Video Driver Crashes

[voyagerfan99]

I have an XFX 6870 in my rig (specs in sig). I keep having issues where the video driver crashes and recovers.

I've already used Driver Sweeper and removed the old drivers and upgraded to the new May drivers; same problem. It happens randomly, either when I'm gaming or even when I'm just surfing the web and I open a new tab in Firefox.

 

[johnb35]

If the card was working fine and then the crashes started, then its possible the card has an issue. I know some ati drivers are very buggy. On my old 3870, I couldn't update past october 2009 or it would blue screen on me or freeze my system.

You may want to try an older set of drivers and see what happens. Are you getting any blue screens?

 

[Iceyn1pples]

The driver crashing can also be caused by HDD or RAM issues as well. Run diagnotics to rule them out first.

If all diagnostics find no faults. Then I would reccomend a fresh copy of Windows.

 

[voyagerfan99]

If the card was working fine and then the crashes started, then its possible the card has an issue. I know some ati drivers are very buggy. On my old 3870, I couldn't update past October 2009 or it would blue screen on me or freeze my system.

You may want to try an older set of drivers and see what happens. Are you getting any blue screens?

Haven't gotten any bluescreens. Not sure how far back to go but I'll give some things a try. My 4870 was artifacting and crashing as well, which is the main reason for upgrading to the 6870.

The driver crashing can also be caused by HDD or RAM issues as well. Run diagnostics to rule them out first.

If all diagnostics find no faults. Then I would recommend a fresh copy of Windows.

I've tested my RAM already using both the Windows diag and Memtest86. I doubt anything is wrong with my hard drive but I'll test it anyway. And I just need to wait a few more days for the semester to end and get my computer home, then I can strip it down for cleaning and reload it. I'm hoping that'll work.

 

[Iceyn1pples]

In rare instances, it can be the monitor cable.

Im thinking even a chkdsk on startup can assit in overcoming the driver issues.

 

[voyagerfan99]

Tested video RAM, system RAM, and hard drive.

John, do you have a suggestion for a stable driver package?

 

[johnb35]

The issue I had was only on XP, not windows 7 so I really can't suggest a older package. The 3870 worked fine with the latest drivers when I booted to windows 7. I'm actually considering moving to nvidia now.