Crashing during games after HD 7970 Vapor-X Install

[TRWeiss1]

After some deliberation, I decided to post this topic here since I'm sure you guys see a fair share of "my machine is crashing" in the section. Allow me to preface this problem I'm having with a few points.

 

The build : ASUS P6X58D mobo, i7 920 Bloomfield CPU w/ Noctua U12-P HSF, 12 GBs of DDR3 G. skill Ripjaws, **new** Sapphire HD 7970 Vapor-X, **new** 512GB OCZ SSD, (Several other SATA drives which are irrelevant and just for storage), Windows 7 Pro (64-bit), 850W Antec PSU.

 

1) I have had my i7 920 Bloomfield OC'd to 4.0gHz for years now. I can run OCCT for hours, etc. The system has been ROCK solid with NO crashing whatsoever, so this issue should have absolutely nothing to do with the OC.

2) Very recently I upgraded to an OCZ 512MB SSD, and did a fresh reinstall of Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit. I'm 99% certain that I have all of the same exact drivers installed that I was using prior, which are all up to date including the X58 chipset drivers.

3) I was reading about some explorer.exe crashing issues with the latest HD 7970 drivers from AMD, so I installed the drivers that came with the card instead.

 

Now, onto the issue... It seems as if I've stepped back in time, because I'm experiencing an issue that I dealt with years ago. That issue was related to faulty voltage regulators on my 5870HD at the time. Now that I've got my beefy new 7970 Vapor-X Ghz edition, a new SSD, and a fresh OS, I decided to start playing some of my old Steam games again. So far the crash has occurred in Left for Dead 2 and Dirt 2. Basically, you're playing along for an undetermined amount of time and suddenly the video freezes and the audio begins looping. There is no BSOD, and you cannot retreat to Windows. You need to do a hard reset. Now, logic tells me that it must be related to my SSD or the new Vapor-X, and I'm leaning toward the video card since I saw extremely similar symptoms with my old 5870HD. Perhaps unrelated, Dirt 2 has been not exiting correctly, and simply hangs after I select "Quit." I need to then go to task manager and manually kill the process. This may be unrelated, but I'm just trying to provide all of the puzzle pieces.

 

Tonight I was thinking about completely wiping the original drivers I installed for my HD 7970, and giving the latest and greatest catalysts a shot. And although I don't think it could be related to my SSD, I don't know a ton about them. Could it be related to that? Lastly, please keep in mind that it should have NOTHING to do with the overclock I have on the system, since that has been stable since the dawn of time. Prior to installing this Vapor-X, I was running an HD 5970 (dual GPU card), and the system never crashed.... EVER. I suppose it's also worth noting that even though I have this new card capable of DEMOLISHING any current games, I'm receiving stuttering in Dirt 2 periodically as well... Perhaps this is driver related. Anyway, I need to get this problem resolved ASAP, since this new video card is AMAZING otherwise. I'm praying there's not something wrong with the card itself, and that it's just driver (or maybe even SSD?) related. One other thing to note... It's possible I may have just been spoiled with the AC HSF (Three 92mm fluid dynamic bearing fans) I had on my HD 5970, but the temps rarely went over 45 deg C. The thing was AMAZING. All of the clocks have been untouched on my new HD 7970, and I manually ramped the fan speed up during gaming. I suppose I could connect a 2nd monitor and watch the temps in realtime while gaming, but I'm wondering how hot this new HD 7970 is getting. I've seen 52 deg C upon exiting a game into Windows, although I'm well aware of just how quickly those temps drop. I'm a bit worried how hot the card is getting while gaming, although it *should* be fine since both fans are working and I've left the GPU and MEM clocks completely alone.

 

Thoughts? Any intelligent input is welcome and greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance, and let me know if there are any details I may have left out.

Edited October 25, 2012 by TRWeiss1

[wevsspot]

TR - if I were in your shoes I'd wipe the current AMD driver install and then upgrade to the latest. After using the Windows uninstall routine, I'd suggest that you also run DriverSweeper to do a final zap of any orphaned AMD files, folders, .dlls etc.

 

Frankly I don't think this is related to your SSD, but keep in mind that the chipset on your current board was designed for SATA II drives, and while all these things are supposed to be backwards compatible, there is a chance that your new SSD isn't playing nice with the x58 chipset (disregard this observation if you are running one of the older SATA II versions of the OCZ Octane SSD). Are you running the default windows AHCI driver or are your running the Intel RST driver?

[TRWeiss1]

TR - if I were in your shoes I'd wipe the current AMD driver install and then upgrade to the latest. After using the Windows uninstall routine, I'd suggest that you also run DriverSweeper to do a final zap of any orphaned AMD files, folders, .dlls etc.

 

Frankly I don't think this is related to your SSD, but keep in mind that the chipset on your current board was designed for SATA II drives, and while all these things are supposed to be backwards compatible, there is a chance that your new SSD isn't playing nice with the x58 chipset (disregard this observation if you are running one of the older SATA II versions of the OCZ Octane SSD). Are you running the default windows AHCI driver or are your running the Intel RST driver?

 

Thanks for the response! I will start by removing all AMD related drivers tonight, and install the latest and greatest. That's where I figured I should start, anyway. I just always get nervous about newly released drivers, ya know?

 

Regarding the chipset, as far as I'm aware I'm running the default Windows AHCI driver, as I've not intentionally installed anything else. If I should, please let me know. Thanks again!

[wevsspot]

Are you running one of the newer OCZ 512Gb SATA III drives? If so, the design, engineering and controllers have changed and it might be beneficial to give the Intel RST drivers a whirl. There isn't any harm in trying. I know back when consumer grade SSDs first hit the market there were a ton of reviews and benchmarks done comparing the Microsoft AHCI driver to the Intel driver. Back then (believe it or not) the Microsoft driver was actually the better choice. However... times are a changing

 

Again, let me stress there isn't any harm in trying out the Intel driver. You can always revert back to the Microsoft AHCI driver if you want.

 

 

 

[TRWeiss1]

I am running the Vertex4, as can be seen here.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227820

 

By the way, where can I find the drivers you're referring to?

Edited October 25, 2012 by TRWeiss1

[wevsspot]

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?ProductID=2101&DwnldID=21852&lang=eng&iid=dc_rss

[ccokeman]

You are pulling more current with the beefier card. ANother thing to try would be to clock your CPU down to say 3.0 reducing the bclock in doing so rather than just the multiplier. You can be stress test fine but not 3D Fine. Also a clean driver install would be great as AMD has had its fair share of bad drivers over the past year. What you are seeing is a lock due to a driver failure.

[sword_fish]

if everything fails still; try to re-seat your graphics card. make it sure that it sits firmly on it's slot.

although i have the GTX560 Ti, but i had that exactly the same issue with yours that pissed me off 4 days ago. been using quite older drivers prior to that with no issues at all.

then the lockup/freezing accompanied by that looping sound suddenly came; wiping out the old driver then updating it with two notches up to the latest doesn't fixed it still.

 

idk but i have strong thoughts that it shouldn't be that my card is about to die with it's quite short span of use(more than a year or so) and so did the other components to blame.

by simply re-seating my graphics card solved it after all.

wont hurt to try it.

[TRWeiss1]

Thank you for your input guys. So far, after uninstalling the original drivers, running a sweep, then installing the most current drivers, all seems to be well (so far). I do still get a once-in-a-blue-moon hiccup in Dirt 2 where the game will freeze for .25-.50 seconds, but then it doesn't happen again for quite some time. I doubt it's graphics related though, since the game is smooth as silk 99% of the time with sky high frame rates. I will keep everyone posted as to whether the crash happens again, and I'll more than likely upgrade to those RST drivers.

[wevsspot]

Glad that things are running smoother. Personally I prefer the Intel drivers over the Microsoft drivers (even back when the Microsoft AHCI drivers had slightly better performance on the older SSDs). You get some tweaking and monitoring options with the Intel drivers that aren't available if you're running the MS default AHCI drivers.

[TRWeiss1]

Glad that things are running smoother. Personally I prefer the Intel drivers over the Microsoft drivers (even back when the Microsoft AHCI drivers had slightly better performance on the older SSDs). You get some tweaking and monitoring options with the Intel drivers that aren't available if you're running the MS default AHCI drivers.

 

Yeah, I'd really like to check them out. The only reservation I have is the fact that I know my current chipset drivers... I'm familiar with them. I tend to be a bit apprehensive when introducing new things that I'm unfamiliar with (especially drivers), although I could always revert back if need be. This card is knocking down some killer frame rates though. I'm pushing 115+ FPS in some areas of Metro 2033 with everything maxed out. Rage also runs as if it's a totally different game, again with everything cranked.

[wevsspot]

Sweet & congrats. Hey, you won't get any argument from me about "experimenting" with drivers if it ain't broke.................. why mess with it?