Desperate need of help, Vista 64 Ult + 4870.

Last night, I had to format due to messing up my uxtheme.dll file. Up until that point, I haven't had ANY video problems (I've been set up since September 08 and running fine.)

Anyways...

I formatted last night and reinstalled Vista 64 Ultimate. The install took fine, everything installed fine. Last thing I went to install was my video drivers. As soon as I install them, it calls for a reboot. I reboot. The Microsoft loading bar pops up and then it goes to the screen of which should be the vista orb. At this point, the screen goes black and my monitor detects no signal from the PC.

I've tried reinstalling Vista 6 times. Three times with the same DVD, three times with a friends DVD.

I've tried several different versions of the catalyst, from 8.7 to 8.12. I've also tried the Hotfix driver set posted on AMD's site, no avail.

Once I install a driver, the same problem occurs and the only way to stop it is to boot in to safe-mode, disable the video card, start up windows normally and fully remove the drivers.

I did, at one point, get 8.7 to install and take. By fluke, I tried disconnecting my monitor adapter then reseating it in the second DVI port. No video. I reseated it back in to the first DVI port figuring I'd start troubleshooting again and the video displayed. I rebooted after installing a few applications and of course, it went back to the black screen problem. Reseating only worked that once.

Other things I've tried;

Resetting the BIOS completely.

Reseating the video card.

Every driver set for Vista 64 that's AMD provided, from 8.7 to 8.12. I've also tried the driver discs that come with the 4800 series (I have 4 4800 series total, I tried all 4 discs. - They're all CAT8.7 while one is two versions higher I think.)

I can boot into safe mode with the drivers installed (because Windows doesn't load the drivers), but not boot normally unless I disable the adapter in safe mode then boot back in to Windows normally. After doing this, ATI CCC displays a message that says no ATI display adapters detected or the wrong drivers are installed. I assume this is because I have it disabled though.

I'm on the computer right now (with no video drivers installed, running off of Vista 64's default VGA drivers).

I need help, desperately. This is so frustrating and I've been working on it since 4PM EST yesterday.

The card is a Visiontek 4870 512MB.

EDIT: Some other information I forgot to mention;

I can NOT uninstall the driver in Safe Mode (awkward), the installer always says "Failed to load detection driver", when I google this error as well as vista 64 the problem I'm having is very abundant. Although with all of the people who post they have the problem, noone has posted their resolution and noone has given them useful information other than basic crap. (Try different drivers, try safe mode, try blah blah blah). People have this problem dating back to May of 2008 and I can't google a single resolution! Save me [H]!

I just did another fresh Vista install. This time I'm getting all of the updates provided by Microsoft then I'm going to try installing just the raw video driver. (The other times I've tried to install the raw video driver have been AFTER I've tried to install Catalyst.) Believing Catalyst may be the culprit in some way shape or form, I'm going to try installing JUST the display drivers AFTER doing a full update from Microsoft's update servers.

Should I have this moved to the ATi forums? I've never really traveled too many forums here outside of G[H}, FS/FT and [H]Deals.

Any help provided that's applicable would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Did the full set of Windows updates, they installed their own set of drivers. Of course, having ANY display adapter drivers at all installed... the problem started back up. Windows loading bar, black screen before Vista orb.. no orb. Monitor loses signal. This is truly irritating. I've tried the video card in another rig, takes fine and boots fine. (There's a 4850 in the other rig normally.) Using the 4850 in this rig, same issue. Bar -> Black screen, that's it.

I found a 22 page forum thread on AMD's own forums regarding this issue. It dates back over a year, almost two. No fix, just acknowledgement from AMD that it's their fault.


Has something to do with monitor EDID's, DVI and DVI's frequency. There's no real fixes for it that don't cause you to lose something or inconvenience you. What makes no sense to me, is why I didn't experience it on my first install. Options to fully resolve the issue are to either buy a new card or buy a new monitor. Pretty stupid. I used to be a long time ATi fan, but they've lost me as a customer again. Should've known the priceeformance ratio of the 4870 came with a catch. (And I paid $100 more than it costs now!! lol).


The fix I have to use is;

Boot up with no monitor connected
Listen for Windows Loading Sound
Plug Monitor in to DVI Out #2, wait for monitor to detect no signal
Switch to DVI OUT #1.

Problem is gone until I reboot again, luckily with Vista I only reboot once a month, if that.

Ouch, Sorry you had to experience this.

Sometimes, if you've tried everything, and things still don't work as they should, maybe it is just a bad video card.

Sounds like you don't want to hear that, but I'd try another card in the system, see if the problem goes away.

Nah, it's not a bad video card. There's a 20+ page thread on AMD/ATI's own forums with users complaining of the exact same problem. AMD even admits the video cards are not faulty / defective and it's a driver issue (on their end) w/ Vista. Microsoft even has several knowledge database entries regarding the issue.

I came back to report though, I did find a pretty cool trick that's worked 100% so far (15 reboots, 5 different driver sets(I was doing this just to see if I could force it back into not working) just to test and make sure it was close to a 100% fix.)

I grabbed an old RGB cable to just use a DVI adapter (known fix, use RGB instead of DVI and it'll work.. according to the ATI thread, sadly I didn't want to sacrifice image quality)

Anyways, I hooked my DVI-D adapter up to the end of my RGB cable, plugged the other end of the RGB cable into the back of the monitor (with the real DVI-D cable still plugged in to DVI socket #1 on the video card), and all of the sudden a picture came up.

I don't know what it is, but it's like the monitor is giving off the proper signal now. Downfall to this fix is I have a 10 foot RGB cable just sitting on my desk. Not hooked in to anything but the back of the monitor.

So all in all, my working resolution I found is --

Hook DVI up from back of monitor to video card.
Connect RGB cable to back of monitor, but don't plug it into a video source.
Forces DVI to report the right EDID (I'm not sure why?) or bypasses ATI's drivers need for a 100% correct EDID.

(Image quality is still top notch!)

I was hoping you'd save me Danny! I came in hopes you, enginurd or tiraides had heard of these problems before. Without you guys, I've spent the last 3 days trying everything I could think of and eventually stumbled on to something.

Anyways, issue resolved. Or as close as I'm going to get!

Thanks for those who've read and dropped input, whether it was just a bump to try and get other help or if it was suggesting an outcome.

m4dioses said:

I was hoping you'd save me Danny! I came in hopes you, enginurd or tiraides had heard of these problems before. Without you guys, I've spent the last 3 days trying everything I could think of and eventually stumbled on to something.

Click to expand...

Yeah sorry man. Never even saw this thread til this morning. But never encountered nor heard of a problem like yours before.