video card driver crash

i just got my first BSOD last night on my new computer.

it went a bit like this: i was playing GW, browsing the web, and changing channels on vent. i alt-tabbed out, and then alt-tabbed back into GW. the screen then froze for a few seconds and then returned to normal. windows then notified me that the display driver crashed and was recovered successfully. i didn't really think much about it at the time.

then i had to alt-tab out again. when i switched back to GW, the screen froze and the entire computer rebooted (which is a BSOD, since i have the computer set at "restart on all errors"). once windows booted back up again, i found the screen gamma to be different; it was brighter and more whitewashed than before. i didn't notice any performance differences in GW, though alt-tabbing makes GW produce some wierd textures that disappears if i zone out of the map and zone back in. they weren't artifacts, they a bit like what happens when texmod messes up (i wasn't running texmod).

temperatures are normal, so that probably wasn't the issue.

relevant information:

-radeon HD4850, E7200 at 3.2ghz 4gb DDR2 800 corsair dominator, asus p5k-vm motherboard, antec earthwatt 500
-using catalyst driver 8.7
-running vista business 64bit sp1
-did a video BIOS flash a few days ago. flashed it to a MSI HD4850 from a HiS HD4850. i did it to enabled powerplay features and better fan controls. there was no overclocking involved.

now, here's what i think:
-the 8.7 drivers are not as stable, since the "display drivers crash and successfully recovered" error occurred before.
-the video BIOS flash did something weird to the card. i guess it didn't quite like jumping from 150/500 to 625/998 every time i alt-tab back and forth. or maybe the PSU doesn't like it. who knows.

so, what do you think?

This sounds exactly like a driver/bios flash issue. At least you know that it was caused by you (more than likely) as this was not an issue before. Roll it back/reflash to the old bios. Me personally, I hate instability. Looks like the waiting game for you, untill a different driver/bios combo is avalible. Do not feel bad, it is not as lonley in this boat as you may think!

the beta 8.8 drivers are out. i'm gonna give that a shot tonight to see if it fixes it. if not, i'll have to go find a BIOS version that doesn't have powerplay enabled. i have a suspicion that the constant jumping in power usage is causing this.

and yes, in my infinite wisdom, i forgot to save my old BIOS before flashing. doh.

Best of luck!

BTW You may be able to get a DL copy of the old bios from the manufactures website.

EDIT: It may be a good Idea to look at the MOBO's website for an updated bios/driver as well.

after using some search-fu, here's what i found:
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=19297

apparently, powerplay + vista aero = pain. guess i'll have to turn off powerplay (or aero, but i don't want to do that) to avoid the problem.

I also have problems with my Nvidia 8700 driver, I tryed to download stuff from nvidia but it didnt work! Anyone able to help me as well?

the nvidia official drivers do not cover mobile chips, which i believe is what you're dealing with.

you'll have to get new drivers from your laptop's manufacturer. or, use 3rd party drivers like ngohq and omega. of course, if you are running vista 64bit, you won't have that option.

an update: i think the catalyst 8.8 beta drivers fixed the issue, but i can't be sure. either way, that weird gamma issue is gone. it was probably caused by a corrupted driver.

the 8.8 drivers apparently enabled powerplay 2.0 for HD4800 series cards. i have no way to measure actual power consumption, so i have no way to validate this.

i still wish i can force the card to run at full power, even if the game is in the background. i still suspect the problem was caused by the constant voltage jumping when i alt-tab in and out of the game. we'll see if the problem comes back or not.

My friends been having GW lock up him. He has a Ati 4850.
His brother running trial of guild wars, also having lock ups as well Ati X1950.

He noticed the newest Ati driver locked up more frequently then 8.7 (the lowest he can go).
He is running Windows XP SP3.