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ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 - Help!!! Crash after fresh driver install

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desync101

Junior Member
Recently picked up a new computer from NCIX, everything was pre-assembled by NCIX.

Specs
=====
- AMD Phenom II X4 920 Quad Core AM2+ 2.8GHZ 8MB Cache
- ASUS M3A78-T ATX AM2 AMD790GX CrossFire 3PCI-E16 Motherboard
- Corsair XMS2 4GB DDR2 5-5-5-18
- Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB GDDR5 3.6GHZ Dual DVI
- Corsair 1000W Power Supply
- 19inch LCD VGA Monitor (using VGA > DVI cable to connect to card)

Problem
======
With an absolute fresh install of Windows XP Pro SP2 32bit, I setup the newest ASUS Mobo Chipset drivers, ATI Catalyst 9.4 Drivers for the Radeon. Windows seems to recognize the 4870 x2 device fine, prompting for a reboot. When rebooting, it does not boot up to windows past the Loading Screen, eventually BSOD'ing to a ati2diag.dll crash (ATI Driver Crash). The card must work fine since it works via safe mode, and without any drivers. The minute i put on any proper ATI Drivers for the card, it subsequently crashes. Won't let me get back into Windows unless i safe mode it, or sys restore to a point when i didnt have the drivers installed (ie: Standard VGA)

Action So Far
==========
- Reinstalled Windows XP (again), even tried a new Vista 32bit install, same issue.
- Upgraded my BIOS to the latest ASUS M3A78-T Version, same issue.
- Ensured that my newest Mobo Chipset drivers were installed BEFORE installing the ATI Drivers.
- Ensured the power pins were installed properly on the card. Card seated properly on PCI-E port #2
- No Red LED error lights on my card. Seems to boot properly with no errors.
- Ensured enough power is supplied to the card
- Skimmed through the BIOS, ensured PCI-E was a GPU Priority, ensured onboard GPU was disabled (renabled it just for test, same thing), generally looked through the BIOS settings to ensure there was no overclocking options done (PEG/etc). Keep in mind these are default BIOS values.
- Tried older and newer catalyst drivers
- Ensured there was no older traces of drivers, cleaned any of them using DriverSweeper (not necessary since i did these on clean installs anyway)

***Note***
When i first got the computer sent to me, the first PCI-E slot was literally bent, the video card did not work on the first PCI-E slot. Luckily i have 3 of these slots so i simply moved it into the 2nd PCI-E slot and it worked fine... i'm hoping this is just bad luck with the first PCI-E slot and has nothing to do with a bad mobo.

So with that said, what else on earth can i try? Must i assume that this is a DOA Mobo? DOA Card? If that was the case, would that be possible even if i can boot to windows and function properly without the drivers installed, using Standard VGA?

I'm absolutely stumped, I've done hundreds of computer builds and installs, never came across such an irritating Video Card Install issue. Please provide some insight.

Thank you,

Mike
desync@gmail.com
 
Well the motherboard or the card may have been damaged during shipping.

I'd take out the card and examine it very closely, as well as the PCI-e slot it was in.
 
You could try installing SP3 onto XP.

Alternately you could try the Windows 7 RC; the built in drivers will probably work fine.
 
You could try installing SP3 onto XP.

Alternately you could try the Windows 7 RC; the built in drivers will probably work fine.
 
It's amazing how you thought about running 4 gb of memory coupled with a 2 gb of ram videocard, on a 32 bit operating system. This a major waste. Install Vista X64 for this setup and see what happens.
 
Originally posted by: cusideabelincoln
The OS will only see it a 1GB video card, not a 2GB one.
Click to expand...

It might see it as a 2 gb card, but he would probably have less then 2 gb available for windows.
 
Did you perchance install the wrong driver version onto the XP OS? like maybe downloaded the Vista drivers by accident?

The 4870X2 has 1GB X 2 of ram, meaning the frame buffer is only 1GB, mirrored on each card out of necessity. The OS should treat it like a 1GB card even if dxdiag or other software show differently.
 
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