Need help - Gigabyte HD6970 Driver problems!!!

[Krimsonmyst]

Hi everyone,

In the past 2 days I've had some really bizarre things happen with my graphics cards, and I've reached the end of my tether, so I thought I'd seek some help.

I have 2x Gigabyte 6970s running in Crossfire that have been on the 12.4 display driver since they were released, back in May. I got Far Cry 3 last week and to get a performance boost, I upgraded to 12.10 (the latest 'release' build). I then read that the 12.11 Beta drivers provided a lot better performance boost for FC3, so I again, updated to 12.11.

Everything went smoothly for about 3-4 days.

Then I restarted my computer and started getting what people have been calling the 'Black Screen of Death'. Windows will boot, it will show the 'Welcome' screen, then it will go to a black screen with a cursor, but no desktop. It will sit there indefinitely. I booted into safe mode and uninstalled the drivers, cleaned it out with Driver Sweeper, then went back to 12.4. Everything worked perfectly.

I then proceeded to try the new drivers with only one card, I tried both as a single card, I tried swapping them around, I made sure they were seated, cables were seated correctly etc.

The problem, which was schizophrenic at first, has at least gained some consistency. Now, if I install the 12.10 drivers, I'll get the black screen issue. However, if I update STRAIGHT to 12.11 Beta from 12.4, I won't get the black screen, but my Catalyst Control Center won't open.

Now, I've been looking around for ages and can't really find a fix that works for me, but I was wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar, and if you have tried something that worked that I haven't seen yet.

Right now I think I'm just going to be waiting for the next stable release, and hoping for the best


For reference, here are my full PC specs:

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Mobo
Intel i7-2700K CPU
G.Skill Ripjaw 16GB DDR3 Memory
2x Gigabyte HD6970 in Crossfire (stock, not overclocked)
OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD (All drivers are running off that)

Thanks in advance

 

[soundguruman]

Hi everyone,

In the past 2 days I've had some really bizarre things happen with my graphics cards, and I've reached the end of my tether, so I thought I'd seek some help.

I have 2x Gigabyte 6970s running in Crossfire that have been on the 12.4 display driver since they were released, back in May. I got Far Cry 3 last week and to get a performance boost, I upgraded to 12.10 (the latest 'release' build). I then read that the 12.11 Beta drivers provided a lot better performance boost for FC3, so I again, updated to 12.11.

Everything went smoothly for about 3-4 days.

Then I restarted my computer and started getting what people have been calling the 'Black Screen of Death'. Windows will boot, it will show the 'Welcome' screen, then it will go to a black screen with a cursor, but no desktop. It will sit there indefinitely. I booted into safe mode and uninstalled the drivers, cleaned it out with Driver Sweeper, then went back to 12.4. Everything worked perfectly.

I then proceeded to try the new drivers with only one card, I tried both as a single card, I tried swapping them around, I made sure they were seated, cables were seated correctly etc.

The problem, which was schizophrenic at first, has at least gained some consistency. Now, if I install the 12.10 drivers, I'll get the black screen issue. However, if I update STRAIGHT to 12.11 Beta from 12.4, I won't get the black screen, but my Catalyst Control Center won't open.

Now, I've been looking around for ages and can't really find a fix that works for me, but I was wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar, and if you have tried something that worked that I haven't seen yet.

Right now I think I'm just going to be waiting for the next stable release, and hoping for the best


For reference, here are my full PC specs:

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Mobo
Intel i7-2700K CPU
G.Skill Ripjaw 16GB DDR3 Memory
2x Gigabyte HD6970 in Crossfire (stock, not overclocked)
OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD (All drivers are running off that)

Thanks in advance

The reason you are having problems, is that you loaded free junk software (like "driver sweeper") into your computer.
NEVER install free programs that claim they will "fix, sweep, clean, fix problems, "speed up" your computer. These downloads are a SCAM which will corrupt your operating system.
There is NO free download, which you need, to make your computer run correctly. There IS NONE!!!
Also do not download "free" security or free antivirus either. You are just asking for problems.

If you have installed this JUNK in your computer, the ONLY way to get rid of it is to reformat your entire drive, and start over again.
There is NO way to delete this free junk from your system, unless you erase the entire hard drive.

LISTEN to what I am telling you.
IF you want to USE your computer, without problems, NEVER load free stuff from the internet...NEVER.

 

[Krimsonmyst]

Uh, not quite sure how to respond to that.

Driver sweeper is something that a lot of people, across a lot of sites have suggested, and it seems to work. Many people on Tom's Hardware have suggested it.

I've been using Avast! for several years now, without any problems. Many other people do too.

And on your first point, my problem is not because I installed 'JUNK' software. The problems were happening before that.

That's for a really non-constructive answer though.

 

[RussK1]

IF you want to USE your computer, without problems, NEVER load free stuff from the internet...NEVER.

Are you serious? Open source software mean anything? Like Linux, BSD, Ubuntu, etc etc? Microsoft Security Essentials is free, 99% of all benchmarks are free... there is a thing called discretion and should be used.

Uh, not quite sure how to respond to that.

Driver sweeper is something that a lot of people, across a lot of sites have suggested, and it seems to work. Many people on Tom's Hardware have suggested it.

I've been using Avast! for several years now, without any problems. Many other people do too.

And on your first point, my problem is not because I installed 'JUNK' software. The problems were happening before that.

That's for a really non-constructive answer though.

I've never had a problem with "Driver Sweeper", "Driver Fusion" etc... scary when people quickly recommend a reformat and re-install instead of trying to solve a problem before it comes to that.

Do you have Virtu installed? If so, uninstall it and follow the method below. After you're done you can go HERE and get the latest "FREE" software respective to your hardware. The problem lies between the Intel HD drivers, Catalyst drivers and Virtu (the middleware).

Here:

1) Download Driver Fusion HERE.
2) Download Catalyst 12.11 beta11 drivers HERE. but don't install.
3) Download Catalyst 12.11 CAP 2 HERE
4) Custom uninstall all AMD software through Control Panel, select everything and reboot.
5) Run Driver Fusion and clean AMD display drivers - reboot.
6) Re-install CCC and reboot.
7) Install the CAP profile and reboot.

In CCC there is an option to run Crossfire for applications that have no associated Catalyst Application Profile. Make sure it's checked. Fixed CF for me in Assassins Creed 3.