tievel

Hi,

I'm posting about a problem I've been having with my graphics card drivers since upgrading my laptop to Windows 7 from XP. It's like this:

I have a Dell Inspiron e1505 laptop which originally came with Windows XP and uses the ATI Mobility Radeon x1400 graphics card, but which I was forced to upgrade to Windows 7 for some classes I'm taking. Everything worked fine to begin with, except that after a couple of months with 7 I started getting random the blue screens of death. It most often happens when I'm gaming (World of Warcraft), but it does also sometimes happen at random instances such as during browsing or startup.

I figured out the problem was with the graphics card drivers (the error code was 116, which according to the msdn bug check codes site means: "The VIDEO_TDR_ ERROR bug check has a value of 0x00000116. This indicates that an attempt to reset the display driver and recover from a timeout failed.").

This isn't too surprising since the Dell drivers for the x1400 on their site are from 2007 and are for windows Vista. I used the Mobility Modder (following the directions in this thread: ATI Mobility X1xxx series driver Vista/Windows 7 Proper) using the Catalyst Software Suite version 10.2, and that fixed screen glitching I didn't even know I had, but I'm still getting blue screens.

I did notice that the x1400 for some reason doesn't appear in the list of X1xxx series drivers, but assumed it was just part of the X1300 series since it's basically just an upgraded version of that. I'm pretty stuck at this point, and thinking about going with a dual boot of XP for the high-intensity graphics programs and 7 for classes.

Does anyone have any ideas that might help? Sorry for the huge wall of text, and thanks in advance.

Randomness

Hello tievel:

When you originally upgraded to Windows 7, what driver did you install for your X1400?

I would suggest trying to install the 2007 driver from dell under the Vista Driver section for your model first, then update to a modded 10.2 driver

Although from my experience, that particular BSOD more or less means the GPU is tripping over-itself, and is having difficulty restarting. I usually suspect overheating or power issues in that case.

BUT...

Assuming you don't get this problem in Windows XP at all, then i think you can safely rule out a hardware problem, such as overheating.

You can also check your power management options, and disable any PCIE Link State Power Management

Control Panel --> Power Options --> Change Plan Settings --> Change advanced plan settings --> PCI Express --> Link State Power management --> change settings to OFF.

Are you running the "newest" BIOS for your laptop version A17 ?

If all else fails, i've noticed that some older chipsets get better stability with Vista (windows 7 uses WDDM 1.1, vista uses WDDM 1.0)

Could you also provide the VEN and DEV device ID codes for your device.
From the model of dell laptop you described, my best guess is either:
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7145&SUBSYS_20021028
or
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7145&SUBSYS_20031028

You can find this information by running msinfo32, clicking on components, and clicking on display. It will be the first part of the string called PNP Device ID. IF i have some spare time, i may be able to look into this a bit further for you.

Best of luck,

Randomness