Cant get new 7970 running

[sigpop]

I purchased a new ATI 7970 vid card. My prev one was an ATI 5850. I'm having problems getting my vid card drivers/card to work.

ASROCK X58 socket 1366 mobo, intel i7 920, 12 GB ram
Corsair TX750 W power supply. It has four PCIE power cables with the 6+2 pin connectors


-installed a new Samsung 830 SSD system hard drive
-installed Windows 7 64-bit from scratch.
-did all Windows updates.
-the generic Windows vid driver works fine. It can drive my LCD at full resolution.
-downloaded the latest ATI Gfx drivers, Catalyst v12.6 and installed it, then rebooted

The screen is garbled. Lots of horizontal lines. The inputs (password input text box, for example) show up if you hover over them. I snapped a pic and uploaded it here.
http://i49.tinypic.com/2nl6643.jpg

I did a System Restore to a point prior to the 12.6 driver install and deleted all ATI/AMD folders on the drive and in the registry, then tried to install driver version 12.3. I got the same results.


I tried swapping the PCIE power cables to some molex-to-PCIE connectors and got the same results.

What other troubleshooting would you recommend?


I'm getting to the point where I'm about to send back the vid card. I was originally planning on buying an NVidia one anyhow but found this one for a good price.

I'll prob try this for kicks:
-I can swap my 5850 back in and test it against the 12.6 drivers.
-I can buy a newer power supply (mine isn't modular which is a huge PITA anyhow).

 

[Dan_D]

That is NOT a power supply problem. (WTF does everyone point to those when the problems they experience do NOT manifest in bad / failing power supplies?) I've seen this one one of my displays occasionally when the system comes out of sleep or occasionally when I start Windows. Pulling the mini-DP cable and plugging it back in forces the displays to redetect and it resolves the issue. Personally I think the Catalyst 12.6 drivers are junk. A lot of people are having OK luck with them and single card setups, but my luck was mixed to say the least. As for troubleshooting I'd try rolling back to a different driver. I know you said you did that, but AMD drivers are like a damn virus. You need to check the driver version in device manager. If it says 8.98 then it's the newer one and you didn't actually roll back at all. You have to eradicate all traces of the current driver to roll back with these in my experience.

I had to revert back to 12.4 and suffer the screen tearing problems.

I'm not 100% sure what your issue is, but I'm certain it is NOT a power supply issue. There could be heat, cooling, voltage issues, bad memory or other problems with the card itself, but again, not PSU related.

 

[luke51087]

prob the crappy drivers im still using 12.4 on my 7950 cause of issues with the 12.6

 

[Dan_D]

prob the crappy drivers im still using 12.4 on my 7950 cause of issues with the 12.6

This. Catalyst 12.6 drivers are among the worst I've EVER seen in the 17 years or more I've been working with computers professionally. The 12.7 drivers aren't really any better. In fact they are pretty much more of the same.

I had to roll back to 12.4 as well.

 

[sigpop]

I was just grasping at straws w the power supply testing. I figured that wasn't it since it ran fine with the default Windows vid drivers.

I've been running it w/ both sides of the case off and the vid card isn't hot to the touch, so I ruled out heat.

I tried these driver versions:
12.3 = black screen
12.4, 12.6 and 12.7 beta = same problem w screen artifacts.

I pulled the card and reseated it, same problem.

I tried a different monitor with diff cable, same problem.

I'm looking up the Tiger Direct RMA process next.

Thx for the suggestions.

 

[tangoseal]

Stop guessing it is the power sup and go buy a 13$ tester or learn to use a multimeter.

If it isnt the PSU it is the GPU that is fragged from the factory. It happens.

 

[B^gD^ddy~CF~]

hmm weird the 12.7's work perfectly for me. Then again I did a driver sweep(latest free version, since it has now gone paid under another name). I had problems moving from two 5870's to two 7970's and the only thing that fixed it was reinstalling windows. I would try that before RMAing the card. Fact is that old entries for different generation cards are still left in the registry even after doing a driver sweep. You can do a registry search for Radeon HD to confirm this is the case.

 

[Dan_D]

Stop guessing it is the power sup and go buy a 13$ tester or learn to use a multimeter.

If it isnt the PSU it is the GPU that is fragged from the factory. It happens.

It isn't the power supply. Power supply problems do not manifest like that. Period, end of story.

hmm weird the 12.7's work perfectly for me. Then again I did a driver sweep(latest free version, since it has now gone paid under another name). I had problems moving from two 5870's to two 7970's and the only thing that fixed it was reinstalling windows. I would try that before RMAing the card. Fact is that old entries for different generation cards are still left in the registry even after doing a driver sweep. You can do a registry search for Radeon HD to confirm this is the case.

I reinstalled Windows twice after formatting the drives and tried my cards in two different systems. The 12.6 drivers were a no go for me.

 

[B^gD^ddy~CF~]

weird Dan I stayed on 12.4 for a long time not upgrading until 12.6 and 12.7 came out and have experienced no issues other than finding a hydravision version that works with 12.7. Might take a look next time I reload my OS but that's usually a year in before I feel the need to put myself through that

 

[Dan_D]

weird Dan I stayed on 12.4 for a long time not upgrading until 12.6 and 12.7 came out and have experienced no issues other than finding a hydravision version that works with 12.7. Might take a look next time I reload my OS but that's usually a year in before I feel the need to put myself through that

12.4 works somewhat, but I occasionally get lockups. I can usually game for an hour or so before it happens. Sometimes longer. Catalyst 12.6 gave me about 20 minutes of stability on average. 12.7 was worse. I couldn't game for more than 5-10 minutes without a hard lock. Also, after hard locking, 12.4 is the only one that remembers my Eyefinity group and configuration. I had to resetup everything with the other two after each lockup.

This is with two completely different systems that I've experienced this. Twice formatted on the newer one. It isn't PSU related as I'm not anywhere near the wattage the PSU can output and the same PSU will handle dual GTX 580's without a problem. Also volt-meter shows everything is good as does the monitor in the BIOS and OS. I've evern pulled the cards, switched them around and I've tried them both one at a time and they work perfectly. Both cards have identical BIOS versions and of course run the same driver.

It isn't heat either as I've checked that and logged it with GPU-Z. The system is perfectly stable doing everything else. Right now I'm not even overclocked. My Core i7 980X was, but going back to stock didn't change anything. I've only got four games loaded at present, but it happens in all of them. Batman Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3. What's itneresting is that the two Mass Effect games can lock the thing up faster than the other games can. BF3 seems to be the most stable which is odd.

 

[sigpop]

Stop guessing it is the power sup and go buy a 13$ tester or learn to use a multimeter.

If it isnt the PSU it is the GPU that is fragged from the factory. It happens.

I already checked voltage w a multimeter. PSU is fine.

 

[sigpop]

hmm weird the 12.7's work perfectly for me. Then again I did a driver sweep(latest free version, since it has now gone paid under another name). I had problems moving from two 5870's to two 7970's and the only thing that fixed it was reinstalling windows. I would try that before RMAing the card. Fact is that old entries for different generation cards are still left in the registry even after doing a driver sweep. You can do a registry search for Radeon HD to confirm this is the case.

Since it was a new install, I was actually doing System Restores. I used device mgr to confirm the driver used for the gfx card. Just to be safe, I was deleting ATI and AMD folders from the hard drive and registry per some suggestions on another site.

 

[tangoseal]

It isn't the power supply. Power supply problems do not manifest like that. Period, end of story.



I reinstalled Windows twice after formatting the drives and tried my cards in two different systems. The 12.6 drivers were a no go for me.

Dan, so many people were indicating it was the PSU, this OP was guessing if that was the problem. I didnt suggest it was the problem, I suggested he buy a cheap tester and then he will have one to stop guessing.

Secondly I also indicated that the GPU processor is probably fragged from the factory. While you say it isnt the power supply and you guys are pros with hardware I have seen bad or going bad Power Supplies do F'ing retarded shit to computers and hence when all else is ruled out short of an RMA of the video card he could test his PSU and find that it isnt healthy which might lead to other problems as well. It could be a bad PSU that fragged his GPU for all we know. All I am saying is it is good to test the PSU when you have a general hardware issue just to rule it out.

You have to know this man?

Just saying.

 

[4LC4PON3]

dont feel bad bro i could not get my 7950 to do anything right at all. The card benched like crap, played games like crap and honestly was just crap. Tried every driver and spent a week fiddling with it but still ran like crap. Sent it back to newegg. newone should be here soon hopefully

I know mine is a 7950 and yours is a 7970 but all I have read are 7900 series issues the past 2 weeks. AMD drivers are terrible & the 7900 series as ive read on tons of forums are having major issues also.

Bleh what a waste of time

 

[Dan_D]

Dan, so many people were indicating it was the PSU, this OP was guessing if that was the problem. I didnt suggest it was the problem, I suggested he buy a cheap tester and then he will have one to stop guessing.

Secondly I also indicated that the GPU processor is probably fragged from the factory. While you say it isnt the power supply and you guys are pros with hardware I have seen bad or going bad Power Supplies do F'ing retarded shit to computers and hence when all else is ruled out short of an RMA of the video card he could test his PSU and find that it isnt healthy which might lead to other problems as well. It could be a bad PSU that fragged his GPU for all we know. All I am saying is it is good to test the PSU when you have a general hardware issue just to rule it out.

You have to know this man?

Just saying.

Actually, PSU issues are generally very predictible. I've seen weird shit caused by failing hard drives, RAM, and motherboards but never PSU's. I've been doing this for almost 20 years and I've services thousands of machines. I've never seen PSU's do unpredictible things. Random reboots, cold boot issues, and even hard locks are the hallmark of failing PSUs. That's about it. Certainly NOT what he was experiencing. If anything that's memory issues with the video card onboard RAM, or some kind of issue with the card's DAC. Possibly even an issue with the GPU itself, though unlikely. But it most certainly is NOT a PSU problem.

 

[tangoseal]

Actually, PSU issues are generally very predictible. I've seen weird shit caused by failing hard drives, RAM, and motherboards but never PSU's. I've been doing this for almost 20 years and I've services thousands of machines. I've never seen PSU's do unpredictible things. Random reboots, cold boot issues, and even hard locks are the hallmark of failing PSUs. That's about it. Certainly NOT what he was experiencing. If anything that's memory issues with the video card onboard RAM, or some kind of issue with the card's DAC. Possibly even an issue with the GPU itself, though unlikely. But it most certainly is NOT a PSU problem.

Now that you mention yes PSU's typically will cause a problem with the machine overall. I agree. However OP I still think that a good tool for all overclocking enthusiast is a good multimeter and a good PSU tester either way.

Thanks Dan for the application of your wisdom to this issue That's why you are [H]

 

[Dan_D]

Now that you mention yes PSU's typically will cause a problem with the machine overall. I agree. However OP I still think that a good tool for all overclocking enthusiast is a good multimeter and a good PSU tester either way.

Thanks Dan for the application of your wisdom to this issue That's why you are [H]

Most definitely. Those are always valuable tools. Every PC enthusiast needs them.