ATI 5xxx series issues and driver updates

[rfielder]

Tom's Hardware recently reported issues with ATI 5xxx series cards:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ATI...rash,9529.html

Tom's then reported that ATI has confirmed the issues, and is working on a fix:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ATI...5870,9549.html

Has anyone here run into similar issues? I did during the build of a system, but due to other factors I thought I had a faulty motherboard. In my case, I was getting some pretty bad crashes that left the screen in a pin stripe patters - my first thought was that Microsoft had finally upgrade the BSOD to a pinstriped screen of death, which is about the level of creativity I would expect from that company.

My other issues were that it seems that two of the four pieces of G.Skill memory I was using is faulty, and that the BIOS on the motherboard had been trashed during one or more of these crashes, to the point that reflashing it did not bring back all functionality.

In other words, I seemed to be facing three issues - flakey 5xxx drivers, bad memory, and a trashed BIOS.

My solution was to return the motherboard as faulty (Maximus III), pay to upgrade to a P7P55D-E Premium, and rebuild using the two known good memory modules. So far, I have had a couple of similar crashes, but no more, and the system seems pretty stable.

Anyone here encountering similar issues with ATI cards?

On a semi-related note, I had installed the 9.12 drivers for the XFX 5770 video card during the build. When the 10.1 drivers became available, I installed those, but the information part of the Catalyst control centre still says 9.12. I even uninstalled the 9.12 drivers, then installed the 10.1 drivers, and the same version still appears. Any ideas why this might be?

Thanks in advance!

System:
ASUS P7P55D-E Premium
Intil i5
Venomous X cooler with two 120MM Noctua fans
2 x G.Skill DDR3-1600 memory
2 x OCZ DDR3-1600 memory (later addition)
VelociRaptor 300Gb
Seagate 160Gb SATA hard drive
XFX 5770 video
Corsair 750HX power supply
Various Plextor and LG optical drives

[SKYMTL]

The tally for me so far:

- Two dead HD 5970 cards.

- One dead HD 5870

- One HD 5770 displaying the grey stripe pattern

- One HD 5850 and one HD 5770 displaying "tearing" on the desktop when folders are opened / closed.


Personally, I think the last two involve ATI's PowerPlay technology limiting the voltage a bit too much when the cards are at idle. As such, a software fix should take care of things.

[Fudd Rucker]

I sure do get the pinstripe screen that crashes.I orinally chalked it up as an OC failure until the problem started happening at stock clocks. My card has never been overclocked a single mhz yet (not from lack of trying).My old system did the same thing (almost identical specs to yours)

I also went through hardware swapping,returns and RMA processes thinking that everything but my video card (which has ran stock and never overclockin) was the issue at hand. It was once I put my i7 together from brand new and known working 2nd hand parts and the problem came back that I started to get mad and look into the problem. Low and behold what do I find, forum after forum of the same problem. Someone better be replacing my 500 dollar gpu soon with a good working one lol .

[rfielder]

Originally Posted by Fudd Rucker

.....Someone better be replacing my 500 dollar gpu soon with a good working one lol .

I hear you!

According to Tom's, ATI thinks this needs only a software fix. If it isn't, and it turns out to be bad silicon, the damage to ATI/AMD will be a lot worse than what Toyota is dealing with now.....!

[Fudd Rucker]

Its been a few sets of drivers since release date (i bought mine literally the second it was availible on launch day) and its done that every time. Come to think about it, this problem also showed its ugly head with my former amd machines as well. 720BE system and a 955 phenom setup as well.

[Dr_BenD_over]

No problems with my Asus EAH5850 with Vista or XP

[MarkOne]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

The tally for me so far:

- Two dead HD 5970 cards.

- One dead HD 5870

- One HD 5770 displaying the grey stripe pattern

- One HD 5850 and one HD 5770 displaying "tearing" on the desktop when folders are opened / closed..

..... I think I can wait a little bit before buy a 5870

[rfielder]

Originally Posted by Dr_BenD_over

No problems with my Asus EAH5850 with Vista or XP

That is one thing that is noted - not everyone has the problem, and the symptoms are similar, but not always exactly the same.

[Fudd Rucker]

I never tried them out on those operating systems, kinda silly to run either a craptactular 10 year old OS or on a big bloated ass 4 year old OS with a brand new piece of hardware.

[SKYMTL]

When it comes to NVIDIA and ATI talking about potential issues, the progression usually goes like this:

1: Outright denial

2: Denial followed by "we ask any users experiencing issues to contact the manufacturer of their card for more info."

3: The famous line: "We're looking into the issue"

4: The grand protection of their company against vindictive investors: "We found the issue! But, it's software related. Nothing wrong with the hardware, we swear."

5: The fix will be out "soon"

6: The fix is released and in the case of ATI, said fix breaks something else in the driver

7: If this doesn't fix the problem, the next step is the official "stick head in sand until the problem goes away" mode.