^--- Actual desktop screenshot
System specs:
AMD Athlon 64 x2 5000+
Gigabyte HD 5870 Super OC
4 GB PC-4200 Ram
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
650 Watt Antec TruePower Trio TP3-650
Some background info:
The problem comes and goes.
If I load the default windows graphics driver, the problem goes away, if I load AMD drivers, the problem instantly returns.
If I use 16-bit color the problem goes away, if I use 32-bit color the problem instantly returns.
The diagonal line down the center tends to happen in each individual window that is open.
The problem seems to be aggravated by layering and moving windows.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask, thanks for any and all feedback...
***1/13/2014 EDIT: NEW INFO***I was looking through task manager when I noticed that my "System" process was consistently using 50% cpu, Process Explorer pointed to atikmdag.sys as being at fault.
I removed and re-installed the amd catalyst suite again, the problem persisted. At this point I was getting pretty frustrated and there was nothing on this pc that is irrecoverable anyway, so I did a clean re-install of the Windows 7 OS.
Starting with a brand new windows installation, I installed amd catalyst software suite again. Again, Process Explorer reports atikmdag.sys as using 50% cpu.
Upon looking online I saw multiple places that said atikmdag.sys errors can persist even after a clean windows re-install and the way to fix was by re-naming the current atikmdag.sys and manually extracting a new copy from atikmdag.sy_ from the AMD installation directory.
So, I renamed my current version of "atikmdag.sys" copied over an expanded version of "atikmdag.sy_" from the original install directory, restarted and "atikmdag.sys" is still using 50% cpu which leads me to believe it may be a .DLL issue which is causing atikmdag.sys to use 50% cpu. I am not really sure what to do from this point though as I don't which DLL is causing the issue or how to figure out which DLL is causing the issue or if the problem may be something besides a DLL issue...
