Catalyst control centre 10.4 not saving settings after reboot

[avatar_raq]

HI evrey one. I recently upgraded from 8800 GT to ATI 5870 on the same rig shown in my signature, I did a fresh windows 7 64 bit install and installed CCC 10.3 and started to have many issues, which CCC 10.4 didn't bother to solve!
1)The CCC does not hold any settings (3D, monitors scaling....etc) after rebooting windows.
2)After reboot, sometimes my main monitor (Benq T2200HD, @1920x1080) shows only about 50% of my desktop, starting from the right upper corner and positioned mid-screen, surrounded by a black frame! If I rotate my desktop to portrait mode then revert back to landscape, everything would be OK except that the card won't go to 3D mode and keep the 2D clocks even in games and Furmark! If I reboot and the the full desktop is shown , then the GPU will switch to 3D modes normally! This issue appears to happen randomly, I tried disconnecting my secondary monitor (BenQ FP72E) and connecting my primary one to the other DVI out to no avail.
Please help...Any input would be appreciated.

 

[avatar_raq]

Opps, my signature is not shown!! I believe it'll be shown now...OK I upgraded to 800 watt FSP PSU prior to installing the card!

 

[Maziar]

Hello
Is it possible for you to test your card in another system ?

 

[avatar_raq]

No, not now..I expect my i7 930-P6X58D Premium system to arrive in June 1st..Why? Do you suspect a faulty GFX card?

 

[Maziar]

That would be possible.
Did changing the PSU help you ?

 

[avatar_raq]

Thanks for your replies.
@ Maziar:
I upgraded the PSU before installing the card, I bought a new one for it. Can a faulty PSU cause this issue?
@Zipzoomflyhigh:
As I said before I installed a fresh window copy hoping to solve the problem, but to no avail!

 

[avatar_raq]

Update:
I installed the card on another system:
E8400, DFI Lanparty DK-P45 Plus, 2X2GB DDR2 800mhz,FSP- Blue StormII 500watt, ATI 4870 (removed along with its driver -9.7 by driver sweeper), win7 RC x64.
I restarted few times with no problem, then I installed my PSU in this system and I'm testing it now...I'll keep testing then tell you the results, but so far it appears as software problem in my system, but I'm not fully sure yet..What software conflict a fresh windows installation can't fix?!!

 

[avatar_raq]

As I mentioned above, I tested my PSU and GFX card in my niece system (e8400+DFI P45S), so far everything is OK, no more partial desktop and the CCC seem to remember my settings well.. How do you explain that? What's causing the issue in my system? I also installed my ram into my niece system and there were no issues whatsoever!!
Could the issue be an incompatibility with PCI-e v1 on my P5KSE (P35) ? What's the next step?
Any help is appreciated!

 

[avatar_raq]

I'm starting to pull out my hair!! I used a 4870 in my system and it ran just fine, then I re-installed the 5870 into my system with another PSU, restarted a couple of times and the problem appeared again!!!!!!!!!!
So to put it straight:
1--My GFX (5870)+My mobo (ASUS P5KSE)+My ram+Both PSUs (mine & my niece's)=the issue appears
2--My GFX+My mobo+ Another RAM+My PSU=Not yet tested!
3--Another GFX (4870)+My Mobo+My RAM+My PSU=No issue
4--My 5870+another mobo (DFI P45)+Both PSUs + Both RAMs=no issue

So it seems the issue only appears when I have both my 5870 and ASUS P5KSE in the system! I'm starting to believe it's a PCI-e 1 problem, what do you think guys?

 

[avatar_raq]

Guys, anyone?
That was stupid..I guess Tom's hardware isn't the same site I signed up for 15 months ago..

 

[Maziar]

hmm,you did quite lot of efforts,the only last thing i can think of is to update your P5K's BIOS and test again with your 5870.
let us know how it goes
Also calm down mate your case is one of the strangest problems i have ever seen,so we need time to think and then we can guide you

 

[rofl_my_waffle]

Have you set overscan to 0% to remove the black border?

 

[avatar_raq]

@ Maziar:
Thanks bro, and sorry for losing my patience but this issue is driving me crazy!! I have only one month warranty (yeah that's the case in my country) and I don't expect my P6X58D mobo to get here while it lasts, so my biggest fear is that this stupid issue appears in the new system and by then I can't return the card!
I did update the mobo's bios to the latest (1404) version a week ago..I also removed the monitor driver (which was dlled from windows update), with no result!..Now I'm thinking of 2 things:
1- Removing CCC10.4 and reverting to 9.12
2- Updating the VGA bios..Can any body tell me where to get the latest version ? Force3D site does not provide it.
Can you think of any other thing to do?

 

[avatar_raq]

@ Rofl_My_Waffle:
Overscan settings aren't helpful here, I tried them as well as GPU scaling, they might have been useful if the whole desktop is shown, but unfortunately it's not, see the description in my 1st post!

 

[Maziar]

Try 10.4a too and if it didn't help,revert back to an older driver

 

[UberGenocide]

Quick question

Did you install the correct drivers (ie you have 64-bit windows but you installed for 32-bit windows)?

Also, you could use driver sweeper not only to rid of nvidia drivers, but to remove corrupted drivers from a bad install

You may have had a bad installation the first time, there may be some corrupt files laying around from the previous driver install

If you did install the correct drivers, use driver sweeper **IN SAFE MODE** and then install correct 64-bit drivers **IN SAFE MODE**

Please respond and I hope this helps

Uber

 

[avatar_raq]

Thanks everyone..
@ Zipzoomflyhigh: I didn't try vista..I may try it later but I'm trying to avoid the pain of backing up my saved games, installing windows, and re-installing ~ 100 GB of games again!! But I think I need to try that sooner or later, so can you or anyone else give me a link to dll DX11 for vista?

@Maziar:
Is 10.4a a beta driver? Is it newer than the 10.4? I'll search for it and try it.

@Uber:
Of course I installed the correct 64bit drives, but not under safe mode, can you explain to me how's safe mode gonna help? Thanks... I did use driver sweeper under safe mode to get rid of all the 'junk', but as I said before, even a fresh windows installation didn't help!

 

[Maziar]

Its not a beta driver,its a hotfix for 10.4
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATI-Catalyst-10-4-a-Hotfix.aspx

 

[avatar_raq]

@Maziar
The 10.4a didn't help :s
@zipzoomflyhigh:
The issue happened with 10.3 and 10.4. And I'm not sure the problem won't manifest in vista. There is only one way to know for sure

 

[avatar_raq]

The same issue appeared in a fresh vista SP1 installation with nothing else installed but CCC 10.4a
Am I looking on a defective card? If yes, then why the issue didn't appear in my niece's system?

 

[avatar_raq]

I forgot to mention that the issue only appears when I shut down the PC..If I restart after correcting the desktop (by rotation-canceling mentioned above) then everything is OK...I tend to think of it this way: as long as the card holds power then everything is alright, ccc remembers settings and the desktop is shown correctly..Once the card loses power (in shutting down) then it'll revert every setting to the default and shows only part of the desktop. Any input on that?

 

[avatar_raq]

Installing the drivers that came with the card (on disc) resulted in lock-ups and "display driver stopped responding" issue.
Should I RMA the card?

 

[Maziar]

First,install 10.4 or 10.4a again and raise your 2D clocks,here is how:
1_Open CCC and choose Overdrive tab,unlock the settings(by clicking on the " Gold Key" icon)
2_Go top options,profile and choose profile manager.
3_In the composition tab,choose "The following settings" and in the "ATI Radeon HD 5900 series"make sure only ATI overdrive is checked.
Then enter a profile name,then save and close it(Do not activate).
4_Go to C:\Users\Your UserName\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles (Its hidden so make sure you unlock hidden files and folders)
5_Open the profile with wordpad and do this edits:
<Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="40000" /> (default is 15700)

<Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="90000" /> (default is 30000)

Save the changes and close.

6_Open CCC,in options tab go to profiles,profile manager and choose the profile that you saved before and then click on Activate and close.

 

[avatar_raq]

Thanks, both of you.
I tried disabling aero and raising 2D clocks but both didn't help.
I tried making a profile for all CCC settings as well in the hope of finding a work around to stabilize my desktop (by selecting GPU Scaling) and holding my settings but that only worked for one system shutdown-start-up attempt..If I shut down windows again the damn issue appears after the next startup.
The biggest question remains: Is this a software issue, or a hardware one that necessitates RMA ? I'm so confused and I'm running out of time.

 

[avatar_raq]

Thanks zip for your kind reply, I did try that about 10 days ago, and my mobo's bios now is the latest (1404).
I'm hoping that the issue won't appear on the P6X58D premium I'm expecting. I don't know if it's a software conflict but I tried a fresh installation of vista with only ccc 10.4a and the issue appeared soon after shutting down and starting windows again. And if it's software-related then why the card sticks to 2D clocks when the partial desktop issue appears?
If only I can get an updated VGA bios..