New Catalyst 8.7 drivers continuous reboot loop in Vista 64

[Ronstang]

I tried the new 8.7 drivers on my brand new system I just built. It was a clean install with no software other than system drivers and the Catalyst drivers that came on the disc in the box of the HD4850 I bought. I cleaned all the old drivers out before loading the new 8.7 version. I even tried reimaging the HD with the clean install of Vista 64 with no drivers of any kind installed.

The system just goes into a continuous reboot loop while never loading Vista 64. I then force it into safe mode and it reports the system has recovered from an error which it details as the ATI video driver as being the culprit. I am wondering if anyone else is having this issue with Vista 64 and the Catyalyst 8.7 drivers.

I used system restore to go back to a system with no drivers and installed the Catalyst 8.6 Hot Fix drivers from AMD's website and the problem no longer occurs so I assume the problem lies with the 8.7 version of the drivers and not any of my hardware.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I am frustrated since I have had this system put together for about a month but have not even been able to use it since I have had nothing but issue after issue and with limited time to play with it I still don't have it functional.

*EDIT*

My new system consists of:

Intel E8400 on an MSI P45 Neo3-FR motherboard
4 gigs of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 ram
Visiontek HD 4850
Seatgate 1 TB SATA HD
Sonata III case with Earthwatts 500 PS
Vista 64-Bit OS

 

[SSSnail]

Well, I have a separate issue altogether and hope someone can assist as well. Without going into details, I have to replace an older VGA card with an ATI x1050 and it will not work properly. When trying to launch an application like World of Warcraft, it would hangs and says something like "cannot display on second DVI..." but I have no other display hooked up to this PC.

I've tried the drivers on that came with the CD, downloaded the new 8.7 for XP SP2, disable secondary monitor driver, disable fast write... etc. No avail.

Are there any legacy drivers that I can use would hopefully fix this problem? I'm pulling my hair out here...

 

[Ronstang]

I was wrong. I does this no matter what version of the drivers I use. Sometimes it boots, sometimes it doesn't. The strange thing is if you let it reboot and try to start Vista normally from the menu sometimes it does. I really don't know what could be wrong now. I should not have tried ATI I guess, this 4850 has been nothing but trouble.

 

[taltamir]

1. are you using SP1 of vista? you shouldn't even consider installing the gold version, it is far too buggy, especially if you have 4 GB of ram DURING the installation (but in original vista 64bit that will cause blue screens and corrupt install, what you had to do was remove ram until you had 2 GB, install vista, update it using windows update until there is nothing to update, then readd the ram).

1a. There are also a bunch of video card related blue screen issues that are bugs in vista itself that were available as specific hotfixes (given on a per customer basis, and NOT released on windows update), those were all integrated into SP1.
If I am not mistaken SP1 is the minimum requirement for the 48xx series of cards. And really, should be for everyone since the RTM version was simply an incomplete alpha version that should never have been sold (reminds me of winXP RTM, and win98 before SE version)

2. http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2206426&enterthread=y
Make sure your 4850 is not overheating as per that thread.

 

[Ronstang]

Thanks, I just installed Vista off of the retail CD. I am getting SP1 as I type. I will try that. Do I have to uninstall the video drivers, apply SP1, and then reinstall the video drivers?

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Ronstang
Thanks, I just installed Vista off of the retail CD. I am getting SP1 as I type. I will try that. Do I have to uninstall the video drivers, apply SP1, and then reinstall the video drivers?

When I reinstall Vista, or any other Windows OS, I always install non essential drivers first. Typically, just the NIC drivers get installed so I can connect to the internet to get updates. After I've gotten every possible update, then I being installing drivers for sound, video, etc.

In your case, wait until after you've DLed and installed SP1 and its associated updates before you install the Catalyst drivers.

 

[Adam8281]

I'm on a similar system: E8400, Visiontek HD4850, Vista Home Premium 64 SP1. Things have worked perfectly for me since getting Catalyst 8.7

 

[Hardlin]

I have a E6600, EVGA 760i motherboard, 4850, 4GB and Vista Ultimate x64. I have had no issues with any flavor of the drivers (currently running 8.7)

 

[Jessica69]

Q6600 @ 3.6GHZ, 8GB RAM (Vista Ultimate 64 installed flawlessly with the entire 8GB of RAM installed, btw.....), Asus Maximus Formula mb.......and a 4850 running the 8.7 Catalyst drivers without a problem.

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

no problems here at the moment.

 

[racolvin]

I'm similar to Jessica69 ...... Q6600, 8GB Ram, Vista Ultimate 64 SP1, and Catalyst 8.7. Works dandy for me.

 

[hclarkjr]

have you installed the chipset driver? maybe try newer version? is your motherboard compatible with terrabyte hard drives? i am running vista 64 bit with 4gb of memory and have no problems at all with the newest cats

 

[taltamir]

i recommend that you use vlite.net to integrate it into the install CD, or download / acquire a copy of the vista SP1 install CD (it is legal, MS sells you keys, not disks), and do a fresh install with SP1 preintegrated. That is the best way to do things, especially if you recently reformatted already and there is nothing.. essential on your system yet that will take too long to backup.

afterwards install chipset driver, then video card driver, then audio etc...

 

[Ronstang]

Thanks, I will try that. I downloaded the SP! for Vista 64 and installed it last night. I have not gotten around to trying to install anything because I am having a hell of a time finding a hard drive cloning tool to boot to my system and make a backup image since none I have tried will find my SATA drive. I used to use Norton Ghost but it does not seem to work on the new systems. I just got vlite and am in the process of making the slipstreamed copy of Vista 64. Then I have to continue my search for an appropriate CD bootable disc cloning utility.

 

[taltamir]

try clonezilla
also, why do you need to make an image?

 

[Ronstang]

I always image a clean install because I mess around with a lot of stuff and sometime I just want to start fresh without having to take the time to do a fresh install when a re-image takes a few minutes...well it used to with Ghost. The biggest issue is Media Center. I have a TON of music and sometimes the database gets messed up and for some reason it is rather stupid in how it implements things. I have had to change album art because the file in the folder was wrong and MC would never actually change it. It stayed wrong forever. I have no idea how to mess with the database directly so it is easier to just start over. The secret now is my collection is tagged properly with all the correct album art so this should not be much of a problem in the future....but I still want a fresh install image just in case.