Bitcoin Forum

Hey all,

So I can mine BTC fine, but I want to mine LTC....but I always crash.

I have tried using multiple configurations in guiminer scrypt, reaper, and CGminer.

I have a sapphire 7950.  It came clocked like this:
GPU Clock: 925
Memory Clock: 1250
VDDC: 1250

This card is in a PCI 2.0 X16 express slot
I have 8GB of Ram.

My best success is using the high usage in setting in Guiminer-scrypt....sometimes I can up to 3 hours before it crashes, at about 530khash/sec.

I am using the 13.4 Catalyst Drivers and I think the 2.8 SDK  Whenever I try to reinstall the SDK I get a failure....not sure if that is because I upgraded to 13.4 catalyst.

Any ideas?

I never go over 75 celcius and my PSU is 730W

If I run CGminer...my comp crashes

If I run guiminer scrypt I get stuck on compiling kernal

and if I try reaper I get this: http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8959/reaperfail.png

Slight update....I wiped all my drivers and went to reinstall catalyst 13.4 and I got an error when I installed SDK 2.8

AMD APP SDK SamplesFinal Status: Fail
Version of Item: 2.8.1016.5
Size: 130 Mbytes


EDIT:  Wouldn't let me install the SDK samples because there was an old folder in my documents.  I deleted that and now it installed.  Still having my issues.

I guess my real question is, should I uninstall my drivers and go to an older version?  If so which catalyst and sdk drivers are people using successfully?

Hmmmmm

Try the following, use cgminer:

First delete your .conf file in the cgminer folder (back it up somewhere else if you want)

Open cmd, type:   setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100

Then press return and close cmd. Then open a fresh cmd, CD to your cgminer folder and then input the following:


cgminer --scrypt -o yourpool -u yourusername -p yourpassword -s 2 --expiry 1 --queue 0 --thread-concurrency 8192 -I 13 -w 256 -g 2

Press return and let me know what happens :)

update:  Hashrate keeps dropping to about 120 then climbs up to 300ish and then up and down

The only conf file I have is an example.conf

Also I wasn't sure what you meant by "CD" to cgminer and type that stuff.  So I made a new Batch file with what you said...not sure if that gives the same effect.  

Anyway it is running...hasn't crashed yet

http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/9035/newtestk.png

I have the exact problem as reported in this thread (except I have a 6850) but the solution doesn't work for me. Any other ideas?

Try using drivers 12.8
Avoid the new ones

I had problems with 13.4...wouldn't start up and would just crash. Reverted back to 13.1 and everything works fine. Try an older driver

I tried a whole bunch of drivers and a whole bunch of miners, and nothing ever worked on my machine (brand new install of W7).  I finally gave up.  I had the same problem though, they'd all just crash with a ".exe stopped working" message.

13.1 is verified good

I would love to revert but the installers of both 12.8 and 13.1 (and appearently even 13.4) always given an error for the AMD APP SDK Runtime. I also tgried uninstalling that in isolation and reinstalling it afterwards to no avail.

Packages for install
AMD APP SDK Runtime
Final Status: Fail
Version of Item: 10.0.938.2
Size: 90 Mbytes
 
 

Did you do the above ? It's an important step.

Yes, those were the exact steps I followed. Like the OP I also only had example.conf. The "setx GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT 100" command returned okay. cgminer just crashes when I try to use it with --scrypt.

Just realized CD means change directory...

I get Pool 0 slow/down ....so I will try again with a different mining server

Not for me. cgminer wouldn't even start
Also lots of members are getting solid results (including myself) with 12.8 seems that it is the best option right now

This: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1732522 is my exact problem btw.

Seems that  the several installs / removals corrupted something.
Do a fresh install of Windows and go for 12.8 straight away

After following the above method this what I got....

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/2623/testnewnew.png
?
I'll let this run and see if it crashes after a while.  I should also note the low hashrate...but I'll play with that later if this works.  Would the setting max gpu be required every time?

I don't want to reinstall windows. Maybe I'll make a Linux bootable USB or refrain from mining then. AMD this is really bad ...

If it's crashing it's probably down to thread concurrency - Have a look for the thread concurrency others have been using for your card.


Yeah that low hashrate is a bit strange.

Play around with your GPU clock speeds, set it even lower, then keep going up and hashrate should increase, then suddenly decrease. When it decrease just keep backing up 1Mhz at a time and you should find the sweet spot.

You should also decrease your core voltage, try 1100mV, it will get temps down (i know they are already low, but they will go up when your hashrate increases).

Setting max gpu is needed everytime you restart your PC, but not every time you restart cgminer.

Also make sure the page file thingy has been set correctly on your PC - i was having loads of problems till i realised it was set to 0 - so i changed it to the max permitable of my main HDD and all was good :)

Edit - also try varying the value of  -s  --expiry  --thread-concurrency, see if that helps. You could also try higher intensities but i don't think that will be the issue. Don't forget though, if you go for a high intesnity, you will probably need to use -g 1 rather than 2

Truth is that the latest drivers are a real pain in the ass when it comes to mining.
I had several issues when trying to mine with the 13.xx series.
Do yourself a favor, waste less than an hour reinstall the damn thing and go straight for 12.8.
That's what I would do.

@Draxus, in your screenshot with GPU-Z things do appear to be functioning properly. Your low hash rate is caused by your settings (I get a similar hash rate with those settings on my 7950). Also, for some reason your memory clock is low and as stated by Spetznaaz, your voltages are higher than they need to be. In fact, I have the same card as you, a Sapphire 7950. Unfortunately, our cards have wayyyy overboard voltages of 1.225Vcore/1.6Vmem by default. Here are the settings that work for me right now:

I need to use both Sapphire Trixx and MSI Afterburner to tweak the card as only Trixx can adjust the core voltage and only Afterburner can adjust the memory voltage. Start Sapphire Trixx and adjust core voltage to 1080mV. Apply and close. Start MSI Afterburner, enable voltage controls and adjust memory voltage to 1500mV. Set the power limit to max (+20 -- this is very important!), the core clock to 984mhz and the memory clock to 1355mhz. If you like, setup a fan profile and enable automatic fan control as the default fan profile on this card seems very conservative. Apply your settings and minimize Afterburner to the system tray.

Create a batch file inside your cgminer directory and paste this into it:


The setx command (if already set) and shaders option are both kind of redundant, but it doesn't hurt to have them. Don't forget to adjust the pool, user and password to your own.

Try that out and see if/how it works for you. This is the exact setup that I'm running to achieve 560Kh/s (I know this is lower than most people claim to achieve, but I'm using much fewer watts and my cards run cool). I tried using lower intensities and "-g 2" like my 7970s run, but I just couldn't get good results with such settings on the 7950.

I'm running the 13.3 beta driver on Windows 7 SP1. If you think your issues are caused by your drivers, trying a different version (or reinstalling your current version) may be a good option, as others have suggested. AMD not long ago released a driver cleanup tool. I've used it successfully to upgrade/downgrade between every version of the AMD drivers from 12.8 <-> 13.3. You can find it here:

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/catalyst-uninstall-utility.aspx

It may not be as good as reinstalling Windows, but it's much easier and therefore maybe worth a try.

Hopefully you'll get things sorted out, good luck! :)

Also as far as the crashing goes,  is it just crashing cgminer or windows as well?

12.8 drivers crashed for me as well.

It was crashing windows as well....however I have not been able to test these new configurations as the internet at my house has been down for the past day   :-[

If that is after a clean install then something is wrong with your rig I think.
I tried 12.8 in several configurations and never failed.