AMD Driver Hell!

[PowerPie5000]

Hi all, i used to have a Radeon 6870 and then upgraded to a Radeon 7950 around 4 months ago... I've only just noticed that DirectX and even Ccleaner are showing my GPU as a Radeon HD6800 series!! The catalyst control center shows the correct GPU info but DirectX and Ccleaner show my old GPU info for some reason. I uninstalled the Radeon drivers and i've also run both Driver Fusion and the old Driver Sweeper, but nothing seems to fix this issue! I even tried updating DirectX too.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a way to fix it?.... Everytime i remove the drivers, Windows 7 will still find a way to install them again when the system reboots... Where is it finding these drivers?? Any help is appreciated. Thanks

[kompukare]

Well I though pretty much all driver info resides in \Windows\Inf so it might be worth looking there. But this sounds more like some registry entry or similar. Which the uninstall should remove of course.

However, aside from DirectX listing it as 6800 series, is anything else affected whether feature or speedwise?

[Kumagoro]

If my memory serves me correctly, go to device manager and when you uninstall tick the box which says delete driver from system or some other similar kind of thing.

[PowerPie5000]

Well I though pretty much all driver info resides in \Windows\Inf so it might be worth looking there. But this sounds more like some registry entry or similar. Which the uninstall should remove of course.

However, aside from DirectX listing it as 6800 series, is anything else affected whether feature or speedwise?

It seems to run fine, but i don't really want DirectX to think i'm using a 6870 instead of a 7950. There a a few files in the INF folder, but i'm not too sure about removing them seeing as our other PC has some of the same AMD/ATI files although it uses a Geforce 660Ti.

If my memory serves me correctly, go to device manager and when you uninstall tick the box which says delete driver from system or some other similar kind of thing.

I did check the box to remove driver files, but it doesn't seem to work. I'll uninstall using catalyst installation manager, run driver sweeper and driver fusion, uninstall from device manager and delete all ATI/AMD folders, but somehow Windows manages to install the card again after rebooting! I have no idea what drivers it's using or where they're stored?

[kompukare]

It seems to run fine, but i don't really want DirectX to think i'm using a 6870 instead of a 7950. There a a few files in the INF folder, but i'm not too sure about removing them seeing as our other PC has some of the same AMD/ATI files although it uses a Geforce 660Ti.

Yes, probably best. Although you could sort them by date: the ones which come with Windows should all be the same date and time.

I did check the box to remove driver files, but it doesn't seem to work. I'll uninstall using catalyst installation manager, run driver sweeper and driver fusion, uninstall from device manager and delete all ATI/AMD folders, but somehow Windows manages to install the card again after rebooting! I have no idea what drivers it's using or where they're stored?

I would imagine that they are the drivers which came with Windows. But for some reason Windows is mis-identifying your card. Have you looked at the device IDs in device manager (Display Adapters>YOUR CARD>Details>Hardware Ids)?

Should be something like VEN_1002&DEV_ etc. etc. The DEV part should identify your card so it's worth looking at what it says for yours and then googling that number to see which card that is. If the ID is wrong I'm not sure what would cause that, but it's possible that a BIOS clear CMOS might fix that - although the BIOS is meant to check the IDs at each boot up not remember them!

But anyway it sounds more likely that the .INF for the Radeon drivers has become and remained corrupted despite the various drive sweepers. Maybe force some generic VGA driver in Safe Mode, reboot to Safe Mode, uninstall, run drive sweeper etc. then try again?

[kalniel]

Yeah it's likely Window device info that's the 'issue' here, not AMD drivers. But I say 'issue' - aside from the name of the card being wrong in a few programs that look up the name, are there actually any issues?

[PowerPie5000]

Yeah it's likely Window device info that's the 'issue' here, not AMD drivers. But I say 'issue' - aside from the name of the card being wrong in a few programs that look up the name, are there actually any issues?

Some utilities are no longer detecting the cards clock speeds... Still seems to run though. I now have another problem which i think is related to one of the driver cleaner utils (wrong file removed?)... There appears to be a 'problem device' under components in the Windows system information. It just says:

Device: BS_PCI_Io
PNP Device ID: ROOT\LEGACY_BS_PCI_IO\0000
Error Code: This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all it's drivers installed.

I have no idea what it is as it doesn't show up in device manager (everything looks fine there). Windows system information displays my GPU a a Radeon HD 7900 series, but tells me it only has 1GB adapter RAM (it should be 3GB)... My old 6870 was 1GB. Display properties show my card as being 6GB.

I would imagine that they are the drivers which came with Windows.

I think Windows 7 is too old to have Radeon 6 or 7 series drivers shipped with it. I even unplugged my router in case it was installing drivers from Microsoft when i reboot.

[kompukare]

There appears to be a 'problem device' under components in the Windows system information. It just says:

Device: BS_PCI_Io
PNP Device ID: ROOT\LEGACY_BS_PCI_IO\0000
Error Code: This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all it's drivers installed.

I have no idea what it is as it doesn't show up in device manager (everything looks fine there)

Is that looking at device manager with 'show hidden devices' turned on?

While Win7 before SP1 may be older than the 6800's, might Windows be installing a generic Radeon driver and then pick up the name from the device? What are the drive files and dates on that device? If they are the version of Catalyst you have installed then its just that Windows is mis- identifying your card; however if they are some old dates and versions then something else is happening.

Hidden devices in safe mode might get you some clues.

[Kumagoro]

I take it you have tried doing a clean install of Windows 7, a long shot might be take the card out wipe the contracts and give the pcie slot a blow.

[PowerPie5000]

Is that looking at device manager with 'show hidden devices' turned on?

While Win7 before SP1 may be older than the 6800's, might Windows be installing a generic Radeon driver and then pick up the name from the device? What are the drive files and dates on that device? If they are the version of Catalyst you have installed then its just that Windows is mis- identifying your card; however if they are some old dates and versions then something else is happening.

Hidden devices in safe mode might get you some clues.

It shows in the hidden devices and is giving me a code 24 (not working, not present or not installed)... I'll uninstall it and see if it installs when i reboot, but at the moment i'm backing up tons of stuff!

I take it you have tried doing a clean install of Windows 7, a long shot might be take the card out wipe the contracts and give the pcie slot a blow.

Doing a clean OS install is usually a last resort, but i'm backing up everything just in case. I don't think it's got anything to do with the contacts otherwise the card probably wouldn't work at all. My PC looks very clean and pretty much dust free inside anyway .

[PowerPie5000]

Just found out the 'BS_PCI_Io' device is actually a Biostar T-series driver... It might be related to overclocking using the Biostar utility (i'll look into it a bit more).

[PowerPie5000]

I ran the 'ATIman uninstaller' and Windows just completely refused to boot after that. I'm now in the processs of downloading a ridiculous amount of updates for my fresh install of Windows 7... I suppose it's about time my PC had a deep clean anyway .

[PowerPie5000]

I completely wiped the PC and reinstalled Windows 7 along with a billion updates... All is fine again now .