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4850 CrossfireX: Random reboots

T

The_Dark_Abyss

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 6, 2005
Messages
444
Okay so saw a great deal this past weekend at Fry's for a pair of HD4850s ($340 for the pair) and since I've been thinking about updating my secondary rig, decided to get it along with a P5Q Deluxe motherboard. So I installed a fresh version of Vista x64 and Catalyst 8.9. Had a lot of issues with installing Catalyst (as usual) but finally got it and Crossfire working. Played a few games including Crysis and Devil May Cry 4 and everything was going fine. And then I started getting random reboots. No BSOD, just a black screen and then my PC would reboot. At first I thought it might be a problem with my PSU (Corsair HX620) but the thing is it doesn't just happen when the card is under load. It happens at the desktop as well as when I was just watching a movie. So I ran memtest, and got no errors. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Catalyst three times now and I still get the same issues. It's gotten a little better since the latest install (I've only had one reboot, right after I exited out of DMC4) but it's still happening.

Any ideas what could be causing this? And why would it just be a blank screen without a BSOD? (I even disabled automatic reboot). I'd hate to have to return these cards to Fry's but at this point, I don't have many options as random rebooting can get really irritating.
 
I spent about 3 hours this weekend trying to get my 4850CF working on cat 8.9 with no luck. Black screens during install of 8.9 and uninstall of old drivers. Reboots, driver crashes causing blue screens. Changing to 2nd monitor causing blue screens, etc. I went back to 8.7 and all is fine again. 8.9 is a disaster, at least for crossfire configs. The only reason I went to 8.9 was to see if it would fix this terrible pausing that I am getting with warhead. Try 8.7 because 8.9 just plain doesn't work.
 
These are the same problems I am having.
I picked up a pair of 4850s this weekend and they have been a PITA to work with.
I get colored screens then reboots, my primary monitor gets solid brown with vertical black lines spaces an inch apart and the secondary gets off-white with vertical black lines.
Getting the drivers installed is a PITA too; I keep getting no ATI driver is installed on boot up.

Mine seems to run fine now on default clocks except after about 15 - 20 minutes into COD4 it starts getting major slow downs.
It will run fine for a bit then slow to 19FPS, then jump to 60, then 90, then 10, blah blah.
If I try to overclock it at all I get the blank screen reboot, and this is with CCC auto tuner.

I will play some more, but in the end having to fuck with this shit just isn’t worth it; I will probably return them and look for a single card solution like a GTX260.

It is too bad too, because I want to support ATI for making a good card and adding competition, but their drivers just plain suck and take all of the fun out of it.
 
hmmm i don't have these problems but i have 2 cards that idle normal but u put them in CF and one will do the stupid 500/750 idle :mad:

its always the 2nd one.

 
Yeah the most frustrating thing for me is that my games are stable and I don't get any glitches or slowdowns and yet still get random reboots (Ironically I didn't have any of these problems when I was attempting to run 4870 Crossfire on my P35 board). I had high hopes for 4850 crossfire, especially given that I've had little problems with the 4870X2. Looks like these will be going back to Fry's since the performance is not worth the hassle and frustration.
 
are you guys using driver cleaner ?
i have 8.9 cf and i'm not having this issue
 
FWIW I never had any of the above mentioned problems with my 4850 CF setup and 8.9 drivers.

Just sticking up for the silent majority :p

OP, that PSU should be more than enough, I'm running a Corsair TX650 and an OCed Q6600 and have had zero problems with power delivery.
 
Yes I used both Driver Cleaner and Driver Sweeper each time I uninstalled. I'm not necessarily sure it was a problem with the 8.9 drivers specifically (from my experience driver issues usually cause BSODs or freezes but not blank screen reboots; not to mention my system is rebooting mostly from the desktop, not during games). Could have been an issue with my system just not liking the 4850s in crossfire (tried the single card and I don't get reboots). Also, I'm aware that most people with 4850 crossfire setups problem aren't having these problems, but at this point I'm not willing to deal with the hassle. In any case, returned them to Frys and got a GTX 280 for $390. I think I'll stick to single card solutions from now on.
 
123Lanoix said:
are you guys using driver cleaner ?
i have 8.9 cf and i'm not having this issue
Click to expand...


i don't use driver clean as the only time u need that is when swaping between nvidia and ati. besides my problem i have had with all the drivers.

 
ALL4AMD said:
i don't use driver clean as the only time u need that is when swaping between nvidia and ati.
Click to expand...

I doubt that's even strictly true. I've got nvidia and ATI drivers installed right now and no problems with it. As long as you don't have both cards installed at the same time and remember to disable the background processes for whichever card is NOT installed, there's no real reason it should be an issue.
 
the cards will shut off from heat if you don't do the fan speed fix on both cards
 
I have both of my fans running 90% when I game.
On stock clocks it runs without crashing, but after a while it gets weird slow downs.
I installed the second bridge tonight to see if that would help with the slow downs, it does help some but the game play it just not smooth.
My 88000GT would run for hours without a hicup.
If I try to overclock that cards at it crashes.

So I am afraid both these cards are going back tomorrow.
It is a shame ATI, you should finally learn how to write some good drivers and you would not be losing my business...again!
 
Well this just goes to show that I shouldn't jump to conclusions: installed the GTX 280, and I'm getting the same damn issues. Looks like this may be a problem with my motherboard. This this starting to really irritate me. <_<
 
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