I keep getting these ATI drivers stopped responding messages

[Rapsven]

When I play games (Mass Effect 2, L4D2, etc) sometimes it'll just freeze in the middle of the game. I then have to ctrl alt del. Takes 5 or so seconds to unfreeze and it goes to task manager, then I go back in the game and everything's fine.

Sometimes, though, the entire system will just be completely unresponsive. The monitor suddenly doesn't get a signal and no keyboard input will bring me back to desktop. I'm pretty sure it's the graphics card.

Also I've had problems where I'm playing a game and all of a sudden, the GPU fan goes on overload. Like, the fan literally sounds like a miniature vacuum it's so loud.

My computer specs are:

Intel core i5 2.66 ghz quad core
XFX Ati Radeon HD 5850
8 gigabytes Geil DDR3 RAM
Standard Intel socket 1366 motherboard
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

Anybody have any clue what the problem might be? I've already RMA'ed back the GPU, motherboard, and CPU and reinstalled the new parts they shipped back but I still get the same errors.

 

[mpilchfamily]

What PSU do you have?

 

[Rapsven]

Fortron Everest 600W power supply.

 

[Rapsven]

Anybody? I'm desperate for an answer.

 

[Devilpapaya]

Does you computer regularly go into Hibernate? I had the exact same problem, turned out that my video drivers didn't play well will hibernate mode, would fail repeatedly (until no recover) after coming back from hibernate.

 

[Rapsven]

No it doesn't hibernate at all. I don't even have my monitor go into power saving mode.

 

[Devilpapaya]

I assume drivers for everything are up-to-date?

Also, what temps are your CPU/GPU temps looking like?

 

[nsafreak]

Your problem sounds all too similar to a problem that a friend of mine had with his 5870, he ended up having to RMA the card. I'm having a similar problem with my 4870 and I've just started the RMA process with Asus. Are you able to see the diagnostic LEDs on the back of the card? Are any of them lit when the card causes a complete system freeze as you've described?

 

[Rapsven]

Well, all signs point to the GPU so I've opened up a support ticket with XFX. Hopefully they can advise me on the issue.

 

[sonnygdude]

I had similar issues about a year ago, with the "atidkmag stopped responding" messages or some such like that. I researched around a little, and the consensus seemed to be that the GPU was bad. There were a couple of threads that suggested that memory issues could be the cause, though. I upped the memory voltage by .04V and lo and behold, the problem went away. 8GB (4 x 2GB) of DDR2 on an ASUS P5Q Deluxe, I guess it needed just a little more juice to play nice with the system (even though it did fine in memtest)