ATI M9 - End of my tether

ixne · Mar 24, 2006, 07:02 PM

Hey folks,

I usually try and sort these things out myself, but this is the first time in a long while that I'm at the end of my road. I'd like to drink from y'alls collective fountain of wisdom.

My laptop:

Sony Vaio PCG-GRV680 2.6GHz 512MB 16.1 TFT screen
ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB
WinXP Home SP2

Basically, things started small: games would freeze (e.g. Counter-Strike - nothing too demanding), and I'd have to restart, but no corruption/artifacts. This quickly became more common over 2-3 days.

Eventually, it got so bad that dxdiag tests would crash the comp - OpenGL, however, also produced the same problems. Performance + stress test utilities would crash in 2D and 3D modes (2D rarely, however).

Reinstalled original drivers, no improvement. Tried DriverCleaner, tried oldest drivers, tried newest, tried Patje mod with catalyst - no improvement.

In fact, it got worse - after crashing from a benchmark test, the Windows XP splash screen was corrupted - not everything, just the progress bar (the only non-static graphical entity) - just absolutely garbled. The desktop loaded with extreme corruption - vertical bars, flashing pixels, the whole deal. This would clear up after a couple reboots and appear fine, although 3D apps still crashed.

I took it in to be repaired. Naturally, when I got it to the store, I couldn't reproduce ANY of the crashes that I used to be able to occur on command. Computer appeared to be perfectly fine, and I got the "computer noob/hypochondriac" roll-of-the-eyeballs from the staff. I was thinking maybe heat issues were at play?

So these guys claim to have run the computer for two days straight on diagnostics without finding any problems - they said they "fixed some bad sectors" on my hard drive, and it was good to go.

I took it home, and low and behold, the first thing it did was crash on me during a game. I did another set of driver installs, and it appeared to get better - no corruption, and the crashes were a lot less frequent (after 30 minutes instead of immediately).

A couple days ago I started up the comp, however, and the corruption was back on the start screen, and the computer boots into a hellish cornicopia of unusable video corruption. I know what you're thinking: bad video card. BUT, when I boot the computer with bootable CD's (Linux, BartPE, anything) I get no corruption whatsoever. Perfectly fine.

So here's my question: is this just a crapped out vid card, or is part of my windows installation corrupt instead (possibly from bad sectors on my hd). I've tried replacing various boot files (NTDETECT.COM, HAL.DLL, BOOTVID.DLL) with clean versions - doesn't change the corruption. Neither does various boot options (safe mode, VGA mode, /PCILOCK, /NOGUILOAD, etc.) BIOS startup screens and setup are perfectly fine. I've tested the system memory through and through (memtest86), no problems. I'm hesitant to do a clean install because half my software is far far away at my parent's house (forgot some of it when I moved), and also because the Sony OEM "Recovery Discs" (no WinXP CD) don't instill me with a great deal of confidence.

I have a full warranty, so if it is the video card no big deal. I just don't want to give it to the repair shop so they can spend three weeks doing a clean install that I can to in a couple hours.

Long post, I know, but I don't want to leave anything out (or leave the impression that I haven't tried everything first). The randomness of the problem points to a bad video card, but the lack of problems on other OSs points to Windows.

All help appreciated...

swimtech · Mar 25, 2006, 02:42 AM

Hopefully, you can put the unit to sleep while the screen is corrupted and have it wake up with the screen corruption still intact - test it yourself at home. If this works, you can take it to the shop and show them. Next best thing would be to take some screen shots (screen captures) and save them as files to show the repair shop - then tell them what you've tried, and that it happens both in and outside of games in Windows itself. They probably will want to restore the unit first though...

Good thing it is still under warranty - replacing the video processor in your unit means replacing the motherboard.

ixne · Mar 25, 2006, 08:22 PM

Update: disabling the agp440 service (Intel AGP bus filter) gets rid of the corruption in the windows splash screen, but now it boots into Windows without video output (no corruption, just a black screen - both on the LCD and via monitor output). Besides the screen, windows boots up normally - I can tell by the normal windows sounds I hear and the lack of an improper boot message upon restarting.

Enabling agp440 brings back the corruption. Changing agp440.sys files doesn't fix it. Again, other "windows" OSs (BartPE) start perfectly well on vga.sys.

I know agp440 isn't required to run basic video output - any thoughts on why windows wouldn't start video without it? Yes, the VgaSave service is enabled for system startup and vga.sys appears to be fine. I've tried all the boot options that could possibly help.

Man, it's frustrating getting this close to solving a problem and being stuck. Also, I've got the latest catalyst drivers installed right now, and I want to get them off before I take it in to the shop, as I don't need them squirming out of the warranty because of unsanctioned drivers.

swimtech · Mar 26, 2006, 12:11 AM

Admittedly, I was under the impression you had tried Sony's original drivers and were still getting the corruption.

The first thing the shop is probably going to do is try a system restoration using whatever software source (restore partition or CDs that came with the unit) and then test. You might want to do that first just to make sure your software is "right" for that machine, and as a test for yourself (if you haven't already...).

If the unit fails with the original software build, then the servicecenter won't have any excuse to fault the software you've tried.

Randomness · Apr 7, 2006, 03:03 AM

Hello:
First of all, new hard drives these days rarely ever suffer from bad clusters. So if your harddrive has this problem, it is likely that it is slowly degenerating, and will probably fail within a year or so. IF your warranty covers it, i would recommend you convince them that this should be replaced.
Do not be discouraged if the store technicians don't believe you. If your fortunate, you should be able to boot up into safe mode, and check the System event log for a log of the errors that have been occuring.

From what you discribed, this is not a software issue, However you could try to preform a BIOS update if available, from here:
http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-li...r=3&SelectOS=7

Furthermore, if they ran 2 days of diagnostics, than they probably ran a low-level format on your harddrive, and hense reveiling the bad clusters. And a fresh reload under normal circuimstances would almost guarentee a working system with no problems.

It could be a heat issue, but notebook components are rated to for operating temperatures of 60-90 degress celsius. But it is possible that a vent or heat sink needs to be cleaned, and the thremal pad or thermal grease needs to be replaced the the said cleaning.

You can access you system even log with the following command executed under Start --> Run:
"%SystemRoot%\system32\eventvwr.msc /s"
Look in both the System and Application logs, and examin any Red X marked entries

It may also be possible that your Harddrive is set to using PIO transfer mode, instead of DMA transfer mode. This will reduce system speed considerably, and can sometimes crash demanding programs.

This issue could be related to a lot of things, and sometimes it could be related to obscure things like the power supply / battery. But without more info it could be difficult to narrow it down.

Anyway, good luck, and take care

Mar 24, 2006, 07:02 PM	#1
ixne DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	ATI M9 - End of my tether Hey folks, I usually try and sort these things out myself, but this is the first time in a long while that I'm at the end of my road. I'd like to drink from y'alls collective fountain of wisdom. My laptop: Sony Vaio PCG-GRV680 2.6GHz 512MB 16.1 TFT screen ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB WinXP Home SP2 Basically, things started small: games would freeze (e.g. Counter-Strike - nothing too demanding), and I'd have to restart, but no corruption/artifacts. This quickly became more common over 2-3 days. Eventually, it got so bad that dxdiag tests would crash the comp - OpenGL, however, also produced the same problems. Performance + stress test utilities would crash in 2D and 3D modes (2D rarely, however). Reinstalled original drivers, no improvement. Tried DriverCleaner, tried oldest drivers, tried newest, tried Patje mod with catalyst - no improvement. In fact, it got worse - after crashing from a benchmark test, the Windows XP splash screen was corrupted - not everything, just the progress bar (the only non-static graphical entity) - just absolutely garbled. The desktop loaded with extreme corruption - vertical bars, flashing pixels, the whole deal. This would clear up after a couple reboots and appear fine, although 3D apps still crashed. I took it in to be repaired. Naturally, when I got it to the store, I couldn't reproduce ANY of the crashes that I used to be able to occur on command. Computer appeared to be perfectly fine, and I got the "computer noob/hypochondriac" roll-of-the-eyeballs from the staff. I was thinking maybe heat issues were at play? So these guys claim to have run the computer for two days straight on diagnostics without finding any problems - they said they "fixed some bad sectors" on my hard drive, and it was good to go. I took it home, and low and behold, the first thing it did was crash on me during a game. I did another set of driver installs, and it appeared to get better - no corruption, and the crashes were a lot less frequent (after 30 minutes instead of immediately). A couple days ago I started up the comp, however, and the corruption was back on the start screen, and the computer boots into a hellish cornicopia of unusable video corruption. I know what you're thinking: bad video card. BUT, when I boot the computer with bootable CD's (Linux, BartPE, anything) I get no corruption whatsoever. Perfectly fine. So here's my question: is this just a crapped out vid card, or is part of my windows installation corrupt instead (possibly from bad sectors on my hd). I've tried replacing various boot files (NTDETECT.COM, HAL.DLL, BOOTVID.DLL) with clean versions - doesn't change the corruption. Neither does various boot options (safe mode, VGA mode, /PCILOCK, /NOGUILOAD, etc.) BIOS startup screens and setup are perfectly fine. I've tested the system memory through and through (memtest86), no problems. I'm hesitant to do a clean install because half my software is far far away at my parent's house (forgot some of it when I moved), and also because the Sony OEM "Recovery Discs" (no WinXP CD) don't instill me with a great deal of confidence. I have a full warranty, so if it is the video card no big deal. I just don't want to give it to the repair shop so they can spend three weeks doing a clean install that I can to in a couple hours. Long post, I know, but I don't want to leave anything out (or leave the impression that I haven't tried everything first). The randomness of the problem points to a bad video card, but the lack of problems on other OSs points to Windows. All help appreciated...

Mar 25, 2006, 02:42 AM	#2
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	Hopefully, you can put the unit to sleep while the screen is corrupted and have it wake up with the screen corruption still intact - test it yourself at home. If this works, you can take it to the shop and show them. Next best thing would be to take some screen shots (screen captures) and save them as files to show the repair shop - then tell them what you've tried, and that it happens both in and outside of games in Windows itself. They probably will want to restore the unit first though... Good thing it is still under warranty - replacing the video processor in your unit means replacing the motherboard. __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Mar 26, 2006, 12:11 AM	#4
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	Admittedly, I was under the impression you had tried Sony's original drivers and were still getting the corruption. The first thing the shop is probably going to do is try a system restoration using whatever software source (restore partition or CDs that came with the unit) and then test. You might want to do that first just to make sure your software is "right" for that machine, and as a test for yourself (if you haven't already...). If the unit fails with the original software build, then the servicecenter won't have any excuse to fault the software you've tried. __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Apr 7, 2006, 03:03 AM	#5
Randomness in a state of flux Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 366 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	A Randomly serious and confusing issue is at hand Hello: First of all, new hard drives these days rarely ever suffer from bad clusters. So if your harddrive has this problem, it is likely that it is slowly degenerating, and will probably fail within a year or so. IF your warranty covers it, i would recommend you convince them that this should be replaced. Do not be discouraged if the store technicians don't believe you. If your fortunate, you should be able to boot up into safe mode, and check the System event log for a log of the errors that have been occuring. From what you discribed, this is not a software issue, However you could try to preform a BIOS update if available, from here: http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-li...r=3&SelectOS=7 Furthermore, if they ran 2 days of diagnostics, than they probably ran a low-level format on your harddrive, and hense reveiling the bad clusters. And a fresh reload under normal circuimstances would almost guarentee a working system with no problems. It could be a heat issue, but notebook components are rated to for operating temperatures of 60-90 degress celsius. But it is possible that a vent or heat sink needs to be cleaned, and the thremal pad or thermal grease needs to be replaced the the said cleaning. You can access you system even log with the following command executed under Start --> Run: "%SystemRoot%\system32\eventvwr.msc /s" Look in both the System and Application logs, and examin any Red X marked entries It may also be possible that your Harddrive is set to using PIO transfer mode, instead of DMA transfer mode. This will reduce system speed considerably, and can sometimes crash demanding programs. This issue could be related to a lot of things, and sometimes it could be related to obscure things like the power supply / battery. But without more info it could be difficult to narrow it down. Anyway, good luck, and take care

Mar 25, 2006, 08:22 PM	Thread Starter #3
ixne DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Update: disabling the agp440 service (Intel AGP bus filter) gets rid of the corruption in the windows splash screen, but now it boots into Windows without video output (no corruption, just a black screen - both on the LCD and via monitor output). Besides the screen, windows boots up normally - I can tell by the normal windows sounds I hear and the lack of an improper boot message upon restarting. Enabling agp440 brings back the corruption. Changing agp440.sys files doesn't fix it. Again, other "windows" OSs (BartPE) start perfectly well on vga.sys. I know agp440 isn't required to run basic video output - any thoughts on why windows wouldn't start video without it? Yes, the VgaSave service is enabled for system startup and vga.sys appears to be fine. I've tried all the boot options that could possibly help. Man, it's frustrating getting this close to solving a problem and being stuck. Also, I've got the latest catalyst drivers installed right now, and I want to get them off before I take it in to the shop, as I don't need them squirming out of the warranty because of unsanctioned drivers.