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4870x2 Won't Boot to Windows

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Dangerous_Dave

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2009
Hi there,

I've been running a 4870 CF setup until now, when I switched to a 4870x2 - in the pursuit of smoothness (more memory, better link etc). However, it booted into windows fine, did something (maybe installed a driver? not sure) and now it won't boot back into windows. It does the initial boot fine, but as soon as windows starts to boot, it crashes immediately.

I'm pretty sure this is some kind of driver problem, along the same lines as when you change the motherboard and windows refuses to boot, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I've removed the old display drivers to the best of my ability, removed CCC, removed rivatuner, and finally done a repair install of windows. The problem persists.

Perhaps I've misdiagnosed the problem? Is there anything else I can do?

I don't want to lose my progress on GTA IV!

Cheers
 
Did you use drivercleaner(in safe mode), what I prefer, or driversweeper?
What os?
What's the rest of your system made up of?
 
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It's windows XP pro (32-bit). I'm also running a PII 940 BE and a DFI 790FX M2R motherboard.

I've never hear of that driver thing - does it basically just remove all your drivers? Could any other program be causing the troubles?
 
Drivercleaner pro 1.5 did the trick for my XP. http://soft.softoogle.com/ap/driver-cleaner-pro-download-1878.shtml
But for Vista/Win7 I bought a registered copy. http://www.drivercleaner.net/
Or Driversweeper http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

I'd start with removing all the Ati stuff.
I think when I was running crossfire on XP and didn't disable the crossfire option in ccc, and made a change in vcards or un-install drivers, I would have this problem. It's been awhile since I benched with XP though.
 
I recently went through a whole ordeal with a broken 4870x2 and the symptoms exhibited were identical to what you describe.

I had run 4850's in crossfire and upgraded to a single 4870x2. All went well and worked perfectly. I didn't have to re-install the drivers (even though I eventually did anyway), it just recognized the 4870x2 automatically and worked perfect.

I got a 2nd 4870x2 to go Quad, but I only had an Earthwatts 650 at the time, so to test it I just swapped one 4870x2 out for the other, and every single time with the 4870x2 I had just bought it would lock up or bluescreen when booting windows. I swapped the cards back and forth and it was clear it was only doing it with one of them.

I booted into safe mode, uninstalled the drivers, rebooted, and it let me into windows but once it installed the drivers again, same problems. I returned that card and got yet another 4870x2, popped it in and recognized the Quad crossfire instantly and without issue or even a driver re-install.

So really it sounds like you got a busted card. The drivers generally do not flip out when you simply swap a card. I went back and forth between my 4850's and my first 4870x2 countless times doing benchmarks and didn't reinstall the drivers each time.
 
Ok - cheers for responses - trying to get it working in safe mode and it gets as far as installing Mup.sys and crashes every time.

I'm going to try installing XP from scratch on a different hard disk to eliminate dead card.

Incidentally, I didn't switch off crossfire before removing the crossfire cards - but i would have thought removing all the ati stuff (which I have now done) should have resolved that.

Anyway, here goes with the new hard disk...
 
Well - it won't install windows on the other hard disk. Keeps coming up with a fatal error when the actual 'installing windows' starts.

I find this very odd though. The graphics card is clearly outputting a picture, as I'm looking at it now - it's the windows XP installation screen. Could the graphics card really be causing these problems and not, say, the motherboard (which I've already been having problems with).

One other thing - from the temperature of the heasink near the chips, i'd say the card is running about 75 C idle. Is this ok?
 
.... But the 4870x2 has worked fine with the installation of Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit.

Anybody got any idea what's going on here?

There are two major differences that I can think of: the use of 2 slots vs 1, and the use of what ultimately shows up as 512mb graphics memory vs 2gb. Either of these have something to do with it?
 
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