with the 4850 as the main card, I get nothing. The monitor doesn't even detect a signal. If I set the BIOS to use the onboard Radeon 3200, but still have the 4850 plugged in sometimes I get a "Memory Management" BSOD, sometimes it boots. If I have a monitor hooked up to the 4850 when doing that, it shows odd jagged black lines across the screen too.

 

[EXT64]

The fans and stuff spin though when you try the 4850, it just doesn't boot, correct?

 

[mittewi]

Yep - the fan runs and it starts warming up, so it's trying to function...