Issues after monitor gone to sleep - Sapphire HD 7850

[dazelord]

Hi folks,

Got a Sapphire HD7850 (non OC version) a couple of weeks ago. Initially I had some problems outputting signal via a DVI/VGA converter but that was taken care of by using a HDMI cable instead.

I have one remaining problem though...Often, when the monitor has gone to sleep and I'm trying to wake it up, nothing happens and a hard reset is required. If the monitor decides to wake up I sometimes get the "Display Driver has stopped working..." error message.

Since I'm not an avid gamer, I haven't done any OC yet. I'm aware of the OC potential and might try it later.

I suspect this has something to do with the Zerocore power technology AMD has implemented recently. I've closely monitored the power consumption of the computer using a watt-meter of some sorts, and it is indeed dropping 9W (from 49 to 40). So everytime I'm having these problems, the zerocore tech has kicked in. I've killed off any hibernation/sleep except for the monitor and I'd like to keep it that way.

System specs
Sapphire HD7850 @ 860, 1200
SB 2500K @ 4100
Asrock Z68 pro3-m motherboard
FSP Aurum 400W PSU (I know this is below the suggested PSU req, but this is a rather high quality PSU capable of overloading, http://www.pc-experience.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=31516)

The computer is 15min Furmark stable and I haven't had a single problem in the few games I'm playing. The highest power reading I've had is 170ish (not been pushing CPU and GPU at the same time though)

Any thoughts? Drivers in combination with zerocore?

 

[Jaydip]

Hi folks,

Got a Sapphire HD7850 (non OC version) a couple of weeks ago. Initially I had some problems outputting signal via a DVI/VGA converter but that was taken care of by using a HDMI cable instead.

I have one remaining problem though...Often, when the monitor has gone to sleep and I'm trying to wake it up, nothing happens and a hard reset is required. If the monitor decides to wake up I sometimes get the "Display Driver has stopped working..." error message.

Since I'm not an avid gamer, I haven't done any OC yet. I'm aware of the OC potential and might try it later.

I suspect this has something to do with the Zerocore power technology AMD has implemented recently. I've closely monitored the power consumption of the computer using a watt-meter of some sorts, and it is indeed dropping 9W (from 49 to 40). So everytime I'm having these problems, the zerocore tech has kicked in. I've killed off any hibernation/sleep except for the monitor and I'd like to keep it that way.

System specs
Sapphire HD7850 @ 860, 1200
SB 2500K @ 4100
Asrock Z68 pro3-m motherboard
FSP Aurum 400W PSU (I know this is below the suggested PSU req, but this is a rather high quality PSU capable of overloading, http://www.pc-experience.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=31516)

The computer is 15min Furmark stable and I haven't had a single problem in the few games I'm playing. The highest power reading I've had is 170ish (not been pushing CPU and GPU at the same time though)

Any thoughts? Drivers in combination with zerocore?

Not entirely sure about "Zerocore power technology" but I guess it drops the gpu and mem clocks while idle.Op make sure ur power options are selected as "High Performance"

 

[dazelord]

Not entirely sure about "Zerocore power technology" but I guess it drops the gpu and mem clocks while idle.Op make sure ur power options are selected as "High Performance"

Thanks, I was using a modified "Balanced", now set to High. I might add I'm on Windows7 64bit with Catalyst 12.4.

 

[Jaydip]

Thanks, I was using a modified "Balanced", now set to High. I might add I'm on Windows7 64bit with Catalyst 12.4.

Ok,let us know if that helps.

 

[Zxian]

I've been having similar issues with my Gigabyte 7870 OC. My guess is that the Windows doesn't get a timely reply from the graphics card or the drivers as the card is waking up, resulting in a TDR from Windows. Alternatively, something goes wrong in waking up the card and you get the hard lock.

High Performance profile shouldn't make a difference, since ZeroCore is only activated if the monitors are put to sleep (i.e. there's nothing to display). This is different than the usual PowerPlay enabled low 2D clocks you get when you're at idle on the desktop.

I did read a thread somewhere else regarding someone who was having similar issues with his Gigabyte 7850 (non OC). He contacted Gigabyte support and got a beta BIOS ROM for his card, and he claims that the issue has been resolved. You could try the same with Sapphire, but YMMV.

 

[Hubb1e]

I had the same problems with my 7950. Luckily it was a only a few days after my new install of the OS and so I just reinstalled the OS and this time I waited to install the graphics driver until all the windows updates had installed. The problem is now gone but I'm not sure that is an option for you.

 

[dazelord]

I've been having similar issues with my Gigabyte 7870 OC. My guess is that the Windows doesn't get a timely reply from the graphics card or the drivers as the card is waking up, resulting in a TDR from Windows. Alternatively, something goes wrong in waking up the card and you get the hard lock.

High Performance profile shouldn't make a difference, since ZeroCore is only activated if the monitors are put to sleep (i.e. there's nothing to display). This is different than the usual PowerPlay enabled low 2D clocks you get when you're at idle on the desktop.

I did read a thread somewhere else regarding someone who was having similar issues with his Gigabyte 7850 (non OC). He contacted Gigabyte support and got a beta BIOS ROM for his card, and he claims that the issue has been resolved. You could try the same with Sapphire, but YMMV.

Interesting, thanks. Perhaps I'll contact Sapphire support just to hear their response.

 

[dazelord]

I had the same problems with my 7950. Luckily it was a only a few days after my new install of the OS and so I just reinstalled the OS and this time I waited to install the graphics driver until all the windows updates had installed. The problem is now gone but I'm not sure that is an option for you.

I went from a HD5750 to the 7850, just switching the cards. It may be an option for me if I can't get it to work. Thanks.

 

[Stochastic]

I also have a Sapphire 7850 and have exactly the same problem. The Windows power profile is set to "high."

BTW, I built a new rig so this is on a fresh install of Windows. This only happens to me when the display has been asleep for an extended period so I'm almost positive it involves Zerocore.

 

[Stochastic]

Looks like this isn't an isolated case: http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1...driver-stopped-responding-and-has-recovered”/

 

[spinejam]

My 7970 does the same thing. Awaiting a solution...

 

[Stochastic]

My 7970 does the same thing. Awaiting a solution...

The more Googling I do the more threads I find detailing the issue: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1671423

I'm surprised AMD hasn't done anything about this.

 

[dazelord]

The more Googling I do the more threads I find detailing the issue: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1671423

I'm surprised AMD hasn't done anything about this.

Been searching myself as well and it seems to be a common problem.

I actually got problems today with my computer at work. When I got back from lunch the screen wouldn't lit up immediately. After a while I got the picture back, and also the dreaded "AMD driver stopped working...." Go figure...:|

 

[dazelord]

Emailed AMD support... waiting for their answer

 

[Jaydip]

Don't count on it.Next they will want a detailed dxdiag report unless u have already sent it

 

[dazelord]

Well surely they must be aware of the problem...

It also appears every time the monitor gone to sleep the PCI-e bus drops to 1x speed. This is really annoying!

 

[dazelord]

Found a solution to my problems. Apparently, AMD has released a hotfix driver for the 7800 series
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/hotfix/radeon_7800_series/amd_radeon_hd_7800_8.95.5_win7-64.exe

This release appears to be fixing the waking up problems as well as the problem with pci-e running only at 1x. For some reason the problem has reappeared in 12.4, which was released after the hotfix.

 

[Zxian]

Thanks for the update. I'll have to check this out when I get home tonight.

 

[dazelord]

Thanks for the update. I'll have to check this out when I get home tonight.

Be sure to clean your system of any previous drivers first.

 

[Zxian]

Installed these drivers last night. Computer was able to put the monitors to sleep and wak up without any driver crashes or freezes.

Yay bleeding-edge technology!

 

[rockstar]

I am having this same issue with my XFX 7970. Yesterday I tried a fresh install of Windows but the problem still happens. Thanks for the link to the driver. I may give it a shot tonight. I can't find any AMD acknowledgement of this issue but there are many forum threads about it. This is all I can find about that driver.

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/HD78007Support.aspx

Disappointing!

 

[AlucardX]

i have had the issue once so far on my 7850. I increased my 2D vcore to .900 and it has not yet reoccurred.

 

[AlucardX]

nevermind. 2 issues today while at idle.

 

[SickBeast]

I have had this issue as well and I seem to have solved it by lowering my memory overclock a bit.

 

[AlucardX]

Found a solution to my problems. Apparently, AMD has released a hotfix driver for the 7800 series
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/hotfix/radeon_7800_series/amd_radeon_hd_7800_8.95.5_win7-64.exe

This release appears to be fixing the waking up problems as well as the problem with pci-e running only at 1x. For some reason the problem has reappeared in 12.4, which was released after the hotfix.

tried these drivers and now powertune won't go above 0%. Set it to anything else, hit apply, and it jumps back to zero.