Maximum PC

Allright. I was gaming, then i got all this distortion on the screen ( it was scary... ). Turns black, and i get a BSOD. Now when windows is trying to start up, there is a grid pattern/lines all over the screen. It will loop the Windows startup if i choose "Start Windows normally". It just keep going back to initializing; checking drives, etc. I can only run in safe mode...


What the HELL just happened?

It sounds as though your videocard may have gone bad or the drivers for the videocard got borked somehow. What Windows OS and videocard do you have? Please provide as many relevant specifications as you can concerning your particular system. Thanks!

I'm not sure whether it's drivers. Or the card itself. It would be a shame, though. Seeing as i've bought a new cooler, and been running it for almost a week now. It performs very well. And cost me nearly $50... .

I've got Catalyst Install Manager open as i type...I feel like just going right ahead and uninstalling the card. But on the other hand, i'm skeptical of the problem being the actual card.

It DID say "ATI driver has stopped working properly"...

I did always have issues with the drivers. Now that i look back. I remember starting a thread (you can find it if you look on my profile, i have MANY posts there) about artifacting. It took me the longest time to figure out it was actually the drivers. I kept uninstalling and reinstalling drivers. I had been given that as a solution to the problem. People thought i was messing with them or something after i said i had done it about 10+ times... . Turns out it was the drivers themselves that were the cause of the artifacts. The solution: Don't install ANY drivers. Just the ones from the factory CD that came with the card. Artifacts never appeared again.

Why i can't install drivers other than the ones the card came with, is my guess...


But, all in all... How do i determine what the problem is here? Drivers (especially taking into account what i said above ^^), or card?


Oh, almost forgot, system information.

Vista 64 Home Premium
Phenom X3 8550
Radeon HD 4850 512MB
4 GB DDR2 @ 400MHz

UPDATE: Windows installer doesn't run in Safe Mode...So.... What the HELL can i do? This SUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!

Sure looks like you mounted the new video card cooler wrong to me. Artifacts are usually due to a heat related issue. Take it off, very carefully clean up the bottom of the heatsink and the gpu. Put on a small amount of Artic Silver 5 according to their instructions and the card should work....unless you burned up the gpu in the process of going to an aftermarked cooler.

Nasty

Open up the add remove programs, and select ATI CCC, and anything with ATI. That should gid rid of the drivers. Then what remove the device from Device Manager, and reboot. When you reboot Windows will load a generic driver, and that should get you to the desktop, where you till be prompted that it found new hardware. Hit Cancel or No to the do you want to install the drivers, just use the generic ones, get DriverSweeper, install and run that, select ATI and remove any and all ATI drivers. Then do a search in Windows Explorer, for ATI, and remove any of the folders if DriverSweeper didn't purge them. Once again reboot. Then download and install the latest ATI Catalyst Drivers found here. That should take care of any driver issues that you were having.

Boot up in "Safe Mode with Networking"

Download latest drivers from AMD

Find & remove driver installation files from current driver set.

Uninstall video card drivers

Shut down.

Pull card & recheck the new HSF as per Nasty's advice. Be sure to follow the included instructions for tightening the screws for the HSF. Only 1 turn per screw till all 4 are tight. I also suggest tightening in a crossed pattern i.e. if you number the screws 1 through 4 starting top left & going clockwise, then you would tighten in the following order - 1, 3, 2, 4

Reinstall Card

Restart computer normally

Stop Windows from automatically installing drivers

Run the Catalyst .exe

Wha...Nonono...I mounted the cooler correctly. I'm talking about drivers, and how i get artifacts if i install up to date drivers
Also. The problem has been solved with a system restore... I started a thread the other day in regards to videos not displaying while the audio plays. I installed a codec pack... System restore is before the installation of the codec packs. Could they possibly be the cause of the problem?

Still leaves me with videos not playing properly...

Use VLC to play videos, what a great free program this is!

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html


Nasty

Which is why it's possible that the HSF is not seated correctly. Newer drivers often have performance enhancements built into them, & sometimes these performance enhancements will make the card run a little hotter. All it takes is one corner of the HSF to be out of full contact by the width of a strand of hair for it to be ineffective. I know this because I had pretty much the exact same problem with my 4850 shortly after I installed the VF1000 cooler on it. Pulled the card, reset the cooler, no more problems after that.

I know... there's no possible way that you didn't get it right the first time. I'm sure it was gremlins who came in & loosened one of the mounting screws on my card that caused my game to suddenly checkerboard and whole computer to freeze up, followed by multi-colored vertical lines when I rebooted. Perhaps those gremlins visited you... or maybe it was the codec pack, or maybe it's just the card going bad, or maybe it's your card slot on the motherboard going bad - I had that with a couple of different ASUS motherboards back in the AGP days.

But Artifacts ususally (but not always) mean one of three things:
1> To much overclock
2> To much heat
3> Card dying

Allright. Was gaming last night and... Well, codecs are uninstalled, and it happened again. This time, artifacts were present on certain assets in the game, then it eventually BSOD'D on me. Ugh... guess it's time to reinstall the cooler... If it's my card dying. Well. That sucks...

I had this same problem awhile back. I was playing sc2 and all of a sudden red lines appeared and my system crashed. I had an 8800gt at the time, i found out that sc2 was cooking the cards.

bought a new video card and it cleared the problem. See if its still under warranty or just buy a new card.

Allright. I'm back. Running the integrated card. No problems...

My theory (assuming card is broken): I had been running the card with a broken cooler for several months. I got the new cooler, and a lot of contraction occured...Causing a solder crack? That would be my guess...

I should have gotten the cooler much sooner. Although it was running very well ever since i got it!

Also, it's impossible to mount this cooler improperly. It gets screwed into place. There's no other position for it to sit in.

But how can i rule out whether or not it IS my 4850 for sure.

And if it is...That sucks.

Not impossible, if you put just one of the springs in backwards it doesn't work right, if you don't tighten all the screws equally it doesn't work right, which is why I suggested reinstalling the HSF.

Like I mentioned before artifacts = to much heat, &/or to much overclock, &/or bad GPU... Run GPUz & track your GPU temps while gaming, I suggest writing to log file so you can see temps at or around time of BSOD. If your temps aren't spiking really high, GPU is probably going bad.

is it possible that since having these artifacts (assuming due to a heat problem), that the gpu went bad (fried?)? Would he be able to salvage it?

i know my 8800 board was shot after the sc2 problem, there wasnt any saving it...

I took the 4850 out... I might put it back in if i have the patience.... UGH...

I don't even know what to do when Windows boots up, and won't let me sign in. I can only use the computer when it's in Safe Mode.

Also, is there any other way i can rule out if the GPU is actually bad? Other than waiting for another BSOD...? I'm at wit's end with this. Setting a restore point sucks ASS! Sometimes i don't even know what to do when it BSODS, and then have to use Safe Mode.

It's out of my system, for now. I wish heat was the culprit.Oh, by the way, before uninstalling, i ran it ONE more time, with the pin in the 12V connector, as opposed to the 5V connector; which i was running from the beginning... It sounds like a turbo-fan engine...Ugh...

Well. If i reinstall the cooler, and install the card again, and experience a BSOD again...Is it safe to say it's not a heat issue, but the card itself?

UPDATE: Forgot to mention. I had been running the stock cooler for MONTHS, before replacing it (it was broken for those several months)... Is it possible that the solder had been expanding so much, then after installing the aftermarket cooler, had contracted. Once used to lower temps, cracked the solder?

Do you have the original Windows Vista installation CD? If so, does it have Service Pack 2 included in it? If so, run a repair installation of the OS and see if that lets you log in to Windows in Normal Mode.

There's no absolute guarantee, but very likely.



Unlikely for the solder to crack without an instant & extreme change in temps. Between 70F & 200F expansion & contraction is minimal in most solders.

At this point, I would format the drive and reinstall the OS with all service packs and updates. Then install the chipset drivers, video drivers and sound drivers in that order, then the rest of the drivers. Do this with the on-board video shut off in the bios and the suspect video card installed. This should eliminate all blue screens, unless that video card is shot. The Repair install may work as another poster suggested, but a clean install would give you a new playing field to work from. Don't forget to back up all important data before doing this. To get the windows key use the magic jellybean key finder and print it out.

http://majorgeeks.com/Magical_Jelly_Bea ... d2612.html

Nasty

Yeah, problem is, this is a store-bought pre-configured sh***er... Vista is pre-installed.

Also, drivers, for my board? Not likely. Drivers for this system in general is a complete disaster, and waste of time, seeing as they won't even install, not to mention half of them are non-existent anyway. It's some sort of generic "Pegatron" board.

I'll be reinstalling the cooler in the coming days... I'll and run the card, game for a bit, and see what happens.

Better to check the motherboard and OS