ATI HD5770 gaming nightmare

[MSaxp]

Hi All,

I am too an unfortunate owner of a Sapphire HD5770. I bought it about 6 months ago as part of a new PC i built and i am regretting it every time i try to play a game. I suffer from the infamous "Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered" which happens all the time when i play games. Dont play much but i used to play Call of duty MW2 and now trying to play some Starcraft 2. Its impossible to play really as it might happen every 10 minutes or even every 1 minute. Thank god i am too old to play much Once a day it even happens while browing the web but not as often as when playing. I have tried different versions of catalyst with no success and also tried reducing the graphics card clock speed to the minimum setting but again no difference.

I have also tried uninstalling the drivers with driver sweeper in safe mode as suggested in another thread and still no improvement. I have also read something on changing the FSB voltage in the BIOS but didnt find an appropriate setting and i am not sure this might be the cause. Dont know as well if my graphics card might be incompatible with my m/b as it supposedly uses pci express 2.1 and my m/b seems to only mention pci express 2.0.

Is there any chance this can be fixed? I am getting desperate and I dont have that much time to waste on this anymore. I am wondering if in the end my graphics card is just faulty. Not sure if i should buy another ATI card to be honest or just give up and go for Nvidia, in case my system just doesnt like ATI cards.



Summary of the system as follows, please let me know if more info would be useful:

Asus M4A87TD EVO
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black
4GB (2x2GB) Patriot Gamer Series DDR3 1600Mhz CL8 (PGS34G1600LLKA2)
Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 5770 HD 1GB PCI-Express 2.1 x16 HDMI
Antec TruePower New 650W Modular PSU - 80plus Bronze
Windows 7 - 64bit

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[hajalie24]

Try increasing the voltage in MSI Afterburner

 

[Artas1984]

Your problem is (might be) the CCC. Just install the drivers without anything else.
I also had this similar horrible message in the past.

 

[Mjolnir]

Uninstall all ATI related drivers. Restart the computer. Reinstall the latest drivers off the site without ccc. Just the display driver. If you still get errors, try the card in another computer and all that jazz.. I had a similar crash issue though less frequent it would occasionally bug me and a clean install fixed it. If the clean install without ccc doesn't work, try another computer. If its the same issue, try the drivers that came with the card off the cd. If not, time for a new card perhaps lol.

 

[MSaxp]

Thanks for all the replies.

1) Not much I can do about the voltage as it doesnt seem to be changeable in afterburner
2) I will try to install without catalyst and see if that improves anything
3) I am sure buying a new card is a possibility. However, I am too scared to go for ATI again. Not sure what the issue might be in the end. Its really a nightmare. 2 hours of gaming today and event viewer reports 150 display errors. Something like 3500 in the past 6 months

 

[stunt]

Just RMA'd a Shapphire HD5770. Had it 13 days and dealt with second screen flicker and a host of other problems. Changed out cables, mobos, and just swapped it with a 6850 I had here. And now all is well. It would not even load ccc 11.5. It failed every time but would load 11.4. I've had 6 Sapphire cards for various builds in the last several months and have been using them for years and this is the first one I had an issue with.

I wouldn't let one problem sway you from buying from them again. Remember, it's computer stuff, Sh*t happens.

 

[MSaxp]

absolutely. I have nothing personal against them. Just not sure that whatever is wrong with this one, I'm not going to get with any other Sapphire or Ati card. Imagine wasting £100 on this one and then wasting another £100 on another Ati that has the same problem on my machine.

Does it qualify as 'faulty'? Technically speaking it does function (although not in games) and there might be case that it works on other machines. And i've had it for 6 months now, so i believe my money is wasted

 

[MSaxp]

I think i have found the cause but this is completely insane. I think the problem isnt graphics related but RAM related!!! one of the dimms (patriot DD3 1600mhz) seems to be misbehaving. I took it off and i havent had a graphics crash in 2 hours of gaming. put it back in by itself and i had 5 crashes in 10 minutes. plus performance seemed to be affected but it might be just in my head.

I will see if i can have it RMA-ed. Given they dont seem to make the exact model anymore, i wonder what i can get as i am not sure mixing and matching RAM will be a good idea. Any tips would be useful though!

 

[Artas1984]

Well, lol, looks like case is closed. Change ram.

 

[MSaxp]

i'm still struggling to believe this. all these crashes and resets of the graphics card and BSODs from the graphics card and one dimm was to blame? bizarre

on the ram note and given my model is discontinued, will it be ok if i bought a different brand ram and mixed it with my existing one? (not the faulty one of course) Not sure if buying some corsair of similar specs (1600mhz, 1.80v, 9-9-9-24) will be ok, or cause more instability

 

[Mjolnir]

I wouldn't mix sticks. Get another set. Perhaps if you need more RAM get a 2x4gb kit.

 

[MSaxp]

Yes, i think more RAM will definitely be required. I was just hoping i could use the 2x2gb that i will be returning and buy another 2x2gb.

If not, I can just buy 2x4gb. Any RAM recommendations for my system? Nothing special really, just a casual gamer remembering his youth every now and then I am guessing sonmething like this will do? Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 1.5V Non-ECC Unbuffered

Asus M4A87TD EVO
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black
Sapphire Technology ATI Radeon 5770 HD 1GB PCI-Express 2.1 x16 HDMI
Antec TruePower New 650W Modular PSU - 80plus Bronze
Windows 7 - 64bit

 

[X@nder36]

Remember, the Phenom II's IMC is only rated for DDR3-1333, so its entirely possible that running your DIMMs at 1600 is whats causing the problems. Historically, the Thubans have had better IMCs compared to Deneb, but its worth trying to run the RAM at 1333, and see if you can tighten the timings to 8-8-8-24 <---------That would be the most cost effective solution

 

[MSaxp]

Good point. a bit bizarre though that 1) I bought it as a bundle, so presummably they should know that the combination works and 2) it works fine with one of the dimms but not with the other one.

I hope turning the clock down to 1333MHz should be ok for the RAM given the 1600MHz and 1.8v 9-9-9-24 are the default settings

 

[X@nder36]

it works fine with one of the dimms but not with the other one.

Did you memtest both DIMMs? If one is faulty, then that would be your problem.

I hope turning the clock down to 1333MHz should be ok for the RAM given the 1600MHz and 1.8v 9-9-9-24 are the default settings

They should work fine at lower speeds, it won't be an issue.

 

[MSaxp]

Thanks for that.

If i do go for new dimms of 2x4gb, do you suggest I dont go for 1600Mhz?

as I said earlier, I was thinking of the Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 1.5V Non-ECC Unbuffered

 

[X@nder36]

Correct. Go with 1333MHz, with tighter timings, the general feeling i get from the forum is that AMD chips like that set up better. Here's what I'd suggest. I have the same kit except in 2x2GB, and it works fine, you just need to set timings manually. But test and confirm that the sticks you have now ARE the problem

 

[MSaxp]

right. so i can play just fine with the 'good' dimm and not with the 'faulty' one. no crashes in 2 hours of starcraft2 with one, 50 with the other one. i have tried the faulty one at 1333, and 8-8-8-24, but that hasnt made any difference.

However, memtest doesnt show any errors when the 'faulty' one is tested! is this possible? i tried a couple of cycles but will leave overnight. i think i should just kiss the RMA goodbye and splash on some new kit

**update: I left overnight with the faulty one and memtest didnt find an error in 20 cycles. still, i suppose seeing that one dimm produces errors, while the other one doesnt, should be enough of a proof. at least for me, to go buy some new RAM. i doubt Patriot would be convinced to RMA it

 

[MSaxp]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their replies. For the record its been running fine (although really slow) with 1/2 2gb dimms and I havent had a single ati driver restart. Feels great to be able to play some Starcraft2 again although with only 2gb on, performance with ultra settings isnt great

Every time i have switched the dimms, back to the crash every 30 seconds. I have ordered some new RAM and will be sending the old one to Patriot for a replacement. Will update once the new RAM is installed, to confirm that its all running smoothly.

Many thanks for your help

 

[X@nder36]

Your welcome!