Problems with HD 3870 in m9750???

Just installed a used HD 3870 video card in my m9750 and it won't drive my external monitor. It does everything else fine. For example, it drives the LCD in the 9750 fine and runs CofD MW2 at high rates.

First I tried it in the Master card slot (the one close to the center) with the latest ATI driver. When I couldn't get it to drive my external monitor, I switched to Alienwares Vista-Win 7 driver and got the same result. Then I tried installing the 3870 in the daughter slot, which simonmpoulton recommended, and I couldn't get past a blank screen.

Here is another clue, when I boot up, the external monitor displays the same as the notebook. As soon as I log in, the external display turns off. When I open the Display Resolution window, it recognizes my external monitor correctly but when it tries to drive it there are useless random splashes of color. Also, it recognizes a third phantom monitor that I can't delete.

I sure hope someone can think of something for me to try to get my external monitor going. It is a nice HD TV that my old card, on 7950 GTX drove without problems.

dt

 

this sound like a driver issue install the lastes catalyst mobility and try them

 

The latest catalyst mobility driver is the driver I tried first and it wouldn't drive my external monitor. It is dated June 15, 2010. It works the same as the Alienware ATI driver dated Dec. 2008.

I just found that the ATI driver drives the external monitor with the VGA cable. I had been trying to drive it via DVI, which has always worked before with the nVidia 7950 GTX. I let Windows 7 pick a driver for the 3870 and the driver it picked, some lame whimpy driver, drives the external monitor via DVI! This is encouraging. I think that means I just need to find the right driver.

 

wierd my computer can drive it through vga or hdmi (wich is a dvi with an other plug)

 

What driver do you use?

 

10.5 mobility

 

Thanks granyte for getting back to me quickly.

I decided to start fresh and used driver sweeper before reinstalling ATI's 10.6 Catalyst mobility driver for the 3870 and I still have the same problem. Unfortunately I can't think of anything else to try. Maybe a good nights sleep will be enlightening.

 

Incidentally the center slot is the Daughter slot, the slot on the left is the parent slot.
Have you checked the temperatures of the card? You need to monitor them closely after install or else you could fry it fast if it's overheating in the system.
As for DVI it works fine on my system, you have to fiddle around in the Catalyst Control Center for a while but it does work.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, Simon, and thanks for explaining the daughter slot. I had mistakenly assumed that the slot my one 7950 was in was the master slot.

Now I can't open Catalyst. It is definitely on my computer but it isn't listed under Programs and if I right click on the desktop, it isn't there either. I can't find a way to access it. Before reinstalling Catalyst, I noticed it was still listed in programs and I deleted it because I was going to reinstall and wanted a fresh start. Now I have reinstalled it twice but it won't install any access to Catalyst. The "3870 x2"driver is "working properly". Yesterday I played with Catalyst for a while to no avail but I would like to try it again.

I have been monitoring the temp of the 3870. It idles at 40C and the peak was 80C. That might improve as the thermal paste matures.

When I right click on the desktop, the Screen Resolution option is there but its options are few and none of them lead to DVI working.

I am wondering if I am having problems because my m9750 is different because of the other drivers I have installed with Windows 7? Most of them were Windows 7 32 bit default drivers.

 

hum i prob can't help you any further i don,t have 3870 to play with around

also if the catalyst is still installed you can seach for in in you program folder i't named as CCC.exe

 

Thanks, granyte! That tip about CCC.exe opened Catalyst for me.

Still not getting anything good out of DVI. The monitor is 60 hz. Catalyst lists 59hz or 60hz as options but it won't let me select 60hz.

 

can you go lower like 30 or 24? i had to use these option when establising conection to some TV through HDMI to rais them after

 

I tried a lower refresh rate but that didn't help anything. Now I am going to try installing Catalyst again after a real serius cleaning as described here: How To: Reinstall Video Drivers (Quick Guide) - techPowerUp! Forums

 

be carefull with those since 10.X arived there has been trouble reported when doing to much cleaning while upgrading

 

There was no improvement with the super clean install. When I connect my 37" LCD hdtv via the VGA sub-D, Catalyst thinks it a CRT. When I connect via DVI it locks up my computer. AMD FAQ's say it must be the either the cable or the tv. Maybe tomorrow I'll find another lcd monitor to try to drive with this video card.

 

All I can say is last time I used the port with a Sony Bravia 40" lcd it worked fine for me. Maybe you have just got an incompatible lcd/dodgy cable. It's normal for the VGA port to show up as a CRT in CCC - you should still be able to set the correct resolution.

 

wich brand is the lcd tv ? yet i tryed a LG (mine) a Itachi and a proton the Lg worked flawles the Itachi worked after many workaround and lowering thr RF rate to up it later the proton srewed my linux install i while windows never detected it i didn't bothered to much i didn't wanned to screw my windows install to while i w as away from home ... so i use only the VGA with it now

 

Thanks for the info about VGA being perceived as a CRT.

The tv is a Westinghouse. It was a good value at the time but I don't recommend them for a few reasons.

After lots of googling, now I think the Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) is corrupt. This can happen from static or plugging in the DVI cable while the power is on. I finally learned how to force Catalyst to drive it at 1080p and at 60 Hz but that isn't working either. It is possible to re-flash or adjust the edid and I am looking into that now.

Thanks for the support.

 

fairly possible normaly ati suport some sort of data feed back even through VGA since the 9200 era and generaly can even tell what brand your screen is


how ever maybe some screen don't suport the way ati gets a data feed back through VGA (i'll cheq with the proton next time i got to my GF'S house)


to reflash the screen? probably possible to upgrade the firmware look at your manufacturer's web site
if you'r talking about the card then yes but not recomanded on the m9750

 

It seems the problem must be the video card driver or Catalyst and this is why:
Everything works great except it won't drive my external monitor.
In Safe Mode everything works and the 3870 drives my external monitor. I believe that in Safe Mode, the ATI driver is turned off and the Windows driver runs the displays. Now what do I do? I've already tried a couple of clean installs of the ATI driver and Catalyst. I posted this problem on ATI's Catalyst forum and maybe someone there can help.

 

in safe mode the display is driven by software so the problem is ethier with the driver or 3870

 

In safe mode the 3870 will still drive the display it'll just be using a windows generic driver that doesnt support hardware acceleration or basically any of the features of the card. I might just try mine again and see what procedure to go through in order to get it outputting to dvi. It did work but it was months ago and I forget
Incidentally you are running the latest vista bios arent you? If your running an older or XP bios then you could well have problems with running a 3870 and certainly no crossfire!

 

I thought this thread had died. Thanks for continuing to help.

The bios I have is OCO3.

I am almost positive that it is not CCC because I am real familiar with it now. I've tried forcing it to 1080p60 but that didn't help.

If it isn't the bios, could it be the chipset driver? Now it is using whatever chipset driver Windows 7 installed. Since there isn't a "Chipset" listed in the Device Mgr, I don't know what it is called in the Dev Mgr. However, a driver that is used for a lot of misc things is from Microsoft and dated 6/21/06. The one Alienware recommends is dated 9/15/05.

Simon, do you know what driver you used with your 3870? But, that probably isn't the problem because ATI's latest and the old one that Alienware recommends both worked the same for me.

(lots of edits for accuracy.)

 

I finally got it to work! When I realized my monitor has a second DVI connector I thought I might as well give it a try and it works. Earlier I read that unplugging the monitor for a few hours is also worth a try. I did that but it didn't improve anything, however it might have had an affect on the "New" DVI connector. I doubt it but in case someone with the same problem finds this thread, try unplugging your monitor for a while. By the way, the driver I happen to have installed at the moment is the one recommended by Alienware. It doesn't include CCC.

Thanks to everyone with suggestions that kept me from giving up.

 

Driver I used must've been either 10.3 or 10.4 infact i'll go and try it with the latest driver on my system now and reedit this

Edit - Worked fine with the latest driver, just plugged in waited about 20 seconds and it was up and displayed didnt have to configure/change anything.

 

I installed the latest ATI driver package, 10.6, and it works for me too. CCC doesn't work because I must have screwed up something in .NET but it seems like I don't need CCC and reinstalling NET would be a chore.

 

well you can just download .net and use the repair function

how ever it's likely a key that is part of the ati driver that got erased when uninstaling

 

It is my understanding that there are three versions of .net and all three have to be delt with separately. Since everything works ok now and it seems I can get along without Catalist, I think I will leave well enough alone. When it comes to computers, it is too easy for me to do more harm than good.

If it was part of the ATI driver, wouldn't that have been fixed when I uninstalled and reinstalled the ATI driver?

dt

 

nop that's a new issue as of 10.XXX there seem to be 1 single key a reinstall can't fix and sometime it can just prevent you from installing


there are several version of .net how ever downloading the lastes one will fix all of them
but if it ain't broken don't fix it .... we tend to atempt to over do our fix and do more harm