Sapphire 6850 Display driver fails or system freezes often

ty811

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Jul 31, 2011
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I bought a 6850 over 8 months ago to replace an old 8800 GT. Ever since then it has been a nightmare.
I will get random freezes and 10 seconds of darkness then an "amd display driver has recovered" bubble or just a general freeze and crash. It used to be fairly rare, just once a week or so but now just about any time I run a game such as Skyrim. Around 10 or so minutes into a game , usually loading in between cities, the screen will freeze or I will be kicked out onto the desktop with that damn bubble of doom "amd display driver has recovered." It also seems to happen 50% of the time when I take the system out of sleep mode. I'll get a freeze then that damn amd display bubble of doom thing.

System:

Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate
CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 450 (the 4th core can be unlocked but with all the problems I've left it as stock)
Board: Asus M4A87TD/USB3
Ram: 8g ddr3 1333
PSU: APEVIA 680W Beast Power
Overclocking: Doesn't seem to affect the system one way or the other if I have the cpu upp'd to 3.4 and the Video Card slightly pushed with the AMD overdrive. The crashes stay about the same but I've now left all parts to slock settings.


Step I've taken so far.

1. Uninstalled drivers. Cleared out the registry and reinstalled a variety of driver versions.
2. Rma'd the card and received a brand new replacement...
Feel a bit bad about that one, probable had a perfectly good card replaced
During my RMA I pop'd my old 8800 gt back into the computer and it ran smooth and never had a freeze or display driver bubble even during gaming
3. Ran memtest86+ and the memory checks out as clean
4. Grabbed the OCCT system tester thingy and have used all from the GPU to Linpack to Power supply test and all for over an hour and for the life of me I can't get an error or the system to crash when I try to. All temps stay far within a decent rage and the GPU itself tops out at 75c when pushed hardest.
5. Have used Driver Genius Pro to make sure all drivers on my system are up to date.
6. The only spare PSU I have is a 300w from an older HP, so I'm left without another psu to try unless I just bite the bullet and purchase one.



I'm not the greatest at running systems or sussing out problems and this one has driven me all but to tear out my hair. The next step I felt taking was to either completely reinstall windows , which will be such a massive headache or grab an actual Gold certified power supply. The PSU I'm running now was a newegg cheap special.

Just wondering what the next few steps others would take or what I have missed trying.

Thank you

-Ty
 
Solution
That is what I did with my Apeiva (aspire old brand name) pulled it out a couple of years later and put it in a rig I assembled with old hardware and found out it was no longer working! I do not know if it was causing the card to fail but the replacement card is still in use in my sons friends HP computer matched with a good quality PSU!
When you RMA'd with Sapphire did they say anything about the APEIVA PSU? (I know they have in the past)
I would not trust that it would deliver it promised power for long let alone on the right voltages!
It is basically between PSU, card, motherboard! The PSU is the lowest quality item of the 3!
 

ty811

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Jul 31, 2011
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Uh oh.. Not a fan of the motherboard either?
Sapphire RMA is done by althonmicro out of Cali and the email exchanges were very pre-generated and basic.
"send us the serial #.... here's your RMA... Ship it out..."
Took about a week and a half for the whole process and never was I asked about by my power supply.
 

A few years ago I had to do an RMA with them on a X1900GT and had to have their forum moderator approve it, the PSU 500watt apeiva was what he blamed and it was not until I assured him that the same problem existed with a 500watt Enermax that I got to their RMA approval! By the way it was failing graphics memory (after 18months of use) with the same symptoms as yours!
 

ty811

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Guess they got a bit more lax. Never had to go through any of that...
I know Sapphire got in a little trouble a while back for demanding a 15$ administration fee for any card they processed.
That along with having to pay for shipping drove people nuts with having to RMA with Sapphire.

 

I do not remember what I payed for shipping but believe it was like 9.95 but the replacement card took a month coming from Hong Kong!
 

ty811

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Jul 31, 2011
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I do not remember what I payed for shipping but believe it was like 9.95 but the replacement card took a month coming from Hong Kong!

Oh that does sound familiar. I've heard of some complain about their defective cards needing to be forwarded there for "inspection."
Should I write you down as saying I should grab a competent PSU and just use the one I have now as a paper weight?
 
That is what I did with my Apeiva (aspire old brand name) pulled it out a couple of years later and put it in a rig I assembled with old hardware and found out it was no longer working! I do not know if it was causing the card to fail but the replacement card is still in use in my sons friends HP computer matched with a good quality PSU!
 
Solution

likl3sfuhjh

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Apr 16, 2012
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I have the same problem with my card Asus HD6850

It will give me an ati drivers have crashed error, or will lock up the system and i will be forced to do a hard reboot. No overheating issues.

My voltages are fine, i tried 4 different psu, and RMA'ed the card, which they replaced with another rma card.


i3
intell DH55HC
8gb 1333 RAM

 

ty811

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Jul 31, 2011
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Well I just picked up an 80 plus certified power supply from newegg
Hopefully I'll pop it in
birds will sing
the clouds will part
and this ******* computer will stop derping it up
 

ty811

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Jul 31, 2011
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Well it has been two days since I put in a new psu. I bought a rosewill 630w


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182200

No freezes/lockups/ati bubbles

Unlocked the 4th core and overclocked it just little and still no problems so I'm gonna happily
say my problem is solved.

My only other questions for anyone to help solve is cpu temp.
I have an aftermarket cooler that keeps the unlocked athlon ii x3 very chilly and can barley hit 30c under full load.

Unlocked and overclocked by 200mhz the temps will get a degree or two over 60c and idle around 45
Which makes me just a tad nervous. Should I just leave the cpu locked or maybe invest in a new cpu cooler?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119091

The cpu cooler that I'm using now.