Display driver keeps crashing HD6850

[bp88]

Hi, a couple weeks ago I had to RMA my MSI R6850 factory OC edition because it had the "no display signal" crash while running games. Today I received my new 6850 from MSI and installed it. When I try to play a game or adjust video settings in a game the display driver will crash and recover on its own but I can't play any games because it keeps crashing when I attempt to. I can stream YouTube videos fine; this only happens when I run games like DOTA 2, Counter-Strike Source, Tomb Raider, etc. I have tried the 12.10 and 12.6 Catalyst drivers to no avail. My old 6670 works fine so I doubt it's a hardware issue.


My specs are:

ASRock H61M/U3S3 motherboard

8gb Mushkin 1333 DDR3 RAM

MSI R6850 Factory OC video card

WDC 500gb hard drive

Corsair CX500 (500 Watt) PSU



Any ideas as to why my display driver keeps crashing while trying to game?

 

[mace200200]

Are you uninstalling the old drivers before installing new ones over it? Then run CCleaner to delete it from your registry. Then try installing 12.8, the 12.10 drivers cause a lot problems for some people. I have some problems with it but not enough to roll back the drivers.

 

[bp88]

Now my video driver is starting to crash in Windows and Chrome browser...

Yes, I've completely uninstalled the video drivers. 12.8 drivers did not work, either.

 

[knightdog56]

Try a different power supply ( I know corsair power supplies are good but maybe you got a bad one) Up the watts, you are running the minimum rated one right now.

 

[bp88]

I don't have another PSU to try. I tried reseating my "new" 6850 and it didn't work. Right now I'm using my 6670 and it's working fine. I can tell MSI sent me a refurbished card because one of the fins on the heatsink is bent and I'm certain these cards aren't produced anymore. I called MSI and they told me I'd have to RMA again for replacement. I told them I want a refund because I don't want to wait 2-3 weeks again for another faulty card - they said they don't give refunds so I guess I'm stuck in this *** loop.

So, it's either my PSU or a faulty card. I'm thinking it's a bad card. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

 

[protogenic]

If you are using ANY overclocking tools on the GPU check it and make sure it is not running because in my time I had the voltages screwed up sometimes and it would crash randomly. That or it is overclocked too high or too low. Maybe MSI sent you the cards pre clocked I would check and make sure that it is at the settings others have their cards stable at online. If none of these options work your card may be from a bunk batch.

Oh and did your old 6670 require a ATX power pin or was it low profile taking power from the PCIE?

 

[bp88]

My 6670 doesn't require a 6pin connector. I know the 6850 takes more power to run but it was working fine up until I started getting video signal crashes and had to RMA the first time. I will check the clock settings and let you know.

 

[bp88]

Found my old Antec 650w PSU. I'll let you guys know how it's working after I try a few games.

 

[bp88]

Okay, it's still doing it and my clock settings are stock (850 core and 1100 memory)

 

[suat]

I have the same card ( MSI R6850 Cyclone PE/OC ). I had similar problems. MSI tech support advised me to use MSI Live Updater 5, which you can find here: http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R6850-Cyclone-1GD5-Power-Edition-OC.html#/?div=Utility&os=Win7%2064 to check for a VBIOS update for the gfx card.

Install it and use it to check if there is a video BIOS update. You must be logged on to an account with Admin Privileges to be able to run the utility and update video BIOS.

I am not a gamer. But I could not play DVD video movie disks or Bluray movie disks nor browse the internet with this card with the VBIOS the card came with. Even staying at the desktop doing nothing without crashing was difficult. After I updated the VBIOS, my card became a super performer.

 

[bp88]

I downloaded Live Update but when I click scan it'll say "Processing please wait for a while" for a couple of seconds and nothing shows up. Does that mean there isn't an update? Or am I doing something wrong?

 

[suat]

No. It should find your current VBIOS version, which was 1M2 in my card if I remember correctly, and the new VBIOS, which was 1M3. If no new VBIOS is available, then it will read current 1M2 and MSI version 1M2 or similar wording.

I believe the same thing happened in my system as well. A couple of days after I updated my VBIOS, there appeared to be another version for the MSI Live Updater executable in MSI download site. I installed it and the new version Live Updater could not run correctly. It ran the way you just described above.

If you can find another version of the program, an older one, install it.

EDIT: After I updated my VBIOS, my card became perfect and solid but I lost energy-saving feature of the card because the idle-state core clock of the card went up from 100 MHz to 300 MHz and memory clock went up from 150 MHz to 1100 MHz. 1100 MHz is the max memory clock of the card. So memory clock became a constant. Idle-state temperature of the card went up from 46 C to 52 C.

 

[bp88]

Best answer selected by bp88.

 

[bp88]

suat, thank you so much for helping me out but I've decided to take the RMA route again. I've read that reflashing the VBIOS is very risky. I would attempt to reflash it but I'm worried that MSI won't want to RMA my card if they found out it was bricked because of a failed reflash - they haven't been very helpful as is. If I receive another card and encounter the same issue then I will most definitely attempt to reflash.