The ATI 4850 Hates Me.

[llamajizz]

I recently got an ATI 4850 to upgrade one of my pcs and I just can't get it to work. All of the issues seem to be driver related. I first tried booting with win7, it installed the WDDM drivers and then refused to boot. It would either freeze or show me a bluescreen that said something about "atikmdag.sys" and then restart. I removed the WDDM drivers, cleaned up all old drivers but the catalyst drivers wont install. It stops mid-install and the log says "driver installation failed". Okay, I have a dual boot set up with XP and win7, so I try XP. I install the drivers and it crashed mid-install. I reboot, it works and I play a game for like 5 hours and then turn it off. Now XP won't boot either. The best advice I've gotten online so far is "It probably doesn't like your memory" or "It probably doesn't like your motherboard". If that's the case, then it's not worth keeping.

Anyone with similar issues ever find a solution?

 

[GaiaHunter]

Get a driver cleaner utility like driver sweeper http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/ delete all vga divers and try again.

Make sure the cables are well plugged and check temperatures using some utility like gpu-z.

 

[llamajizz]

Cleaned all drivers, no luck. Cables well plugged in. I would assume temperatures wouldn't be a problem since while installing the drivers the computer hadn't been on long and is in a ~70 deg. F environment...

 

[GaiaHunter]

Other options involve formatting and reinstalling windows, trying older/different version of the drivers (which one are you using?), installing the driver with the CCC (I've never had problems with it but some people complain about it), testing that card on other PC, or testing another PSU with that card.

Any chance that you can post your full system specs, including PSU?

 

[Avalon]

Doubt it's a driver issue if you're having problems across multiple OS's and situations. Sounds likely to me that the card is either faulty or not receiving enough power, one of which you should be able to verify instantly.

 

[llamajizz]

Specs are:

MSI p45 board (not sure exactly which one)
e8400
3x SATA hard drives
1 optical drive
4GB Patriot extreme memory
hec x-power pro 650w

I find it weird that when windows did boot that one time, I had 5 hours of continuous gameplay with no artifacts or problems whatsoever. Which makes me think that it's more of a software problem than a hardware one. I could be wrong though.

 

[Meghan54]

Other options involve formatting and reinstalling windows,

This has to be one of the most overused and worst bits of advice for solving driver/hardware problems I continually see.

"Oh, first thing didn't fix the problem? Just reinstall the OS."

Unbelievable. And horribly unnecessary advice.

 

[sandorski]

Check for an Updated BIOS for the Motherboard. That *might* be the issue. Scan your HDs to make sure you're not having issues with them. Also try Updated Chipset Drivers for the Motherboard.

 

[GaiaHunter]

This has to be one of the most overused and worst bits of advice for solving driver/hardware problems I continually see.

"Oh, first thing didn't fix the problem? Just reinstall the OS."

Unbelievable. And horribly unnecessary advice.

Because installing windows take such a long time these days...

And did you miss the "other options bit"?

It is obvious that the formatting should be last option, but is one that is know to solve problems related to malfunctioning hardware due to driver corruption.

EDIT: OP, your PSU seems adequate +3.3V@26A, +5V@18A, +12V1@30A, +12V2@26A, -12V@0.3A, +5VSB@2.5A, although it can always have gone faulty.

 

[Avalon]

Specs are:

MSI p45 board (not sure exactly which one)
e8400
3x SATA hard drives
1 optical drive
4GB Patriot extreme memory
hec x-power pro 650w

I find it weird that when windows did boot that one time, I had 5 hours of continuous gameplay with no artifacts or problems whatsoever. Which makes me think that it's more of a software problem than a hardware one. I could be wrong though.

And someone can run Prime95 on an overclocked CPU and have it run for several hours before a crash. That still doesn't mean there's not a problem with the hardware, especially if you were experiencing artifacts.

 

[BD231]

Get it replaced.

 

[bryanW1995]

try using one stick of ram at a time, it could be bad ram. it could also be your psu, change out psu and test if you another handy. if neither of those works and your old card works fine, rma the 4850.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Your card could be defective. Check what your idle/load temperatures are.

It could be the power supply. HEC is not a great PSU company. If you have anything else lying around, or feel like investing in something like a 500W OCZ StealthXStream on sale, you could give that a shot.

HEC is like a second or third tier PSU manufacturer; their 650W is like a 400-500W from a "quality" brand.

You should also make sure you have up-to-date chipset drivers.

Have you tried a fresh, clean Windows install on a different hard drive? It could be traces of old drivers from your last video card or other programs conflicting with the drivers.

Personally, I haven't had any problems with installing and running ATI's drivers on any 4800 series cards.

 

[Keysplayr]

This has to be one of the most overused and worst bits of advice for solving driver/hardware problems I continually see.

"Oh, first thing didn't fix the problem? Just reinstall the OS."

Unbelievable. And horribly unnecessary advice.

Actually, if the person having the trouble has a spare hard drive, and MANY of us enthusiasts do (looking at my shelf here, I have no less than 15 old hard drives that would be fine for a win7 install just for the sake of ruling out defective hardware.

The advice was given as an OPTION. Doesn't mean the OP HAS to do it. It of course IS and option and worthy to put down in text. With a spare hard drive, hours and hours, even days can be saved just to check for hardware defects. If the hardware is defective, you'll know it then.
Don't be so quick to slam another member for their suggestions.

 

[Modular]

You need to get Rivatuner up stat and see what temps that card is running at. Never make assumptions.

 

[kalrith]

Download GPU-Z here. It will tell you lots of information. One thing to look for is to make sure the card is running in PCI-e x16 mode. I bought a 4870 that wasn't seated properly and was running in PCI-e x1 mode, which created a bunch of problems. Reseating the card fixed that.

It will also tell you what your temps are, and you can check a box to have it update the temps while in the background. You can play a game for a while and then check the GPU-Z graphs for the history of your temps.

 

[llamajizz]

GPU-z won't tell me anything. I'm guessing because I don't have the drivers installed, which was my problem to begin with.

 

[kalrith]

I had some problems with the drivers for my 4870 as well. I'll mention what I had to do in case that helps you. I upgraded from a 2900 XT to a 4870. I initially did nothing to the drivers, and it actually booted into Windows 7x64. I followed the steps for Driver Cleaner Pro (uninstall ATI software from control panel, reboot to safe mode, run driver cleaner, reboot to normal Windows, install ATI driver).

When I tried to reboot to Windows after running Driver Cleaner Pro in safe mode, it would get stuck during the reboot. I was able to boot into safe mode, and I went into the device manager and disabled my graphics card. That allowed me to boot into Windows normally. I installed the latest ATI CCC package, and everything's been working great since then.

When I upgraded to the latest drivers, I had to disable the graphics card in safe mode again, so I'm likely going to have to do that every time I run Driver Cleaner Pro.

Are you sure you have the right drivers? Did you get them off of the ATI/AMD website? Have you tried just the driver rather than the CCC package?

 

[llamajizz]

I tried the new drivers, older drivers, even older drivers, with the CCC, without CCC. I uninstalled the WDDM drivers that win7 tried to put there (which failed and caused no boot) in device manager, cleaned old drivers, rebooted into reg. mode, tried installing the numerous driver versions and all of them stop mid-install with "driver installation failed" in the log. Last night I tried reseating it and then rebooted and win7 refused to boot with the IRQL less than blah blah error.

I don't even usually play games. I was perfectly happy with the x1950 that I had for like a million years until it died and then I thought "hey, maybe I should upgrade so that I can actually play current gen games". Then this happened and it reminded me why I never play games. Nearly every time I upgrade to a decent card, I have issues. Geforce2, had problems. ti4200, had problems. 9800 pro, had problems.

I'll try a few more things tonight before calling it quits and smashing it into pieces, maybe pull out another hd and do a clean install to see that yields any results.

 

[Athadeus]

I play games all the time. Voodoo2, TNT2, MX440, 9800 pro, 6600GT, X1800XT no problems. HD4770, problem similar to yours. Reinstalled Windows XP, problem solved.

Maybe you can get tech support from your graphics card vendor. Key word being maybe, unfortunately.

 

[SolMiester]

This has to be one of the most overused and worst bits of advice for solving driver/hardware problems I continually see.

"Oh, first thing didn't fix the problem? Just reinstall the OS."

Unbelievable. And horribly unnecessary advice.

I know, but whats worse is people will then come on defending such an action after you have just stated how retarded this solution is!

 

[sisq0kidd]

I had similar problems with my 4850. I just blamed it on the poor HSF design since I could never find the solution. That video card put out tons of heat and I don't think the HSF was sufficient. It probably heated up everything it touched, including the motherboard and eventually the processor, which lead to lots of freezing, etc (my theory).

Anyway, I traded up to a 4870 and never looked back. The 4850 could have been a great card, but coming from a problem free 8800GT, it was trash.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Sorry why don't you RMA the card?

You got it recently - isn't it in guarantee?

And if you bought it second hand, well then someone sold you a faulty card.

To the poster above - just because the card itself is hot it doesn't mean it is throwing more heat in the system. The GPU temperature doesn't mean anything in relation to the heat produced.

Of course the 4850 is a card that dumps the heat inside the case opposed to cards that exhaust it outside - you just need a good air-flow or a card with back exhaust like you ended getting.

 

[Piotrsama]

It stops mid-install and the log says "driver installation failed"

Uhm, that happened to me (on XP) when I tried to upgrade from 9.9 to 10.3.
Needless to say, it got me very pissed off...

It took me quite a while to fix that, I had to clean drivers from Safe mode.
Then reboot, Safe mode again. Install the drivers that came on the CD with the card... After some failed attempts... it worked.
Then again, remove drivers, reboot to safe Mode. And install the latest version.

Didn't bother upgrading drivers since then...

Go with the CCC version. And keep trying... Good luck.