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I'm trying to mine with two MSI Radeon 6970 Lightning Editions and my computer GSOD's after 5-10 seconds of starting the miner. The crash is consistent.

-The Cards are getting about 800 mhash/s total. I love it. :D

-I'm using GUIMiner with 2 separate OpenCL miners for my two MSI Radeon 6970 Lightning Editions.

-My flag is -v for both OpenCL miners.

How do I stop this? :(

lower your clocks until it doesn't crash....  better yet, start them at a low clock and run them for a while.  I do not put my 6970's higher then 900.  if they are new, you should probably burn them in at 800 or 850 for a while.

I second this.  I was running my 6970 over 900 for a good while until I started getting random crashes.  Not always BSODs, but crashes nonetheless.  I think I ended up sending a power surge through the comp that damaged the cpu and motherboard. Luckily these were replaced for free.

I set the clock back to 850 and am running it there at 335 mhash.

I'll try running this tonight at 900MHz while I sleep and see if it's still running when I wake up. Thank you both. You and the joint. :)

Okay, so I'm getting things stable. Now I am having EXTREME temperature issues with 1 GPU. I can lower the Clock voltage, but I would like to know if I can damage my card with low voltages before I do so. How low can I go before I damage the card, if at all?

What's your fan setting and temp?

Fan setting is at 100% and temps are going above 100c until it crashes. Once I noticed, I was horrified.

So my question is how low can my Clock voltage go at 875MHz Clock speeds? I currently have it running at 1.0V without a crash yet.

Yikes...

Sure you don't have a bad card?

Maybe someone with a little more knowledge can help you.  I haven't messed with the voltage settings much.

I believe it is my case as well as my fans. This is a gaming rig, not a dedicated mining rig.

Lowering voltage will not harm your card. Quite on the contrary, the lower the voltage (and temps and to a lesser extend, clocks) the longer it will live. High temps will kill your card. And it shouldnt be at 100C, or anywhere near. I am assuming you mean dispIO temperature or shader temperature, not VRM temps. Though its still high, VRMs might get that hot and live..

As a quick test, clock everything back to stock. Open the case, en perhaps even point a deskfan at it. What are your temps now? If its still 90C+ you may have to reapply thermal paste.

Another possibility, if you are using GPU-Z and everest and/or afterburner, do not use them simultaneously. I burned a 5850 by running those apps. For some reason it causes the vcore to randomly spike to 1.65v (!). It didnt live long after that.

I'm only using MSI Afterburner to manage my cards. The cards were both at stock speeds when my was computer crashing. Temps didn't even have a chance to raise in the 3-6 seconds the miner ran.

When I downclock 1 of the cards from stock speeds(the GPU that gets above 100c), like the two above suggested, the miner runs stably(as far as I can tell in less than an hour of constant mining, not enough time though) this gives one of my GPU's time to get above 100c, the other GPU sits at 80C

I've decided to leave one of the GPU's(the one that stays at 80) at stock and I decreased Memory Frequency as low as it'll go(runs stable), and turn down the Aux Voltage(any idea what this controls?), and I decreased the temps in that one by a couple degrees.

The other GPU I have yet to tweak, they both seem to have different sensitivities so I will separately customize their settings.

NOTE: I am using stock thermal paste. I have not done anything but install them into my computer. No modding.

Try cgminer and its overclock and autofan features.

I have been meaning to get around to trying that. I might do that. But not to fix this issue.

you set your target temp and range of overclock, it finds its sweet spot

You are going to kill your cards at those temps. Find out if something is wrong with the card itself by switching their position (if its an airflow issue) and/or do as I suggested, open the case and point a desk fan at it.

You can tweak voltages and clocks all you want later, but at stock speed and settings, these cards should not run at 100C.

Agreed on the temps and load is unsustainable.  100% fan load 24/7 is going to kill the fan and >100C core temp continually is going to try the GPU.

If you are getting that high of temps @ 100% fan usage either you have the worst case ever built or your card is defective/damaged.

Here is something to try.  Run cards @ stock w/ 100% fan.  Remove side panel on computer case so it can get sufficient cool air.   If core temp stable at <70C?  If so then you need more airflow.  Your case is too restrictive.  Either go to open rig or look into a case with good airflow (think multiple 140m intake fans). 

If you still have crashing and 100C @ stock w/ side panel open ... THE CARD IS DEFECTIVE/DAMAGED.  Period.  It shouldn't be doing that.  If it is under warranty then RMA it before you cook it and they decide to not cover it as user damage.

Just because somebody can do xxx Mhz doesn't mean you can.  A closed system is going

Calm down. I opened up the case and the 100c card is getting 80c, and the 80c card is getting 70's-60's. It's just my case. One card runs great. But my second card is close to the bottom with minimal air flow.

I've got my mining pretty much stable. I'm tweaking the voltages lower to see what is stable to get cooler temps maxed out.

This rig isn't going to be mining 24/7. It'll be mining overnight or when I'm in class. So it'll be running less than 24 hours per day at those temps and fan speeds. I have a 3 year warranty. Will that cover me if my fans malfunction? I would guess so. I'm not worried about cooking my GPU because anything above 90c is completely unacceptable to me. I try for 70'sc.

Congrats Bananington, you got some cards!!!

That sounds dreamy. I'll try it tonight.

I also bought a 32" HDTV with full HD 1920x1080 Resolution. :D My gaming rig is complete.

Sounds good.  Like I said if temp drops it is air restriction.  You need a large volume of cool air to keep those GPUs cool.  If you need to use a case look for one which has plenty of room below the bottom card.  Also look for one which has the HDD mounted high (up near the CPU)  that gives you a straight shot from the front mounted fans to the cards air intake.

Lowering memclock as far as possible (depends on the card, bios, company) will reduce some heat and give you some headroom.


Well 16 hours a day is pretty much same as 24 hours a day.  Mining is hard on hardware.  Yeah a dead fan will be covered under warranty but it will be a pain in the ass and a long 2+ week delay getting your refurb card (which was used by someone else who likely abused it :) ). 

With good airflow you should be able to keep fans speed down to 75% or less.  That will improve longevity of the fan.  If your motherboard allows separating the cards more (because it has 3+ 16x slots) that helps too.  You can find extra long crossfire cables if you need one for gaming.

-I'm a gamer, this is a case built for gaming, plus I don't have the money for a new case just to mine.

-My memory clock is as low as possible.

-As for the RMA wait period, I'll always have one 6970 running to keep my games going. Lol

Thank you guys for your advice. I'll keep working on this stuff and update with what I finally get it stabilized at.

Ok, so I'm tweaking the settings on one 6970. So when I run it, after about an hour or so, I get a long poll IO error reported by GUIMiner. So when I wake up to check on the mining, it has stopped mining several hours ago.

Any ideas? Normally with a crash, it doesn't show up as long poll IO error, right?

So I've come to the conclusion that I can't run two cards plugged in at stock speeds. For some reason, GPU 2 can run at stock speeds, but GPU 1 crashes at stock speeds. The cards run perfectly at stock speeds when I only have one or the other plugged into the mobo. I've tested both PCI-e x16 slots individually and they both work and run each card at stock speeds without crashing, but when I have them both plugged in, GPU 1 CANNOT run at stock speeds for some reason.

Does anyone else think this is a driver issue? Because it doesn't seem to be a hardware issue.

Need more info...
 
Mobo? Have you updated your BIOS or checked for issues with your particular model?

What OS / Driver version are you using?

Crossfire bridge installed?  Are you manging both cards with Afterburner and using identical settings?

What are your temps like now (since you had the issue before)?

SOunds like your powersupply isnt up to the task.

What you say sounds about right, P4
If the PSU doesn't feel up to snuff, OP might be getting a lot of power fluctuations resulting in a crash.

Request you post PSU specs, including the manufacturer and model info.

Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131655
PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152045
OS - Windows 7 64bit
CCC Driver - 11.12

Crossfire Bridge is installed because I will eventually need to crossfire for my games, but crossfire is disabled via CCC.

My Temps are GPU 1(81c) and GPU 2(70c) this is with GPU 1's clock lowered from stock settings until it stops crashing.

My PSU has more power than is required, it shouldn't be a problem unless it is faulty. :O

Like I said earlier, both cards run at stock speeds perfectly on there own in either PCI-e slot with either pair of my 8-pin connectors.

I appreciate all of your responses. :) I hope we can figure this out.

81C is too high for 24/7 operation.  Are you downclocking the memory? 

Everything is downclocked. Core voltage(without crashing), AUX voltage(without crashing), Memory Frequency(without crashing). I've already come to the conclusion that my case is at fault, causing the the extreme GPU temps because of poor airflow. I'm buying a new case ASAP.

But temperatures aren't the issue for me right now, why won't my GPU 1 run at stock settings when GPU 2 is installed?

My miner crashes GPU 1 when the clock is at stock speeds, my games crashes the GPU at core clock stock speeds when it's usage is above 80% as seen in Skyrim. The GPU runs perfectly at stock when I don't have another GPU plugged in. So what is the issue?

Installed or mining.

GPU 1 crashes if GPU2 is idle or under full load?
What is the VRM temp (not core temp) on GPU1 when it crashes?

-installed, and/or mining. Even if they are crossfired(I did this to test mining stability) GPU 1 still crashed.
-GPU 2 can be idle or under full load, it does not matter at all, just as long as it is plugged in the issues will occur. I have not tried switching the GPU's around. (putting GPU 1 in GPU 2's spot and visa versa) but I have tested them 1 card at a time in each slot and it worked fine for both at stock settings.
-How can I determine VRM temp of GPU 1? And what is VRM?

I am also using MSI Afterburner to manage/monitor these GPU's. I believe someone asked that earlier and I failed to answer. Crashing occurs when the cards have different and identical settings as well.

I am also having problems with 6970, I stopped running 3 of them and instead left one for mining.  It is way too hot no matter how you undervoltage it etc.  I think the 5xxx series are better for mining.

I think you misunderstand, my problem is not a temperature problem. My problem is that when I have two GPU's plugged in, one of them crashes at core clock speeds within seconds of usage going above 80% way before temps get out of the 70's.

Even though on paper your PSU is certainly powerful enough, it still sounds like a power delivery issue to me. Can you try another one?

OP, read this article:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=246

The PSU reviewed there is build on the same platform as yours. They are both manufactured by Andyson according to the same spec. The only difference are stickers, just like with reference GPUs.

Although it might come as a shocker, contrary to what the label might imply, your PSU is NOT capable of delivering 1200W in continuous mode.

Moreover, your PSU has all its 12V power divided into four rails, each of them limited to 40A (480W).
You need to take very good care when loading up these rails.
If you connect your PSU in such a way that one rail becomes overloaded, as the PSU heats up and as a loses some efficiency (so-called de-rating), it might shut off on you.

This is a half-decent PSU but the rail distribution makes it quite hard to connect it the right way.
You'll need to read the manual and figure out which connectors to use to distribute the load evenly across the rails.

No I can't. :(

I'm not familiar with PSU's at all. I have 1 video card plugged into the PCI-E slot on the PSU, and the other video card plugged into another PCI-E slot on the PSU. Wouldn't that distribute the load?

Any suggestions on how to test this would be appreciated.

It can be more complicated than that.

Your 6970 has 2x power connectors.  

Your PSU has 4 12V rails.  Each rail is only powerful enough to support 1 6970.  If you have both 6970s on the same rail and/or 6970 and mb on the same rail it will overload that rail and make the system unstable.

So you want it hooked up like this

Motherboard & other 12V loads - rail 1
First 6970 - rail 2
Second 6970 - rail 3

Figuring out which connector goes with what rail can be "tricky".  They often are poorly marked.  Looking at the wattage sticker on PSU, any documentation that came with it, and any specs provided online may help.

Alright, I just switched the cards and they both run at stock speeds without crashing. I have no idea anymore. Problem solved so far. I'll post if I have any unforeseen issues later.

Ok, so I switched slots, So GPU 1 is now GPU 2 and vice versa. So instead of the computer locking up when GPU 2 is running at 99% load at stock clock speeds, the video driver crashes and i get a notification saying that my driver crashed and was restarted. This is a step away from my computer crashing, now it's the driver. :/

Any ideas ladies and gentlemen?

Im gonna ask again; are you running both GPU-Z and Afterburner? If you are, that would explain the extreme temperatures and crashing. ATI cards have a bug, when 2 apps are polling for (VRM only?) temps, it can cause vcore to spike up to over 1.6v. I know HD5000 cards are affected by this (I killed one myself because of this), I havent seen confirmation 6000 series are affected, but it wouldnt surprise me.

Why dont you try not running any of these monitoring apps, not even CCC and just use cgminer, and see what happens? Or guiminer if you must

I'm sorry for missing your question before. I've been running just MSI Afterburner.

So I reset everything to stock and closed MSI Afterburner. Then I ran the miner with GPU 2(formerly known as GPU 1 with the issues) and the display driver still crashed and restarted. I'm not sure how to not run CCC, I just left it in the system icon tray.

If you have switched the cards (and power cables), and its still the same card acting up, Id say its time for an RMA.

Im still clinging on to my hypothesis though, since you mentioned GPU-Z and afterburner, I suspect you killed the card by running 2 monitoring apps at some point, and the vcore shot through the roof. It took less than 30 minutes at 1.6v to kill my 5850. It didnt even die right away, for a week it kept running, but not very stable, far hotter than before and became ridiculously sensitive to voltage adjustments. Then it just died.

I have not mentioned GPU-Z. I do not use GPU-Z. I only use MSI Afterburner to monitor my GPU's.

The card runs fine on it's own though. If I just have the one card plugged into either PCI-E slot it'll run at stock settings without crashing, It's when I plug the second GPU in, is when it acts up.

Sorry then, I must have misread or confused two threads. I would have sworn you mentioned gpuz.

I guess that puts us back to a cooling or power delivery problem. This might have been discussed before, but have your tried removing your case's side panel (if any) and pointing a big deskfan at it?  Just to narrow down the possible causes.

...in which case:
OP, please try the following:
If you are using the hardwired PCIE cable, unplug it.
Use only the two modular cables to power the cards.

While you open up the case to re-cable the GPUs, do take care of proper cooling as P4man suggested.

I have removed the side of the case and aimed a fan at it. This does not fix the issue. :(

I have done this. I have tried two seperate modular power cables, when this failed I have switched pack to 1 hardwired and 1 modular cable.




I find this really odd. Both PCI-E x16 slots on the mobo run fine, I have tried both 6970's in either slot running at stock speeds with the GUIMiner and Skyrim with no crashing, only 1 card plugged into the Mobo at a time though.

But when I plug two 6970's into my mobo, the same 1 crashes at stock clock speeds. If it is the primary VGA adapter, the computer completely freezes at stock settings when usage is above 80% and I have to hard restart. If the tricky card is the secondary VGA(the card my monitor is NOT plugged into), the video driver will crash and restart(without causing me to restart my computer) at stock settings when the usage is above 80%.

I have tried two separate modular power cords/ 1 modular and 1 hardwired power cable. My CCC driver's are up date with 11.12(I will be certain to update to 12.1 when they release it).


I am not completely against RMA'ing the card, but what if it isn't the card? Could it be the crossfire bridge, even though I have crossfire disabled?

You likely are looking at an RMA but to be sure I would do this:

1) I would remove the crossfire bridge.  Eliminate all other sources of failure.
2) Do a clean install of windows or try linuxcoin on usb drive.  Windows drivers don't like swapping cards around.  Don't ask me why.
3) When you do a clean install just install driver ONLY and APP SDK (Open CL).  No afterburner (bleh), no CCC.
4) Use cgminer w/ cards running at stock.

If you still get crashes and or hard locks shortly after mining then it is hardware but what hardware?

The confusing part is it could be:
a) MB
b) first card
c) second card
d) both cards
e) PSU

:(

I get that whole "display drive has crashed, but ahs recovered" problem with my 5870 that is slowly dying. I have to just keep starting it until it takes. I'm afraid to say it man, but I think one of your cards is just dying and that's why you're having these problems.

I'll try it without the bridge and post my results here.

*sigh* I hope you're wrong. I don't wanna pay that damn shipping just out of principal. MSI's products should work like advertised.

The fact of the matter is, windows uses hardware slot/port enumeration when ID-ing and configuring newly installed hardware.
Whether it's a GPU or a flash drive, changing the slot/port results in Windows discovering a new device. The drivers are already there so at least that is not a problem.

This approach looks goofy when you have 4 usb slots easily accessible and connect the same flash drive to the random port each time. Eventually, Windows will have quadrupled the device information.

However, this approach can be used for your advantage: should your device stop working correctly in one port due to some glitch that results in Windows "Not being able to find the correct driver" for a hitherto well-known device, you can always trivially reconnect it somewhere else and restore its functionality.
Of course, you could delve into the registry, find the faulty entry and delete it but such approach is not for the faint of heart.

There, I fixed it for you  ;)


OP, I'm not sure what information about the crash you are able to get out of the system, but do try to find out whether the fault seems to be card- or port-based.
That is, whether it is one specific GPU that crashes or any GPU in the specific mobo port that crashes.

It is a specific GPU that crashes.

Hmm.  I missed that.  So it is a specific card that crashes (always the same card that crashes) but it only crashes when two cards are installed?

Even if you don't want to use linux coin I recommend dropping it on a usb stick, booting from usb and trying.  If you get crashes there on the same card at stock you likely are looking at an RMA.  If you don't then windows is likely fubared and rather than waste a lot of time you probably should just do a clean install.

:( I'm going to try that, but last time I tried to run linux coin, I hung at the splash screen. No hardware has changed, I have reinstalled windows 7 since then. I'll try these things soon ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all for your troubleshooting tips.

Hey, if LinuxCoin (or any other ready-to-go distro) can't get through the boot-up there's definitely something wrong with the hardware.

I tried running the card without the bridge and I still have the driver crash and recover.

Linuxcoin hangs at the splash screen. I believe this may be due to a BIOS setting but I have no idea.

Anyone?

live linux distro's are fairly slow to boot, since the image is compressed; give it some time. You may also want to try another USB stick.
Last thing to do, when it seems frozen, try this keycombo
ctrl+alt+F1
Do you get a console? Or are your keyboard lights flashing?

I'm going to try and install it on another USB Flash Drive. So I'll probably be reporting back in 2 hours or so.

Ok, so using a different flash drive worked. This is a flashdrive that I use exclusively for other things, any idea why the other flash drive didn't work?

I'll be testing mining out as soon as I figure out how to.

GUIMiner won't connect when I try to mine. I've never mined with linux. Any tips?

make sure you have access to internet first.

I made that post on LinuxCoin. :D

Dont know GUIminer, so try this;
open a terminal (shift control T)
Then type or copy paste these commands (careful, case sensitive! you can paste with right click or shift+control+v):



But IIRC you first have to agree to the AMD license... Its been a while, but isnt there a shortcut for that in the menu or on the desktop somewhere?

As for the USB stick; its entirely possible its defective.  Something you may not notice when just throwing small files on it.
Another possibility is that you have one of those U3 infected sticks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3

Do I replace "youruser" and "yourpass" with the miner username and password?

I get this

I have NO idea what I'm doing here. There's a reason that I use GUIMiner. :( I'm sorry you guys have to hold my hand with this.

Just tried it and get the same here. Linuxcoin is a bit of a mess, or I dont know how to use the default miners either, cant get any of them to work  ::)
and installing/compiling cgminer isnt all that easy either.

You could use bitminter from a webpage (see my sig), but even that requires you do something, because the default the browser in Linuxcoin doesnt know how to handle java webstart. I think you only have to configure the mimetype, not quite sure

I dont have remote X access to my miners atm, perhaps someone else can say how to get this man mining on linuxcoin?

If not, Ill prepare and boot a fresh linuxcoin on my machine and talk you through it tomorrow.

Thanks a bunch. :)

I use linuxcoin and do fresh boots all the time.  here are the steps:

1.  create a brand new linuxcoin on a stick with persistence
2.  need a way to get a couple of files to the new box. I have a gmail account with a  draft email with file attachments. the file you need is :  http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/cgminer-2.1.2-x86_64-built.tar.bz2
3. boot new box with new stick
4. navigate.  start -> system tools -> ATI SDK Licence   and follow prompts to accept
5. open browser / email and download file from step 2 (choose save file to /home/user)  or go to this thread and download the file https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0  (file cgminer-2.1.2-x86_64-built.tar.bz2)
6. open shell (nav start -> Accessaries -> root terminal
7. bunzip cgminer-2.1.2-x86_64-built
8. tar xf cgminer-2.1.2-x86_64-built
9. cd /lib64/
10. ln -s libncurses.so.5 libtinfo.so.5  (this is because some libraries have been changed since old version)
11. cd /home/users/cgminer-2.1.2-x86_64-built
12  create a conf file to use, my simple sample file that I use is listed below as myconf.5970.conf:
13.  ./cgminer -c myconf.5970.conf


some handy things to know with linuxcoin:
1.  if you move or change the gpus in any way, this will delete and reload the drivers for the vid cards

• rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
• reboot

2.  keep your mouse in the main screen. if you move mouse too far to the right, operating system will 'switch ' on you and show you a different session screen.  I haven't figured this out yet, I just reboot and start over.
3. if, when you first boot up you see this 'other' session screen, be patient, the main linuxcoin screen will appear
4.  dont hesitate to do the steps in step 1 :)
5.  if machine locks, or kill power  linuxcoin will usually boot up OK. but if you kill power while it is shutting down, you may corrupt files. I have had many linuxcoin sticks 'freak out'.  dont hesitate to just make a new one and start over. it will be faster then trying to fix what is wrong.  (this is my preference, I am sure there are ubuntu experts here that would disagree with this step. but I can have a brand new one up in 5 minutes)
6.did I say dont hesitate to do step 1 :)
7. here are some handy aticonfig commands (although, if using cgminer, probably wont need these)
list gpus:  aticonfig --adapter=all --odgc
get fans: for i in 0 1 2 3 4; do   DISPLAY=:0.$i aticonfig --pplib-cmd "get fanspeed 0"; done


enjoy

I see you have the GPU engine set to 820Mhz. The 6970's I have are lightning edition from MSI. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127581 Can you look at those default specs and tell me what I should input? I know I can try and substitute, but I don't think I have enough experience yet to tweak it.
I'm also having trouble with step 7. :(

usually any brand new gpu I like to burn in for a day at a lower clock.  820 or 850 would be good to burn in for a 6970.  I have 2 6970's and I run them at 900/300. they get about 409Mhash

"gpu-memclock" : "300" could be a problem on a 69x0 card though, no? I thought you couldnt clock the memory more than 125Mhz below the core.

Both of these cards have been running since the beginning of this thread at 920Mhz and 894Mhz. The 894Mhz is the highest clock the troublesome GPU will not crash at. 920Mhz is stock for Lightning edition 6970's.

But anyway, my point being is that the burn in period has gone and past.

OMG, I just looked at my settings, and both cards are like that with 125Mhz difference between the core clock and the mem clock. I never noticed that. This'll help me hone in cards much faster. Thanks mate.

One reason I sold all my 6950 & 6970s.  Bleh.  No idea why AMD did that.

I'm using GUIMiner and when I try to mine I get this message.

p4......  you may be right. I have been running these for months with gui and afterburner. so the memclock might not be down to what I think it is...  arrrgg  time to work on that box a little.

For what it's worth, I have 32 of these cards (MSI Lightning 6970).  All of them are mining at 950Mhz core and 340Mhz memory clock.  The voltage is reduced to 1.050V on every card and they are *all* rock solid stable.  To change the memory clock and voltage for Linux, I had to flash the BIOS on all cards (which isn't as time consuming as it sounds.  Maybe 10 minutes with a properly built flash drive.)  MSI Afterburner is able to change all of these in Windows without a flash though.

Another thing -- running these fans at 100 percent will *not* kill the fan.  These aren't reference cards with reference fans.  The fans are a dual ball bearing design by Power Logic.

Lastly -- if you're managing to hit 100C on these cards, you've got some *unbelievably* hot air in your case.  Granted, my cards are dedicated rigs with good cool airflow, but the 4 cards at the top of my shelf are currently running at 76C with 29% fanspeed.  The heatsinks on these cards are *phenomenal* at removing heat.


Bananington, what position is the BIOS switch in on your cards?  The middle?

I'm not sure if it is the middle but it is the position labelled "Silent". Should I switch to "Performance"? I was under the impression that "Performance" allows for higher voltage ranges and clock frequencies. I just want to run the cards at stock, that's all. This is a gaming rig, not a dedicated miner, but I'm running into these issues with gaming and mining.

I'm glad someone else uses these cards to mine.  ::)

You are quite mistaken. That switch there be fan control (Silent = higher temps). Switch it to Performance and rejoice much lower temps.
Just make sure you power off the rig. It's all too easy to make a costly boo-boo when messing around with a live machine.

The MSI R6970 Lightning card is clocked at 940 MHz, it's already factory overclocked.

Yeah.  The switch is fan control and it also raises the overdrive limit (to 2000/2000).

You can move the BIOS switch while the machine is on, but it wont do anything until the card resets and reads the BIOS from the other ROM bank.  Powering off a rig to make a change certainly isn't a bad idea though.  :)

me...  runs to ebay looking for MSI Lightning 6970  :)

I tried to sell some of mine on eBay and ultimately got frustrated.  I priced them at $290 + shipping and was still having a hard time moving them.  I don't get it.  I sold 3 and got a slew of messages asking if I would cut them deals on multiple cards or if I would save one for them so they could buy it a month later.  The 3rd guy wanted to cancel his order almost immediately after he bought & paid for it.  He changed his mind 6 times (yes...  six) between wanting and not wanting the card (and sent me a message for each one).  eBay is turning into a complete joke.

Okay, so I've switched to Pheonix miner minus the GUI, I increase my Mh/s by 20 by using Diapolo's modified kernel for SDK 2.6. :D

But anyway, I'm still experiencing the issue with the lockup or the driver crashing and recovering. I have discovered something new. I can run the card at stock settings when solo mining without a crash. :/ But pool mining and/or playing games causes a lockup or driver crash.