Ati Mobility Radeon 9700 With XP SP 2

Matrixdz2002

Hello All,

My Vaio Laptop was running just fine until yesterday. I finally decided to install XP SP2. When I re-booted to complete the SP2 install, I got always the same error "ati2dvag driver has stopped working" then I have a blue screen. All I did was the SP2 install and it broke the ati driver. I uninstalled SP2 and all returned to normal.

What is the conflict with SP2 and is there a cure? I checked MS and their Knowledge base but found nothing. Is this ati driver the problem or is it something else ??

I'd like to install SP2 so any help would be appreciated.

Sony VAIO VGN-S1XP Technical specifications :

Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional incl. Sevice Pack 1a

CPU Section
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 735 Processor speed 1.70A GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 400 MHz FSB

Memory
Memory Size (MB) 512
Memory Speed (MHz) 333
Memory Type PC 2700 DDR SDRAM

Graphics
ATI MOBILITY RADEON™ 9700 with 3D performance and 64 MB VRAM

Display
Display Type X-black LCD
Diagonal Size (in) 13.3
Resolution Format 1200 x 800

Thanks a lot

thegave

Hi what drivers are you using for your video card at the moment? Have you tried uninstalling the video drivers, installing SP2 and then reinstalling the drivers on top of it?

Have you tried modded drivers such as the Omega catalysts or the latest official drivers from ATi using the Mobility Modder?

Matrixdz2002

thanks for your reply,

I'm using the original Driver with XP SP1 since I tried Radeon Omega Drivers 2.6.25a (Catalyst 5.4) and on XP SP2 but it didn't work I always get error related to ati2dvag.

Any solutions ?

Matrixdz2002

Hoooooooooooooooraaaaaaaaaaaa !!!!



I found the solution after several hours of research.

Anyhow, no more wait, give this a shot :

Right click-mouse over My Computer
Properties
Hardware(Tab)
Device Manager(button)
Click [+] next to System devices
right-mouse on CPU to AGP Controller (or whatever your controller is called, mine was Intel(R) 82855 AGP)
Update Driver(button)

Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)
Next(button)
Select Don't search. I will choose the driver to install.
Next(button)
Select PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
Next(button)
Finish(button)
Reboot.

Please let me know how this works for you.
Good luck.

samlight

Hi there,
I was totally stumped until I read your solution... same laptop, same problem.
So I do as you say, and sure enough I can boot back in, however, it seems to only work sometimes... sometimes it makes it to log in, sometimes not, sometimes it will last half an hour and then freeze for a few secs and then say the ati2dvag driver has stopped working. The screen jumps to 4bit 640x480 and either shortly thereafter bluescreens or I get out.

There has to be something else other than just the AGP-PCI bridge going on here... has yours been fine since?

redsolar

You must reinstall the driver fresh after you install SP2. Since the driver is not signed, SP2 overwrites it with an older version of driver, which is incompatible with many other things Omega drivers include.

nascotdan

Matrixdz2002 & Redsolar -

Well done for posting this!! I've just spend 2 weeks trying to resolve this problem on my (now out of warranty Sony S1-XP laptop, until I finally stumbled upon this thread.

Neither Sony, ATI or Microsoft sites were able to help.

The only other thing to note, for anyone else who comes across this problem, is that when the SP2 update is complete, but prior to rebooting the machine make sure you go in to the system devices within control panel and reset the CPU to AGP controller back to PCI Standard PCI to PCI bridge. I noticed that SP2 set's it back to Intel(R) 82855 AGP, and then re-apply the original drivers.

When I rebooted having done that I had no problem whatsoever..

I also rang Sony back and told them about problem for those people.

Thanks

Nascotdan

lolly

Thanks for the info..

i have just experienced the same problem (random bluescreens with video adapter stoped working msg) with a Vaio S360 which has been running XP Sp2 perfectly fine for ~2 years until last night.

After reading around i came across this thread and changing the driver seems to have fixed the problem for now (my machine has been running fine for a couple of hours). What i am still wondering though is what exactly causes this issue to surface (as i havent done anything major to the laptop for the past couple of days), and also what exactly the problem is.

One note from me is that i was able to get my computer to start up under safe mode and, at least for as long as i ran it, it did not crash.

MrSpock2002

Sony blows when it comes to computers. I love their tv's and dvd players. But when it comes to computers they blow monkey balls. I used to own a Vaio desktop, had nothing but problems. That was 6 years ago. I used it for target practice with my shot gun, and built a custom pc, sold that, now I use an HP laptop. When it comes to Laptops, I'll never use anything but HP.

Dyre Straits

I can't even begin to say for sure in your case or these mentioned here. BUT, if any one of you has Windows Updates set to Install Automatically, I suggest you turn that option off and set it to Download and PROMPT you before installing.

The reason I say this is that I've had problems on a few systems re: Audio Device Drivers where Microsoft's Updates has mistakenly identified my Audio Devices as being C-Media. Instead, I had RealTek Audio and the Microsoft Updates completely skewed my sound.

If the Updates can do that with my Audio, I'm sure it can do the same thing with any other device in the system if it mistakes one for another.

Since my experience with this, I simply won't ever again let the Updates install automatically.

So, this is just a heads up as it may or may not be the source of the problems specifically mentioned here.

Oppie77

I also have the vgn-s1xp vaio.
I followed all the instructions and the bluescreen issues etc seem to be solved.
I'm using the newest omega driver cause the original sony driver won't work.
No the only problem I'm left with is that I have funny scrolling as in the screen refreshing with every step.

Incredibly irritating whilst on the internet etc.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks

dmp

I also have a sony S1XP laptop: To fix the blue screen problems mentioned above, I have completely uninstalled all ati software/drivers and have instead installed the omega drivers. I have also followed the instructions above:

"Right click-mouse over My Computer
Properties
Hardware(Tab)
Device Manager(button)
Click [+] next to System devices
right-mouse on CPU to AGP Controller (or whatever your controller is called, mine was Intel(R) 82855 AGP)
Update Driver(button)

Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)
Next(button)
Select Don't search. I will choose the driver to install.
Next(button)
Select PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
Next(button)
Finish(button)
Reboot."

(thanks for this, you rule!)

This has completely resolved the "blue screen" issues reported by myself and others, but the installed driver seems quite poor. In particular, as someone else mentioned, the scrolling is rather jerky (this is the same problem someone else had, right?). Is there some display setting that I am missing? I think am rather close to resolving this issue but would really like to be able to have a properly working display driver.

Thanks for your help in advance! Loads of people seem to be having these problems (club vaio forums are full of this problem!) but it seems that sony and ati don't really care enough to provide a properly working driver!

dmp

oppie77, i've found a less than perfect fix for our problem. do the following:

go to control panel->display->settings (tab)->advanced->troubleshoot (tab).

set the hardware acceleration tab all the way down to min. This makes browsing the internet for a proper solution to our problem much more manageable ;-).

If anyone has a better idea I would love to hear it!!!?

TotallyBushed

I have found a solution....

I also developed a spontaneous video driver problem... started with sluggish performance originating in atidvag2.dll manifested as spikes of cpu cycles, screen freezes then blue screening to THAT file.

I reinstalled the latest omega drivers (after rebooting in safe mode, driver clean pro'ed, rebooted etc. etc.) to no avail.

Then I changed the AGP driver to PCItoPCI standard bridge and volia! Stability but rubbish perfomance. Internet surfing would instantly reboot the video card and I would face that ribboning, jerky scrolling motion whilst surfing....

Then I stumbled on a solution:

Check "enable write combining" on the ATI/Omega "Advanced" "Troubleshooting" section of the video driver panel. This is accessed by the "Display" icon in Control Panel. And there you go... reboot and you have regained stability and performance. Beautiful.

Hope you read this...

Flawd

Hello! I know this thread is very old, but it helped me get to my solution, so I thought I would share it as others have.

I recently reinstalled Windows on a Sony Vaio VGN-S170 with the Mobility 9700 and got the same driver error as everyone else. I tried the PCI to PCI bridge fix, and it only worked for a couple days. The driver didn't revert or anything but it was still blue screening.

I reinstalled Windows again, and this time the PCI to PCI trick didn't work, so I tried the "Enable write combining" trick but mine was already checked. It didn't work, checked or not.

Then I went to Omega Drivers and got the newest current version (Radeon Omega Drivers 4.8.442 (Catalyst 7.12)). Those didn't work either.

NEXT! I got the Mobility Modder! (Very cool program by the way, thanks to the author(s)) And I modded the Omega Drivers, installed, and currently it's working.

So, right now, I have the PCI to PCI trick in place, Write Combining disabled, and modded Omega Drivers.

If it fails (like last time) I'll edit this so everyone knows.

Thanks for the help and ideas!


Edit: While installing drivers, the screen went black. Now it won't post. POS Sony!


Edit2: Well now it's bricked. Board is bad. These sony boards are horrible.

Wai

[FINAL EDIT: IT IS A HARDWARE PROBLEM: SEE BOTTOM]
[EDIT: Transient solution] to the Sony VAIO Mobility Radeon 9700 ATI2DVAG / blue screen problem...[EDIT: i.e. Still UNSUCCESSFUL, sorry folks]

Hello, I had this problem for a few months like you guys. I have a Sony VAIO S2XP (running XP SP2) for more than 4 years without any graphics problem. Suddenly it started to play up first as second CD drive not recognised and later the display driver screwed up and I've got this ATI2DVAG problem as well as blue screen. Reinstallation of the original ATI driver that is downloadable from Sony site didn't help. It was an ancient driver and I must say although I take pride in Sony products, their customer support sucks. No updates.

So I googled and found several solutions including those listed up there in this thread. I am not satisfied with the PCI to PCI bridge "solution" because it caused sub-optimal performance, not to say the turning off of hardware acceleration. So I tried Omega drivers. This is a great product and the installation experience was great. However it's performance was not the best neither. After I installed it, my screen saver, which uses hardware 3D acceleration did not work. It was also noted by others that with this driver, performance was seriously compromised.

Finally I tried Mobility Modder + latest Catalyst. I don't know whether it helped or not but I first did a thorough ATI drivers clean up (TweakXP.com - How to uninstall Radeon drivers in Windows XP). Since I had a Sony which is not supported by ATI, I have to download the Catalyst from this website (driverheaven). I simply followed the instructions described in the modder webpage. But note I am using modder on ATI Catalyst not like the previous poster using modder on Omega drivers. I got one of these "RegPermWriter.exe" problem during installing the ATI catalyst driver but if one just ignores this the installation can go to completion. The only other thing to note is after the modding, at the beginning of installing the ATI display driver, it took ages for anything to appear. The task manager showed that the installation programme is running with no signs of lock up or so, but nothing happened like for 30 minutes, but be patient and believe me it is working. I was impatient and stopped the installation program a few times, uninstalled everything and reinstalled and it cost me a whole day. Eventually I waited and the installation completed and asked for reboot. After that, everything seemed to work like a charm.

Just share with every one so they know a solution exists, unlike what was claimed elsewhere on the web. Three cheers to the modder folks.

EDIT (26/3/2008): I laughed too soon and offered too much hope in the above message. After a few hours of perfect performance, I tried to play a DVD and it didn't play. Device manager showed that second IDE channle is inactivated (with a red cross over it) so I tried to activate it and then everything screwed up again. Got blue screen all the time. In my case this is certainly related to video playing on the DVD drive.

So I spent a whole day fixing it, first I tried to just uninstall the ATI display driver in Add/Remove software in control panels... and left the CCC, it did not work. Then I uninstalled everything, used driver cleaner pro v.1.5 (freely downloadable on somewhere in the web), then reinstalled everything. After reboot it works for a short while. Once I clicked on the "video" options on the CCC, the computer stalled, reported a GPU reset and asked to restart the computer. After reboot, the graphics works OK to the 1280X800 resolution but I lost 3D hardware acceleration. Using DXDIAG I found that Direct3D is disabled. Now everything seems fine except there is no hardware 3D, any idea how to fix this? Occasionally I still get a blue screen but the system usually can get back after reboot. The annoying ATI2DVAG problem is totally gone. Sorry folks.

[Final note]
I am editing this so that my painful experience may end up saving somebody else's time. This problem atarted occuring to me since January 2008, now, 8 months later, after I have exhausted every method excepting reinstalling windows (newest drivers, customerised drivers, putting cooling materials on CPU & graphics chip) I found on the internet, I have to admit defeat: IT IS A HARDWARE PROBLEM. Some people thought/claim they found the solution by turning off hardware acceleration or using PCI other than AGP; that is not a real solution. That is like running 10 mph with a BMW, well it still runs... The most compelling tale-telling evidence that this is a hardware problem was this: mine is a dual boot sustem (windows XP & Linux). The graphics card failed on both OS at the same time. Eventually I took it to a local laptop repair shop in Hong Kong, it spent 3 days and got it fixed for me. Now it is back to normal, with 3D hardware acceleration. I spent about US$200 which is not cheap, but much cheaper if it was repaired by Sony. They told me that they replaced the graphics component (what exactly they didn't tell me) and some ROM. Another symptom of this problem was one does not have any video RAM reported in DXDIAG although it should have 64MB; now this has got fixed too. The repair people tested the notebook in Win XP and it was fine. I then tested it in Linux and it was also good.