Serious Video Card issues! TDR guru's anywhere?

[Insomnihacks]

Specs of PC First:

- Core i5 2500k Stock speeds and voltage now (Was 4.5 @ 1.34)
- Corsair H50 Push / Pull
- Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4 Rev 1.0 F6e BIOS (Updated to this bios due to Marvell SATA Issues)
- 2 x 4GB GSkill DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 CL9-9-9-24 1.5v (Currently underclocked by mobo to 1333 by default)
- Current Video Card Visiontek AMD Radeon HD6950 2GB (Unlocked to 6970)
- Old Video Card Gigabyte Radeon HD5670
- Gskill 64GB SSD
- Seagate Momentus 7200RPM HDD
- LiteOn DVD-RW DL
- Thermaltake Toughpower 750 Watt PSU (Tested with Manhattan Digital PSU Tester)
- HAF 922 Case
- Windows 7 Pro x64


Wow, where do I start? Sunday (12-24) and I decide to play a bit of WoW. Out of nowhere I get some serious artifacts during gameplay (Gigabyte Radeon HD 5670). I said oh sh*t and rebooted. It came back up fine and I checked the temps. They were normal for this card (60 on idle). That is normally to high for idle but other forums state that it's normal operating temp on idle. I still don't agree.

During bootup I decide to go into the BIOS and set everything back to stock just in case. Booted up fine and decided to play some more. It started artifacting worse than before. Then came the red screen with black lines down it. Rebooted once more and couldn't even get into the BIOS.

I then decided screw it and borrowed a video card from work. A Visiontek Radeon 6950 2gb. Since I didn't get the chance to uninstall the previous drivers and I didn't have an HDMI capable monitor I had to boot first before removing the old drivers.

Old drivers were removed via Add or Remove Programs and driver sweeper (Driver sweeper was done in safe mode). Rebooted and downloaded the latest drivers 11.12 and installed them. Rebooted again and was thinking it was going to be an awesome gaming night. Nope!

"AMD driver stopped responding and has successfully recovered."
Event ID 4101: Display Driver amdkmdap has stopped responding and has been successfully recovered"

Now I've read pages and pages and even more pages of threads related to this very exact issue (Windows 7 TDR involvement as well). I've tried almost every fix available. Suggested fixes that I've tried and failed with:

- GPU-z shows excellent temps of 29 stock
- Fresh install of OS
- Removal of drivers in safe mode via DriverSweeper and re-installation in normal boot (AMD 11.12)
- Re-Removal of drivers in safe mode via DriverSweeper and only installed display driver in normal boot (AMD 11.12)
- Re-Re-Removal of drivers (11.12) via DriverSweeper in safe mode and installed 12.1 preview drivers
- Tested PSU with Manhattan Digital PSU tester. Everything tested fine
- Flashing BIOS of 6950 to 6970 with stock speeds set higher thinking it could be the low idle speeds messing with aero
- Disabled Aero
- Set power settings to high performance in Win 7
- Memtest tested fine


What I have not tried that I most likely will tonight:

- Install Video card in spare pc upstairs.
- Try the x8 PCI-e slot instead of the x16 slot
- Finding and strangling the GPU Gremlin that apparently lives in my tower!

I'm about to go crazy. It's a good challenge to keep you insane for a week or two but I'm about to just use the $150 amazon gift card I got for Christmas and just buy another GPU. More than likely a GTX 550ti. Yes it's sad that I'm willing to downgrade just so I can game again

 

[Arkadrel]

Not sure if serious?

Isnt nvidia haveing some sort of odd driver issues lately with just this TDR stuff?

If you googleing TDR, you ll notice like all of the results are about nvidia and TDR.


That said... no idea how to help you fix the issue, but if you could find a solution, that saved you some cash
(and a downgrade) that might just be a better outcome.


exsample:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/326373-15-bsod-issue-help

^ people complaining about TDR issues, notice how theyre all nvidia card users.

same here:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2213398

 

[96Firebird]

Not sure if serious?

Isnt nvidia haveing some sort of odd driver issues lately with just this TDR stuff?

If you googleing TDR, you ll notice like all of the results are about nvidia and TDR.


That said... no idea how to help you fix the issue, but if you could find a solution, that saved you some cash
(and a downgrade) that might just be a better outcome.


exsample:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/326373-15-bsod-issue-help

^ people complaining about TDR issues, notice how theyre all nvidia card users.

Crazy helpful post, I like how you come into a problem thread just to bash Nvidia...

OP, your stock idle temps were WAY too high on the original card. I'm thinking your issue with the first card was a failing cooler.

As far as the second card, this will be a bit harder to figure out. I would say, just for the sake of trying, remove a RAM stick and see if that helps any. Its weird that you have it underclocked, why did you do that?

 

[Insomnihacks]

Update-

- Thread title punctuation has been edited
- Reasoning for underclocking memory was just in case everything needs be stock by bios means. It was tried at it's advertised speed & voltage after as well with the same result.
- Regedit and used TDR turn off. Dword32 "TdrLevel" = 0 (Turns it off) same result but it completely freezes and doesn't come back lol.
- Starting to really think that it's the card.
- Tried video card in my Core 2 Duo machine with the same result. I think I have my answer

As to Nvidia cards having the same issue I noticed that as well. I don't necessarily think one maker has issues worse than the other. It seems though that there really isn't any certain fix for issues with Windows 7 TDR. Some are lucky through turning off Aero as well as other small things. It still shouldn't happen with a video card though.

Now I'm currently cleaning the old thermal paste off of the Gigabyte 5670 and heatsink. Artic silver 5 should be fine for now

 

[Majcric]

If you're serious about getting an Nvidia card try getting a reference board that doesn't have an overclock. I think BestBuy sells these, of course, they will be more expensive but worth it if you want to rid yourself of the TDR issue.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/NVIDIA+-...6823&st=Nvidia gtx 560ti&cp=1&lp=1

 

[Insomnihacks]

If you're serious about getting an Nvidia card try getting a reference board that doesn't have an overclock. I think BestBuy sells these, of course, they will be more expensive but worth it if you want to rid yourself of the TDR issue.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/NVIDIA+-...6823&st=Nvidia gtx 560ti&cp=1&lp=1

Although it would be nice to be able to afford such a card my current financial situation doesn't allow it. I can only use my $150 amazon gift card plus a tiny bit of cash to get another card. I ended up ordering this last night:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00_i00_details

No I didn't go Nvidia and here's why. For that price point the performance can't be beat. Though I may have said I was just going to go Nvidia, it was more frustration talking than anything else. I had issues with my old 9600gt that caused bsods. I'm just hoping I don't have issues with this next card. It shipped out of Fernley, NV this morning. It shouldn't take very long to get to me either. I'm 80 miles NW of Reno. Not bad for free super saver shipping lol.

Also just realized it has a $20 rebate. Here's to hoping the GPU gnomes leave me alone!

 

[Majcric]

I think you made a wise choice, I've had very good luck with XFX in the past. My old 9800 gtx+ was the most stable card I've ever owned. With that, enjoy your new card.

 

[zebrax2]

Try using the genetix cleaner in this thread to remove the remnants of the driver instead of driver sweeper