Hi,
I have an XFX HD-685X-ZDFC. Other system system specs listed at bottom of post. Since I have owned the card I have somewhat randomly received the "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error while browsing the internet in Firefox and during gaming. I have never overclocked or messed with any settings on this card. I always attributed it to driver issues, and since it happened somewhat randomly I never really investigated the issue. I mostly ran into issues with it while playing BF3 (where random crashing is sadly not uncommon for a lot of people) and viewing photos on facebook (random, I know).
Here is where it gets interesting. This past weekend I upgraded my motherboard/RAM from a DDR2 mobo/RAM to DDR3 mobo/RAM. Now I consistently get "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" while browsing around the internet, typically on graphically heavy pages (IGN, Facebook photoviewer). Also, I am unable to load any games that previously worked before the motherboard upgrade. Games tried: TF2, BF3, SC2, HL2. All will load, go through their splash screens to the menu, but as soon as anything requiring some graphical muscle comes along the games freeze. Sometimes giving the "Display" error, or just quitting to the desktop. I tried to check the CPU and GPU temps when these freezes occurred, but found nothing suspicious, CPU temps usually in the 30's/40's and GPU temps around the 40's.
I reseated the video card. No difference.
I downloaded and installed latest motherboard drivers from ASRock. No difference.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the AMD drivers using conventional uninstall methods in windows and with driver sweeper, trying 12.2, 12.1, and 11.12. The problems persisted after reinstallation with all of them.
I thought maybe my power supply was overloaded, as it is a little undersized. Unplugged all case fans, drives, USB devices, etc. except for essential devices. No difference.
I uninstalled all new utilities that came along with the motherboard. No difference.
To make sure it was not any hardware issue other than the video card, I took the 6850 out and installed an old ATI 4650 I had laying around. I installed the 12.2 drivers for it and everything works like a charm. All the games run, albeit with low settings that look terrible, and no "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" errors.
The only other troubleshooting option I can think of is putting the 6850 in another machine to see if I can duplicate the results, but I have no access to another machine.
All this leads me to believe that the 6850 is defective, and has always been defective and the motherboard upgrade has really exposed the problem. I registered the card with XFX when I received it and it is still under warranty, so I'm think doing an RMA with them is about my only option left.
I haven't done a clean install of windows, but I'd really prefer not to, as I don't feel like its going to solve the issue, and its a lot of time spent for nothing.
Does anyone have any advice, or any other troubleshooting I should do before starting the RMA process?
System specs:
Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE w/CM Hyper 212+ (all testing was done at default 3.2GHz, although I have had it overclocked to 3.6GHz at times in the past)
ASRock 970 Extreme3 motherboard
2x4GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance LP
Zumax 550W Power supply
Antec 900 case
Hitachi 5400RPM 750GB HD
I have an XFX HD-685X-ZDFC. Other system system specs listed at bottom of post. Since I have owned the card I have somewhat randomly received the "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error while browsing the internet in Firefox and during gaming. I have never overclocked or messed with any settings on this card. I always attributed it to driver issues, and since it happened somewhat randomly I never really investigated the issue. I mostly ran into issues with it while playing BF3 (where random crashing is sadly not uncommon for a lot of people) and viewing photos on facebook (random, I know).
Here is where it gets interesting. This past weekend I upgraded my motherboard/RAM from a DDR2 mobo/RAM to DDR3 mobo/RAM. Now I consistently get "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" while browsing around the internet, typically on graphically heavy pages (IGN, Facebook photoviewer). Also, I am unable to load any games that previously worked before the motherboard upgrade. Games tried: TF2, BF3, SC2, HL2. All will load, go through their splash screens to the menu, but as soon as anything requiring some graphical muscle comes along the games freeze. Sometimes giving the "Display" error, or just quitting to the desktop. I tried to check the CPU and GPU temps when these freezes occurred, but found nothing suspicious, CPU temps usually in the 30's/40's and GPU temps around the 40's.
I reseated the video card. No difference.
I downloaded and installed latest motherboard drivers from ASRock. No difference.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the AMD drivers using conventional uninstall methods in windows and with driver sweeper, trying 12.2, 12.1, and 11.12. The problems persisted after reinstallation with all of them.
I thought maybe my power supply was overloaded, as it is a little undersized. Unplugged all case fans, drives, USB devices, etc. except for essential devices. No difference.
I uninstalled all new utilities that came along with the motherboard. No difference.
To make sure it was not any hardware issue other than the video card, I took the 6850 out and installed an old ATI 4650 I had laying around. I installed the 12.2 drivers for it and everything works like a charm. All the games run, albeit with low settings that look terrible, and no "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" errors.
The only other troubleshooting option I can think of is putting the 6850 in another machine to see if I can duplicate the results, but I have no access to another machine.
All this leads me to believe that the 6850 is defective, and has always been defective and the motherboard upgrade has really exposed the problem. I registered the card with XFX when I received it and it is still under warranty, so I'm think doing an RMA with them is about my only option left.
I haven't done a clean install of windows, but I'd really prefer not to, as I don't feel like its going to solve the issue, and its a lot of time spent for nothing.
Does anyone have any advice, or any other troubleshooting I should do before starting the RMA process?
System specs:
Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE w/CM Hyper 212+ (all testing was done at default 3.2GHz, although I have had it overclocked to 3.6GHz at times in the past)
ASRock 970 Extreme3 motherboard
2x4GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance LP
Zumax 550W Power supply
Antec 900 case
Hitachi 5400RPM 750GB HD