Okay, here is a post from UNWINDER that details the culprit behind the lock ups!

"Unfortunately New Year holidays are over so I came back to work and prepared new beta build of v1.5.0 to release. We'll upload v1.5.0 beta 4 a few hours later (gonna have post-NY beer party in the office right now ), changes list comparing to beta 3 includes:"


- Added built-in localization debugger
- Added Dutch and Italian language packs (as usual, public proofreading is greatly wanted).
- Now voltage control is also locked by default in safety options in advanced
MSI Afterburner properties
- Added AccessibilityCheckingPeriod configuration file switch for improving the
compatibility with AMD ULPS power saving technology on Crossfire systems. The
switch allows low-level monitoring module to use AMD driver API to check GPU
accessibility and detect and display GPU sleep state properly. Please take a
note that AMD API implementation is ineffective and hardly suits to realtime
monitoring due to high CPU stress resulting in periodic stuttering in games.
That is why the compatibility switch is disabled by default, enable it only
if you absolutely need to see slave GPU sleep state on the graphs and accept
side effects like performance drop and stuttering resulting from ineffective
AMD API implementation
- Added NVIDIA GT240M PCI DeviceID range to the core to provide more efficient
hardware monitoring via low-level core on mobile NVIDIA GT240 based systems
(bonus feature, official mobile systems support is still not declared)
- Graph limits are now adjustable in the graph properties in <Monitoring> tab
- Added AMD RV810 graphics processors family supports
- Added voltage control for custom design MSI R5670 1GB series graphics cards
with uP6262 voltage regulators


"Please take a note that ULPS related changes mentioned above WILL NOT address system crashing issues when applying new clocks at OS startup on Crossfire configurations in some systems. That is entirely Catalyst related problem, so pray for the fix from AMD side."

"I suppose that it is the last beta of v1.5.0 and we'll finally release full version withing a week or two. Stay tuned!"

The above bold text explains the deal with ULPS related issues when using afterburner, there are some post on guru3d forums about this issue, seems the majority of users that don't have issues are single card users, multi gpu users get this headache, i was having this issue with every version of catalyst except the 9.12's that was leaked by sapphire back in December, but rest assured there is a fix, and i have put it into easy to follow instructions and screen shots as well using the state of the art program known only as "Ms paint"

Here is the location for the setting that you will need to edit in the registry (Regedit)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

set 1 to enable ULPS
set 0 to disable ULPS



Second step


P.S If you still get lock ups after disabling ULPS, try toggling between on and off for crossfire mode. (might take a few times). And do a restart just to be on the safe side.

The best way to avoid lockups with MSI Afterburner is to just set your voltage and frequencies and then exit out of the program.  Also, use CCC to set the fan speeds.

I never leave MSI Afterburner running after I set the clocks, and I've had every driver set for the 5870 that has ever came out and have never had a single lockup due to setting my settings with MSI afterburner.

luv2increase


The best way to avoid lockups with MSI Afterburner is to just set your voltage and frequencies and then exit out of the program.  Also, use CCC to set the fan speeds.

I never leave MSI Afterburner running after I set the clocks, and I've had every driver set for the 5870 that has ever came out and have never had a single lockup due to setting my settings with MSI afterburner.

I never tried using CCC for just the fan, and msi for the clocks and voltages, i might try to experiment with doing that, all i know is for me it was constant lock ups, then i disabled ULPS and lock ups are a thing of the past.