AMD 6870 series driver issue

[0vereasy]

Hi-

I have had this AMD XFX 6870 card since July and it has been working fine up until about two weeks ago. It started off causing blue screens every once in awhile but would run most of the day without issue. After the blue screens I would roll back the drivers in safe mode and it would work temporarily. For the past couple of days, I couldn't even get the display to show when I attempted to boot up the computer. I unplugged and replugged everything and it booted normally. At the desktop it was incredibly laggy and kept flashing a black screen then back to the desktop etc over and over. Notification center said something to the effect of "AMD driver has stopped responding and recovered." About a minute later it blue screened. Writing this post in safe mode. Any advice?

 

[GaiaHunter]

Well first step is to uninstall all the GPU drivers using an utility like driver sweeper and then install a fresh version of the drivers.

If that doesn't work you have a few options.

First if you have a spare graphic card or can test that card on another system - that will rule out the 6870 as the problem.

Another option is the windows installation is corrupted somehow so you can try a fresh install.

It can also be a PSU issue.

 

[0vereasy]

PSU issue after three months of running fine? I haven't added any additional hardware or anything besides a USB wireless adapter. I've read some posts indicating that Driver Sweeper may actually cause more problems with this card so I'm not sure. I will give it a shot though.

 

[GaiaHunter]

I had a few problems with hardware over the years - the most common problem has been the PSU, even decent brand ones. Most recently an Antec True Power trio was the culprit of a situation where the PC fan started but the graphics card and its fan wouldn't start and even other graphic card and/or onboard wouldn't and then after 2-3 hours the PC would boot just fine and BSOD weren't uncommon, especially when I left the PC downloading during the night - this after working fine for 2 years (including some 4-5 months with the problematic setup).

When there is stability problems, always return all components to stock clocks and if you keep having them there is a chance PSU is the cause., although your situation at a first look seems to be driver related.

I'm not sure how driver sweeper could cause problems to a specific GPU model. I don't have a 6870 but I do have a 6850 and didn't have problems when I used driver sweeper.