Hey guys, I bought a 6850 (HIS IceQ Turbo) as recommended by fellow members for my particular setup, and I've already had issues with the card not being recognized in this thread:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2142838
I did eventually get the problem fixed by doing a reinstall of Windows 7 64-bit but I've decided to return the card because of a very annoying coil whine and clicking issue so I am RMA'ing it.
I than decided to pick up an MSI HAWK 6870, which sports the new twin frozen III cooler, and the unit seems to be VERY well built. Unfortunately, it was too big for my Antec Solo and I had to take a pair of metal sheers and cut some clearance for the card, ahah. After I had solved the clearance issues.. I now have a much more difficult problem to troubleshoot.
The computer will boot up with the MSI 6870, it will boot into windows WITHOUT AMD drivers installed, so while its using the generic standard vga drivers, everything works fine at a max res of 1440x900. However, if I load in AMD drivers, the card will crash after I put in my password and its loading the aero features etc. Thus far I have observed two different types of crashes that occur every single time I boot up, but either one will happen at random.
First, the computer will just hang while displaying the checkered board desktop requiring a reset. Second, the computer will do the same behavior as the first, BUT the comp will "recover" itself, with a notification at the bottom right saying "AMD Driver something something crashed but was successfully recovered". I then proceed to stress it by running the windows comp benchmark thing, and than the screen will flash black, and then recover with the same notification over and over as the GPU parts of the benchmark are being run. I've tried turning off aero-peek, and then it will boot past the initial checkered board thus not displaying the "AMD driver crashed, recovered successfully" message, but then when I proceed to do the windows comp benchmark, the comp will then begin going crazy and displaying the notification.
Now, to trouble-shoot this, I have already tried a fresh install of Windows 7 64-bit, that DID NOT fix the problem. I then tried reinstalling the drivers (11.2) with ATI install manager AND driver sweeper, that didn't fix it either. I then tried drivers 11.1, that didn't work, I then downloaded drivers from MSI's site for the HAWK 6870, that crashed too. At this point I'm getting pretty frustrated, so I uninstall all graphic drivers again with driver sweeper, pull out the 6870, put back the HIS 6850 that I had ready for shipment back to where I bought it from, booted up the comp, installed driver 11.2 from the same installation file that I used when I installed the 6870.. and viola, it boots up perfectly fine, no crashing what so ever, and windows comp benchmark finishes without a hitch with a score of 7.7 for the GPU.
So.. I'm not really sure what to do. The only thing I can think of is maybe my power supply doesn't have enough power? I have a SeaSonic S12-II 430W, but from the guru3d benchmarks of the HIS IceQ 6850 (http://www.guru3d.com/article/his-radeon-6850-iceq-x-turbo-review/7), and MSI HAWK 6870 (http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-radeon-6870-hawk-review/9), the MSI 6870 actually pulls less power than the HIS.. so that shouldn't be an issue right? I'm going to Frys to pick up another power supply, hopefully another higher-wattage SeaSonic unit, and also another 6870 just to test out if I get problems with those particular combinations. But as I head to Fry's in a few minutes to pick up those two things to troubleshoot, does anyone else have any other suggestions on how to fix this? Or is the MSI card I got actually faulty?
Thank you very much for your time.
-James
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2142838
I did eventually get the problem fixed by doing a reinstall of Windows 7 64-bit but I've decided to return the card because of a very annoying coil whine and clicking issue so I am RMA'ing it.
I than decided to pick up an MSI HAWK 6870, which sports the new twin frozen III cooler, and the unit seems to be VERY well built. Unfortunately, it was too big for my Antec Solo and I had to take a pair of metal sheers and cut some clearance for the card, ahah. After I had solved the clearance issues.. I now have a much more difficult problem to troubleshoot.
The computer will boot up with the MSI 6870, it will boot into windows WITHOUT AMD drivers installed, so while its using the generic standard vga drivers, everything works fine at a max res of 1440x900. However, if I load in AMD drivers, the card will crash after I put in my password and its loading the aero features etc. Thus far I have observed two different types of crashes that occur every single time I boot up, but either one will happen at random.
First, the computer will just hang while displaying the checkered board desktop requiring a reset. Second, the computer will do the same behavior as the first, BUT the comp will "recover" itself, with a notification at the bottom right saying "AMD Driver something something crashed but was successfully recovered". I then proceed to stress it by running the windows comp benchmark thing, and than the screen will flash black, and then recover with the same notification over and over as the GPU parts of the benchmark are being run. I've tried turning off aero-peek, and then it will boot past the initial checkered board thus not displaying the "AMD driver crashed, recovered successfully" message, but then when I proceed to do the windows comp benchmark, the comp will then begin going crazy and displaying the notification.
Now, to trouble-shoot this, I have already tried a fresh install of Windows 7 64-bit, that DID NOT fix the problem. I then tried reinstalling the drivers (11.2) with ATI install manager AND driver sweeper, that didn't fix it either. I then tried drivers 11.1, that didn't work, I then downloaded drivers from MSI's site for the HAWK 6870, that crashed too. At this point I'm getting pretty frustrated, so I uninstall all graphic drivers again with driver sweeper, pull out the 6870, put back the HIS 6850 that I had ready for shipment back to where I bought it from, booted up the comp, installed driver 11.2 from the same installation file that I used when I installed the 6870.. and viola, it boots up perfectly fine, no crashing what so ever, and windows comp benchmark finishes without a hitch with a score of 7.7 for the GPU.
So.. I'm not really sure what to do. The only thing I can think of is maybe my power supply doesn't have enough power? I have a SeaSonic S12-II 430W, but from the guru3d benchmarks of the HIS IceQ 6850 (http://www.guru3d.com/article/his-radeon-6850-iceq-x-turbo-review/7), and MSI HAWK 6870 (http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-radeon-6870-hawk-review/9), the MSI 6870 actually pulls less power than the HIS.. so that shouldn't be an issue right? I'm going to Frys to pick up another power supply, hopefully another higher-wattage SeaSonic unit, and also another 6870 just to test out if I get problems with those particular combinations. But as I head to Fry's in a few minutes to pick up those two things to troubleshoot, does anyone else have any other suggestions on how to fix this? Or is the MSI card I got actually faulty?
Thank you very much for your time.
-James
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