ATI 3870 Driver Problems

Try following the advice HERE

I will try the advice by Chris in the link but I'm pretty sure that approach has been tried already by the support team.  As I said, they reckon its an operating system problem.

I followed the instructions in the link as best I could as they were for Win XP and I have Vista. 

 

1st  I didn't install Net framework as its already installed

 

2nd Have catalyst/drivers  and catalyst and drivers seperatly

 

3rd Removed catalyst with programs and features in control panel and performed the driver sweeper actions includind deleting the ATI folder in C:  performed restart and turned PC off and back on for good measure

 

4th  Installed just the driver successfull,restart then installed the catalyst software also successfully.

 

5th  I still only have one GPU working in the crossfire configuration.

 

I did an autotune in catalyst and both gpu's were tested but I still can't get a crossfire configuration.  Before doing these actions I had tried swapping the graphics cards around on the Mobo to rule out a duff card.  It looks like a format is going to be my only option unless some one comes up with a solution.

 

I must point out that untill recently crossfire was working but unfortunatly I can't be certain when it stopped working.

 

 

I think your problem is that Dell tweeks the driver for the cards to work in crossfire.

Hello,

 

Go to Alienware's website and download their latest ati drivers. The driver will work for both Vista 32 & 64. You will need to do a clean install by removing the existing driver using the ATI utility & also manually deleting any backup files from previous driver installs. Crossfire should now work perfectly. You can install the latest drivers from ATI directly over the one from Alienware, the crossfire option should still function.

Thanks for the advice over Alienware but alas the result is the same, no crossfire function. So far it goes like this

 

Dell ati software error message as above and no crossfire

 

ATI combined catalyst and drivers error message and no crossfire

 

ATI sperate driver and catalyst no error message but no crossfire

 

Alienware ATI software no error message but no crossfire

 

As I mentioned above is there a way to repair the Vista OS without a format and if so how?. I am really annoyed that I may have to re format when the problem is probably something to do with compatability with the Nvidia chipset based mobo. I asked if Dell would swap them for Nvidia 8800GT's and I would pay the original difference but they won't consider it.

 

I have even applied the recently released Vista Hotfix from Microsoft for SLI and Crossfire problems but still no joy

 

Anyone having the same problem? also is anyone having similar problems with an SLI setup? 

Right, first of all I have been a bit daft.  Crossfire is now working and there was no need to do a format and re install as I have done.  Using driver sweeper and loading the driver and catalyst software separatly worked,I just didn't know it.  In the enable crossfire window in catalyst only one GPU shows as only one monitor is being used.  In GPU z it becomes clear that two gpu's are functioning. I will do some benchmarking at a later date when I've got everthing back on my PC.