x1900 crashes after replacing older ati card

[cgrecu77]

I just purchased an X1900 Crossfire to replace my aging X850XT. After replacing the card I started the computer and soon after I log in the computer locks. It's a weird kind of lock, I can still move the mouse, it looks like explorer is frozen. I tried putting the old card back and the same thing happens. I tried starting in safe mode, the same issue, if I boot in safe mode with networking I have no issues, but as soon as I start explorer it freezes in seconds.

I am really puzzled by this, after a dozens of experiments I managed to find a way that works, starting windows in debug mode works perfectly. I managed to start windows, uninstall the graphic driver, went to ATI site, installed a new driver and then I tried restarting in standard mode and the same problem happens again. If I start in debugging mode I have no problems, as a matter of fact I'm writing this while using my computer.

I'm pretty sure that using the debug mode incurs a performance hit + it's really inconvenient and I'd hate resintalling windows, especially that I have no guarantees that it will work. I'm using the latest official driver, does anybody has any idea what could be causing this and what can I do to solve the problem?

Thanks!

 

[aka1nas]

You need to run a driver cleaner program to completely remove the drivers.

 

[cgrecu77]

nevermind ... please delete this post, i found a driver removal software

 

[cgrecu77]

ok, I tried that but it's not working. I followed all the steps, uninstalled from cpanel, reboot, ran driver cleaner, cleaned everything successfully, rebooted and then the computer freezes again.

The weirdest part here is that the only way to boot is in debugging mode, ANY other boot option, including safe mode, leads to crashes (except safe mode with command line). The card is definitely ok, because if I start in debugging mode I don't seem to have any problems, I played an hour or so of Oblivion and Call of Duty and it worked pretty well.
I tried installing windows on a second partition and I had no problems getting the card to work, so I think this is an Windows issue, something got corrupted in the kernel files or something.

I wish I'd knew why starting in debugging mode works, on MS site this boot option is described as:

Debugging Mode
Starts while sending debug information through a serial cable to another computer

and I fail to see the connection ...

 

[Stumps]

Is your PSU powerful enough to cope with the X1900 crossfire?

 

[bongsteen]

yes, you need a stable PSU that can handle your x1900.