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ATI 5970 problems?
I have been getting some intermittent issues with my ATI 5970 on my Aurora system. I run dual monitors via DVI inputs. Occasionally, one screen will flicker slightly. This seems to happen after I have been playing a game (just about any game). The flickering seems to happen when I open or close a program window, and only on one screen. I have swapped inputs, and the flickering monitor changes to the other monitor. I swapped out the monitor cables, but the problem persists. I tried to install the latest drivers (11.2) from the AMD website, but the install fails and all I get is a black screen. I can install the previous version just fine, but the flickering problem persists. The problem continued after reloading windows onto a new hard drive as well. Additionally, I get occasional system crashes/ reboots, especially if I have the bios set to OC level 1, but not exclusively. I ran whocrashed to check out the memory dump file, and it always points to atikmdag.sys. I did a test and swapped out the 5970 for Dual GTX 460's, and the crash/reboots went away. Is this a problem that persists with the ATI line of cards, or should I be contacting Dell about a warranty claim? Are there any diagnostic programs that I can run on the video card itself?
My system:
I7 980X
12GB 1333 ram
Windows 7 64-bit
ATI 5970
Thanks,
Brian Johnston
Thanks for the response. I have the ATI overclock turned off. If I enable the overclock at all (even a slight bump in speed), the one screen totally freaks out, which makes me think that there might be something wrong with the card. The only way I can get it back to normal is to disable the overclock and reboot the system.
I've reloaded with 10.8 drivers to no avail. I'll try something older to see if it makes any difference.
I've pulled and reseated the card, changed power cables, changed video cables, tried different monitors, all to no avail
Did another test yesterday and found out that the problem only seems to be on the monitor that is selected as the main monitor. I reloaded my system on a new hard drive, was able to get the Catalyst 11.2 driver to finally load, but encountered intermittent flickering of the main monitor. Swapped out monitors and cables but problem continued. Moved 5970 to 2nd PCIe slot, but problems still continued. Wondering if it's the card, motherboard, or power supply. Ran the Dell diagnostics, but no problems found.
If I enable ATI overclock and bump speed up by just 5 mhz, main monitor display goes crazy. This will follow to whichever monitor I have selected as the main one.
If you read the amd.com forums, you will see that many people are having problems with 11.x drivers on older 5xxx cards.
If you follow exactly all the steps I wrote (including CCC 10.7) and you still have a problem ... I would suggest you get the card swapped out.
The 5970 is not a good card to be over-clocking. It's likely running at max already (when under stress).
Dell Rockstar
Microsoft Windows and Apple iOS Developer (Retired)
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Tesla1856
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Posted February 21st, 2011 15:00
For the Dell 5970 ...
- Be sure the Dell VideoBIOS is applied.
- Try clean installing a slightly older stable driver for 5xxx cards (like CCC 10.7).
- Check power cables
- Check card fan and PCIe fan (be sure it's getting enough air and not over-heating ... it is a 5970 after all)
While trouble-shooting, leave all PC and ATI OC off. Off as in OFF, disabled, default, stock clocks.
I think Dell Diagnostic might check VideoCard a little. To stress it a little, try Heaven Benchmark 2.1 or 3D-Mark11. You can leave the CCC OverDrive window open or get GPU-Observer Gadget.
I think I might have seen the problem you are describing. I saw it on a 5770 and 5870. It seems certain games leave the 2nd monitor signal in an un-stable state sometimes. However, I haven't seen it happen in months, so I think they finally fixed the drivers. See my 12-27-2010 post in this thread:
Re: issue
Dell Rockstar
Microsoft Windows and Apple iOS Developer (Retired)
- Like many of you, I can appreciate a good game-engine.
- I answer questions here, but I'm not a Dell employee.
- Consider giving posts you like a "thumbs-up"
- Posting models-numbers and software versions speeds trouble-shooting.
- Click "Mark as Accepted Answer" on any post that answers your question best.