7970 - DisplayPort monitors stuck at 640 x 480

This is killing me and my time.

I have three Dell U2412 connected to a reference 7970.
1 monitor is connected to the DVI port.
2 monitors are connected to the mini DP ports with Mini DP to DP cables.
For a while when the computer came out of sleep mode the DP connected monitors were reduced to 640x480 resolution. A reboot gets them back to normal 1920x1200 res.

Now though they are stuck at 640x480, nothing I can do will change them.
I have tried the latest drivers from AMD (12.2) and also a few of the unofficial drivers from these forums. Each time I uninstall the drivers, go to safe mode and run driver sweeper.

The same problem was happening when I had DP cables and mini DP to DP adapters.
Any one seen this before?
I am starting to think the card might be stuffed.

 

Sounds like you got the drivers finally locked at the res, which happens after several reboots

Have you tried setting the resolutions in your drivers? Try right clicking the desktop and going to Display Resolution too, quick shortcut to display resolutions

 

I never verified it, but I suspect that Driver Sweeper removes some files that it should not when it is used to remove the ATI/AMD drivers.

Has anyone else had that experience?

 

Driver sweeper older then 3.2.0 can cause serious damage to Windows 7 x64 installs with Service Pack 1 installed

Try doing this

Do a complete AMD uninstall, all AMD drivers and elements, effectively wiping the system out, reboot to safe mode, run driver sweeper, clean, reboot to desktop, install the newest OFFICIAL drivers, reboot, see if that fixes things

If THAT does not work, download ATIMan Uninstaller newest version from here http://www.mediafire.com/?0brywmam3d14r9b and run that, let it completely process and run, should take a few minutes, it will do literally a high end scrub of everything ATI related, including full registry scan, scanning the files on the computer for leftovers etc, and then it should ask you too reboot when its done, reboot, install new drivers, see if that works

 

That would be very disappointing.
Any idea how to put back in the system files ?

That is what I had been doing without success.

I will try ATIMan and see if that works.

Edit: Forgot to say I am using Win7 74bit with SP1. Will check on Driver Sweeper version, it is 3.2.0 so that should be ok.

 

Installed Win8 on a different partition. Same problem - DVI monitor had the correct resolution but both the DisplayPort monitors were at 640x480.

Then I swapped the Mini DP to DisplayPort cables to full size DisplayPort cables and Mini DP to DP adapters. Magic - the monitors were back to full resolution. I restarted and the monitors stuck at the correct res.
Then I let the computer go to sleep and when it came back out the DisplayPort monitors were back at 640x480.

Either the 7970 is faulty or the Dell U2412's have an issue with coming out of sleep and their DisplayPort ports.

 

Since it fixed itself when you hooked up another DP connection, it sounds like a failure in the monitors, if it was a failure of the videocard it would have been the same no matter what

Monitors come with a factory reset setting, its in the driver options somewhere, shut down the computer, I mean fully, while the monitor is on, should display a "No signal" thing, goto the settings, reset it, do this for all of them

Turn the power off on the computer and monitors for 30 seconds, this discharges the capacitors (Leave the power bar plugged into the wall so the ground discharges them) then turn the power back on, see if that fixes it

And lesson learned, don't put your PC into sleep mode

 

Card is going in for RMA. I started getting checkered screen corruption on the DVI monitor when the DP ones went to 640x480.

I can see one monitor having this problem but 2 of them and only on DP as the DVI is fine?

It would happen even if the monitors just went blank, I had the PC in High Performance mode after the first couple of times.

 

I get this issue from time to time as well, it's quite the nuisance. Try unplugging the adapter and plug it back in with the system powered on. Often times that corrects it for me.

 

Interesting.
Do you also have Dell monitors?

We have very similar systems with exactly the same motherboards.

I think in that case I will cancel the RMA and sell the card.

In my system unplugging the adapter and cables back in doesn't always work unfortunately. Last time changing the actual cables did work though.

Thanks Lavans, sounds like the shop wouldn't have found any problem and then charged me a servicing fee.

 

I don't have any dell monitors, but I do have 3 acer monitors. I'm not sure if it's an issue with the adapters or not though. Both my friend and I use the same powered mini-dp to DVI adapter, and we both experience the issue from time to time.

I did notice that sometimes unplugging the adapter and plugging it back in will still kick the monitor back into 640x480, but the available resolution list will go back up to the monitor's native resolution. Other times, it will only go up to 1680x1050, and a reboot is required. With that said, I don't think it's an issue with the drivers or the cards, but more of an inherent issue with certain adapters.

 

It happens to me using the Mini Displayport to Diplayport adapter that came with the card from MSI.

Does your friend have the same motherboard?
I wonder if that is the common element.

 

No, he is using an Asus P6T. Also, he's experienced the same issue using both a HD5970 as well as dual HD7950's.

The reason why I don't think it's a driver issue is because I've been experiencing the issue ever since the 9.11 betas that came with my HD5970, and my friend has been experiencing the issue ever since he got the card in early 2010. It's been fairly inconsistent, but I don't recall any driver versions where the issue hasn't reared its head up at least once.

Also, I'm not sure about my friend, but sometimes during post, the monitor that's plugged into the adapter sometimes displays a yellow and red grain/snow until it boots into Windows. This is another reason why I don't think it's a driver issue.

 

No, I don't think it is a driver issue either.

It was about time for an upgrade anyway so yesterday I went and bought new CPU, MB, RAM and PSU. Basically everything else in the computer is going to change, if the same thing happens with the monitors going back to 640x480 then it is 100% the graphics card.

 

I don't think its necessarily the fault of the graphics cards either, especially when the two of us we can confirm it's happening between 2 5970's, 2 7950's, and a 7970. I've never seen or heard of this issue coming up in systems that don't use display port adapters. Also, I've never heard of it happening on Nvidia surround either, and they don't need display port compatibility for triple monitors, which reinforces my suspicion that it's an issue with the adapters we're using.

Does any of your monitors accept display port without the use of an adapter?

 

The onitors are connected like this:
Card..............Monitor
=================
DVi................DVi
Mini DP...........DP
Mini DP...........DP

It was only the DP connected monitors having an issue. That was using either Mini DP to DP cable or a Mini DP to DP adapter and then straight DP cable.

I originally had a DP to DVi adapter for one of the monitors and that never had the 640x480 problem. It has only ever happened with DP to DP.

 

My Sapphire 7970 and Gigabyte 7970 sometimes do the same thing when powering up my 2nd display (HP LP2475w). I'm using the MiniDP to DP adapter that came with the Sapphire 7970. Either it's the adapter or a driver issue.

Restarting the display allows me to manually choose 1920x1200 from resolution menu.

 

Damn, I was hoping it was my older motherbaord and CPU causing the issue.

Lavans, does your 5970 have Mini DP ports or are they full size ones?

 

All of the cards I've used/tested, including my current 5970, are mini-dp.

 

Interesting.
I wonder if it is something to do with the Mini DP format.