Sudden loss of video while gaming on X1900XT

[Ike0069]

It's happened twice now with my new X1900XT. I'm playing BF2 and the screen locks up, then goes blank and I get "no signal" on my monitor.

The game is still going because I can still hear everything. So I alt+F4, then hit my case pwr button so it will shut down normally. Then I restart and everything is back to normal.

Anyone ever have this happen? I'm hoping it's just due to the OC on my card, so I have backed that down. But even with the OC speeds (in sig), the highest I've recorded is 74.5 using ATITT graphs, and that was after 2+ hours of gaming.

Maybe the RAM is getting too hot? Just curious if heat would even cause this.

 

[A554SS1N]

Is there any corruption when it locks up? Or does it just freeze?

 

[Ike0069]

No corruption or artifacts, just a frozen screen with whatever the last sound was looping. This lasts for about 8 seconds or so, then the screen goes blank and sound returns to normal.

 

[Woofmeister]

Back down all your overclocks to default (including CPU). Do you have the same problem?

I don't have an ATI card, but I often see complete freezes without any prior artifacting or corruption when my video card(s) overclock is too high.

 

[Ike0069]

Well, I haven't yet tried gaming againg with everythign at default, but will tonight.

I can understand it freezing or completely just locking up, but I've never had a card just completely lose video while everything else is seemingly working fine.

 

[anandtechrocks]

I get that problem too! It's heat build up in the vregs I think. Also, if you're using ATI Tool to overclock don't use the latest Cats. Actually don't use the past 7 Cats. I use the 6.2 Cats and don't have that problem anymore.

 

[Rage187]

could also be your PSU not giving the card enough juice.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Rage187
could also be your PSU not giving the card enough juice.

I did think of that, but I dont see that as very likely because this PSU is brand new and definitely has plenty of power available.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: anandtechrocks
I get that problem too! It's heat build up in the vregs I think. Also, if you're using ATI Tool to overclock don't use the latest Cats. Actually don't use the past 7 Cats. I use the 6.2 Cats and don't have that problem anymore.

Ahhh, so my card is not he only one.

Ok, thanks for this info! I'm currently using cat 6.8 with the latest ATITT (.940) to OC (I don't have CCC even load up). So rolling back to an earlier Cat version completely stopped this issuse, or is this combined with lowering your OC? Also, what do you have your VRAM set at?

 

[anandtechrocks]

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: anandtechrocks
I get that problem too! It's heat build up in the vregs I think. Also, if you're using ATI Tool to overclock don't use the latest Cats. Actually don't use the past 7 Cats. I use the 6.2 Cats and don't have that problem anymore.

Ahhh, so my card is not he only one.

Ok, thanks for this info! I'm currently using cat 6.8 with the latest ATITT (.940) to OC (I don't have CCC even load up). So rolling back to an earlier Cat version completely stopped this issuse, or is this combined with lowering your OC? Also, what do you have your VRAM set at?

I've got my vram at 2.134v (I think). But that makes very little difference for my card. Higher vcore causes more of the issues you described.

As far as lowering your OC, you might need to, but going to the 6.2 Cats fixed all of my problems. For example, with the 6.8s if I overclocked my card even 1MHz with ATI Tool I would get crazy artifacting in BF2. If I overclocked a lot the black screen would pop up after 1-5 minutes of gaming. That's with FEAR and BF2. Right now I run everyday at 650/700 just fine with no issues (but I have to use older Cats... and I use the older ATI Tool)

 

[BrokenVisage]

I get that too! To fix it I RDP into it from the computer next to me. It "kicks" the video back on for me and I just have to log in again, so I guess you need XP and a username to login as. But still.. it's starting to do this more often now and I'm getting a little anxious to fix it as well.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage
I get that too! To fix it I RDP into it from the computer next to me. It "kicks" the video back on for me and I just have to log in again, so I guess you need XP and a username to login as. But still.. it's starting to do this more often now and I'm getting a little anxious to fix it as well.

What catalyst drivers are you using, and what clock speeds voltages and what are you using to OC?

Mine did this with cats 6.8, and OC'ing w/ATI tray tool .940 to 648/801 (stock volts).

 

[Ike0069]

Damn, this happened again last night with downclocked RAM. I left the core at 648, but the temp has still never exceeded 74.5C as logged by ATITT. So I don't see why the core clock would do this.

Maybe it is a driver issue with ATITT and cat 6.8. I guess I'll try some older cat versions and see if that helps. I know anandtechrocks is using 6.2, but any other suggestions on an older cat version that is very good? And where can I find older cat versions for D/L?

 

[santz]

it happens with mine too at 6.5 cats!

damn annoying! specially when i am playing on a server whose name i dont know so i cannot go back to it!

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: santz
it happens with mine too at 6.5 cats!

damn annoying! specially when i am playing on a server whose name i dont know so i cannot go back to it!

Are you OC'ing? If so, what are you using to OC with?

 

[Pabster]

Sounds like a failed O/C to me. That shouldn't be happening at stock speeds. If so, RMA it.

 

[josh6079]

Could be your system RAM. I know, normally you would get the B.S.D. but sometimes they can just lock your system. Do you have them timed correctly or at stock?

Also, don't concern yourself with overclocking for the moment. In fact, you may just want to install the CCC again and enable the ATI services just to have everything working from stock for troubleshooting. Then, if you don't have the problem I can guarantee it was an unstable overclock somewhere.

EDIT: I just noticed you have an XT. I've noticed going from an XTX to an XT that the ram overclocks are not as good as when I had my XTX. I've tried everything, every overclocking utility and every voltage for every frequency...I still have troulbe hitting 800. Some over at XS have had difficulty with this as well, so I would just definately make sure you're GDDR memory is at stock for the meantime until you can actually pin-point it as the problem.

 

[Ike0069]

I agree it shouldn't be happening, but I'm not convinced it's not just a driver issue with ATI TT.

Since ATI TT is not released by ATI, this would not a reason to RMA the card.......But, ATI TT is one of the reasons I went with ATI over nVidia this time, as I really do not like ATI's CCC.

I'm starting to think I should have just stayed with nVidia. All these people saying that ATI drivers are as good as nVidia's are smokin' crack. ATI TT is the only thing I find good about them, and it's not even produced by ATI.

 

[josh6079]

Since ATI TT is not released by ATI, this would not a reason to RMA the card.......But, ATI TT is one of the reasons I went with ATI over nVidia this time, as I really do not like ATI's CCC.

That wouldn't mess up an RMA.

I'm starting to think I should have just stayed with nVidia. All these people saying that ATI drivers are as good as nVidia's are smokin' crack. ATI TT is the only thing I find good about them, and it's not even produced by ATI.

The recent drivers from ATI haven't been anything great. All they really do is add official stamps to things like automatic AFR .exe renamed profiles and incorporated Chuck-fixes. The quality of the driver itself is something that I've only really been pleased with in the Cat. 6.6's.

I do sort of miss Nvidia's drivers and quirks too, but ATI can be just as easy if you hold more than an out-of-the-box knowledge with them.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
I'm starting to think I should have just stayed with nVidia. All these people saying that ATI drivers are as good as nVidia's are smokin' crack. ATI TT is the only thing I find good about them, and it's not even produced by ATI.

nVidia has always had a reputation for great drivers. ATI, not so great. That said, I've never had a whole lot of issues with either one. ATI Tray Tools is great (not perfect, but great) and sure beats the hell out of that bloated .NET-coded CCC garbage.

I've had the freeze and black screen before and it was always from pushing the overclock just a little too far. (Irrespective of the CAT driver set installed.)

 

[Matt2]

I get this problem too!

WTF, I thought my comp was garbage.

This has happened to me ever since going from CAT 6.6 to CAT 6.9.

I'm using ATT to overclock to 690/800 using stock volts, but happens as well with default clocks. My card has been punished with 690/800 OC for about 5 months and I NEVER had this problem before. The OC is 100% stable and the temps get to a MAX of 75*C.

And just to clear things up, the computer does not freeze!!!

I just lose video, but everything else goes along fine. Like last night when I bought and fired up Company of Heroes, I lost video during a cutscene between the 3-4 missions.

The monitor went blank and went into powersave mode, but I sat there and listened to the entire cutscene. When I heard the actual mission start, I blindly moved the mouse cursor to the upper right hand corner where I thought the menu button was and clicked the mouse, and the game went to the menu.

Very odd and annoying problem.

 

[Avalon]

I get the same problem. There was actually a large thread on this a while back. At the time, I was using the 6.6 Warcats and ATI Tool to overclock my X1900AIW. While playing Oblivion, my monitor would lose its signal after about 10 minutes or so.

Backing my OC back down to stock cured the problem. I had thought it was decided it was the way ATI Tool overclocked X1900 cards that was causing the problem. Going to a lower CAT driver (6.2 like anandtechrocks suggested) seems to work. I've recently upgraded to the 6.9 ATI Cat driver and got a new version of ATT that fully supports overclocking, fan speed changing, and voltages for the X1900 series, so I may give that a try and see if the monitor lost signal thing still applies when overclocking.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Avalon
I get the same problem. There was actually a large thread on this a while back. At the time, I was using the 6.6 Warcats and ATI Tool to overclock my X1900AIW. While playing Oblivion, my monitor would lose its signal after about 10 minutes or so.

Backing my OC back down to stock cured the problem. I had thought it was decided it was the way ATI Tool overclocked X1900 cards that was causing the problem. Going to a lower CAT driver (6.2 like anandtechrocks suggested) seems to work. I've recently upgraded to the 6.9 ATI Cat driver and got a new version of ATT that fully supports overclocking, fan speed changing, and voltages for the X1900 series, so I may give that a try and see if the monitor lost signal thing still applies when overclocking.

Well, I'm currently using the latest ATI TT (.940) with cats 6.9 and I get the problem. I'm now going to try rolling back to 6.2 and see if that fixes it.

I could probably unistall ATI TT, leave everything at stock and the issue would go away, but why would I want to do that? I know many people are running nicely OC'd 1900XT's, so it's not like it can't be done.

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: Avalon
I get the same problem. There was actually a large thread on this a while back. At the time, I was using the 6.6 Warcats and ATI Tool to overclock my X1900AIW. While playing Oblivion, my monitor would lose its signal after about 10 minutes or so.

Backing my OC back down to stock cured the problem. I had thought it was decided it was the way ATI Tool overclocked X1900 cards that was causing the problem. Going to a lower CAT driver (6.2 like anandtechrocks suggested) seems to work. I've recently upgraded to the 6.9 ATI Cat driver and got a new version of ATT that fully supports overclocking, fan speed changing, and voltages for the X1900 series, so I may give that a try and see if the monitor lost signal thing still applies when overclocking.

Well, I'm currently using the latest ATI TT (.940) with cats 6.9 and I get the problem. I'm now going to try rolling back to 6.2 and see if that fixes it.

I could probably unistall ATI TT, leave everything at stock and the issue would go away, but why would I want to do that? I know many people are running nicely OC'd 1900XT's, so it's not like it can't be done.

Ahh, thanks for letting me know. I was about ready to go and try some OC'ing, but you saved me a good bit of time. Very curious. I do remember in a previous thread that someone said disabling the service "ATI Hot Key Poller" and "ATI Smart" helped. It didn't work for me. Let me know how the 6.2's go. I will definitely give it a try.

 

[Nirach]

When my card does that (X800, don'tget too excited =P) it's a VPU recover. Whatever the hell causes it, I don't know. Happens mostly during Fable: TLC, I don't recall it happening anywhere else..