ATI Vertical Bar Crash: Solved. HD 5450, 5550, 5570, 5650, 5670, 5750, 5770, 5790, 5850, 5870, 5970

Armitas

FIXED: see reply #5

The ATI HD 5000 series has an innate problem known as the vertical bar crash, where the screen (+computer) crashes to a series of vertical bars, typically gray, though sometimes other colors. Even though it has been supposedly fixed a few years ago it still continues to crop up again as new games come out.

If you are getting this type of crash with ESO (Elder Scrolls Online +added for searchability) please say so. If you have been able to mitigate it or cause the crashes to stop please me know.

(so far putting the game on performance seems to help some for me. Also the crashes seem to occur more often during light effects. I have noticed the screen start to squeeze vertically a few times, and I also notice strange flashes while in dialogue mode.)

I have been talking with ATI but so far they haven't responded with anything helpful.

Sylveria_Relden

I've got a 5000 series card and have been playing flawlessly since the before beta. Perhaps it's something specific to your card type or settings?

Armitas

Sounds like it. Which model do you have? Also what is your average fps while maxed out?

I have 2OS's, 2HDs so I may try to do a full wipe on my second HD to test it out, then wipe my first. I wonder if there is a way to do that without re downloading the game twice...

Sylveria_Relden

Well, I don't "max out" settings, I keep shadows and AO off, as it's the biggest hit in performance, but the other game settings are maxed without a hitch. The card is a 5750- OEM Dell (not onboard, separate card) and I've had no issues with it. I get about 32-45 FPS on average- although in congested areas (lots of redrawing) it tends to take a couple seconds for everything to pop up (could be latency, too)

One thing you might want to try is turning off the profile (if you've created one) and start from there with troubleshooting. I've found it helpful with most games to turn off all settings and start from lowest settings and work my way up- that way I can see which settings are affecting it most. Shadows, AO and AA are usually the biggest performance hits- but some more obscure settings (like morphological filtering, etc.) can also cause problems with some games too.

It's an older card series, but I can play almost any game maxed with the settings that matter and they still look good/perform well. That said, unless you're wanting to spend (or have the means to) $300+ on just a video card, you're going to need to balance the settings in almost any game.

Hope this information helps.

Armitas

Thanks that does help. Knowing that it's working for you makes it worth trying to wipe my second HD.

Armitas

Updating for posterity.

I have overcome this crash by doing two things.

1)Updating to windows 7 because catalyst is 1.5 versions past their vista version.
2)Lowered my memory clock in amd overdrive section of catalyst. I lowered it to around 1070.

I started by lowering the memory clock and I did not crash for 2 days at which point my windows 7 arrived and I installed it and have not crashed since. I believe this type of problem was due to the memory clock as I have also read that both the memory clock and the hdmi audio driver have been known to cause this type of crash. Its been about 3-4 weeks and I have yet to crash to vertical bars so if you are experiencing this lowering your memory clock is a valid and working fix.

Kaspar

You might also consider enabling manual fan speed and upping it to 65-75% or so while playing to ensure it's not overheating. Cleaning out fuzz-*** might be in order as well. My older rig runs a 5870 but I rebuilt the cooling solution after the factory fan died on it so manual fan control through CCC isn't available anymore but it stays frosty. I've never had a problem with the crash you are speaking about with the artifacting.

Elf_Boy

Armitas wrote: »

Updating for posterity.

I have overcome this crash by doing two things.

1)Updating to windows 7 because catalyst is 1.5 versions past their vista version.
2)Lowered my memory clock in amd overdrive section of catalyst. I lowered it to around 1070.

I started by lowering the memory clock and I did not crash for 2 days at which point my windows 7 arrived and I installed it and have not crashed since. I believe this type of problem was due to the memory clock as I have also read that both the memory clock and the hdmi audio driver have been known to cause this type of crash. Its been about 3-4 weeks and I have yet to crash to vertical bars so if you are experiencing this lowering your memory clock is a valid and working fix.

If you have needed to keep your memory clock below spec to be stable you need to RMA the card if it is still under warranty.

HDMI audio can be buggy with nvidia too. Maybe it is more of a windows issue. 7/8 would have better support for the hdmi audio, unless your usign it you could also uninstall/disable that.