Ati-Driver 8.6/8.7 freeze on 32/64 bit

[Dragonlord]

The 512MB vs 256MB thing is almost definitely a red herring, I don't think that is related to your crashing.

Not for me though. As GameDev I'm looking to push the 512MB since 256MB I've got already on my nVidia dev station

Nothing jumps out at me from the log other than the VideoOverlay option being on (it should ounly be on for pre-R5xx parts). You want TexturedVideo on, not VideoOverlay, but that wouldn't cause a crash. There's an "aticonfig --initial" (or something like that) command that resets the amdpcsdb contents to default; did you run that after installation ?

I forgot to reset the texture video after testing around. I did once call the aticonfig at the beginning of my odysee but after this ( and in the newest fresh install ) I did just alter the xorg.conf . You said it resets the amdpcsdb or something. What exactly is this file doing? Maybe I can take a look at this bugger.

Looking for some way to determine if this is a driver/system issue or a card / power supply / heat issue. The usual way is to run some games under Windows and see if it runs reliably there; is that an option ?

The card is Radeon HD 4870. The case is a Thermaltake Aguila with back and front case fan. The power supply a Thermaltake Toughpower 750W. lm_sensors reports splendid temperatures so everything is coooler as cool ( in a double sense ). I doubt it's a heat or power supply problem.

That said I've got a vanilla XP on that machine but I did not test it yet since I need first an USB extender to attach the dev-disk to this machine with all the stuff sitting on it ( I don't want to use the current engine alpha build from SVN for testing... could bog the test ). But I'll have some test done soon.

[bridgman]

Not for me though. As GameDev I'm looking to push the 512MB since 256MB I've got already on my nVidia dev station

Sorry, I meant "the message doesn't mean you don't have 512MB". I think that message shows the size of the aperture (maxed at 256MB) not the size of the video memory. The aperture is only relevent for software rendering; the graphics engine doesn't go through the aperture and can access the entire VRAM space.

[Dragonlord]

Looks like you did a good job on the drivers... crashes Windows too . I could not get a game running yet since it crashed once during installing and the other time I just scrolled in a file list while the system froze and rebooted itself. I've installed the drivers from the included disk which is 5.01 or something like this.

[bridgman]

OK, probably 8.501. This is sounding more like a hardware problem if you're also seeing problems under Windows. The only thing I can think of that we haven't asked about yet is the power connectors on the video card; sometimes they don't seat properly so you don't get enough power to the card...

[Dragonlord]

Well this particular Thermaltake case is a bit... particular. They have an HD carrier right behind the front case fan. This guy is a little blocker in that the power connectors on the card push against this guy. I had to carefully fit it in there while heavily bending the cables on the plug to make it fit. Damn I hate fighting for millimeters. How "fragile" are those connectors on the 4870? Because if they are rather fragile I could try some metal works on the carrier to carve out a right hole in the carrier to give the plugs some space.

[alexcorscadden]

We've also seen total system lockups on a system here with an HD3870. I'm waiting to hear back as to whether we can reproduce the problem on other AMD cards on the same system (Nvidia hardware seems to run well on this system). When I moved the card to my box, I wasn't able to reproduce the problem.

The system that crashed has an ICH8 northbridge and a Core 2 Quad while my box is an ICH7 with a Core 2 Duo. As in Dragonlord's report, the machine that crashes also has issues running in windows (UT3 causes crashes, as well as our own software stack). This is very worrying for us as we're trying very hard to ensure a good experience for all linux users but it's very hard to do when you can't trust the underlying drivers.

I can get exact specs if that would be helpful.

[Dragonlord]

I had thought myself to use UT3 as a test platform but since it is a heavy crash-worthy game ( even with newest patch it's a walk on a thin line before you get a hard-lockup... and this happens on an nVidia system ) I do not consider it too representative. Something like Crysis ( heavy on hardware but not too crashy as far as I know ) would be better but I do not have a disk in house here.

[Dragonlord]

Okay, now I really start to get mad at you ( ATI ). I've got rid of the HD carrier and moved the HD top slot ( as I found there a hidden carrier ). Straightened the power cables, pulled out the card and blew the connectors ( as if this ever worked but still I do it :P ) seating it back in refitting the connectors. Still Linux as well as Windows hard-locks after trying 3D or doing some 2D work. The only thing I can agree with is that not calling aticonfig --initial does indeed cause a hardlock right on X startup but even with this it fails.

Starts to piss me off. Troubles with Linux I could understand but messing up Windows too is pulling my nerve.

[bridgman]

This is starting to sound like a bad card.

[Dragonlord]

Anything to ensure this? After all I got the card through an online shop ( as shops in my vicinity didn't have it yet :O ) and replacements are not what they are best known for :/