Newbie Here, M17x "atikmpag.sys" always crashes when playing games in Crossfire!

Hey everybody, I've been a lurker on here for a while but I can't find the answer to my exact problem so I figured I'd ask. My M17x always crashes while playing games in Crossfire mode (2 ATI 1GB Mobility Radeon 4870s). I've tried completely removing the drivers with Driver Sweeper in safe mode and then reinstalling the newest ones but to no avail. I'm on the A10 Bios and games do not crash when in single GPU configuration. Thanks for your help!

Edit: Forgot to mention my setup, here it is!
Alienware M17x R2 Lunar Silver / Core i7 M620 @ 2.66 gHz / 1200p LED LCD / 8GB DDR3 /2 ATI 4870s (1GB) in Crossfire/120GB SSD, 200GB HDD/

 

Did you try different drivers?
Cat 11.11 is notoriously unstable for crossfire setups.

 

I was on an earlier set of drivers before i upgraded to these a few days ago and it still crashed in crossfire during gameplay. What is the most stable drivers I can use?

 

I've read that people have had success with 11.10's and 11.11a's

 

Where can I by any chance find these? Also do I need to use driver sweeper when I install them or can I just uninstall the old drivers, reboot, and install these?

 

Just out of curiosity I wiped out the newest drivers and installed the ones directly from Dell's website, version 11.11, and the graphics driver still crashed while in Crossfire playing CSS :/

 

Your configuration is exactly like mine. I have had no issues with any version of the drivers up to 11.11. 0 crashes or artifacts. No overclocking on my part if that matters. Here are a few suggestions to make sure drivers are installed properly,

1. Make sure old drivers are removed if you like (I don't)
2. Download using AMD's utility and don't download the CCC package directly
3. Verfiy driver version after installation
4. Verify GPU temperatures during gaming sessions/benchmark

let us know most important part is verifying the driver installation in catalyst control center.

 

Here's a screenshot from CCC, I believe I used the AMD utility to download the package, GPU temps idle at around ~65 degrees C

 

Well, first thing I notice is that your temps are high, too high imo in idle. Have you monitor them during benching/gaming? Add to that the GPU memory's are not being detected is suspicious unless you are showing us the GPU that isn't running, but then that would have weird numbers

 

Maybe clean and repaste time.

 

Here is a link to the 11.10's

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mobile/11-10_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl.exe

 

Yeah the numbers did seem a bit weird to me too. I'm gonna try the 11.10 drivers that SlickDude gave me and see if that does anything.

Alright, just got done installing the 11.10 drivers,


I also decided to run some temperature tests. But first heres my setup in idle (crossfire enabled, primary GPU on left, secondary on right)


After this I ran CS: Source (I know it's not that graphic intensive but I'll explain in a minute) I ran the video stress test, on which I got ~242fps, and I then played the game for about 5 minutes I didn't do anything more stressful on the GPU than this because this is usually the point where the GPU crashes. So here are my temps after 5 minutes of gameplay (again in crossfire mode, primary GPU on left, secondary on right)


The temps seem quite high for such a low graphics game. I think it's also worth noting that the GPU always seems to crash in a moment of intensive graphics (i.e. a lot is happening all at once) and also I attempted to play Half Life: Deathmatch but it was unplayable because everything seemed to flicker and graphics were all glitching into each other anytime I tried to move, I know I have heard of flickering being a problem before so I figured I'd throw that in. I'd also like to say that I'm a fairly advanced computer user (I build and repair them a lot) so don't be afraid to use technical jargon or anything like that. Thanks again for everybody's help!

 

can you download furmark and run the burnin test? Those temps aren't ridiculous for a 4870.

 

Will do, I'll post back with results.

Alright, ran the burnin test at 1920X1080 at 8x MSAA, 2fps avg. for ~12 minutes, core temp according to furmark only got up to 63 degrees (tried to take a screenshot but it didn't work) but GPU-Z said it was around 97 degrees. Another thing I noticed which I thought was strange is that Furmark didn't detect any of the stats on the secondary GPU except the % load, everything else was at zero like it wasn't even there. Here's the GPU-Z screencaps (they were a little bit after the test so the temps went down a little):

 

that's getting toasty now

you may have to do a repaste of your two cards and keep the back of your laptop raised up...either with DIY methods or with a decent notebook cooler that doesn't block your intake vents

 

Do you think the GPU keeps crashing because it's over heating? And if so why would it only do that in Crossfire? I've had the back of the laptop propped up on a book for about a week.

Just spent about 30-35 minutes playing Trackmania and the GPU didn't stutter once in crossfire! So strange to me that it would only crash on certain games.

 

Any help here? Laptop crashes playing games in full screen, but when I make it into a smaller window it doesn't! Could it possibly be one of the cards is bad or the Crossfire bridge went bad?

 

im starting to have the same situation. everything was running great since this morning. The i ran 3d,ark to be nchmark, and it crashe. I havent been able to run anything in xfire ever since

 

Mines been this way for a while too. Do you also have dual 4870s?

 

whenever i hear about xfire working in certain games and not in others...its all drivers.

Super, did you get your temp issue sorted out? or are you still running toasty hot?

 

The drivers crash on all games, and yeah as far as I know the temps are still high, do you think that one of the cards may possibly be fried or the xfire bridge is toast?

 

Even if you install the old dell drivers?

 

Do you mean the drivers on the dell website for the M17x R2?

 

yes that's what i mean...the latest (now very old) vid card drivers from the dell site

 

I believe those were the one's I started on, and yes the drivers still crashed while playing games in xfire.