Concerning Consistent HD 7950 BSODs

[Foxtrotarmy]

Hey, I just got a replacement for my old HD 5870 card by picking up an HD 7950 as the title states, but as soon as I installed, I got Blue Screens consistently within a minute of Windows popping up.

I did some research, tried just about every driver and catalyst suite from 8.9 to 12.11 and all had the same result and I made sure to use atiman uninstaller multiple times to clear out the problem.

While this would suggest to me it's a hardware fault, I can still boot up in safe mode. I've reseated the card, played with various ram levels and the like, and done just about everything the web has to offer and it gave me the same problem regardless.

My proposal now to you guys is I'm going to post my set-up and I'd like to know if there's some basic hardware incompatibility or the like I've overlooked that could cause these problems. I'm savvy enough to check compatibility but I'm nowhere near the level of experts on here and I'd like to see if I've made a major rookie mistake.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 3.2gHz
Mobo: GA-990FXA-UD3
RAM: 16GB G.Skill Ripjaws (2x8)
Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Dual-X
PSU: 750 Watts
OS: Windows 7 64-bit.

(As I side not, I'm fairly confident it's not just a driver problem because I'm using the same drivers on the 5870 and it's working fine, save the artifacting I've gotten with it for years and the reason why I tried upgrading.)

I appreciate any feedback I can get and let me know if you need more information or if I've forgotten something useful. Thanks!

 

[Foxtrotarmy]

Just remembered the STOP codes could be useful:

STOP: 0x0000001E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000094, 0xFFFFFA80040FE838, 0xFFFFF88003164CA0)


Googling them proved only mildly useful in my attempts to fix this issue and obviously it still occurred despite my efforts.

 

[Earnie]

"I'm fairly confident it's not just a driver problem because I'm using the same drivers on the 5870 "

you should be going to Sapphires site and use the drivers for the 7950,Not the 5870,they are different.And also use the latest CAP profiles.

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/downloads/download_index.aspx?psn=0006&lid=1


Also ,If your running 1600 Gskill memory,Have a look at this:

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?s=d6098d38085d25f1ba8f8c270f84a90d&t=7688

 

[Foxtrotarmy]

Looking at Sapphire's site, they link me to the AMD drivers download page where I was getting all my drivers in the first place. Didn't have the CAP but is this something that that alone would cause this kind of catastrophic crashing?

I haven't tried the betas yet from AMD from just about everything else has given me the same result. While the 12.10 drivers could hardly be appropriate for the 5870 I know they're meant for the 79xx series and they've yet to work in any capacity.

 

[Earnie]

this is the page it links to(not sure this is your exact card):

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/downloads/?pid=1442&psn=0006&lid=1&os=6

now make sure you do a complete uninstall of drivers from 'programs and features' and then swap out the cards,then install the drivers from sapphires link.

 

[Foxtrotarmy]

Sorry, what I meant to say was that the linked files I download from Sapphire are the same files I was originally downloading direct from AMD. And I still cleaned out old drivers and tried the files I got from Sapphire and had the same issue regardless.

A few other sites and forums have hinted that the BSOD 1e error can be related to bad VCores and I'm also experimenting with the settings regarding the CPU and motherboard. Apparently a few people have had issues with this mobo and multicore CPUs.

There are so many ways this could be happening, it's just rough trying to narrow them down.

 

[Earnie]

Did you also try the Ram settings from the Gskill link?

 

[Foxtrotarmy]

I tweaked the RAM settings a bit as indicated by the site but the Ripjaws I have are only 1333s not the 1600s the instructions are for. Messed with it anyways just to see and had same issue.

As an update I've also run chkdsk and double-checked with men test that all the sticks are good and the mobo slots are good.

I've also run Driver Genius a couple of times to make sure all my drivers are solid and up to date.

The Blue Screen dump indicates that it's the ntoskrnl.exe file causing the crash but that's a pretty common bug check as I understand it so it's not a direct finger-point at the real culprit. I'm going to try and attach the dump files here when I get the chance but I can only operate in safe mode and safe mode with networking doesn't seem to like forums very much.

 

[Foxtrotarmy]

I realize the longer this goes on, the less likely it's turning out to be just a graphics card issue, so I'm not sure if I should move the thread or not or wait until some confirmation of the real cause of the problems but I don't want to breach some etiquette here.

Could this also be a PSU issue? While I know my PSU is 730W (Not the 750W I originally thought it was, good to double-check), I've also had it for about three years now. Could it just be degraded and causing a power issue when running the card at full power?

Here's a text of some of the basic dump files:

==================================================
Dump File : 112412-46160-01.dmp
Crash Time : 11/24/2012 4:39:09 PM
Bug Check String : KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug Check Code : 0x0000001e
Parameter 1 : ffffffff`c0000094
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`0d4c4838
Parameter 3 : 00000000`00000012
Parameter 4 : fffff880`03164ca0
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7efc0
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7601.17944 (win7sp1_gdr.120830-0333)
Processor : x64
Crash Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7efc0
Stack Address 1 :
Stack Address 2 :
Stack Address 3 :
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\Minidump\112412-46160-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 276,376
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 112412-75722-01.dmp
Crash Time : 11/24/2012 2:05:59 PM
Bug Check String : KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug Check Code : 0x0000001e
Parameter 1 : ffffffff`c0000094
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`0cf78838
Parameter 3 : 00000000`00000012
Parameter 4 : fffff880`009eaca0
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7efc0
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7601.17944 (win7sp1_gdr.120830-0333)
Processor : x64
Crash Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7efc0
Stack Address 1 :
Stack Address 2 :
Stack Address 3 :
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\Minidump\112412-75722-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 276,376
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 112412-85114-01.dmp
Crash Time : 11/24/2012 1:50:02 PM
Bug Check String : KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug Check Code : 0x0000001e
Parameter 1 : ffffffff`c0000094
Parameter 2 : fffffa80`108cd838
Parameter 3 : 00000000`00000012
Parameter 4 : fffff880`009eaca0
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7efc0
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7601.17944 (win7sp1_gdr.120830-0333)
Processor : x64
Crash Address : ntoskrnl.exe+7efc0
Stack Address 1 :
Stack Address 2 :
Stack Address 3 :
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\Minidump\112412-85114-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 276,320
==================================================

 

[Earnie]

what exact power supply is it?

 

[Foxtrotarmy]

Kingwin ABT-730mm 730W

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121045

 

[Foxtrotarmy]

Update: After running Memtest86+ and moving my RAM sticks around, I no longer get the BSODs but my system freezes upon startup forcing me to reset.

 

[Foxtrotarmy]

Major Update: Just finally bit the bullet and installed Windows 7 again, and my problems have all disappeared. Kept the same hardware installed and now (having downloaded fresh drivers from the internet instead of using the CDs that came with) I have been BSOD or freezing free for the past hour and a half.

I'm hoping this sticks and that it was just a case of a cluttered hard drive or too much corrupted data, but will give it enough time to confirm it's fixed before jumping the gun. I've yet to test the graphics card on a sufficiently intense game or benchmarked what's in there yet but so far so good. Will report back with more info when it's available.

 

[Earnie]

good to hear.