Graphics Card (or drivers) issue. ATI 4870

[sygnus21]

Hi Techymike,

Thanks for your input, though perhaps it might have been better to go through this thread to see what has been offered and what has been done.

Thanks

 

[Techymike]

just because you may have uninstalled it does not mean that everything was removed. If the drivers were left then Vista will reload that specific driver seeing it as the best choice hence it was loaded already. Forgive me if I am way off here.

 

[sygnus21]

just because you may have uninstalled it does not mean that everything was removed. If the drivers were left then Vista will reload that specific driver seeing it as the best choice hence it was loaded already. Forgive me if I am way off here.

Forgiven. His issue is not being able to install the drivers...they install. This issue is this:

FortuneSmiles:

"I then tried to launch Windows Media Center and got the same black screen hibernation state as with the other card. Looks like it's not the card."

Jaggerwild's issue is still a little fuzzy.

Thanks.

 

[Techymike]

thanks Sygnus21

 

[FortuneSmiles]

Can you fill out "My System Specs"? I know you have them in the first post, but... and it would be a lot easier for eveyone else.

My system specs have been filled out. Sorry for not having done this already. I hadn't noticed it. Certainly would have saved me the effort of repeating the specs. Thanks.

 

[darkassain]

there is only one thing i can think of is that you havent pluged in your pcie power connectors...
it can cause instability if you havent...
just a thought...
if you have then thats all i can think of...
either that or your PSU is not supplying clean power to your video card...

 

[FortuneSmiles]

they are both plugged in. Please note that I just swapped what had been the H.I.S. HD4870 Graphics Card for a Sapphire as CyberPower thought it might be a faulty video card.
Last night I was able get Windows Media Center running by running as administrator but even that is touch and go. It will work or it will send me to a black screen. The odd thing is that it isn't only a black screen but it also seems to shut down my keyboard as it's backlight goes black as well. It's like the system went to sleep and I cannot wake it. Anyway - I got it running - then closed it out and walked away from the system for a couple of hours and came back to a black screen that I could not wake. Not media center this time - just a couple hours if inactivity.

 

[sygnus21]

@ FortuneSmiles,

You obviously have a strange issue there, and one that I'm not so sure belongs to the video card.

Try this - If you have another keyboard swap them out and see if you still have the problem.

Also, and forgive me if you've answered this already (this thread is 5 pages long), are you overclocking? If so, run at default speeds and see what happens.

Other then that, you "might" be looking at an OS reinstall - unless you've done that too. Hmmm....I need to go through this thread again. LOL

 

[Everlong]

there is only one thing i can think of is that you havent pluged in your pcie power connectors...
it can cause instability if you havent...
just a thought...
if you have then thats all i can think of...
either that or your PSU is not supplying clean power to your video card...

My guess is the PSU isn't powerful enough. For that computer, I'd have used higher than a 650w PSU.

I've noticed it a lot with suppliers like that, they put the bare minimum PSU in the PC, and sometimes I wonder how the PC can run on.

 

[FortuneSmiles]

not overclocking. Wondering if it might have something to do with my Gigabyte mobo's Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced. I had removed it (or thought I had) and windows provided me with a problem to be solved by updating it to Gigabyte's most recent version - which I did. I am now getting the same black screen / 'turned off' keyboard ever time I go idle for awhile. Maybe I am supposed to bring it out of it's 'state' somehow but I have tried every key and many combinations of keys along with a taps on the power button and nothing 'wakes' it up. Maybe my attempts to launch Windows Media Center or the occasional switch user activates this energy saver mode. Just a thought.

 

[Techymike]

You do have both the 6 pin and 8 pin power connections in?

 

[sygnus21]

At this point I think we can safely rule out video drivers and look somewhere else for your problem.

Should have thought of this earlier but...Have you looked at your Event Viewer? Start, Control Panel -

- Click “Performance Information and Tools”
- Choose “Advanced Tools”
- Click “View Performance details in Event log”
- In the left pane, find “Diagnostics – Performance”
- Click the arrow next to it and click “Operational”
- This will list events/problems that could be cause for concern. It might show the problem area for your issue.

Here’s an example of mine (filtered) - Notice the red dots in the middle pane. In this case, it's telling me that XP Solitaire (XP Sol.exe) is taking to long to access the hard drive. (I have XP solitaire installed on my Vista drive). Maybe you can find your problem there.



Good luck

 

[FortuneSmiles]

Yes I have both power connections in.

Checking out the event viewer and found a lot of warnings, quite a few errors and several criticals. Following are some examples.

Critical from yesterday:
This process is doing excessive disk activities and is impacting the performance of Windows:
File Name : ntoskrnl.exe
Friendly Name :
Version :
Thread time : 5037ms
Blocked Time : 4981ms
Incident Time (UTC) : 2/8/2009 8:43:58 PM

Error that showed up at the same time:
Information about the system performance monitoring event:
Scenario : System Responsiveness
Analysis result : Analysis was successful and rootcauses were found
Incident Time (UTC) : 2/8/2009 8:43:58 PM

Earlier errors:
Background optimizations (prefetching) took longer to complete, resulting in a performance degradation in the system start up process:
Name : BackgroundPrefetchTime
Total Time : 34233ms
Degradation Time : 12145ms
Incident Time (UTC) : 2/7/2009 10:57:26 PM

Error:
This application caused a delay during standby:
File Name : Ati2evxx.exe
Friendly Name : ATI External Event Utility EXE Module
Version : 6.14.10.4207
Total Time : 2011ms
Degradation Time : 1011ms


Incident Time (UTC) : 2/7/2009 8:08:38 PM

Error:
Windows has started up:
Boot Duration : 51552ms
IsDegradation : false
Incident Time (UTC) : 2/6/2009 11:24:43 PM

Error:
Windows has started up:
Boot Duration : 53317ms
IsDegradation : true
Incident Time (UTC) : 2/6/2009 11:20:58 PM

Error:
Windows has started up:
Boot Duration : 62584ms
IsDegradation : false
Incident Time (UTC) : 2/6/2009 11:11:54 PM

Error:
Windows has started up:
Boot Duration : 81516ms
IsDegradation : false
Incident Time (UTC) : 2/6/2009 5:47:15 AM

Error:
Windows has resumed from standby:
Standby Duration : 3129ms
Standby Incident Time (UTC) : 1/31/2009 1:26:01 AM
Resume Duration : 12504ms
Resume Incident Time (UTC) : 1/31/2009 5:51:02 AM
IsDegradation : false

Error:
Background optimizations (prefetching) took longer to complete, resulting in a performance degradation in the system start up process:
Name : BackgroundPrefetchTime
Total Time : 30221ms
Degradation Time : 9571ms
Incident Time (UTC) : 1/18/2009 9:45:26 PM

Any of these tell you anything?

Also of note, often when I am forced to do a hard reboot and following the entry of the windows password I receive a repeated single note or static from my speakers and have to roboot again to get it to stop.

 

[sygnus21]

Checking out the event viewer and found a lot of warnings, quite a few errors and several criticals. Following are some examples.

Critical from yesterday:
This process is doing excessive disk activities and is impacting the performance of Windows:
File Name : ntoskrnl.exe
Friendly Name :
Version :
Thread time : 5037ms
Blocked Time : 4981ms
Incident Time (UTC) : 2/8/2009 8:43:58 PM

Any of these tell you anything?

Also of note, often when I am forced to do a hard reboot and following the entry of the windows password I receive a repeated single note or static from my speakers and have to roboot again to get it to stop.

First, I'd keep an eye on the ntoskrnl.exe. It could be indicative of a larger problem. Just keep checking the event viewer, and if it continues to show up, you may need to do a Vista repair or reinstall.

Now - You have not answered my question about swapping keyboards. Have you tried it??? Results???

I also notice you're water cooling your CPU - How far overclocked are you? Have you tried running the system without the OC? Results???

With regards to the sound card noises again, are you OC? Is everythig properly seated in their slots?

Standby issues - Have you tried disabling standby? Does this problem happen without the system going in standby mode? And again, does this issue happen with a different keyboard? Did removal of OC solve issue(s)?

Regarding the video card/driver issue (which I think is a non-factor) - have you tried any gaming? Results?

Other than these questions and the other questions/answers posted throughout this thread - if you still have the problem(s)...then you may need to do an OS reinstall.

My other suggestion would be to visit a forum for your motherboard to see if anyone there is having the same issue(s).

You have a number of issues here which indicates some bad hardware (MB?), corrupt OS, and/or an overclocking issue.

Let us know.

 

[FortuneSmiles]

I have done some additional testing and investigation. First - I visited the bios screen on restart and entered the Power Management Setup. I found that the HPET (High Precision Event Timer) mode was set to 32-bit when it should have been 64-bit. I corrected.
I then launched and then put the system into sleep mode in order to try to bring it out. My attempt to bring it out of sleep with a mouse click had my system behave very briefly like it would wake up and then the keyboard went dark and it went back to sleep ... or suspend ... or whatever it is. Seems like I have the problem every time it goes to sleep and that some actions that should not will put the system to sleep.

I have not yet swapped out the keyboard but will try that next.

I am not overclocking. I never really got to that yet. I wanted a stable system before doing that.

Have not yet attempted gaming but will try that as well and report back.

 

[FortuneSmiles]

OK.
- swapped keyboard - no change
- swapped video card - no change
- tried ATI video drivers from version 8.8 to current 9.1 - no change
- not overclocking
- hard drive has been wiped and formatted with Vista reinstalled on four separate occasions - no change.

What else could it be? Would a bad ram stick cause this issue? How about a bad motherboard? I am running out of things to try.

 

[smarteyeball]

Have you run memtest86+?

 

[sygnus21]

Have you run memtest86+?

What he means is have you tested your memory using memtest86+? You very well could have some bad memory sticks.

The other possiblity, though I think your wattage is plenty, is a bad or faulty power supply. And while you're at it check to cable connections.

 

[FortuneSmiles]

will run memtest86+ and check cables. How can I check the power supply?

 

[sygnus21]

How can I check the power supply?

Physically inspecting the unit for shorts, loose cables, or looking for signs like quick shutdowns or reboots; another way would be to use monitoring software but I'm not too familiar with them …but you could try Speed Fan? I use it for its temperature readings but it also monitors my PS; can’t speak on the accuracy though, but it looks pretty good from where I sit. ??? Look for abnormally low voltages???

Oh...and the temp reading program isn't bad either.