Frequent Driver Crashes

[KPizzzle]

I have been getting frequent display driver crashes while playing Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix. At first it was crashing at 1 specific spot in the game. I read through this forum and saw that reverting to driver 11.11a would fix this issue and it allowed me to get past that point, but still was crashing every 10-20 minutes. I reinstalled the old driver and then went back to 11.11a to try and fix the problem but no dice.

Specs:
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650

Intel Core i5 CPU M 460 2.53 GHZ

Any help would be appreciated.

[solarmystic]

Hello, and welcome to the forums.

A few things to try out/confirm (recommended for a fellow ATI card owner like yourself, and this comes from personal experience with a similar card, running PPSSPP smoothly using 11.11a drivers myself.):-

1. First thing you do is to make sure that Catalyst A.I. (also known as Surface Format Optimization) is disabled in the ATI Catalyst Control Center. Even with the 11.11a drivers installed, this setting can cause issues on ATI cards in PPSSPP if it's enabled.

2. Within PPSSPP (Settings --> System), disable Fast Memory. It's still not a 100% stable option and can still cause crashes in certain segments of certain games. It's enabled by default.

3. Just to confirm, you're not doing any form of overclocking with your ATI card yes?

4. Last thing you can try if you're truly desperate, perform a CLEAN re-installation of the 11.11a drivers. Uninstall the current drivers you've got, then use Driver Sweeper or DDU (which is a newer and better version of that software) in Safe Mode to wipe out all remnants of any previous driver installations you may still have on your system. And then, and only then, install the 11.11a drivers again using the normal AMD setup method.

EDIT:- It'd also help us to help you if you could upload a save file/save state right before the point where the game causes display driver crashes for you. Unless of course if it happens at random.

[KPizzzle]

Hello solarmystic I actually read your posts before about 11.11a driver so thank you again for all your help.

I am not overclocking. The freezing seems to happen at random, although it happens more when it loads the map screen but it has happened during fights and cut scenes as well. I will try these steps and then get back to you about what happens.

[KPizzzle]

I have done steps 1 and 2 and there has been no change. I will attempt to do the fourth step but I am kind of afraid of messing up my computer completely.

[solarmystic]

A thought has just occured to me. Your Intel CPU comes with it's own Integrated GPU solution that switches over with the ATI card when 3D applications are launched right?

How does the switching work out for PPSSPP? Does the CCC handle it automatically or do you have to force the dedicated ATI card to be used for it?

My apologies for not considering that angle before suggesting the complete driver wipe; the suggestion was meant for a purely single card solution (like my own). In a scenario which involves a switchable integrated/dedicated gfx mix, the actual procedure could be much more complicated.

[KPizzzle]

I believe CCC takes care of that process although I am not positive to be honest. Well, I did what you said in your fourth thought and so far it has been running great. I really appreciate the help!

[solarmystic]

I believe CCC takes care of that process although I am not positive to be honest. Well, I did what you said in your fourth thought and so far it has been running great. I really appreciate the help!

That's good to hear. It could've been some errant driver remains from an older installation that was giving your system trouble after all.