Widescreen Gaming Forum

I forgot to mention something that I discovered during my GSOD investigation that can cause TDR errors, but also might cause power management issues.

I have an Asus MB and during my tests, I discovered that my Asus ATK0110 ACPI driver was from 2006, despite that I update chipset drivers regularly. :shock: Its a separate download from ASUS, so I updated it to a 2009 driver then.

Its anyway a good thing to check, since ACPI is short for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface.

You can find out what current driver you have under device manager, system units (I think its called in English. My OS is in Norwegian).

After over 24 hours of constant use, I can still attest to the fact that I'm not having any flickering/lost screen issues using the passive DP -> VGA adapter I picked up at Fry's.

In fact, I had my sister and her husband over this evening for a showing and I think he's interested in pursuing the same kind of setup.

Right now, I couldn't be happier with the way it's working.

What Catalyst version are you running? Like i said before, my system is running rock-solid without a blank for hours! Just as long as i stay below the 10.4 version!!

Is there anyone who can try this out and confirm 10.4 causes flickering?

[quote]After over 24 hours of constant use, I can still attest to the fact that I'm not having any flickering/lost screen issues using the passive DP -> VGA adapter I picked up at Fry's.

In fact, I had my sister and her husband over this evening for a showing and I think he's interested in pursuing the same kind of setup.

Right now, I couldn't be happier with the way it's working.

What Catalyst version are you running? Like i said before, my system is running rock-solid without a blank for hours! Just as long as i stay below the 10.4 version!!

Is there anyone who can try this out and confirm 10.4 causes flickering?

I was using 10.4 officials and have just a while ago installed the 8.74 drivers dated 4-19-2010. Still rock solid performance and no flickering or lost screen as of yet.

I was using 10.4 officials and have just a while ago installed the 8.74 drivers dated 4-19-2010. Still rock solid performance and no flickering or lost screen as of yet.

What type of card? Bios update? Clean install?

And that with a passive adapter :shock:

[quote]
I was using 10.4 officials and have just a while ago installed the 8.74 drivers dated 4-19-2010. Still rock solid performance and no flickering or lost screen as of yet.

What type of card? Bios update? Clean install?

And that with a passive adapter :shock:

I have the XFX HD 5770 and they did send me a BIOS update for it a few weeks ago.

The only time I do an uninstall prior to updating video drivers is if there's a problem. Otherwise, it's over the top install.

And, yes, it's passive. :)

I'm now entering my third day of function without any flickering or dropped signal to the DP->VGA display. :)

I have the XFX HD 5770 and they did send me a BIOS update for it a few weeks ago.

The only time I do an uninstall prior to updating video drivers is if there's a problem. Otherwise, it's over the top install.

And, yes, it's passive. :)

I'm now entering my third day of function without any flickering or dropped signal to the DP->VGA display. :)

Guess it is indeed a lot of powerplay.. Lots of people have the flickering solved by either a BIOS update for the DP drive strength or more juice to the DP adapter..

It just stumps me why i have problems with 10.4 and NOT with 10.3a/b??

I did never flash to a newer bios just because Dave Baumann did point to a good update for the 5870 but not for the (MSI) 5970 i have.. Maybe i will just open a ticket with MSI and ask them about this..

Just got my 1000mA USB power adapter in the mail.. I will update to 10.4 WHQL *again* and try this out first with 1000mA, but i don't have much hope :cry:

After that i will try to flash..

I thought I would include my setup and experience.

2 Sapphire HD5770's in xfire (Bios version 012.019.000.002.036154)
Acell DP Adapter
3 Dell 1908FP Monitors

From day one I have had a loss of signal on the DP monitor when changing resolutions (swapping in and out of eyefinity or exiting Bad Company 2). The 10.4 drivers introduced the flickering.

I have tried many different things to troubleshoot the loss of signal, such as updating the bios version on the GPU to using the USB power adapter from my iPhone, but no such luck.

Heres another update, Ive installed the beta Catalyst 10.5 drivers and can say that the flickering is near non-existant. I only get flickering when exiting a game or when the pc/monitors comes out of sleep.

That was my whole point, that ATI needs to fix an issue with their drivers since some drivers introduce massive amounts of flickering while others seem to help out tremendously with the issue.

Beta 10.5 drivers can be found here:
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33961625

I heard about that file, but that's been over a month now since that was posted up. The only reason I'm currently sticking with any form of the 10.4's (10.4 preview) is because of the fix that corrected the load times for BC2, which I'm sure is probably not included in that file.

I've had the flickering same as you when exiting a game or coming out of sleep with every driver that's been out since I got my cards back in November. I've noticed no change in that regard no matter what I've attempted (driver, bios or other). Only the extra flickering while gaming was added with the 10.4's. Given all the information, I'm still undecided whether or not the issue is with the DP power on the card or the drivers. If anything, I'm leaning towards the USB power.

If anything, I'm leaning towards the USB power.

Off the motherboard, off a 500mA AC adapter, off a 1000mA AC adapter, flickering exists.

Sapphire 5870 orig BIOS (they never seemed to update it, maybe they did I just didn't look hard enough).

I'm trying the "up the VDDC" using the AMD GPU clock tool from 1.063 to max (1.1500) and I'll let ya know how that goes.

If you could, do your testing with a bin other than 10.4 as we know it introduced a lot more flickering. Thanks.

If you could, do your testing with a bin other than 10.4 as we know it introduced a lot more flickering. Thanks.

What do you suggest? 10.4a? 10.5?

I've never touched the 10.5's, but from my experience and others, it seems anything in the 10.4 range added a lot of extra flickering. I'd say anything pre 10.4.

Having tried the Active DisplayPort Adapter from ACCELL without any stable success, I'm really very happy with the Monster-brand DP -> VGA adapter I picked up this past Tuesday from Fry's. There is NO flickering, NO loss signal to a blank screen, and I'm able to play the games without the problems I had with that active adapter.

I've also used the CAT 10.4 and 10.4b drivers also without any flickering or loss signal.

So, I can't say it is or isn't an ATI driver problem or not. But, the drivers are behaving very nicely with the current setup.

Using passive dp vga on a 5770 and 10.4's, no flicker no blink.

I broke down and ordered the monster DP to VGA adapter from Fry's to test this for myself. I'll report back.

So I'm using the leasked 10.5 and a DP->VGA adapter (actually all my monitors are using a DP->VGA or a Passive Single link DP->DVI), and no blinking.

No issues here. I'm using a 5970 with 2 dvi, and 1 mini-dp to dvi (apple) and no issues at all with any version of CCC. For awhile, I had powered my mini-dp to dvi from an ipod usb wall unit. But since, I plugged it directly to one of my motherboards usb 2.0 sockets. Still no issues.

No issues here. I'm using a 5970 with 2 dvi, and 1 mini-dp to dvi (apple) and no issues at all with any version of CCC. For awhile, I had powered my mini-dp to dvi from an ipod usb wall unit. But since, I plugged it directly to one of my motherboards usb 2.0 sockets. Still no issues.

What brand card are you using? And what monitors? Which OS?

I suspect it has also something to do with what brand/type of monitor is used..
Still can't grasp why 10.3 has no blinking while 10.4 has. :(

Anyone tested the 10.5's yet? :)