LioCraft

Hi there,
My problem seems to be more like yours, which to me, happens to be the exact same thing, but with a different timing and/or trigger.
In my case, it even may produce distorted image right after boot up, leading finally to a complete lock.
The whole system is new, so I may finally end up installing XP again, but it sure isn't the correct way to solve a problem, in fact it's just avoiding it.
I think that if we have a decent or more than decent software, we should be able to run a decent OS in a decent way.
Does any of the Ati involved members here knows about at least any kind of approximation to the solution?, Is Ati getting closer to it?.
Thank you,

Th3_VVr41th

My issues remain the same. I would have thought ATI would have figured out the problem by now.

I still get the atikmdag stop error if I don't use ati tool. It's definitely something to do with the fan/thermal control of the card. My fan never spins up, regardless of temp of the gpu. I just get the damn stop error as soon as the card/driver attempts to change the fan speed. How do I know? I used an install of XP, and monitored the gpu temps at which the fan speed is increased. As long as I either keep the temp low enough on the gpu, preventing the driver from trying to up the fan speed, OR, I use ATI Tool to set the fan speed to 100%, I can play any game I throw at it for hours without a glitch or hiccup. except one game.

STALKER seems to just drop out to the desktop wothout any warnings or errors. It just stops and exits with a flash on the screen. It may be the drivers, it may be the game itself seeing it can be fine for hours, and then *poof*, it's back to the desktop, no reason why.

Ati needs to fix this issue, I am not the only one in the house who uses this computer for gaming, and if anyone else forgets to start up ATI tool for some reason, (ati tool refuses to start automatically under vista, stupid user account control, yes I could disable it, but then it defeats the purpose.) there is a chance my card will burn up/overheat, and be damaged since the fan isn't working automatically as it is SUPPOSED to. I know it's not the card, works flawless with XP pro. I doubt ATI will replace the card if it does burn up due to the driver failure. So they need to address this!

Come on ATI, I shouldn't need to depend on third party software to get/keep my graphics card running the way it should, and I'd like to get a real answer to the problem, rather then the typical/usual "we are aware of the problem and are working on it" response.

Frager

Just to mention that I found what is exactly the problem and I solve it for my system.
I was having a ati recover sometime when I exit supreme commander and most of the time the computer stop responding and does not even recover.

I found that the problem is with card that have a 2d and 3d clock.


(I DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO THIS SO DONT HELD ME REPONSIBLE IF YOU TRY THAT)
So what I did is backup my video card bios , and setting the default and 2d clock and voltage identical to the 3d one and then flashed my video card. so my card now never modify its clock when im in 2d and 3d and is constantly running at its full rated 3d clock and this resolved my problem.

Hope it can help you guys enginered at ATI if the problem wasnt solve already for catalyst 7.5

Thank for hearing.

Ism2023

aside from trying the scary volt mod (o.0) it doesn't look like its fixed with the 7.5s

Im testing the RC7 ones and i get the same amount of black screens and frozen mpeg2 streams on my HTPC (oddly it only seems to happen when playing mpeg2. mp4, x264/h264 all seem fine)

hansolo77

I confirm Ism's findings... Catalyst 7.5 has NOT fixed the problem. I'm really starting to get pissed now. For what, 4 months now, we've been waiting for this problem to be fixed? I say 4 months because I've had this problem since Vista was released, regardless of the Catalyst version. ATI needs to look at the bigger picture and fix their fundamental drivers before trying to make tweaks. Looking at the release notes to this driver, it seems like it's just a TWEAK driver. Some features that were disabled are now available, lots of things work now in big games, even video DRM now. Wow, big jump. I can hardly hold my breath with this one. When is ATI going to get to the root of the problem and fix the functionality of the card? I mean, I can even have my computer on for 5 minutes before I get this blasted "ATIKMDAG stopped responding" error. Unfortunately, I don't have the $700 bucks to break down and buy an nVidia card. Not to mention everything everybody's working these days is PCIe and all I have is 8xAGP. I'm not going to go out and buy all new hardware to solve this problem.

WAKE UP ATI

Indestructible

I haven't done any extensive testing with the 7.5s yet, but they seem to be working for me so far in the games i've tried. I can play for an extended period with out the error and when the fan spins down upon quitting it doesn't cause the error. Granted this is a brand new installation of Vista again, the old drivers seemed to work for a couple reboots before they went bad. Going to pick up Halo 2 PC to do some more testing.

Th3_VVr41th

7.5's have exactly the same problem as the previous drivers...

I would have though ATI would have gotten this figured out already...
I guess being bought out by AMD has caught up to ATI's r&d/support dept.

Problems used to get solved within a single cat. release... Now it's already 4 iterations later and we are still plagued with the same problems...

I *was* going to be buying the newest ATI card, but since I've seen no resolution to
the current problems, I don't think thats going to happen now...

May be time to move to Nv, I'm half way there already...

Th3_VVr41th

After checking the 7.5's out fully, I've found them to be WORSE than the rest as far as my problem is concerned.

What makes them worse is the fact that, not only is the original problem I've been experiencing still present, but now a new problem consisting of my fan shutting OFF after approx. 10 Min's of being idle, and allowing my GPU to reach temps of 80c + is present!!!

I found this out completely by accident. I did all my tests, same as usual, then I rebooted my system, and figured since I wasn't going to be loading up and running any more 3d apps/games, I won't start up ATI Tool.

Normally, this was NEVER a problem as the fan on my card always kept the GPU cool enough at idle, as well as kept a constant speed. Well the wonderful "Catalyst" team has broken yet another part of the drivers somehow with the 7.5's. Not only is this ridiculous, but it is also now UNSAFE!

As i said, I rebooted my system, and I went to run a few errands. I come back 20 Min's later to find the temp. probe I have set up for the GPU going nuts and beeping like mad!!! I look at the temp on the probe...75c... in the CCP 80c IDLE!?!?! My gpu temps don't even go that high while I'm gaming! (I usually see no higher than 65c full load due to the ambient temps and fan @ 100%)

I look at the card to see the fan is OFF! I immediately started up ATI tool and the fan kicked on and thankfully cooled the GPU down quick.

For the GPU to be at 80c idle in a room that is kept at 25c ambient 24-7, that was pretty hot, I believe if the room temp were any higher, the card would have fried. Thankfully I wasn't gone long enough.

Needless to say, after this, I wanted to see if i could duplicate what happened, and sure enough, I did. Upon a reboot, I allowed the system to sit idle. about 10 Min's. later, the fan on the card CUT OFF, and the temps gradually started to rise. I did this several times, same thing. Definitely ANOTHER problem with the 7.5 drivers since the 7.4's don't do this.

I'm fed up with the quality of the drivers ATI has been delivering lately. I'm also fed up with their complete lack of response to my problem, and dropping my trouble tickets as solved, when they haven't solved anything... WTF is going on with them lately?

I stopped buying AMD products years ago due to the sub-standard crap the company put out and lack of proper support. Apparently now that they own ATI, look as though they are going to run them into the ground with the same practices... what a shame...

hansolo77

Just to add more gas to the fire... this all goes back to my original findings with the ATI TOOL. As I stated previously in this very thread, even using the tool doesn't solve the problem with the crashing. However, I have noticed that when it does, the fan completely cuts off until I restart ATI Tool. The problem we're all facing has GOT to be related heat and the driver's inability to compensate. Whenever anything is running, it geneates heat. Some things more than others. But, like in "Th3 Wr41th"s case, even sitting idle the temperature becomes the issue. ATI has got to realize that having shiny water effects, or a 3fps increase in the absolute newest games is not the most important. It's so typical of a company to just ignore things like quality and stability, while a more profitable solution is to add more features. It just really pisses me off. Why do they do these things to their customers. I'm about to leave ATI and AMD for good. I've always enjoyed their products in the past, but as of late, it's become more trouble than it's worth. I'll give them at most 2 more driver updates, then it's back to Intel and nVidia.

GWBoes

I still think the conclusion of frager is more logical, since crashing is tottaly unrelated to the temperature.

I'm monitoring the temperature constantly on the lcd screen of my g15 and when playing test drive unlimited on full graphics (1600*1200, 4x aa, high detail, high definition, ccc everything to max) atikmdag crashes around 55 degrees.

with reduced graphics (na aa, no hd, ccc everything off/low) the gpu reaches 62 degrees before crashing.

that's why i think that it is clock switching related because higer graphics mean that the asses of the gpu en mem are kicked harder so it will switch to teh 3d clocks sooner, which by some sort of reason results in atikmdag crashing and when it is recovered by your os it doesn't keep the settings of before the crash (the reason of the dropping fan speed).

I also don't know why ati doesn't have an solution for this because it looks zo easy, just editing a couple of lines that prefents the card from switching clocks.

Th3_VVr41th

The detail level, (such as AA,AF, etc...) has absolutely NO EFFECT on 2d/3d clocks!
The Clock frequencies stay the same no matter how high you crank your detail levels in 3d...

Flashing the bios to fix an OBVIOUS driver issue is not only ridiculous, it's also NOT a solution to the problem.

The guy who says he flashed his card never even stated what kind of card, what model, what manufacturer, what OS, etc.... So I'm not even inclined to believe any of the statement, nor am I even going to give it a thought about trying... Although I will concede the fact that by Flashing the bios to having strictly 3d clock speeds actually supports my theory of it being directly related to the thermal/power management of the card.

Some cards error out at either starting, or exiting a 3d app (clocks are changing) some cards error out as the temp increases (driver trying to access the thermal control of the fan) BOTH of these issues are directly related to the control of not only clock speeds, but VOLTAGE control as well, and here we get in to power management of the card.

2d clocks are just stepped down core/memory voltages/clocks to cut power draw and consumption, as well as heat. This is Ati's "Powerplay" functions, or their thermal/power management solution....THEY BROKE IT in vista, BADLY...

So what this tells me is, why would I, or anyone else flash a card, that worked perfectly in Win XP, and perfectly up to driver release 7.2? Why risk killing a card when it is NOT the card, but the CRAPPY DRIVERS at fault?

ATI is only going to focus on their bread and butter cards now, the DX10 cards, because that is the gaming "future" All the "older" cards will have to wait to get their problems sorted out.

As far as my gaming future? I don't see anything ATI being a part of it if they won't address the issues at PRESENT, and I don't think I'm the only one...

psiboy

Hi Everybody,

I have had a running tocket with ATi for 2 weeks now and found the solution myself as they are useless. This is what I sent to them today from within my ticket! This works for me! (Also make sure you have enabled ACPI 2.0 sipport in BIOS not sure if it helps but best to be safe)

************************************************** ************

"I have the solution for my problem. I strongly suggest you post this to anyone else having this problem! (PS I am using 7.5 catalyst)

I found that if you go into the system configuration utility (Start menu then type "system configuration" in the search bar) and the choose the boot tab and then to advanced options. There you will see at the top two boxes that you can check one is processor and the other is memory. If you check both of these and choose one processor and then the max amount of memory that is on your system. Hit apply and ok. Restart your system and it should run quickly in 2d and 3d works! Yay!"

************************************************** ************

Cheers,

Psiboy

GWBoes

It makes it al lot better but it does not make it go tottaly away.

when running the 3d view in ati tool it holds on to around 55 seconds until crashing while before your tip it already crashes after 5.

I didn't had time to test it in games but i have the feeling that I can play for 2 hours in a row now

thanks for this improvent.

Th3_VVr41th

Sure, cripple the system some more. Go ahead and do this if you wish to keep windows from using all available processors/cores on your system, as well as its ability to address extended memory such as virtual memory, etc, over the max that is set... watch most of your large applications fail, your system crawl under heavy load, etc...

These "one post wonders" seem to want you to screw up your system even more, DON'T do what they say since none of these are a "fix" and will only make matters worse...

GWBoes

you're right, suddenly i discovered that i only got one of my 2 cores left.

maybe i should do a little more research before jumping through the ceiling filled with joy.