Widescreen Gaming Forum

This is my first post. Great forum! I can usually find the answers I want without posting questions, but I feel inspired to give back :P So here is a story that will hopefully help those who have less budget or opportunity to try so many variables.

I bought one of the first batch of HD5850s on Newegg back in October. Worked great on my 22" screen. On Black Friday I bought 3 Samsung 24" 2494 LCDs (1920x1080). Here begins my tale:

My system specs:
Asus P55 board
Core i5 750
8Gb DDR1333
P400 Raid with 4x 2.5" 15k SAS
Win7 x64 Ultimate
No overclocks.

[list]* Slam dunk 2 screen eyefinity, but had to research - needed active dp/dvi for 3
* Ordered active dp/dvi from Dell - no joy on 3rd screen.
* Bought 4 different model 24" 1920x1080 screens. No joy.
* Installed Win7 x86 on spare sata drive - no joy to be found anywhere
* Returned 4 screens.
* Bought Dell P2310H (native dp) - no joy. Worked at low resolutions, wouldn't tolerate 1920x1080 even as one screen.
* Very frustrated
* Bought HD5870 thinking: "newer batch, bios, yada yada"
* No joy with Dell P2310H, same story.
* VERY frustrated
* Bought Asus 24" 1920x1080 to try with adapter - STILL no joy.
* Packed up the Dell to return.
* Each step here included full driver uninstall/re-install
* I recognized that while doing all this, the Asus/adapter monitor worked GREAT in vga mode, even as a single monitor with drivers installed - but as soon as I enabled multiscreen or eyefinity - bye bye dp picture.
* Created dos boot usb stick and flash BIOS.
* STILL no f*****g joy, and mind you this was Christmas weekend - you would think there would be joy to be had.
* Just to be thorough, I got out the Dell and plugged it in after flashing the BIOS.
* Joy to the world! Played Dirt2 for hours that night!
[/list:u]

Bottom line for me is:
[list]BIOS was the difference maker.
Adapter may or may NOT be the problem.[/list:u]

My advice - if you are having trouble, flash the BIOS at a MINIMUM. This is simple as dirt and if you have another video card you can always boot and flash it back.

If you are still having trouble - replace the adapter or get a native DP monitor.

I am going to rma this adapter for another and try it with a monitor to match the Samsung's. The Dell is a 23" but the res was right (1920x1080).

Hope this was helpful for someone.

I've heard of cases where just EMI from other devices close to the PC caused issues - in one case, just moving the PC sounds subwoofer away from the PC cleared up issues.

I'll kill my sub tonight and see if that fixes it.

I've heard of cases where just EMI from other devices close to the PC caused issues - in one case, just moving the PC sounds subwoofer away from the PC cleared up issues.

Hey Dave are we still looking at around the 7th for 10.1 driver.

Do you know if anything related to Eyefinity or hotkeys/shortcuts might be included in that.

For some reason I think this is also caused by other programs settings. I imagine there are many reasons for it.

True, and that is what will make it hard to narrow down. everyone has different systems. Props to the folks working on this. :bowdown

[quote]I've heard of cases where just EMI from other devices close to the PC caused issues - in one case, just moving the PC sounds subwoofer away from the PC cleared up issues.

I'll kill my sub tonight and see if that fixes it.

I tried removing and sub and it didn't help. I've tried a lot of combinations and it seems to be the card. Can we expect a fix in the month of January? If it's a bios fix, will there be an official announcement? I didn't see one on the support site. In fact, I didn't see anything at all about this issue on the ATI/AMD website.

Bottom line for me is:
[list]BIOS was the difference maker.
Adapter may or may NOT be the problem.[/list:u]

My advice - if you are having trouble, flash the BIOS at a MINIMUM. This is simple as dirt and if you have another video card you can always boot and flash it back.

If you are still having trouble - replace the adapter or get a native DP monitor.

I am going to rma this adapter for another and try it with a monitor to match the Samsung's. The Dell is a 23" but the res was right (1920x1080).

Hope this was helpful for someone.

Where can I get a BIOS for a 5750?

I tried removing and sub and it didn't help. I've tried a lot of combinations and it seems to be the card. Can we expect a fix in the month of January? If it's a bios fix, will there be an official announcement? I didn't see one on the support site. In fact, I didn't see anything at all about this issue on the ATI/AMD website.

We Know ATI has seen the Issues we all have had or are still having. I don't think that expecting ATI to give a specific time frame is feasible right now. I dont think they would want to say a time frame and then not being able to meet that time frame. In turn making people more frustrated then has all ready been done. and I'm just speaking for myself

I would also think that. when something is put out. We will be informed just as we were when the 9.12 hotfix was put out.

I've heard of cases where just EMI from other devices close to the PC caused issues - in one case, just moving the PC sounds subwoofer away from the PC cleared up issues.

:D

Dude so far this thing has been running for almost 3 hours with no screen blanking, which to date is a record. Following your input, i removed all EMI emitting devices from my puter dojo. This included:
-Cheapo Harmon Kardon desktop speaker set and sub woofer.
-MS Sidewinder 2 Joystick.
-2 wifi AP's on different bands.
-HP 1610 PSC Printer
I also unplugged the transformer brick for any device that had one, save for the one i needed on my little workgroup switch for general net access.

This is a wonderful development, though I am probably being a little overzealous with what i removed from the environment. I plan on making certain this isn't a fluke and stay in minimalist mode here for a few days before I put everything but the sub woofer back in place. I will keep everyone informed, going to rock some L4D2 and see if I cant summon another screen blank before I call "ollie ollie oxen free"...

Dave, thank you for taking the time to share your inside info, hopefully you don't spend any off time on here like some bus man's holiday, and your forum involvements are subsidized somehow... If they aren't you are a true gentlemen sir. :bowdown

[quote]
I tried removing and sub and it didn't help. I've tried a lot of combinations and it seems to be the card. Can we expect a fix in the month of January? If it's a bios fix, will there be an official announcement? I didn't see one on the support site. In fact, I didn't see anything at all about this issue on the ATI/AMD website.

We Know ATI has seen the Issues we all have had or are still having. I don't think that expecting ATI to give a specific time frame is feasible right now. I dont think they would want to say a time frame and then not being able to meet that time frame. In turn making people more frustrated then has all ready been done. and I'm just speaking for myself

I would also think that. when something is put out. We will be informed just as we were when the 9.12 hotfix was put out.

Honestly, I appreciate your concern for my video card issue but I wasn't quoting you or asking a question directly to you. I was giving the ATI rep constructive feedback on my personal experience with his product. I don't think he was insulted by my question. It's actually a pretty reasonable one, answered with a "yes", "no", "maybe", or "I don't know". Very smart people often admit they don't know all the answers.

:x

It just cut out on me while playing some TF2.

took it around 4 hours though, cant really say whether thats a direct result of lessening the EMI or not...

darnit... I thought i had it licked.