40 replies to this topic

[N7 Justin]

Hello all!

While this isn't directly to do with GW2 I did build my new rig with only GW2 in mind for now! If anyone has any advice, reccomendations, or experience with this it would be very much appreciated!

I recently upgraded my graphics card from a 4850 to a 7850 (specifically the MSI R7850 Twin Frozr III OC) and it was running fine with my other old components before I upgraded them as well. This was as follows:

C2D E8400 @ 3.6 ghz
Asus P5Q Pro
4GB ddr2 1066 mhz ram
500W Antec PSU
Vista 64bit

I then updated this to the following build:

i5 3570K
Asus P8Z77-v LX
8GB ddr3 1600 mhz ram
500W Antec PSU
Windows 7 64bit

Since then, I have had all manner of freezes, crashes, and errors, but no BSOD, GSOD, etc. A bit of searching around the internet has shown that there are a few others with similar problems, some only getting some of the errors, others getting them all + bsods.

An example of some of the errors:

• In game the screen will go black and the monitor will display "no signal". Sound will continue to play and I can continue a skype call. Only solution is to reset.
  
• In game the screen freezes and the last <1 second of sound is looped infinitely. Only solution is to reset.
  
• In game the screen goes black then comes back on with the infamous "ATI display driver has stopped responding and has recovered". Sometimes the game needs restarting, sometimes it continues.
  
• Browsing firefox/youtube/flash the screen will either freeze, crash, or do the "no signal" crash. This I fixed by disabling "hardware acceleration".

Suggested fixes I have found on various forums that I have tried and have not worked:

• Reseat the graphics card
  
• Try all drivers back to version 12.4 (and up to the new 12.8)
  
• Clean drivers with driver sweeper between installing different versions
  
• Only use CCC or Afterburner (sometimes they cause issues used at the same time)
  
• Disable ULPS in registry
  
• Increase the processing time by adjusting the Timeout Detection and Recovery registry value
  
• Increasing the idle clocks on the graphics card (doing this added another problem where explorer windows and the taskbar would "flicker" and occasionally crash)
  
• Overheating? Nope - i have monitored these and the crashes occur when under 65 degrees.

Has anyone else with a 7850 had to go to such extreme measures to just make the card work? I was excited about this card as I believed it was an amazing "bang for buck" card with huge OC potential (note i have not tried any overclocking on this one for obvious reasons). I had similar problems when I first got my 4850 and that took bit of work to fix... I must admit nvidia are looking really tempting right now

I guess my options are to either put more time into trying to fix these problems, sending the card back under warrenty in exchange for a new one in the hope that it is a defect with this card, or sending it back and jumping ship and splashing out on a 670...

As I said, I feel I have come to the end of my ability to try and fix this now, so could really use some advice or suggestions from you guys!

Thanks for taking the time to read this far!

Justin

[Quaker]

Along with reseating the video card, I'd tend to look for something like overheating somewhere.

Have you cleaned out any dust and debris and made sure all fans are working. In this case, I would particularly check the power supply for dust buildup internally.

Also, of course, instead of basic "overheating", you could have a "thermal fault". That's a fault that shows up when a circuit heats up (or cools down) - and it doesn't have to be outside of normal operating temperature for this to happen.

So, in order, I would suggest.

1. Open up the computer (which usually means, take the side off) and check that any and all fans are running properly.
2. Shut down the computer and remove the HD7850. Clean any dust off of it.
3. Blow any other accumulated dust out of the rest of the computer.
4. Inspect the PCIe graphics card slot to check that there are no broken or twisted contacts, and that there's no dust, pet hair, etc, in the slot.
5. Re-install the HD7850, making sure that it is fully seated in the slot.

If you still have problems, I would guess that either your power supply has gotten glitchy, or the HD7850 is just plain bad.

Edited by Quaker, 17 August 2012 - 01:15 AM.

[bill63304]

I upgraded from a 4800 to a 7850 about two weeks ago. My card is working great. I even overclocked it to 1150 stable.

My suggestion for you would be to try to isolate the problem. You have installed many upgrades and an OS install. If I was in your shoes this is the path I would take:

Take my old video card and install it in my new PC. Do the problems still exist? If no, probably a bad 7850, call for refund. If the problems are still there, your 7850 is not the issue.

Next I try the ram (this would be my guess, one bad stick will screw your system). Take all sticks out except one. Test for problems and verify each stick is not the issue.

Same process with plugging in another power supply, hard drive, etc. Test every part.
Last would be re-install of the OS.

If I had too, I would try each new upgrade on my old mobo if possible.

I know this sounds like it will take a while, but this is the only surefire way to nail down the source of the problem.

Good luck

[firywolf]

bill63304, on 17 August 2012 - 03:41 AM, said:

I upgraded from a 4800 to a 7850 about two weeks ago. My card is working great. I even overclocked it to 1150 stable.

My suggestion for you would be to try to isolate the problem. You have installed many upgrades and an OS install. If I was in your shoes this is the path I would take:

Take my old video card and install it in my new PC. Do the problems still exist? If no, probably a bad 7850, call for refund. If the problems are still there, your 7850 is not the issue.

Next I try the ram (this would be my guess, one bad stick will screw your system). Take all sticks out except one. Test for problems and verify each stick is not the issue.

Same process with plugging in another power supply, hard drive, etc. Test every part.
Last would be re-install of the OS.

If I had too, I would try each new upgrade on my old mobo if possible.

I know this sounds like it will take a while, but this is the only surefire way to nail down the source of the problem.

Good luck

I agree best approach is try piece by piece. I doubt the graphic card is the issue if it was running in old setup fine unless new mb fried it. Like bill63304 said try old graphic card first just in case. My guess is mb or PSU.

[Wez]

Judging by the fact that the GFX ran flawless in your old rig, one could assume its not the cards fault.
And based on your description, It sounds very much like RAM issues to me.

So, what I'd do is run memtest or similar program for a few hours (www.memtest.org) and see how that goes. Raising RAM voltage + temporary down-clocking them to 1333mhz is also an option. Ask for help on this if you are unsure.

[N7 Justin]

Well it looks like I'm in for an exciting Friday night! Thanks for your ideas, I will be giving them all a go to see if I can narrow down the problem

Quaker, on 17 August 2012 - 01:15 AM, said:

Along with reseating the video card, I'd tend to look for something like overheating somewhere.

Have you cleaned out any dust and debris and made sure all fans are working. In this case, I would particularly check the power supply for dust buildup internally.

Also, of course, instead of basic "overheating", you could have a "thermal fault". That's a fault that shows up when a circuit heats up (or cools down) - and it doesn't have to be outside of normal operating temperature for this to happen.

So, in order, I would suggest.

1. Open up the computer (which usually means, take the side off) and check that any and all fans are running properly.
2. Shut down the computer and remove the HD7850. Clean any dust off of it.
3. Blow any other accumulated dust out of the rest of the computer.
4. Inspect the PCIe graphics card slot to check that there are no broken or twisted contacts, and that there's no dust, pet hair, etc, in the slot.
5. Re-install the HD7850, making sure that it is fully seated in the slot.

If you still have problems, I would guess that either your power supply has gotten glitchy, or the HD7850 is just plain bad.

I will have another look at all the components! Bearing in mind most of te components are still very new, I think if there is a dust problem it is more likely to be in the PSU... hadn't thought of that though so will check it out!

bill63304, on 17 August 2012 - 03:41 AM, said:

I upgraded from a 4800 to a 7850 about two weeks ago. My card is working great. I even overclocked it to 1150 stable.

My suggestion for you would be to try to isolate the problem. You have installed many upgrades and an OS install. If I was in your shoes this is the path I would take:

Take my old video card and install it in my new PC. Do the problems still exist? If no, probably a bad 7850, call for refund. If the problems are still there, your 7850 is not the issue.

Next I try the ram (this would be my guess, one bad stick will screw your system). Take all sticks out except one. Test for problems and verify each stick is not the issue.

Same process with plugging in another power supply, hard drive, etc. Test every part.
Last would be re-install of the OS.

If I had too, I would try each new upgrade on my old mobo if possible.

I know this sounds like it will take a while, but this is the only surefire way to nail down the source of the problem.

Good luck

Cheers! I have put my old 4850 in with my new components and it is running perfectly, I will definately try checking out each ram stick as well, just in case. I can "roll back" and try the 7850 on my old motherboard, but none of the other components are compatable otherwise I would do as you suggest and add one at a time (ddr2/ddr3, socket 775/1155).

firywolf, on 17 August 2012 - 04:02 AM, said:

I agree best approach is try piece by piece. I doubt the graphic card is the issue if it was running in old setup fine unless new mb fried it. Like bill63304 said try old graphic card first just in case. My guess is mb or PSU.

I might have to try putting all my old components back together and see if the 7850 still works on that... thanks for the idea! Also, as the PSU is doing fine with the new components + 4850, can I rule it out as a potential cause of the 7850 problems? If my power usage calculations are correct, both systems are well under the 500W mark.

Wez, on 17 August 2012 - 07:23 AM, said:

Judging by the fact that the GFX ran flawless in your old rig, one could assume its not the cards fault.
And based on your description, It sounds very much like RAM issues to me.

So, what I'd do is run memtest or similar program for a few hours (www.memtest.org) and see how that goes. Raising RAM voltage + temporary down-clocking them to 1333mhz is also an option. Ask for help on this if you are unsure.

I actually had a similar problem when I initially installed my 4850... it turned out the auto settings for my old RAM had set the voltage too low. One of the first things I tried with the 7850 problem was to make sure the ram timings and voltage were set correctly in the BIOS, but I had not considered raising it above the manufacturers guideline voltage. RAM is G.Skill RipjawsX 2x 4GB 1600mhz for reference. Is it not risky to up the voltage? The way I see it, if I have to do this then surely that indicates a problem with the ram stick? I will be grabbing memtest and giving it a go over the weekend!

Thanks guys! Will keep you updated

[Wez]

The RAM itself can take much higher voltages than the 1.5v gskill labeled them as. Its the CPU that most people are worried about, and it could take a hit with too high RAM voltage (due to IMC). But stay at/below 1.6v and you should be perfectly safe in any scenario.

And I do agree, if the RAM cant run at advertised speed/timings/voltage I'd send them back. Even if raising the voltage will fix the problem.

[firywolf]

N7 Justin, on 17 August 2012 - 07:53 AM, said:

I might have to try putting all my old components back together and see if the 7850 still works on that... thanks for the idea! Also, as the PSU is doing fine with the new components + 4850, can I rule it out as a potential cause of the 7850 problems? If my power usage calculations are correct, both systems are well under the 500W mark.

I believe the 7850 require 50 more watts then 4850 plus when you add in cpu taking more power then old one and over time PSU do not run at same level, that could be the issue. How old is your PSU?

[Treach]

I had some similar issues when I built a new box (also with a 7850).

I started replacing bits to narrow down the problem, and it turned out to be a dodgy stick of RAM, which conveniently was also the cheapest thing to replace.

Thats where I'd start if I had your problems.

Also, as mentioed above....PSU. Very important component.

Good luck!

Edited by Treach, 18 August 2012 - 12:59 AM.

[SuperNova]

Run all the big tests to make sure it's not a hardware problem.

Prime95 Blend will find any memory or cpu hardware fault, guaranteed.  You can run MSI Kombustor and that will almost certainly find graphics hardware problems.  Run them both same time and you can be sure your PSU is getting worked harder than it ever has been.

If both of those programs run fine for a few minutes, it's 99% certain you don't have a hardware issue.  At this point, remove all AMD drivers, then use Driver Fusion (used to be driver sweeper) to remove them even more (you might have to do this twice as they are really determined to stick around).

After you've nuked all traces of previous AMD drivers, install Catalyst 12.4 (edited, 12.1 is too early)

Edited by SuperNova, 18 August 2012 - 01:17 AM.

[Biernot]

I too recently had a similar problem:

My old video card (MSI 5770 Hawk) started to produce BSODs, so i had to send it in for RMA (still had warranty on it). And because i don't want to be without a computer for several weeks, i bought a MSI 7850 TwinFrozr. (same card as the OP)

I instantly had exactly this problem:

Quote

In game the screen freezes and the last <1 second of sound is looped infinitely. Only solution is to reset.

but my screen also went grey (not only freeze). This always occurred after at most 10min of gpu stress (gaming, benchmark etc.)

I went nuts with troubleshooting and replaced basically every part, just to come to the conclusion that my new video card was DOA. So i got an instant replacement from the shop i bought it (sadly they did not have the TwinFrozr in stock at the time, so i settled for a Sapphire 7850 OC***).
Lo and behold, problems gone. Except that i had to replace the video card again after a few days, because it blew up (system crashes, screen distortions afterwards -> bad video memory). No problems since then (about 3 weeks now)


*** For anyone interested: The MSI 7850 TwinFrozr is nearly noiseless. I couldn't hear it out of my case even under stress. In comparison the Sapphire 7850 OC is also inaudible when idle, but you can hear it a bit under full load (most people with a "normal" computer wouldn't hear it under load too). Nothing dramatic or disturbing, but if you intend to build an extremely silent rig, i would suggest the MSI TwinFrozr.

[N7 Justin]

So, time for an update! After a highly enjoyable Friday night troubleshooting I am still getting all the same problems. Things I tested:

• PSU is clear of dust
  
• Ran Memtest on each stick of ram individually - no errors
  
• Tried running games and apps on one stick of ram at a time
  
• Upped RAM voltage to 1.6V
  
• Have been using prime95 a lot and nothing has had any problems with it

@SuperNova: I haven't tried Kombuster yet, will give that a go alongside prime95, but i have already tried all the different drivers compatable with the 7800 series. Edit: I have now tried this with all of the new components but with my old 4850 as the 7850 has now gone back. With both going at the same time there were no errors in an hour... I guess that means I can rule out things like ram/cpu/mobo?

@Biernot: 2 out of 3 cards were faulty?! I can second what you say about noise though! So quiet even under load!

I have been in touch with Novatech today and am going to drop it into their store later this afternoon as I am still within the 28day return period...

Thanks everyone!

Edited by N7 Justin, 18 August 2012 - 05:31 PM.

[bill63304]

IMO, at this point I would exchange the card.

FYI I have the Asus 7850 and its a dream. Also very quiet, unless I'm maxing it in game. Very overclock-able. I think the 7850 is a great card, you may have just got a bad one.

[N7 Justin]

Just heard back from Novatech who have tested the card and say it is working perfectly... so am now in the situation I was dreading. They are very kindly not charging me for delivery back to me though, so I can't compain about them at all!

SuperNova, on 18 August 2012 - 01:08 AM, said:

Run all the big tests to make sure it's not a hardware problem.

Prime95 Blend will find any memory or cpu hardware fault, guaranteed.  You can run MSI Kombustor and that will almost certainly find graphics hardware problems.  Run them both same time and you can be sure your PSU is getting worked harder than it ever has been.

If both of those programs run fine for a few minutes, it's 99% certain you don't have a hardware issue.  At this point, remove all AMD drivers, then use Driver Fusion (used to be driver sweeper) to remove them even more (you might have to do this twice as they are really determined to stick around).

After you've nuked all traces of previous AMD drivers, install Catalyst 12.4 (edited, 12.1 is too early)

While my 7850 was away being tested, my old 4850 has been running perfectly with the rest of my new components. I have even tried running prime95 and Kombuster at the same time as you suggested, but everything was stable for ~1 hour. Can I rule out a problem with the hardware because of this? Or does this just mean that the new components are ok with an older graphics card, but may have problems running alongside a newer one? Or is it more likely to be a software/driver probelm? In which case I have no idea what I am going to try next.

I guess the next step is to see what happens when I put the 7850 in the build again tomorrow, then try a full OS reinstall... after that I am out of ideas. Here's to hoping...

[SuperNova]

I'm pretty sure a full reinstall will fix the problem, but yes if the PC didn't crash or hang while running Kombustor and Prime95 for an hour there is nothing wrong with your hardware.

[XanthusAnon]

I had the -exact- same problem as you, N7 Justin.

I made an account just now so I can tell you of my woes.

I run:

ASUS P5Q pro motherboard
Intel q6600 2.4ghz quad core
8gb 1066mhz ram
radeon hd7850 OC gigabyte edition. (975 mhz core clock etc)

your symptoms were the same as mine. Like right to the tee. Often would work fine with lighter games but occasionally the desktop would just switch off, with sound still playing, and nothing would bring the screen back up. Sometimes after the screen went to sleep after leaving it idle for a while, it wouldn't turn back on (cntrl+alt+del sometimes worked.)

Either way, I didn;t change anything in my machine when I upgraded aside the graphics card. The machine ran perfectly fine on a hd5770 and when i upgraded initially things were ok but it was crashing regularly.

Same symptoms as you.

I reported back to the company I purchased the card with, we did a few things (slow down the gpu core clock to below its default, this worked, but of course i didnt buy a naturally oc'd card to have it underclocked. yay waste of cash!) so I sent it back with a replacement request.

They spent a little while testing it, said there was nothing wrong with it. (I expected this. tests are often specifically focused on strain more tahn anything else and can result in false positives.) I -insisted- it get replaced. Eventually they did. During the time the 7850 was being replaced i changed back to the 5770, no issues.

Eventually the new card arrived. No issues so far. (Initially the screen didnt wanna turn back on after sleeping but I shut it down, rechecked all the seating/plugs, even switched out the pci-e power plug for another of the same type incase that wire was slightly iffy and all has been well since. It has to have been the card, as there has been no issues in the last week of using it. (been running dayz, sleeping dogs, battlefield 3 etc all on ultra with it at 100% use and no crashes.)

So yeah. Dreaded test didn't seem to come back with a fault but after insisting a replacement card of the same type, all worked good as gold.

Hope this helps. =\

Xan.

[N7 Justin]

XanthusAnon, on 23 August 2012 - 01:43 AM, said:

snip

Thank you for taking the time to put down your experiences Xan, though I must admit it has worried me more than helped at the moment!

My card has come back to me today so I will be testing it out as soon as I get back from work, and am ready to reinstall the OS. If this still doesn't work I may have to try underclocking the card as you did - but as you say, obviously there is a fault if we have to do this...

Did you eventually get a replacement from the company you purchased the card from or from the card manufacturer?

I suppose I could also see if any mates have some ddr3 ram or a spare psu I could borrow to help troubleshoot... all this because I want to be able to make the most of GW2's visuals

[XanthusAnon]

I guess I may have worded it weirdly.

Either way, if its a -good- company, all you need to do is -insist- the card needs replacing and they'l do it out of policy. Thats what I did. Got a new card, all is well.

[N7 Justin]

SuperNova, on 22 August 2012 - 10:10 AM, said:

I'm pretty sure a full reinstall will fix the problem, but yes if the PC didn't crash or hang while running Kombustor and Prime95 for an hour there is nothing wrong with your hardware.

Thanks for all your help SuperNova, unfortunately even after trying a full OS reinstall I am still getting the same problems. I did also manage to try the prime95 + kombuster stress test with the 7850 and that didn't appear to cause any problems (admitedly I could only leave it running for about 10 minutes at the time though), so now I am well and truely confused. Looks like I will be playing on my 4850 at launch which I am more than a little pissed off about, but hey ho.

XanthusAnon, on 23 August 2012 - 10:41 PM, said:

I guess I may have worded it weirdly.

Either way, if its a -good- company, all you need to do is -insist- the card needs replacing and they'l do it out of policy. Thats what I did. Got a new card, all is well.

I will have to hope that Novatech are good, and insist on a replacement then! I can't see myself having much time or patience for this over the next week though!

[proaxis]

N7 Justin,

The problems you describe are exactly what I have been experiencing since installing my Asus 7850 DirectCu II back in May.  I have tried to pinpoint the problem but have been unsuccessful (underclocking GPU, windows reinstall, etc).  I am fairly certain mine is a hardware issue, however one thing I have found that reduces my GPU crash rate significantly is to ensure that my internet browser is closed (I typically use firefox).

I'll be following this thread, so if you get it worked out please update

[Quaker]

I forgot to mention in my last post - make sure all of your drivers are up to date. That includes chipset, audio, etc (even BIOS). Several years ago I had similar problems with GW1. At that time I could cure the symptoms by setting the 'affinity' of GW1 to run on only one cpu core. I never actually solved the problem - after a few rounds of Windows (XP) and driver updates the problem simply went away. Which indicates to me that the problem was a matter of interactions between various drivers and Windows itself.

The main point is that, even though it may seem to be a video driver problem, it can in fact be the interaction of any drivers and Windows itself.

And, of course, if you have anything overclocked, set it back to stock - at least until you solve the issue.

Edited by Quaker, 27 August 2012 - 03:39 PM.

[N7 Justin]

proaxis, on 27 August 2012 - 02:25 PM, said:

N7 Justin,

The problems you describe are exactly what I have been experiencing since installing my Asus 7850 DirectCu II back in May.  I have tried to pinpoint the problem but have been unsuccessful (underclocking GPU, windows reinstall, etc).  I am fairly certain mine is a hardware issue, however one thing I have found that reduces my GPU crash rate significantly is to ensure that my internet browser is closed (I typically use firefox).

I'll be following this thread, so if you get it worked out please update

I was also finding that internet browsers (I use firefox too) exaccerbate the problem - a fix for this is to disable hardware accelleration in flash player and also in the browser settings. I found that this does degrade the quality of hd videos though...

So in terms of a quick update; I have since replaced my PSU with a Corsair 650W one which had no effect on the problem... one more thing ruled out!

While working with the case open, I did notice that when the card is under load it makes a screeching noise that varies in pitch with the level of load the card is under. I have ruled out the fans by stopping them both at the same time (for the briefest of moments!) and this has no effect on the noise. Does anyone else with a 7850 get a noise like this? Given the fans are the only mechanical part of a graphics card (unless anyone can correct me on this?) I have no idea what is causing this. Have sent the card back to Novatech again who have told me they will test it more thoroughly than last time...

Thanks for your advice Quaker - before sending the card back again I went through and updated/installed every new driver available for my motherboard; unfortunately this didn't fix the particular problem I am having

[Zenmoney]

N7,

I have the same video card and a very similar rig setup, and i have been experiencing similar issues: display will just go black when video is under very little stress (i.e. just browsing or doing stuff in windows explorer), and the system would freeze while idle.
After searching around for suggestions, i'm starting to believe it's a catalyst driver problem. I was running the 12.8 drivers, but i've recently rolled back to the catalyst 12.6 drivers to try them out due to the posts in this forum :
http://forums.anandt.../t-2244769.html

I'd suggest trying the same thing, roll back to the catalyst 12.6 drivers and see if that fixes the issue.

[Zenmoney]

Well, the 12.6 drivers didn't work for me, but I found some more threads suggesting that the problem is the idle clock speeds for the card are too low. I've increased the GPU/Memory clocks to 500/800 MHz using the catalyst control center--so far so good.

[N7 Justin]

Zenmoney, on 10 September 2012 - 10:32 PM, said:

Well, the 12.6 drivers didn't work for me, but I found some more threads suggesting that the problem is the idle clock speeds for the card are too low. I've increased the GPU/Memory clocks to 500/800 MHz using the catalyst control center--so far so good.

I think we have been looking in the same places! I have tried 12.6, 12.7 beta, and the new 12.8 - no luck with any of them. I also tried raising the idle clock speeds to no avail. Out of interest Zenmoney, when you stress your card with something like MSI Kombuster, does it make a (loud-ish) noise (almost sounds like a hdd) but is definatelty coming from the graphics card and isn't a fan noise?

I have given up with it now as I just want to play the game instead of spending hours on end troubleshooting it, so am taking the whole thing down to Novatech for a diagnostics service. I swear, if they come back to me this time and say it is a faulty card... heads will roll!!!

[Zenmoney]

N7 Justin, on 11 September 2012 - 07:52 AM, said:

I think we have been looking in the same places! I have tried 12.6, 12.7 beta, and the new 12.8 - no luck with any of them. I also tried raising the idle clock speeds to no avail. Out of interest Zenmoney, when you stress your card with something like MSI Kombuster, does it make a (loud-ish) noise (almost sounds like a hdd) but is definatelty coming from the graphics card and isn't a fan noise?

I have given up with it now as I just want to play the game instead of spending hours on end troubleshooting it, so am taking the whole thing down to Novatech for a diagnostics service. I swear, if they come back to me this time and say it is a faulty card... heads will roll!!!

I haven't tried doing anything specifically to stress the card because my problem was always occurring while the computer was idle or i was just idly browsing--i could play Diablo 3 for hours on end and not have any problems whatsoever, but once i exited and just idled around a bit, my display would shut off and the system would freeze. I haven't noticed any hdd-ish noises coming from the card when playing games, though.

Not sure if you saw this http://www.tomshardw...g-radeon-hd6870 thread or not, but the guy suat gives some pretty good explanations as to what he thinks the underlying issue is, and i followed his instructions for increasing my idle clock speeds. You might want to try increasing your idle clocks the way suat suggested if that's not what you did. My system's been stable for at least a few days now, which is a lot longer than it had been before.

[N7 Justin]

Zenmoney, on 12 September 2012 - 02:21 AM, said:

Not sure if you saw this http://www.tomshardw...g-radeon-hd6870 thread or not, but the guy suat gives some pretty good explanations as to what he thinks the underlying issue is, and i followed his instructions for increasing my idle clock speeds. You might want to try increasing your idle clocks the way suat suggested if that's not what you did. My system's been stable for at least a few days now, which is a lot longer than it had been before.

Thanks, I had seen that thread and none of their fixes were working for me.

Update for anyone still interested... So having droped my whole rig in for their diagnostics test I get a phone call from them explaining that they have found a fault with a component on the graphics card. Queue sarcastic "orly?" response. They have replaced the card and I am picking it up tomorrow so fingers crossed! Moral of the story... persistance is always worth it!

[lalangamena]

not sure if still relevant, but recently I had similar problem.

I have upgraded nvidia GT9800 to ATI HD7850.

and it was "acting funny" ... (somedimes the PC wont boot, sometimes crash ) etc.

eventually the issue was my PSU it was 550w  (although on the card website it requires only 500W PSU), I upgraded to  650w  and it started to work smoothly.

i see in your post that you use "500W Antec PSU"
which is too weak for the HD7850, maybe this is the problem?

[Thundergrim]

Have you fixed your problem? I'm facing the same issues with my new HD7850. My specs are a bit older but i want to make sure if the card is faulty.

My specs:

- Dual-Core E5800 @ 3.2GHz
- Kingston 8GB RAM @ 1333MHz
- ATI XFX HD7580 2GB
- Kingston HyperX SSD 120GB
- Corsair TX650 650Watt PSU
- Windows 8 x64

I upgraded my video card from an ATI 5770 which was working perfectly. I want to upgrade my rig for GW2 and the HD7850 was the first part i could afford at the moment. Unfortunately since day 1 i bought it i'm having problems.
I've tried clean installs with both Windows 7 and 8, using the latest catalyst driver 12.10. At first the game was freezing my client and i had to alt+ctrl+del, then the freeze went permanent and i had to reboot my computer. Then i opened windows system logs and i noticed this:

“Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered. "

I went into the catalyst control panel and decreased the GPU clock from 1000 to 860MHz and the memory clock at 1200MHz. I was able to play without any freezes until tonight the computer froze again and after an analysis of my dump file there was something to do with the video driver again. I've checked my temperatures and everything seems OK (altho i notice that the voltage is a little bit above 12, don't know if that matters much).


So what could cause my problem? Before that i had stressed my computer for many hours (while using Photoshop or playing GW2) and NEVER had a BSOD or freeze. Should i return the card or could be my old rig? I don't want to upgrade my CPU and stick with a broken VGA.


Any help/suggestions will be appreciated.



EDIT:

I've updated my rig to an i5-3350P CPU with new motherboard. The problem still exists and i have also noticed screen flickering to white and some broken textures/lines on the ground. The problem seems to be in the drivers on the 7xxx cards according to many forum posts that i have searched. Some games was a bit fixed with the 12.11 beta drivers but the problem with GW2 still exists. Also the game only works with the GPU @ 860MHz.

Edited by Thundergrim, 22 December 2012 - 10:46 AM.

[Reogrym]

I'm having this exact same issue! Reached out to GW2 support recently. They responded quickly, and offered a lot of solutions, but we weren't able to fix the problem. My specs are..

- i5-3470 @ 3.2GHz
- XFX AMD Radeon 7850 2GB
- MSI Z77A-G43 Motherboard
- Seagate Barracuda 1TB (that's where GW2 is installed, anyways)
- Corsair Vengeance 8GB @ 1666 MHz I think.
- Corsair CX600 v2 600W PSU
- I've tried the game on multiple OSes (Windows 8, Windows 7).

I'm pretty sure it's a 7850 issue because what happens is my monitors stop displaying stuff, and my GPU fans start revving up. Audio still works most of the time, and my Skype session still works (they can hear me and I can still hear them). The times when it doesn't work properly, I just hear the same chunk of sound looping over and over again really quickly.