Constant device failure with 3.1

Aretè · Mar 2, 2003, 11:04 PM

Okay i have NO idea what this is, i have completely exhausted myself trying to fix this problem since the 3.1 have been released and now i have finally thrown up my arms in despair and hoping someone have get my butt out of the fire.

Ill be browsing the internet and EVERYTHING locks up, then the screen flickers and teh aall the colors are messed up and it tells me i have a device failure. That is the most frequent problem. Now sometimes the computer wont even load up all the way, it will either freeze while trying to load up windows or it will load up windows, ill log in and then it locks up and gives me a device failure. I have no idea what to do i have tried everything, and i mean everything.

Any help. Please.

P.S.

::UPDATE::

The file that constantly crashes is ati2dvag.dll

Iv tried the 'noob' guide even though i really am not a noob to hardware i was just desperate. Iv got reg cleaner and drivercleaner, and nothing is working. It is like it has just gone corrupt, i uninstalled everything, searched for the file so i could delete, but im getting nothing. Now the problems have escalated, it doesnt even boot up now, it does the windows xp with the status bar loading, then it flashes and locks up. Its like something is suddenly causing a problem, if someone could help i would really really appreicaite right about now.

Aretè · Mar 3, 2003, 01:18 AM

Its about 1:30 almost and i still ahvent figured this out, if somebody could give me a hand id really appreciate it, im all out of ideas here.

BWX · Mar 3, 2003, 01:33 AM

Well I won't know anything about ATI until I get my 9700pro. If it was an Nvidia driver problem I could maybe help you out.

One thing I can help you out with is this:

I am sure there are people here that can and will help you out, but they are going to need you to do some things. One of them is give a more complete description of your system, probably down to the model numbers of the hardware, and anything else you know.

I'm not sure, but I would say they might need a more complete description of how you got to where you are with your problem, like telling them how you installed/uninstalled the software and what was going on before the problem happened. Good luck!

Aretè · Mar 3, 2003, 01:38 AM

p4 2.4
asus p4t533-c (latest bios)
windows xp corp sp 1
ati radeon 9700 pro

How i got here was installing these drivers, the problem started with the 3.0s but i fixed that with some voodoo black magic sh*t. 3.1s rolled around i had some problems,went away now they are back and are back with a vengeance. I uninstalled everything in safe mood, did reg clean, driver clean, purged inf. did everything i could think of.

Beaon · Mar 3, 2003, 02:08 AM

what error does windows tell you, the next time you get the error click on the details button see the files it gives you, and check out the actual error report, cuz windows shoudla made a detailed error report. see what it says =D
the error "the device has failed" is so broad.

blade-be · Mar 20, 2003, 04:28 PM

i have the exact same problem!
well not "exact", i have a connect3D 9500np and with the normal 3.2's , everything (games, benchmarks, ....) runs smooth
when i then try to hack it into a 9700 (with the softmod) i ALWAYS get a device failure and a back to 640*480@4bit bullsh*t, the same dll as you acting up. When i run rivatuner, the card however shows up as 256 and 8*1 so virtually, it is a 9700 at that moment. Only problem is i can't get it to work and i have just about tried every possibility to fix it

have you had any luck solving the problem
anyone else with a valid suggestion?

thanks in advance
blade

blade-be · Mar 21, 2003, 09:19 PM

shameless bump but i'm getting desperate here

please help

DallasStar · Mar 22, 2003, 12:39 AM

have you tried the latest v3.2 catalysts (w/ a clean drivercleanered install)?

blade-be · Mar 22, 2003, 06:07 AM

hi,

in fact, i have this with all drivers (2.5, 3.0 , 3.1, 3.2 ....)
normal install (thus leaving my 9500 np with the good pcb in its original state): aok
install with patched ati2mtag.sys (with any driver set): soon after loading windows: crash back to 640*480 (if a check with rivatuner, it shows up as 256 bit and 8x1 pipelines) and message of a device failure (with an error in ati2dvag.dll)

I am now afraid i'm going to have the same issue when i buy a real 9700(pro) ...

running out of options fast

blade-be · Mar 26, 2003, 10:21 AM

please, nobody with a suggestion or who had the same situation?
the device failures are driving me up the wall
I'm sure this has to work !

frostgroove · Mar 27, 2003, 05:11 AM

i solved mine by disabling fastwrites

WarFlail · Mar 27, 2003, 06:14 AM

Aretè, this is actually a very common problem. The fault is a stuck thread or infinite loop error, where the graphics card waits for some instruction from the motherboard that never comes (or something to that effect). This is a software problem and is unlikely to be a hardware fault with your graphics card.

I suffered the exact same problem but managed to clear it up completely last week after upgrading my motherboard's BIOS and the graphics drivers to Catalyst 3.2. When the 640x480x4 Safe Mode dropout used to occur, it would almost always be a result of something as innocuous as web browsing on IE or using ICQ.

I HAD managed to clear the problem up, but a couple of nights ago I performed a Windows Update and installed the latest "critical update", which is some security patch for IE6. After that was installed, lo and behold, within 5 minutes the system crashed into Safe Mode! I rebooted a couple of times, and without fail, the Safe Mode crash would occur each time.

I System Restored to a point before I installed the critical update, and guess what, the crashes don't occur anymore. This increases my suspicion that this is a software problem and IE is starting to look guilty...

I tried all the tricks that I'd been advised: disable fast write, overvoltage the AGP card, give a dedicated power supply to the graphics card, don't share anything else on the graphics device's IRQ slot, move all PCI cards away from the AGP slot, take hardware acceleration down a notch, completely uninstall all the previous graphics drivers and reinstall clean, reduce AGP transfer rate from 8X to 4X, etc. Ultimately, though, I think the only thing that saved the day was the BIOS upgrade for the motherboard, or maybe I was just lucky...

Probably not all that helpful to your predicament, though, since you're using an 850E chipset instead of Granite Bay, but perhaps there is a BIOS update available for your mobo that might resolve the problem.

Regards,

-=W=-