ATI 11.6 driver crash

[Rugbyfan1972 1]

All,

 

I installed the ATI Radeon 11.6 on my windows 7 64 bit machine last night, and it immediately gave me a blue screen of death, and restarted the machine. However when it restarted it only gave me the option to restart windows normally or do a system repair.

 

Choosing to start windows normally got me the same blue screen of death that the system had crashed with, only this time it was when windows was starting. Choosing the system repair gave me the same problem and would not fix the problem (it crashed 6 times while trying to fix itself).

 

I eventually gave up and reformatted and reinstalled everything, trying the 11.6 driver with a clean windows install (same problem, except this time system repair fixed the problem). I also had the same problem with 11.4 (I did'nt bother trying 11.5 or 11.3.

 

I now have a stable seeming system running 11.2.

 

Does anyone have any idea as to why a driver update from the ati site would crash my machine, and also if there is a workaround to get the driver to work.

 

I asked a colleague at work who seems to be knowledgeable about computers, but all he has come back with so far is that when you install a new graphics card driver, it also updates the firmware, which I thought sounded a bit odd.

 

If any of the knowledgeable experts on this site have any suggestions that may help me I would be pleased to hear them.

(my system specs are in my signature)

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2011 by Rugbyfan1972

[+Polovski 457]

Yikes is that for many people or just on your PC?

Did you mean to put some more comment in the post?

[Rugbyfan1972 1]

Yikes is that for many people or just on your PC?

Did you mean to put some more comment in the post?

 

Polovski,

 

I have not seen anything on the net saying it is a common problem, so with a bit of luck it is a fairly isolated incident. As I said I have got my machine up and running using Catalyst driver 11.2, but am wary of trying any higher driver update in case I have to reinstall everything again..

 

I meant to put more in my post, if anyone has any idea's how I would br able to update the graphics driver in the future with out this problem I would appreciate their input. As you can imagine reinstalling everything to windows is a time consuming task that I (as I am sure the rest of you) would rather avoid if possible. I am also concerned that my graphics card may be showing the early signs of terminal failure.

[Olham 164]

Rugby, I had only recently updated to 11.5 (running Windows 7 32 bit, and an ATI HD4870).

That is doing fine, and I won't do further updates, as my graphic card is not Direct X11 anyway.

11.5 was safe for me.

[Panama Red 22]

When I updated my ATI drivers from 10.12 to 11.6 (after upgrading my video cards from Crossfire 4890's to a single 6970), my FPS in First Eagles 2 dropped 50% (but no FPS change in OFF).

 

When I went back to the 10.12 drivers, my FPS went back up to 50-60 FPS as before.

 

As the old saying goes "newer is not always better !!!!"

[Olham 164]

Or: Never change a winning team!

[+Polovski 457]

For ATI driver side was always iffy for me (I go back a long way with them - used to have to install ATI cards at work and they were shockingly bad drivers then for us). The newer cards and drivers are obviously way better but still..

 

Is it iffy normally when running things or only on driver updates?

If your power supply is borderline maybe the odd driver change is causing it to BSOD, depends on the BSOD I guess.

 

Maybe in future you need to remove the current driver, reboot (default VGA) ignore the 'new hardware found' stuff then install new one or use one of the driver cleaners.

 

 

 

Sorry your post originally had a "l" in it and nothing else hence my comment ;)

[don246 65]

I have just built a new PC SPEC -

 

WINDOWS 7 64 BIT,

AMD 5850 CARD with the 11.6 drivers,

Asus P8P67 M/B,

Intel 2500K CPU,

8 GB CORSAIR XMS RAM (ONLY 4gb installed now will see how it go's then install the other 4 gb at first I thought it was one of the 4 x 1 memory strips that was faulty)

No over clocking.

 

First time I boot up all was well and for some time then after some days I had the BSOD time after time it would load to the desk top and the little blue round thing on screen showing loading files then near the end the BSOD happened on every reboot from then so I booted into safe mode and did a system restore not thinking this would work but up to now all is ok.

 

Never had a BSOD with XP 32 BIT well Windows 7 is progress.

Edited July 13, 2011 by don246

[Rugbyfan1972 1]

For ATI driver side was always iffy for me (I go back a long way with them - used to have to install ATI cards at work and they were shockingly bad drivers then for us). The newer cards and drivers are obviously way better but still..

 

Is it iffy normally when running things or only on driver updates?

If your power supply is borderline maybe the odd driver change is causing it to BSOD, depends on the BSOD I guess.

 

Maybe in future you need to remove the current driver, reboot (default VGA) ignore the 'new hardware found' stuff then install new one or use one of the driver cleaners.

 

 

 

Sorry your post originally had a "l" in it and nothing else hence my comment ;)

 

Polovski,

 

No problem, I was awake most of the night trying to think what was causing the problem. Anyhow after further investigation on an amd driver forum, it appears it is a fault with the 11.6 drivers that is affecting some people, but not others, and it does not seem to relate to the hardware being used either.

 

My advice, any ATI users, for the time being steer clear of the 11.6 drivers as they are useless in their present state. If I update to them successfully at some future date I will let you know.

[Olham 164]

My general advice for new ATI drivers: wait and see, what happens; study the web.

After some weeks, any problems may be sorted out and okay to install.

[+streakeagle 867]

nVidia has had their fair share of driver issues including driver changes that resulted in brand new cards burning up. So, I wouldn't restrict the advice to ATi products. Unless you are suffering catastrophic problems that a new driver specificially fixes, I wouldn't update drivers for the sake of updating UNTIL there is some history of what has happened to those who have done the same.

 

I have been using ATi for a very long time:

Radeon 8500/9100 128MB

Radeon 9000 128MB

Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB

Radeon x800XL 256MB

Radeon x1800 512MB

Radeon HD4890 1GB

 

None of those cards ever failed and I have had only a few annoying driver issues. The main problem I have experienced is that much later drivers add some new feature or bug fix that I want, but break some critical backwards compatibility with older games I still play. I know for a fact, nVidia drivers have done the same, so don't give me some fanboi story about ATi drivers being crap compared to nVidia. It is useful for both ATi and nVidia to remain competitive. It ensures consumers continue to get better products for competitive prices.

Edited July 13, 2011 by streakeagle

[+Polovski 457]

Fanboi? Wow sorry it rattled your cage. I'm not trying to have a p****** contest. I too have been using ATI for a very long time, and used most of those you list too. Even used Voodoo card first real 3D accelerator that came before NVidia or ATI's. Have used and bought/supported many ATI, Nvidia cards over the years.

 

As I said I installed ATI cards as part of my job day in day out for several years but hey ho..

 

Radeon 8500 was one of the first really decent 3D cards they did with decent drivers and support - I bought, then others for example Radeon 800XT 9800, etc, and later onto Radeon 4870, HD 5870..

I have gone back and forth from ATI and Nvidia for years so got the teehshirt too, but it's a fact ATI used to be shocking at drivers (when it was just 2D Windows).

 

Sorry but you are coming across like I hurt you personally or you are flying the flag for ATI or something.

 

Yes all companies have issues with all software, it's tricky stuff to make work on a billion variations of PC hardware and software and configurations out there.

[Von Paulus 8]

Rugby, there's a hotfix I think.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=347384

[Parky 8]

 

 

I asked a colleague at work who seems to be knowledgeable about computers, but all he has come back with so far is that when you install a new graphics card driver, it also updates the firmware, which I thought sounded a bit odd.

 

 

 

First of all, cheers for sharing your personal experience with this particular set of drivers. Even if it doesn't save someone else on the forum from some headaches, it's a fine gesture. Well done

 

In addition, when you thought your friend's idea that updating graphics cards drivers somehow updates the hardware's "firmware" was a bit odd.....good call. That's a load of rubbish.

 

 

Fanboi? Wow sorry it rattled your cage.

 

C'mon Pol.....admit it. We've all known for a long time what a huge Nvidia "fanboi" you are. I first figured it out when you and I were both running the X1900 series ATI cards..........

 

I do believe I made a post recently after shelving a Sapphire 5970 in favor of the GTX590 that indicated I would "NEVER", and I repeat "NEVER" put another AMD/ATI product in another one of my towers. That has absolutely nothing to do with their hardware either, and everything to do with their absolutely miserable driver efforts.

 

Now THAT's what I call an Nvidia "fanboi"!!

 

 

Rugby, there's a hotfix I think.

http://forums.guru3d...ad.php?t=347384

 

Well done Paulo.......as usual.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Parky

[+Polovski 457]

Lol Parky ;). I do keep buying ATI then coming back to NVidia. Yeah given I had a lot of pain with ATI in my earlier working life, in theory I should have never have gone near one for my own machine with a 7-foot barge pole, but have bought several since. The competition is good for us users although the constant one-upmanship with top end video card releases and increasing prices had to slow down at some point. But yeah wonder if any of those old driver programmers are still there at ATI. I think some of the fantastic 3DFX Voodoo team moved to them so that's likely why they improved some.

[Von Paulus 8]

Ahh! 3DFX, lovely graphic accelerator. I still have one... somewhere.

Their doom was the Banshee series and Nvidia with the Riva series.

I still have my first ATI, it was a RAGE3D with 8MB.

The next one was already a 9600XT. I'm now looking at her.

I guess I've been much more a Nvidia fanboy than a ATI, in spite of my actual card is a 4890.

The only thing I know about these two is that they keep doing s**t, once in a while.