Nvidia fan regrets ATI purchase

[Lonbjerg]

What? Hardware accelerated flash has been out for over a year. Youtube works fine when I disable the hardware acceleration, but crashes immediately with it on. I've already linked to several forum posts with people that have the same problem but no fix yet.

Reinstalling OS is certainly an option that I will inevitably have to try if I can't find a fix otherwise.

T2k is just a troll.
Yesterday I chaught him lying twice about "Fermi" and overclocking, just ignore him.

 

[Axon]

Highly suspect your card is busted. It's your choice to RMA or not, however. I'm not certain there's a solution to your issue via software. I would try an entirely clean install and the 10.1 drivers, but that's me. If you don't want to format or use a clean HDD, you are ultimately hindering your troubleshooting options.

Otherwise, buy an EVGA 470 FTW edition with the waterblock already on it and stick it in there. I'm sure their drivers will never fail you

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Have you asked PowerColor for the latest BIOS for your card? Probably wouldn't hurt to update that, if applicable.

 

[sandorski]

Have you asked PowerColor for the latest BIOS for your card? Probably wouldn't hurt to update that, if applicable.

If there is one he probably just needs to goto their website and Download it.

 

[Attic]

That is a kickass looking rig :thumbsup: I liad into ya with a prior post, but I take it back. If you put together a rig like that you obviously have some passion for the hobby and know what your doing. Your OG post came off a bit harsh on what are IMO a great series of cards and drivers from AMD.

I use a 5770 for Boxee, Hulu, DXVA in MPC-HD for MKV's, Video Editing, gaming, linux distro's, connected to an HDTV using the sound capabilities of the card as well. It's been great and I prefer ATI's drivers to what I had at the time on my 8600GTS and 8800GTS cards for driving a HDTV. Sometimes the screen doesn't kick back after sleep, which is something I haven't nailed down, but a remote in from another box and putting the pc to sleep and then waking it does fire the screen back on.

Sucks you are having issues with the card. To me it doesn't sound like something an RMA would fix, it feels like an issue between the card and your setup. If the card was a dud you would likely be getting screen distortion/artifacts during load. If you have imaging software you could do a clean install and if that fails reimage back to existing setup and go back to nVidia where hopefully you wouldn't be having the issues.

Wouldn't hurt to run a memtest on the latest build, memory errors can cause all kinds of quirks.

 

[golem]

ATI drivers don't suck, but I think they're more quirky than Nvidia drivers.

I moved from an ATI 4850 to a 5770 and have this weird issue of my compter locking before the windows welcome screen comes up if using the DVI connection when ATI drivers are installed. HDMI and VGA work fine, and DVI works too if I use a generic VGA driver.

Finally gave up and used the VGA connection.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

If there is one he probably just needs to goto their website and Download it.

Maybe, too lazy to go look. There's a BIOS update for the Vapor-X listed on the site, but it's not for my card's SKU. I had to contact Sapphire and they e-mailed me the correct one.

 

[Vesku]

Did you try upping your 2D clocks as suggested? I know with my GT 220 I've had several issues with it's dynamic clocking for power saving purposes with at least 3 different driver versions. Might be why flash acceleration doesn't seem to work well for you.

I really wish nVidia drivers were as awesome as many forum posts would have people believe.

 

[QuantumPion]

Highly suspect your card is busted. It's your choice to RMA or not, however. I'm not certain there's a solution to your issue via software. I would try an entirely clean install and the 10.1 drivers, but that's me. If you don't want to format or use a clean HDD, you are ultimately hindering your troubleshooting options.

Otherwise, buy an EVGA 470 FTW edition with the waterblock already on it and stick it in there. I'm sure their drivers will never fail you

Highly, highly suspect card is fine, based on the numerous postings on the AMD forum of people with identical problems, some even whom say they did do a RMA and have the same problems.

The next thing I'm going to try tonight is to uninstall not only all driver components in safe mode, but also all the visual C++ packs and any even remotely related software, as well as using the driver cleaner program.

 

[QuantumPion]

Have you asked PowerColor for the latest BIOS for your card? Probably wouldn't hurt to update that, if applicable.

That's a good idea, I forgot to check on that. I will e-mail powercolor tonight as well.

 

[sandorski]

Highly, highly suspect card is fine, based on the numerous postings on the AMD forum of people with identical problems, some even whom say they did do a RMA and have the same problems.

The next thing I'm going to try tonight is to uninstall not only all driver components in safe mode, but also all the visual C++ packs and any even remotely related software, as well as using the driver cleaner program.

Use Driver Cleaner first. That's just standard procedure when switching VidCard Brands and it is such because it is an important thing to do.

 

[QuantumPion]

Did you try upping your 2D clocks as suggested? I know with my GT 220 I've had several issues with it's dynamic clocking for power saving purposes with at least 3 different driver versions. Might be why flash acceleration doesn't seem to work well for you.

I really wish nVidia drivers were as awesome as many forum posts would have people believe.

I tried messing with it a little last night, but I couldn't seem to get the clock speeds to change after editing that XML file for the CCC profile. It was late so I haven't had time to look into why the settings didn't take yet, but that is another option I can try.

nvidia cards and drivers are far from perfect. I've had my share of RMA's and driver hokie-pokie. But I've never had these weird 2d problems before, and the 3d problems have always been specific to one or two applications. And every problem I can recall was fixed reasonably quickly or in a beta driver, where as these problems it seems like people have been complaining about for years with not even any acknowledgment from ATI.

 

[QuantumPion]

That is a kickass looking rig :thumbsup: I liad into ya with a prior post, but I take it back. If you put together a rig like that you obviously have some passion for the hobby and know what your doing. Your OG post came off a bit harsh on what are IMO a great series of cards and drivers from AMD.

I use a 5770 for Boxee, Hulu, DXVA in MPC-HD for MKV's, Video Editing, gaming, linux distro's, connected to an HDTV using the sound capabilities of the card as well. It's been great and I prefer ATI's drivers to what I had at the time on my 8600GTS and 8800GTS cards for driving a HDTV. Sometimes the screen doesn't kick back after sleep, which is something I haven't nailed down, but a remote in from another box and putting the pc to sleep and then waking it does fire the screen back on.

Sucks you are having issues with the card. To me it doesn't sound like something an RMA would fix, it feels like an issue between the card and your setup. If the card was a dud you would likely be getting screen distortion/artifacts during load. If you have imaging software you could do a clean install and if that fails reimage back to existing setup and go back to nVidia where hopefully you wouldn't be having the issues.

Wouldn't hurt to run a memtest on the latest build, memory errors can cause all kinds of quirks.

Thanks. ^_^

The thing is, a problem like "monitor won't come back from sleep, had to remote in to restart it" may seem fairly trivial, but for example my second computer only has Win7 Home on it, which lamely enough does not allow remote desktop connections unless I upgraded it to Pro. So an issue like that would be extremely aggravating. Likewise to the advice of "oh just reformat and install windows". While that may fix the problem, it's really a last resort because it is a lot of trouble for me to do and is not guaranteed to succeed.

 

[AdamK47]

I have 3x 5870s in CrossFireX. I've had the driver stopped responding issue when I've overclocked the cards too high and then ran FurMark. I suppose that's better than having the whole computer lock up like Windows XP would. I also get the error every time I enable wireframe in the Unigine Heaven 2.0 benchmark. Other than that, I don't get the error. Games play fine. Videos play fine.

 

[Axon]

Highly, highly suspect card is fine, based on the numerous postings on the AMD forum of people with identical problems, some even whom say they did do a RMA and have the same problems.

I don't know man, some people exaggerate. And in the end, if nothing works, what are you going to do?

The next thing I'm going to try tonight is to uninstall not only all driver components in safe mode, but also all the visual C++ packs and any even remotely related software, as well as using the driver cleaner program.

Good plan. I didn't realize this previously, but I just noticed you have a monitor not coming back from sleep issue. What is your windows system power setting?

I assume you have a reason for not wanting to format other than it being a slight pain in the ass? This is why SSDs are so clutch these days.

 

[thilanliyan]

ATI drivers don't suck, but I think they're more quirky than Nvidia drivers.

I moved from an ATI 4850 to a 5770 and have this weird issue of my compter locking before the windows welcome screen comes up if using the DVI connection when ATI drivers are installed. HDMI and VGA work fine, and DVI works too if I use a generic VGA driver.

Finally gave up and used the VGA connection.

Locking up or not showing a screen? I randomly had one where it wouldn't show the screen but could still log in then everything was fine. Problem went away and not really sure why.

 

[Seero]

Aside from Fanboy attacks, hardware failure is rare. Chances are, the hardware is fine, but the setup is not, for your build.
Although driver reminds shouldn't cause things that you experienced, it does lower the performance of the new card if the uninstallation is not done properly. You probably got more reminds by reinstalling varies versions over and over again, which makes it worst.

download ccleaner, it is free.
uninstall any video card related stuffs.
Reboot in safe mode and delete the associated folders in your drive.
Reboot again to be safe in safe mode.
run ccleaner to clean up the registry, it removes most dead links.
Reboot again in normal and install only the latest driver from ATI.
After that, disable all power saving features on both video card and monitor.

If crashes goes away, then zero in which power saving/downclocking features that are causing problems and start QQ in ATI forum continuously until it is resolved.

If crashes still occurs, disable any special features. If it still crashes, then you may want to update bios. It may not be the bios of your video card that is causing problems, mobo also can cause problems.

If nothing works at this point, you will need google about your configuation to see if this particular setup actually causes problems and see if there is a solution to it. Also call technical support for assistance.

As to the title and others, it is all fine, as most of the poster here are not interested in helping you anyways. You brought a new card, wired and install everything just to find out that it crashes. After hours of fixing it still crashes. Instead of joy you got frustration, and confusion. You should consider yourself "good temper" as I will probably be yelling at tech support 20 minutes after the installation.

Don't unplug anything yet, not until you have no other solutions as it will be a complete waste of time and fluid if the problem is indeed setup. Don't reinstall OS either as your blood pressure will increase significantly by doing so. RMA is not fun, you mail that junk back just so that it will come back to you with a note saying it works fine after several weeks. Keep calm and believe that there is a solution just a few clicks away.

The 2d artifact sounds like a clocking problem, but isn't caused by user. Many ATI user experience problems when the card starts to downclock, or run at lower clockspeed. This is not a rare issue as others will like to believe. ATI engineers may be a bit too aggressive on the down clock and power saving features that cause the video card fail to function properly under some configuration. Some user resolved their problems by increasing the low clock speed.

 

[sandorski]

Aside from Fanboy attacks, hardware failure is rare. Chances are, the hardware is fine, but the setup is not, for your build.
Although driver reminds shouldn't cause things that you experienced, it does lower the performance of the new card if the uninstallation is not done properly. You probably got more reminds by reinstalling varies versions over and over again, which makes it worst.

download ccleaner, it is free.
uninstall any video card related stuffs.
Reboot in safe mode and delete the associated folders in your drive.
Reboot again to be safe in safe mode.
run ccleaner to clean up the registry, it removes most dead links.
Reboot again in normal and install only the latest driver from ATI.
After that, disable all power saving features on both video card and monitor.

If crashes goes away, then zero in which power saving/downclocking features that are causing problems and start QQ in ATI forum continuously until it is resolved.

If crashes still occurs, disable any special features. If it still crashes, then you may want to update bios. It may not be the bios of your video card that is causing problems, mobo also can cause problems.

If nothing works at this point, you will need google about your configuation to see if this particular setup actually causes problems and see if there is a solution to it. Also call technical support for assistance.

As to the title and others, it is all fine, as most of the poster here are not interested in helping you anyways. You brought a new card, wired and install everything just to find out that it crashes. After hours of fixing it still crashes. Instead of joy you got frustration, and confusion. You should consider yourself "good temper" as I will probably be yelling at tech support 20 minutes after the installation.

Don't unplug anything yet, not until you have no other solutions as it will be a complete waste of time and fluid if the problem is indeed setup. Don't reinstall OS either as your blood pressure will increase significantly by doing so. Keep calm and believe that there is a solution just a few clicks away.

Thread started as FailBait and got the type of responses it asked for. Note the other thread where a User has a Fermi with problems and the complete lack "Fanboyism".

 

[Seero]

Thread started as FailBait and got the type of responses it asked for. Note the other thread where a User has a Fermi with problems and the complete lack "Fanboyism".

If it is a hardware defects, than the chances of this to happen on a Nvidia card will probably be the same as a ATI card. However if the problem is due to a pre-define settings on the driver level that the user may or may not be able to fix it, then the title is perfectly legit.

Unlike you, who adds no value to this thread but to attack OP, there are ATI fanboys who will try to help. In fact, if you are truly a fanboy, then you should help, to save the name of ATI. As of now, several posts said that OP doesn't have a clue about computer, several posts mentioned RMA, and of course posts about OP being a Nvidia fanboy. Since when selling defective units are okay? If you don't think OP has done what s/he should, or have done something that s/he shouldn't, then state what it is. If it is indeed a bias opinion, then prove that this particular problem also occurs on the other side. I don't think OP is interested in the problem to begin with, but a solution to his own ATI video card problem. S/He linked varies threads from different forums that are known to be reliable indicating about this problem. Whatever you say, thinking that will make you look cool or something, does not help OP and has no value.

 

[sandorski]

If it is a hardware defects, than the chances of this to happen on a Nvidia card will probably be the same as a ATI card. However if the problem is due to a pre-define settings on the driver level that the user may or may not be able to fix it, then the title is perfectly legit.

Unlike you, who adds no value to this thread but to attack OP, there are ATI fanboys who will try to help. In fact, if you are truly a fanboy, then you should help, to save the name of ATI. As of now, several posts said that OP doesn't have a clue about computer, several posts mentioned RMA, and of course posts about OP being a Nvidia fanboy. Since when selling defective units are okay? If you don't think OP has done what s/he should, or have done something that s/he shouldn't, then state what it is. If it is indeed a bias opinion, then prove that this particular problem also occurs on the other side. I don't think OP is interested in the problem to begin with, but a solution to his own ATI video card problem. S/He linked varies threads from different forums that are known to be reliable indicating about this problem. Whatever you say, thinking that will make you look cool or something, does not help OP and has no value.

OP wasn't looking for help and he succeeded. Like I said, look at the other thread about Fermi issues and see a totally different OP and subsequent posts.

It ain't Rocket Science.

 

[golem]

Locking up or not showing a screen? I randomly had one where it wouldn't show the screen but could still log in then everything was fine. Problem went away and not really sure why.

It's the black screen where the 4 color blobs come together to form the windows 4 pane logo in Windows 7. If the DVI connection is used (even if I'm also using the hdmi connection at the same time to my TV) and I have ATI drivers installed (I tried 10.3 and 10.4) it just freezes on this screen.

If I connect via HDMI or VGA it's fine boots fine.

If I remove the ATI drivers and use the generic VGA drivers, DVI works fine also.

Just weird.

 

[Nurn]

No problems running my 5870 with the latest Catalyst. You need to do a thorough job of getting rid of previous video drivers when you install newer drivers. Moreso if you are swapping out an Nvidia for an ATI.

 

[d4a2n0k]

Format and re-install. I know people will jump on me saying its not neccesary blah blah blah but instead of dicking around with registry sweepers etc you can spend an hour and possibly take another problem area out of the equation. That way you KNOW all remaining Nvidia stuff is gone. Especially with you running Windows 7 which takes no time to install and does not have tons of updates or any service packs.

I dont know about you but for a $400 video card, to me it would be worth it.....

 

[akugami]

Thanks. ^_^

The thing is, a problem like "monitor won't come back from sleep, had to remote in to restart it" may seem fairly trivial, but for example my second computer only has Win7 Home on it, which lamely enough does not allow remote desktop connections unless I upgraded it to Pro. So an issue like that would be extremely aggravating. Likewise to the advice of "oh just reformat and install windows". While that may fix the problem, it's really a last resort because it is a lot of trouble for me to do and is not guaranteed to succeed.

Reformatting is a last resort, however, both ATI and nVidia have had driver issues that required a new install in the past. Both have made tremendous strides in this regard and in all fairness, both are pretty equal on the Windows driver front. ATI still sucks at Linux. However, nVidia is far from perfect as others have noted and while I was skeptical at first, nVidia has a first in the driver department with drivers that will actually brick your video card.

And while I know you have researched the problem and are getting very frustrated, just because 20,000 people have similar issues using the same card doesn't due to drivers doesn't mean that your similar issues using the same card is the result of driver conflicts. That's the pain in the rear end part of computer hardware troubleshooting. The parts are so closely interlinked in many ways that a bad HD or bad RAM may cause problems in seemingly unrelated areas. That's why we are saying to test the rest of your system.

Does having video card issues suck? Of course. In a perfect world we'd all have perfect hardware with zero issues, software or hardware wise. Unfortunately it's not a perfect world.

As for logging into Windows (any version), look up how to set a VNC server. You can control pretty much every aspect of your computer using VNC. It works on any computer so long as it is set up with a VNC server. I use my iPhone to log onto my computer at home which does have VNC installed.

 

[JSt0rm]

i keep seeing this thread title and it reads like a newspaper headline lol.

5 pages? Who gives a fsck. 6.5 billion people all with different opinions. I know I just broke the internet but come on.