ATI X850XT second port issue

[mushhead]

I'm having an issue with an old x850xt I have installed in my second pc which runs on the TV in my bedroom.
For some reason it won't show the secondary card within Win 7.

Allow me to clarify somewhat.

A week ago I noticed that running a film in vlc forced Aero to switch off so I went and tried to find a resolution.
It was suggested to do a clean install of the Catalyst software which I did.
Oh dear, loss of second monitor all together. Won't even display in bootup and first monitor is now running in 16 colour mode only.

Hmm, so i do a driver update and get VGA adapter in DevMan, not good.
I try another fresh install.

When I clean out all of the graphics drivers from windows and do a restart the "second" card shows in Device Manager. WooHoo!
That done, I do an install of the legacy drivers contained within 9.11 of the Catalyst suite, restart and everything looks good but no second card is shown again!
Device Manager won't show it any longer and ccc won't either.
Now when I run Speccy it shows both gpu's but states that the crossfire is disabled and I can't find any reference to it within CCC so can't activate it.

How can I solve this issue before I pull all of my hair out?

 

[4745454b]

You're running an x850xt CF setup?

Before I try to take a stab at this, what are the system specs? Please include "monitors" as well as how they are connected.

 

[mushhead]

The spec is an ASRock Fatail1ty pro mobo with i7 2600k and 8GB of vengeance ram.
The monitors are a Toshiba 42" TV and an Acer V243H

I know it's an old card considering the spec of everything else but I just sold the card that was in it to a friend as he was on an even more ancient one and this is meant to be a stop gap until I can get the Sapphire 6870 Flex

Sorry to sound daft but, "CF setup"?

 

[4745454b]

It stands for "crossfire", using two AMD/ATI cards to produce a single image. I asked because several times in your first post you said "second monitor was missing", but other times you said "but no second card is shown again!" I wanted to make sure you were using a single card and not a CF setup.

How are the screen connected?

 

[mushhead]

Ah, the x850xt is a crossfire card in one board. Always showed as 2 in DM prior to this issue.
Monitor was connected via dvi and the tv via vga but now only the vga output is working.

 

[4745454b]

Not quite. The first "CF on a stick card" was the 3870x2. It shows two in the device manager because it needs to load it twice, one for each monitor output. I had two showing in my single card/GPU x1800xt as well.

Assuming the card still works, I'd try a different driver.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_vista32.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.13&lang=English

You might want to look for the 9.2 or 9.3 drives. That's also for 32bit, you'll need a different link for 64bit windows.

 

[mushhead]

Ah ok, but it states in Speccy that it has two cards just that they're not both running. I'll do a screenshot for you.

 

[4745454b]

You would know if you put two cards in there right? There is no x2 card for the x850 series. First one I know of is the 3870x2. There might have been one in the 2xxx series, but I don't think they was. You still needed the external cable to use CF back in the x850 days.

 

[mushhead]

Maybe then as the old card I sold was an 3870 x2 but the is definitely only one in there now.
It is still only showing one monitor at the moment though but if I uninstall all of the drivers and do the driver clean it shows as two cards in DM and it did prior to me attempting my tweaks to overcome Aero issues.

 

[mushhead]

ps, I do have an Image backup on my drive which I think may have been done prior to my changing of the card but obviously trying to avoid this as I have installed a few programs and tweaked a few others in the last week. I'd like this to be a final resort if possible

update: Here's a pic of DM without the drivers installed after doing a clean sweep

 

[mushhead]

Managed to find a workaround that is almost working.
I can get the two displays to work in Windoze by forcing ccc to add another monitor.
It's still not working within BIOS and Aero doesn't work if I watch any films but I think that's less of an issue than only having one to watch on.
A tad annoying that it rearranges my desktop every time I restart too!
I'd still like to know why this isn't working correctly in the bootup but it'll do until I get the new card for christmas.
Thank you for your prompt replies 4745454b

 

[4745454b]

Still seems like a driver issue. But you haven't updated with any info on that....

 

[mushhead]

Sorry for the delay in responding. I updated the drivers and I still get intermittent errors. If I switch off the monitors at the plug I can't get it to find the DVi monitor when I switch them back on. This has been solved again in a roundabout way. I have to start Screen Resolution or ccc and duplicate the two monitors. When I do that it makes them both come back on and then I can discard the change and it swaps back to extended.
To me it sounds like maybe the GPU is on its way out as drivers have been in and out a few times with full cleaning done inbetween.
I hope it is the issue somewhat as looking to update my card just after christmas and I really hope it isn't the monitors.