X800XL and Omega Drivers

RJ45 · Mar 5, 2006, 10:13 PM

Alright, Im personally not having this problem... but I am posting this for my friend who is having the problem

#1 Alright, heres his system specs:

P4 3.0GHz
Abit IC7-MAX3
1.5GB GeIL DDR500 PC4000 Ultra Series
ATI Radeon X800XL AGP8X
OCZ ModStream 450W

Its a little long so if you are going to help, please read so that I don't have to answer questions twice. Here goes.

Around 2 months ago, his system started acting weird after Installing Omega ATI Drivers. His system would crash in some games after 2 hours of playing or sometimes even after a week. It wasn't a heat issue we've already checked into that. Turns out the Omega drivers, killed his RAM (his PSU was almost near death so he picked up a new one) so his RAM finally died so he grabbed some new RAM as well. Now hes fine, except hes using Original ATI drivers since then because of the bad experience. Now I lanned at his house with him and I told him to just try Omega ATI drivers again, so he decided to and just his luck the same crap is happening. Sometimes his computer won't go into Windows at all and just restart itself, sometimes it will go in Windows and just randomly crash in odd areas and times not even gaming. He finally got into windows and un-installed Omega Drivers and went back to Original ATI drivers... and there you have it his problem was solved. Now my question is WHAT could be causing this problem... its the most weird and stupidest problem I've ever heard of AND ITS NOT AN OVERHEATING PROBLEM! Its not a hardware issue AT ALL, we've tested and swapped with many other parts and its NOT hardware related but is very very 100% for sure driver related. When trying to boot into safemode when the Omega drivers were still intact, it would freeze on loading the agp440 file. I personally am CLUELESS as to what the problem can be, so hopefully somebody out there knows whats going one. His computer is NOT overclocked, never was nor is it an overheating problem, powersupply, RAM, mobo or video card.

Thanks for all your help, hopefully this problem can be solved.

fobis · Mar 5, 2006, 10:29 PM

Did you use DriverCleaner Pro to clean out your old drivers before installing Omega's?
You can get DriverCleaner Pro at www.drivercleaner.net
Basically, this program will clean out all the junk entries and stuff left by your previous drivers so that your new drivers will install and not have to conflict with stuff from any leftover drivers.
Once you install DriverCleaner Pro, make sure your video drivers are uninstalled, and then reboot into safe mode. From there, open DriverCleaner Pro and select the appropriate cleaning filters and start the cleaning process. Then, restart into normal mode and install your new drivers and reboot once again when the driver installer tells you to.
Hope this helps,
-fobis

Dyre Straits · Mar 5, 2006, 11:41 PM

I'm using a nearly identical system to the one you're reporting problems with. My ABIT IC7-G is using Corsair Dual Channel RAM (2x512 MB = 1 GB) and I've used Omega drivers for years now. I'm also using an ATI X800 XL 256 MB AGP card for about 6 months now. I've never had Omega drivers kill my RAM. I'd say it's something else....just based on my own excellent experience with Omega drivers. In fact, I'm using them right now.

What your friend may need to do is check the timings for the RAM in the BIOS and make sure he's not pushing it too much. Some RAM just won't work well under stress like others.

So, what particular brand of RAM is he using? And, what timings is he setting it to?

RJ45 · Mar 6, 2006, 12:17 AM

Yes we've tried the DriverCleaner. Once again, its not the RAM nor anything else... hes using GeIL and stock timings, he hasn't changed a single setting in his BIOS. We've swapped, used different parts, etc. exact same problem in completely different systems too. The drivers for some reason just DON'T like his card, no idea why... but thats what it is.

OmegaRED · Mar 6, 2006, 01:39 AM

After all that trouble why even bother. Stick with Catalyst drivers and use Ati Tray tools instead of CCC.

Dyre Straits · Mar 6, 2006, 01:49 AM

Quote:

Turns out the Omega drivers, killed his RAM (his PSU was almost near death so he picked up a new one) so his RAM finally died so he grabbed some new RAM as well. Now hes fine, except hes using Original ATI drivers since then because of the bad experience.

Based on this comment it's my understanding that you're saying that Omega's drivers 'killed his RAM'. Is that not what you meant to imply? Seems very clear to me that this IS what you're saying, though.

Did you friend get his X800XL brand new or used? If new, I'd advise him to exchange it due to the faults you're seeing.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Mar 6, 2006, 10:11 AM

How a driver would damage system RAM....is beyond me....

g35x · Mar 6, 2006, 10:15 AM

i agree H3X,and maybe rj,not changeing a single thing in the bios is bad.....i know on my system the video is set for pci until i set it to AGP,i rember that solved a few problems (and i use omega's with my x800xl agp and it's fine..............)

daedal · Mar 6, 2006, 10:16 AM

How did you come to the conclusion that video drivers killed RAM? As far as I know, there would be no ties from your video drivers to your memory adapter. I mean, I could see that happening if say, you installed funky chipset drivers which forced your RAM to run too fast or something but even there, the chances are slim.

Anyhow, regarding your problem. You have mentioned that it wasn't the RAM but how of that are you? Try running Memtest86 for a bit and see if any errors show up. I've had a similar issue before when my RAM was failing only on some operations. You've also mentioned that you've kept an eye on his temperatures, correct? What about the voltage rails?

H3X4D3C1M4L · Mar 6, 2006, 10:19 AM

The only way it could possibly have done anything is if the USER overclocked, in which case....

1. You can't IIRC OC system RAM with Omega's or any part of an Omega driver
2. It'd be the user's own fault even so