XFX Radeon HD 5850 - "Display driver has stopped working.... "

[HelixFC3S]

I have been recently experiencing this problem with my video card while playing PC games. I like to emphasize on only PC games, because I have read this issue appears while just idling on the desktop or watching videos. I have not experienced any of the sort besides playing a PC game. The card plays everything smoothly, but there are some instances where it'll just freeze, flash to a random color for a few seconds, and the game will resume. I had this card for about 5 months now, and I have only been experiencing this problem for about a week or so now. Before I made this topic, I have searched around for solutions and I found out it's a pretty common problem. However, I haven't found a clear cut solution for this as I have tried several: completely uninstalling drivers and went back to 10.5 catalyst, disabling catalyst AI, and disabling ATI high definition audio to name a few. It seems like different solutions work for different people, so I am hoping someone can help me out with this.

My specs:

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 970
GPU - XFX Radeon HD 5850 (Core 156Mhz Memory 300 MHz)
Motherboard - Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3
RAM - G.skill Ripjaw 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 9-9-24
PSU - Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W

I have not done any overclocking as you can see. I have heard it might be an issue with the RAM brand I use, but I'd like to get a second opinion. Thanks in advance.

 

[wolfram23]

The last time I had this issue (actually one of the only times) was with 10.12, and for some reason it developped late in the month. I don't know... But the fix for me was simply doing a full uninstall and then installing 11.1 and no problems since then.

 

[HelixFC3S]

The last time I had this issue (actually one of the only times) was with 10.12, and for some reason it developped late in the month. I don't know... But the fix for me was simply doing a full uninstall and then installing 11.1 and no problems since then.

Well, I originally had 10.11 or 10.12 I believe. I decided to try out the latest which was 11.3, and that is when I think the problems began. So, as I mentioned, I uninstalled it and went all the way down to 10.5 since I read that or 10.4 was the best. Yet, the problem still persists.

 

[wolfram23]

It could be an issue with Windows. I don't know if you've used Driver Sweeper (and have Win 7) but as it turns out, when sweeping ATI drivers it would sometimes remove 3 files that it shouldn't. This issue came up with the release of Win 7 SP1 and Phyxion released a statement about it... anyway, so it could be something there. There's a way of getting them back but maybe the best thing to do would be to run some of the windows fixes. I wish I had the link right now, but there's a windows tool for checking system files and such.

Otherwise instead of a full windows install (usually fixes things lol) you could try inserting your disc and doing the "upgrade". I did it recently because SP1 just couldn't install on my PC (missing files or whatever else) and the only thing that I had to do was reinstall all my video and sound drivers, then everything was back up and running as before and the SP1 upgrade worked flawlessly. So that might be an option.

 

[mdsiu]

Call XFX for a repair/exchange.

 

[HelixFC3S]

It could be an issue with Windows. I don't know if you've used Driver Sweeper (and have Win 7) but as it turns out, when sweeping ATI drivers it would sometimes remove 3 files that it shouldn't. This issue came up with the release of Win 7 SP1 and Phyxion released a statement about it... anyway, so it could be something there. There's a way of getting them back but maybe the best thing to do would be to run some of the windows fixes. I wish I had the link right now, but there's a windows tool for checking system files and such.

Otherwise instead of a full windows install (usually fixes things lol) you could try inserting your disc and doing the "upgrade". I did it recently because SP1 just couldn't install on my PC (missing files or whatever else) and the only thing that I had to do was reinstall all my video and sound drivers, then everything was back up and running as before and the SP1 upgrade worked flawlessly. So that might be an option.

Well, I used Driver Sweeper after having the problem. So, I do not know if you were implying that was the cause. But, I'll try the Windows fix thing you mentioned. A quick google search took me to a site telling me to use "sfc /scannow" in the command prompt; I don't know if that's it is what you were talking about. If not, I'll try the CD.

 

[geekapproved]

I have had the same video card HD5850 for over a year now and I just actually had that error come up today while I was surfing the web. Everything froze, flashed, and then went back to normal. At the same time I got an alert that Shockwave had crashed. Not sure but maybe it has something to do with shockwave player?

 

[wolfram23]

Yeah you can also check your system reliability through your notifications under maintenance, I believe. There you can see what programs are crashing or whatever, might be something as simple as that.

 

[HelixFC3S]

Yeah you can also check your system reliability through your notifications under maintenance, I believe. There you can see what programs are crashing or whatever, might be something as simple as that.

Well, the "sfc /scannow" wasn't able to fix anything. I didn't find any problems under my notifications under maintenance. Maybe I should do what mdsiu said about asking for an exchange since it it has been happening recently. Maybe my card is dying? I don't know... maybe I'll try upgrading to 11.1 for the heck of it like you said.

Edit: Actually, when I was looking for solutions it did show: "ATI display driver has stopped working properly" and that a video hardware error problem was found 10 times.. But, it didn't find any solutions except sending the information to Hewlett-Packard, but I don't know why to them.

 

[HelixFC3S]

Well, I tried reinstalling Windows 7. The problem still exists... Any other ideas before I contact XFX?

 

[geekapproved]

Well, I tried reinstalling Windows 7. The problem still exists... Any other ideas before I contact XFX?

You can contact XFX, but it's not the card, I can tell you that. There are thousands of people that get this error, and not just with ATI cards, there's a similiar Nvidia error that does the same thing. Really not sure what it is, some things work for some people while they don't work for others.

 

[geekapproved]

Theres an entire site dedicated to this issue for nvidia and ati. So rma'ing your card may fix it in the short term, but it will be back.

I've had it 3 times with 2 different cards. Each time I was able to fix it.

 

[Guest]

I've had the same problem too, this is really frustanting, any ideas for the solution??