CSOD (Colorful Screen of Death) with HD6870 + Cat11.5 + Firefox 4.0.1

[RejZoR]

Ok, i have this strange problem. Just bought brand new Sapphire HD6870 Toxic and as far as the card goes it's great, a bit noisy but great. The thing is that i'm getting these CSOD's whenever i stop playing a game (mostly NFS Hot Pursuit or Killing Floor) and fire up Firefox 4.0.1. At this point in 95% of cases i get CSOD. CSOD is a screen entirely panted in an average color of the page that was opened at that time (but not necessarely the first one, sometimes i start browisng for few seconds and bam, CSOD. If the page was white, entire screen will be in white. If the page had plenty of blue content, the screen paints in sort of shade of blue. And so on and on for other colors.
When this happens all i can do is reset the system as i can't see any windows, Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't do anything. It seems that i have pinpointed the reason. It's Firefox 4 Hardware acceleration. I have disabled it in Firefox settings and so far no CSOD's. So it must be related to this somehow.

Sapphire HD6870 Toxic
Catalyst 11.5 WHQL (MLAA and 16x AF enabled at all times, everything else to default)
Windows Vista 64bit
Mozilla Firefox 4.0.1

Anyone else experiencing the same thing with their Radeon or is this limited to just my system or HD6870 Toxic from Sapphire? Could be just a driver bug or a bug in Firefox or a bug with my gfx card power management where it should kick in 3D mode and deliver more power, but because it doesn't, it just craps out. Donno, just my thoughts.

 

[PHaS3]

Have you tried the 11.5a Hotfix? I can't say I have had this issue with my 5850, but i went straight 11.5 to 11.5a without using 11.5 alone at all...

hotfix link: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst115ahotfix.aspx

 

[RejZoR]

I have disabled Hardware acceleration in Firefox instead. Seems to work fine now. Will wait for Catalyst 11.6 WHQL instead and see then. I'll try to contact Catalyst Crew if they can look into it.

EDIT:
I have reported the issue here: http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D27E29B0E3

I hope that is the right place to report such issues.

 

[RejZoR]

What the hell. I have re-installed my entire system because i thought my install was giving up and now on fresh system same shit again. Apparently i have no freakin luck as this card is most probably defective to begin with. I have changed PCIe slots, changed BIOS settings, left case fans to max all the time and still, out of the blue i get this shitty colored screen, system locks up and i can only reset it. I can't even look up for this issue in Google since i don't even know how ppl call this stupid screen.

EDIT: As it turns out it's called "grey screen of dead" and some call it "coloured stripes" screen. There is a mile long thread on AMD forums about it:
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=124747

It's from 2010 for HD5000 series and apparently no one fixed this crap. Got brand new Sapphire HD6870 Toxic, especially pre-overclocked so i won't have to mess around with it, meaning it has never been overclocked at all. And i'm getting this bullshit. Aaaargh. Then i'll again be without damn graphic card for ages if i'll have to RMA it.

 

[Mathragh]

I get that when my memory is clocked too high for my voltage.

Perhaps you have defective power circuitry or defective GDDR on your card.

However, as its only doing it when quitting 3d apps, or using 3d accellerated things, it could also be a problem in the bios of the card. It could contain buggy voltage switching profiles.

I guess you could try turning powerplay off, and/or keep it running on max clocks for everything, and check whether it still does this CSOD when your card is running max clocks at all times.

 

[qwerty_lesh]

Hi RejZoR, is your mobo bios at least 0602?

do you still have that OC applied, have you locked down your pci-e voltage and clocks?

this might sound a bit bias but i think if your after driver stability you'll find that the six series cards would run more reliably on win7, its problaby not a vist specific issue your having but just sayin'

 

[Over_Lord]

Have you tried the 11.5a Hotfix? I can't say I have had this issue with my 5850, but i went straight 11.5 to 11.5a without using 11.5 alone at all...

hotfix link: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst115ahotfix.aspx

use 11.5a same here.

 

[RejZoR]

I have just installed it. But now Firefox is all fucked up if i have MLAA enabled which it wasn't with 11.5 WHQL...

 

[RejZoR]

Oh god what a fucked up crap. Cat 11.5a didn't fix anything, i'm still getting these GSOD's, i can't downclock my card as memory minimum is 1150MHz (100 above reference). Is sending a brand new card just few days old back to store because its clearly defective the only solution?
I have enough of this nonsense. HD6000 series are out for ages and if they haven't sorted this out with drivers by now, they never will. Omfg.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

GSOD is a vga bios issue, download the drivers from the maker of your card or use the drivers that came with the 6870

you may be able to find or ask for a bios update for your HD6870

do not use the generic drivers from AMD's web site

good luck

atb

Law-II

 

[dir_d]

Sounds like a defective card or bad overclock on hardware.

 

[RejZoR]

Well it makes no difference as drivers on Sapphire webpage are exactly the same as those on AMD page (they are even signed by AMD). They all use reference drivers now, its not like in old days when ELSA for example actually made their own optimized drivers.

Also, haven't they tested their design before selling it? And now i have to deal with this nonsense.

 

[Law-II]

Hi

raise a ticket on sapphire www for tech support and request an up to date vga bios

or

RMA the card as soon as possible

atb

Law-II

 

[marek100]

Hello,
RejZoR did you fix yours problem ? i have same issue and no way to fix it. I getting GSOD after stop playing games( Any game Like BFBC2,COD,NFS:S) and when i got my web browser in full screen (Firefox,Chrome,IE).The new Drivers 11.6 didin't make any good its even worse bcos now i can't watch full youtube video , GSOD comes right after one or two min of video.
My system spec.
AMD Phenom 965 @ stock speed
FOXCONN M/B A88GA-S
Corsair TX 750W PSU
4 GB Ram
AMD HD 6870 Toxic 1GB ram

Thank you , Mark

 

[Law-II]

Hello,
RejZoR did you fix yours problem ? i have same issue and no way to fix it. I getting GSOD after stop playing games( Any game Like BFBC2,COD,NFS:S) and when i got my web browser in full screen (Firefox,Chrome,IE).The new Drivers 11.6 didin't make any good its even worse bcos now i can't watch full youtube video , GSOD comes right after one or two min of video.
My system spec.
AMD Phenom 965 @ stock speed
FOXCONN M/B A88GA-S
Corsair TX 750W PSU
4 GB Ram
AMD HD 6870 Toxic 1GB ram

Thank you , Mark

Hi

sorry to see you are having issues; I had this with a Sapphire HD5970 I own; contacted SapphireTech and raised a ticket with them. They will be able to send you a tweaked VGA Bios for your card, if not they will be able to issue a return RMA and swap your card out for you. They will send you the bios and the tool to install it with, you will need a USB memory stick handy and have to make it bootable, but all the instruction will be clear.
You may/will need to access the bios of your system to make sure the USB drive/stick can be booted from, rather than the system looking at your DVD or HDD. take your time and follow the instructions carefully and all will be well.

nb: took a couple of hours and I was very happy with the resault; no more GSOD

atb and good luck

Law-II