Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 Video Card Driver Crashes, and occasional BSOD

[JamesxRamirez]

Randomly, when playing games (League of Legends, BF3, APB, not specific to one game) about once every hour or so while playing, my screen will lock up, go black, and then come back. I will get a windows notification that the video card driver has stopped working. Sometimes, this will happen 2-3 times in a row, and I will get a BSOD citing atikmpag.sys

I have tested my memory (5 passes, no errors completed), RMA'd my graphics card for a replacement, and RMA'd my motherboard for a replacement. This didn't solve the problem. The temps are fine, but the fan on my PSU blows at the fan on my graphics card. I'm thinking this might be causing the GPU fan to have to work harder, and causing a lack of circulation. I have 2 slots on the side of my case where I could put 2 120mm fans (already have a top mounted 140mm, and a rear mounted 120mm), but I don't want to spend $40 on fans until I know this would fix it. As I said, the temps remain fine while playing, around 50C-55C.

I have several dump files I could zip and upload, if it would help.

 

[JamesxRamirez]

Bump, tried amd support, they just linked me to a knowledge base.

 

[andY biersack]

i think i may had the same problem as you do this
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=642390
skip the driver sweeper part and this is how i did it
boot in safe mode and remove the drivers
then i found out that you can not access the intawebs while ur in safe mode
so i boooted again non safe mode
then i got the latest drivers
then i restarted as directed
and walah everything has benn working fine for about a week
so hope everything goes right

 

[JamesxRamirez]

i think i may had the same problem as you do this
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=642390
skip the driver sweeper part and this is how i did it
boot in safe mode and remove the drivers
then i found out that you can not access the intawebs while ur in safe mode
so i boooted again non safe mode
then i got the latest drivers
then i restarted as directed
and walah everything has benn working fine for about a week
so hope everything goes right

Well, I tried that to no avail.

I kind of figured it wouldn't work, since I've re-installed Windows previously to try and remedy it.

 

[absxiith]

Latest Drivers?I too had problems on my Sapphire card (an HD 6850) and changing the drivers to 12.3 fixed it.Hope that helps.

 

[JamesxRamirez]

Yes, they are indeed the latest drivers.

12.3 Catalyst, 8.95 display according to the software information tab in AMD Vision Engine Control Center.

 

[absxiith]

Oh......I am currently using Catalyst Application Profile 12.2 CAP 1........I didn't notice 12.3 CAP 1 was out..........Anyway,using Catalyst 12.3 and CAP 12.2.CAP 1 fixed the problems I had in my games......namely Need For Speed Shift and Mafia II......you could try that..... .........Although I too did get a BSOD while uninstalling Catalyst 12.2..... and that too on a new hard disc and a fresh install of Windows......

 

[JamesxRamirez]

Sadly, that hasn't worked either. I'm going to try installing the drivers without AMD vision engine or CCC, and use the DVI slot instead of the HDMI port, I'll post back with results sometime today.

 

[JamesxRamirez]

Well, that hasn't worked either. I'm honestly stumped.

 

[Patrickoby1]

Try uninstalling the 12.2 or 12.3 drivers that you have and install cat 12.1 with all of the options. I had the same problem as you until I backed my drivers to 12.1.

Link: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/previous/12/Pages/radeon.aspx?os=Windows%20Vista%20-%2064-Bit%20Edition&rev=12.1

It says the drivers are for vista but they are for both vista and Windows 7.

 

[JamesxRamirez]

Try uninstalling the 12.2 or 12.3 drivers that you have and install cat 12.1 with all of the options. I had the same problem as you until I backed my drivers to 12.1.

Link: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/previous/12/Pages/radeon.aspx?os=Windows%20Vista%20-%2064-Bit%20Edition&rev=12.1

It says the drivers are for vista but they are for both vista and Windows 7.

Alright, I'll try that after I give the 12.4 beta drivers a whirl.

 

[absxiith]

when playing games (League of Legends, BF3, APB, not specific to one game) about once every hour or so

How long are you playing these games for and at what settings?Before replacing my HDD,I had BF3(you mentioned it above and I am just giving an example ) and I tried to play it on Ultra on Catalyst 12.2 (although it did run okay on 11.10).It kept crashing with the same symptoms after,say about 20 minutes,until I realized maybe I was running out of Video RAM(I don't have the game now).I think this may be the case..... refer to this post:-

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/348403-33-6850-crossfire-stutter

the fan on my PSU blows at the fan on my graphics card. I'm thinking this might be causing the GPU fan to have to work harder, and causing a lack of circulation.

That can also be the issue.My PSU also faces the fan on my GPU and it reaches 62' C in about 5 minutes while playing Mafia II on max settings,although it stabilizes after that and reaches 67-71' C max after playing for about 40minutes-1hour and I have only a Mid-size ATX HP case(no custom case).And it is 27'C room temperature here.

the temps remain fine while playing, around 50C-55C.

But since you say that the temps remain constant,I think that the first case is more probable i.e. you are running out of Video RAM on max settings.

You can also try the 11.10 drivers if you play BF3 for long periods of time.

Alright, I'll try that after I give the 12.4 beta drivers a whirl.

Did it help?

 

[JamesxRamirez]

when playing games (League of Legends, BF3, APB, not specific to one game) about once every hour or so

How long are you playing these games for and at what settings?Before replacing my HDD,I had BF3(you mentioned it above and I am just giving an example ) and I tried to play it on Ultra on Catalyst 12.2 (although it did run okay on 11.10).It kept crashing with the same symptoms after,say about 20 minutes,until I realized maybe I was running out of Video RAM(I don't have the game now).I think this may be the case..... refer to this post:-

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/348403-33-6850-crossfire-stutter

the fan on my PSU blows at the fan on my graphics card. I'm thinking this might be causing the GPU fan to have to work harder, and causing a lack of circulation.

That can also be the issue.My PSU also faces the fan on my GPU and it reaches 62' C in about 5 minutes while playing Mafia II on max settings,although it stabilizes after that and reaches 67-71' C max after playing for about 40minutes-1hour and I have only a Mid-size ATX HP case(no custom case).And it is 27'C room temperature here.

the temps remain fine while playing, around 50C-55C.

But since you say that the temps remain constant,I think that the first case is more probable i.e. you are running out of Video RAM on max settings.

You can also try the 11.10 drivers if you play BF3 for long periods of time.

Alright, I'll try that after I give the 12.4 beta drivers a whirl.

Did it help?

After re-installing the drivers, it seems to have increased in frequency. I've noticed now there is no pattern to it. But, I generally crash in the first 10 minutes of the game, though in one game of League of Legends I can crash 0 times, or 2-3 times in one 40 minute game. I haven't experienced a crash in BF3 yet, though I play League of Legends way more than I do BF3. I run BF3 at high settings, around 60fps. I get drops to 56 when lots of explosions happen. I play League of Legends on max, but it is far from demanding. I play APB on max. Since it happens on a game that nowhere requires the VRAM I have, I don't think it's that.

The 12.4 beta drivers haven't helped. I'm currently on the 12.1 drivers, and will post back with results sometime today.

 

[JamesxRamirez]

The 12.1 drivers haven't helped either.

I just tried using a Radeon HD 5770 in this computer, and still got the same crashes.

Could a faulty PSU be causing these crashes?

 

[suat]

Faulty PSU and/or bad RAM modules. Run memory diagnostic for more than 5 passes, maybe overnight. Did you try your RAM modules one by one ?

It might also help if you slightly increase RAM voltage in BIOS.

Do you have the BSOD codes ?

 

[JamesxRamirez]

Faulty PSU and/or bad RAM modules. Run memory diagnostic for more than 5 passes, maybe overnight. Did you try your RAM modules one by one ?

It might also help if you slightly increase RAM voltage in BIOS.

Do you have the BSOD codes ?

I let it run overnight. It stopped after 5 passes and said it was complete. I've tried using one RAM module at a time, both get crashes.

Increase it by how much?

I have the BSOD dump files, but the codes were 0x116

 

[suat]

Make a bootable CD from http://www.memtest.org/ and boot to it. Let the program run overnight. I will look into the error code. For increasing voltage for the RAM modules, you must look into M/B manual.

 

[suat]

Error code:0x116 points to TDR issues.TDR is Timeout Detection and Recovery for gfx cards. If gfx card times out but recovers, your monitor's screen pixellates and blacks out for a couple of seconds and you receive a message in systray "Display driver stopped responding and has successfully recovered". If recovery does not take place, you get a BSOD.For further info, please see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff557263(v=vs.85).aspx and http://www.carrona.org/bsodindx.html#0x00000116

Resolving the issue is difficult. The issue can be caused out of anything from faulty PSU to defective RAM sticks, from overheating to improper driver installation, etc..

Hope this helps.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey