Need Troubleshoot recommendations. 6950 : i7-950 : Asus X58...

[woliphint]

Just built this thing (all new components)and having fits trying to troubleshoot it. Anyone have any troubleshooting recommendations?

I7-950
Zalman CNPS 10X cooler
MSI 6950
Asus Sabertooth X58 MLB
Rosewill 1000W PS
WD Black Caviar 6.0Mb/s
Patriot 3X2 1600 'G' Series Memory
(HAF 922 mid)
Windows 7 Ultimate

Encountering stability issues...usually after I load the 'Catalyst Control Center'/Drivers for the MSI 6950. Mostly Blue Screens o Death but sometimes weird stuff like can't open anything in Windows or (annoyingly) Windows disallows keyboard or mouse input.

6950 card works like a champ in my old system (Dell XPS 420 with aftermarket PS).

I wanted to blame memory. Sitting on my desk I minimized to one stick and it ran solid. Added second memory stick (Blue screen on (Windows) boot). Swapped third stick for second stick and system started fine. Easy to blame the second stick of memory right?

Reassembled the unit (with memories 1 & 3) and set it on the ground...got a blue screen within minutes. Worked off of reboot, loaded Graphics driver, got unit to 5800 X 1200 on the three screens (eyefinity)...everything beautiful. Started loading Battlefield BC2...Blue Screen o death in the middle... dAmmIittttt.. NOW the Catalyst driver won't load and is orange in the Windows 7 tray...

Recommendations on next TS actions to take?

 

[woliphint]

just got this:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: c0000221
BCP1: FFFFF8A000092D40
BCP2: 0000000000000000
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\011511-32729-01.dmp
C:\Users\WillGamer\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-49343-0.sysdata.xml

 

[woliphint]

...and windows won't recognize a .dmp file. What is that?

 

[ko888]

At any point during your memory module swaps did you run memtest86+ to confirm that the memory modules weren't generating errors?

 

[mdd1963]

ensure mem voltage is set to that recommended for whatever timings/clock speed you are running....

Or, drop your mem clocks to below max, use auto/spd if necessary until you can figure out what the hangup is....

not every mem set will run at 1600 with default voltage, especially triple channel.....

 

[woliphint]

At any point during your memory module swaps did you run memtest86+ to confirm that the memory modules weren't generating errors?

Memtest is in process 2 of 3 modules passed thus far.

Swapped the 6950 card with the old GTX 285...New Build system runs like a champ (Win7 reloaded).
Put the 6950 into the Dell XPS....typing to you on it now...no BSOD's.

Down to GPU Driver conflict internal to the system -or- HD6950 card not getting along with something.

This guy here seems to be having the same issue as I do:
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=144813

 

[woliphint]

All memory passed Memtest. (Didn't run more than two iterations but enough to show viability). Homebuilt unit has performed flawlessly since installing the GTX 285. The 6950 has performed equally flawlessly in the Dell.

I guess at this point the main hypothesis is that the drivers interfere with something internal to the system.
( Could Addressing of the video card be conflicting with something else? I guess dig through the bios and see if there is a way to change the addressing of the GPU)

Next I will install the ATI drivers from the AMD site (Not the MSI ones) prior to installation of the card, Shut it down, install the 6950 and bring it back up.

Any other ideas?

 

[woliphint]

ensure mem voltage is set to that recommended for whatever timings/clock speed you are running....

Or, drop your mem clocks to below max, use auto/spd if necessary until you can figure out what the hangup is....

not every mem set will run at 1600 with default voltage, especially triple channel.....

Mem voltages are set in the bios. I will try to dropping the mem clocks below the max...

 

[woliphint]

Got it working. (Kinda). Reseated everything. Started with a fresh W7 install. Updated every driver for every component (With the old video card in). Installed the AMD 6950 driver instead of the MSI one (I think the MSI one was a contributor to the problems), on the reboot I added the 6950 card.

Seems to have worked. Only one (Major?) issue...when I stand the tower up I get BSOD on boot. Tired of messing with it for now, just leaving it on it's side and enjoying the 5800X1200 resolution at 40-50 FPS....(Battlefield BC2)