Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error

JCKSON79

I have tried, like I said before, every thing that I can find that seems to be a legitimate idea of a fix and it has not corrected the problem. This is very frustrating and I have been performing and searching for different methods for almost 5 months.

The_Azor

Hey guys, Ive been surfing the web for 2 or 3 months now trying to find a silution for this nasty ATIKMDAG error. I came here eventually.

Im experiencing almost the same problems as everyone here. Random hangs/BSODs when using apps that need the GPU.

My system:

MOBO - MSI P45 Platinum
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 2.87GHz
GPU - ATi Radeon HD 4850 (Sapphire) single, with larger-than-reference cooler.
RAM - 4x2Gb Kingston Value RAM (8Gb total)
PSU - CoolerMaster RealPower PRO 750W
DISPLAY - running on single monitor Samsung LCD 732n Plus
OS - Windows Vista Ultimate x64

I submitted a whooping 8 tickets at ATI support, no useful responses ( I even got th same auto-Email every time, ).

I tried many of the fixes, some related to the monitor, some to the Catalyst control center, did the registry fixes, the whacky(and stupid) processor& max RAM setting, etc, etc, etc.

NOTHHING WORKS. I damn the day I said "well, letīs try ATi for a change".

Just thought It would be somewhat useful for you to have another angry user like me in the forum. Ill keep researching and tell you whatever I find.

I also wanted to ask you all If you heard about the Red Screen Of Doom...
If you wanna know about it, just ask me...Ive got plenty of those (also due to atikmdag) a few weeks ago, but it seems MS fixed it and/or replaed it with more BSODīs.

Cheers !..

OldBuzzard

So quit whining, and go back to nVidia. But, before you do, click on this link.

- Google Search

IF you would have bothered to read a few posts, you would have found that the TRDs happen on ALL of the newer cards. Ati and nVidia.

We have too many of those now. What we need are people with REASONED responses, and information.

And, FYI the "whacky(and stupid) processor& max RAM setting" along with turning off AERO is EXACTLY what cured my TRD problems.

__________________
When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

The_Azor

Well, thats what I call a warm welcome to a forum.

boout the processor & max ram solution, it IS stupid...why would I want to waste 3 of my 4 cores...or even one?! I bought quad core, I wanna use Quad core. If you are O.K. with crippling your system for solving problems, thats fine. but I dont think its a viable or even rational solution.

Also, why say "if you bothered to read you would know (...)" ? you could have been a bit more polite by just telling me that you found out that the problems were also happening with Nvidia. maybe you assume I have spare time to read absolutely all the information on this problem?...I think no one has, thats why we join forums.

Yerterday I started testing a rather new thing for myself....I installed Ati Tray Tool and disabled CCC, tweaked the fan settings to 100% all-time. I also disabled a Windows scheduled task that is supposted to manage multiple monitors on mobile PCīs (but hey, I got a desktop, why would that be enabled on the first place?!?!)

Havenīt had much time to test it extensively, but was able to play Fallout 3 at full settings for about 3 hours (at an ambient temperature of 30 Celsius) when before doing all this I got crash/BSOD after about an hour, or even less after subsequent errors.

NOTE: to install the low level driver for ati tray tools I had to install readyBoot Plus, utility that boots windows with forced driver signing disabled. otherwise, windows will not start any unsigned drivers.

Cheers !

CATALYSTCATCHER

But you still did not tell me if you actually tried using 8.8 again to see if the problem continues or dissappears. Many people say they have tried everything but I have no idea what their definition of "everything" is.

"Everything" is an absolute term. Which means if you have tried everything, then "nothing" will ever fix the TDRs.

Perhaps you should return the ati card and get an NV card instead. If NV works for you then your frustrations will be over.

BTW, I am not being sarcastic, but I do need direct answers. I also know how frustrating these TDRs can be. Whether someone is shouting or explaining calmly, I know that TDRs are a royal pain in the a$$.

JCKSON79

I have rolled back as far as 8.6 and still the problem occurs. Why would I get an NV when the cost more and the same problem could occur? I want this one fixed, I can't send it back. The onlt thing that I can do is constantly check for a solution here or other places on the web and pray that some day someone figures out something. I wish that I would stuck with XP when building this system.

The_Azor

News on the ati tray tool try...didnt work, and ready Boot utility is annoying.

Did any of you notice that the error seems to go away for a brief period after a fresh install of ATi drivers? It happened every time I rolled back or updated them. The problem did not appear and let me play crysis for 3 hours without BSODīing. and then it comes back again...from that "comeback" onwards(until I reinstall drivers), the error gets more and more common until I cant play anything or watch any DVD for more than 30 minutes....weird.

OldBuzzard

The welcome you got was in direct relation to the 'attitude' you came in with.

Again, if you would have bothered to read just what it is, you would see that the "processor & ram solution" does NOT "cripple" your system.

Now, I'll type this V E R Y S L O W L Y, so maybe you will understand it.

msconfig/boot fix:
1. Run MSCONFIG in a command prompt.
2. Click the BOOT tab
3. Click on ADVANCED options.
4. Put a CHECK in 'Number of Processors", and then select the number of processors your system has. , 1 for a single, 2 for a dual core, 4 for a quad.
5. Put a CHECK in 'Maximum memory", and key in amount of RAM you have.
6. CLick OK, Click APPLY, and re-boot when prompted.

Now, THAT fix, along with disabling AERO has me, and a whole lot of other people, TDR free. It may not cure it for you, but it IS worth trying, as it has cured TDRs for a lot of people.

__________________
When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

JCKSON79

Ok, so I tried msconfig, disabled Aero, removed CCC and installed ATI tray tools. This seemed to help because I was able to play The Witcher for about 15 min, but then instead of getting a flicker to black screen and the usual atikmdag error and possible BSOD my monitor just shut down. I could still hear The Witcher, but I could not get my monitor to come back on without completely turning off my PC. I could not turn off my PC without manually shutting it down with my fat thumb. Dang it! It felt like it was a fix. BLNT.

Dyre Straits

FWIW, there's no need to remove CCC in order to use ATT. Be sure to try with both installed and functioning.

__________________

The.Rat

Good point and it got me thinking. The major difference between the new and old cards is DirectX 10 compatibility. WinXP doesn't have DX 10 and by and large doesn't suffer from the atikmdag bug. Is there some sort of conflict with DX 10 that could cause this problem?

Doesn't work for me either unfortunately.

The_Azor

The.Rat

I guess maybe dx10 could have some sort of influence on the frequency of errors, but many people had this error with non-dx10 cards(thus using dx9 mode, even on vista), and many of those who have tried going back to XP to solve atikmdag problem, got an infinite loop error instead, so I dont think dx10 is the cause.

Buzzard:

Im rather scientifically-minded so Iīll try the msconfig fix with your specs, even if I think the max memory tweak still messes with the capability of the OS to adress virtul memory. AND Iīll give you a shovel to dig out your sense of humour, see if thats a good solution for your agressive beligerant nature.

Cheers mates !

JCKSON79

I still do not understand why my computer monitor would just shut down.

SV110MHH

It's not getting any video feed from the video card because of the error.

CatalystCatcher... I have taken noted on the last two times that my problem has happened.

I have had it happen while playing Warhammer Online and EVE Online (I have no other games installed on my system yet.

The last two times it has happened in EVE have been when I bringing up a new windows in game ... or when I right click to bring up a menu to view info on a person.

ATI HD 4850
Intel E8400 3.0 GHz processor
600W Antec Earthwatts PSU
My Antec 900 Case has 3 120mm fans and a huge 200mm fan running.

8.11 Catalyst with CCC... Aero disabled... windows sidebar disabled as well (I saw that on another forum as well)... no MSCONFIG fix being used.

GPU is steadily at around 34 or 35 degrees.... fan on the card is running at 100%... so that is why I personally think it CANNOT be a heating issue.

I will trying some other games here soon.... but i get the error ONLY while playing games... not when playing videos... DVDs... or anything else.

My RAM has been tested fine.

I tried old 8.6 drivers (that came with the card originally)... I uninstalled the drivers using a driver cleaner (cannot remember what it was called right off right now)... I then went to 8.9 (beceause I THINK that is what I installed when I first built this system (back in Oct) and have only had problems the last 2 weeks or so.... then I tried 8.11.

I am at a loss for what to try next.

Also... I cannot believe it can b bad hardware... there is no way there is THAT much bad hardware out there....

Any other info?

demskyr

I'm running a Q9550 Quad
4gb RAM
HIS 4870 512mb
Vista Home Premium 64

I have tried all the ATI drivers I can find, including the new RC1.

I have tried testing memory, taking sticks out 1 at a time.

Checked video card itself, it seems fine.

I do not have dual monitors.

I tried reinstalling Vista, couple of times.

I have tried the MSCONFIG fix....this was the closest, but no cigar.

I just tried the MSCONFIG fix, and my computer ran for 2 hours without a BSOD! It had never lasted longer than 30 minutes before. I rebooted, just to see it the fix has stuck, and I got the BSOD within 5 minutes. And I get it with in 5 minutes after every boot now.

I get the BSOD on the web, watching video, playing games, and even if I just have the deskstop sitting there.

I have Aero and sidebar off.

I have tried a different monitor, just to see if the HDCP possibly had something to do with it.

Nothing.

One thing, when I tried the MSCONFIG fix, the Memory tab will not let me enter more than 3072MB. Even though I have 4 GB of RAM.

Anyone know what's up with that?

Anyway, I am sending my computer back to the manufacturer. There doesn't seem to be a fix out there, and I'm not paying for a computer that doesn't work.

Good luck everyone. Hopefully this doesn't happen with the next computer I order.

RD

Sinkadus84

Hello. I might have solved the problem on my rig!

I have read and tried many of the suggestions posted in this thread. Like many others the Atikmdag problems are mainly related to gaming (fallout 3, crysis warhead, The Left 4 dead demo). Fallout three could function normally for hous sometimes, and sometimes I got kicked out to Windows constantly. I also tried to run the 3dmark vantage benchmark which created an atikmdag error 10-20 seconds into the first test.

I tried to reinstall the ATI-drivers (delete the old with driver sweeper first), upgrade to the newest chipset and MB bios, I tried disabling Aero and the MSconfig trick, the registry fix, the vista hotfixes, I even tried to reinstall vista and switch memory slots for my two memory sticks, and also tried different memory timings in bios. Nothing of this helped.

I was in touch with the Asus support that suggested that this was caused by an grapics card hardware error. But as an last resort i tried to switch the graphics card to the other PCI-express slot, and I also removed an external firefire card that blocked that other slot. And now I have without errors runned through two benchmark test with 3dmarks vantage, where I earlier only lasted for 10 seconds or so.

I don't want to take out anything in advance but cange of slots seemed to do the trick. But then I start wondering, is this an clear indication that the first PCI-express slot i somehow faulty? (Or maybe it was the removal of the firewire card that did it, but i find this unlikely). I will report back here in a few days.

My specs is:
Intel quadcore q9550. 4 gb of ram (Corsair, 6400 xms extre 5-5-18), asus HD4850 512mb, Asus P5Q Pro.

/Fredrik

SV110MHH

As I have stated ... and I KNOW I could be wrong ... it has happened before.

There cannot be THAT MUCH faulty hardware out there.... just can't be.

The_Azor

Sindakus84, Ill be eagerly waiting for updates on your situation....maybe changing slots will do the trick for me too...

try something else in the first PCI-E slot and see what happens. maybe you or someone you know have one PCI-E card around that you can use to test the slot so you can rule out the faulty slot.

demskyr

Sindakus84, I certainly hope that works for you.

But that definately is not the problem for most of the people.

Swapping was the 3rd thing I tried. And it didn't work.

This HAS to be a driver/software problem.

As there is not that much faulty hardware, as has been stated by SVV110MHH.

And there are too many configuarations having this problem. ATI and nVidia.

I'm waiting for the RMA on my system, but I will check back here often to see if anyone found anything.

I will also test out any ideas I might get before shipping my system back.

Good Luck All!

RD

JCKSON79

Well, I am back to square one! I installed ATT and had CCC running at the same time and apparently there is some conflict there because my monitor would just shut down. My system continued to run, but the monitor would shut off and not come on without doing a complete powerdown and reboot. I took off CCC and ran ATT by itself and the same thing happened with my monitor. It wasn't until I removed ATT and reinstalled CCC that the problem stopped occuring.
So I just benched my card and my monitor did not shut down but I am stilll getting the screen flicker to black with "ATIKMDAG IS NOT RESPONDING...". Is there no way to win! I just want to finish The Witcher and have to ability to play my other games. I am glad that my monitor stays on so I can at least use my computer.
I am going to a friends house later today and puting my card in his freakishly crazy system. We will see if any problems occur there and I will keep you all posted. I am doubting that this is a problem with my card. BTW he is running XP still, if that makes a difference.

demskyr

So, I found and installed a digital driver to my monitor. I also reinstalled 8.11 CCC and driver.

My computer not only went longer than 5 minutes, it went for 3 hours with no problems. I played Assassin's Creed, Bioshock AND watched a movie while playing Chess Titans. And it was stable the whole time. Card never got above 51C.

So, the ultimate test. I rebooted the system. And wouldn't you know it, BSOD within 4 minutes!!! And so the system reboots by itself, and now it has been running for 40 minutes with no problem, in games and movies. How is that possible?

How can it work some of the boots but not others? I'm scratching my head here.

I don't know.

Now I am not sure if I should send the system back, I feel that I am close to solving this, and I am also wondering about 8.12, if that might help.

GRRRRR....

Anyone have an opinion on this? Keep at it or RMA it?

Sinkadus84

This problem keep baffling me.. Yesterday I could happily run a full benchmark test five times without problems. When I later tried fallout 3 I got two errors in a row after like 20 minutes.

I then remebered that by Vista seemed to automaticly download a new video driver when a booted the computer with the graphics card in the new slot. I therefore tried to erase the current ati drivers by first unistall the ati driver and then use driver cleaner in safe mode.

I then installed the latest drivers and tried 3dmark vantage again, and this time I got the atikmdag error directly.. After this I tried, just of curiosity, to erase the drivers again to install the vga drivers that followed with the graphics cards' cd. When I tried to launch 3dmarks this time I lost connection with the screen completely as described in a previous post.

This concludes that the pci-e slot change didn't cure my problems. But rather that different drivers cause atikmdag errors during different kind of situations (the 3dmark benchmark going from causing errors all the time to completely working and fallout 3 still failing on occasion), and that the earlier driver from the cd seemed to cause a more severe kind of error (lost connection with the screen).

Hope this will contribute to future tries to solves this problem.. It's so weird that the errors seems to disapear for a time when majors changes and potential fixes are used, but then after a while comes back at normal force. This is really time consuming and frustrating..

SV110MHH

Well mine happened today for about an hour straight....

Playing EVE again (no premium graphic content)... this time was just flying around... not doing much... it recovered several times... but shut down 3 or 4 times as well.

Getting VERY VERY annoyed!!!!

evilid

4850 default clock is 500 on 2D and 635 on 3D.
When you are looking at CCC, you see the current speed as 500 since you are not using 3D mode (such as gaming).
But there, you change clock speed for 3D.

Anyway, I am going to try this method.
I will try to down clock mine today.

Thanks for sharing this idea.

SV110MHH

So today... I decide to run the CCC Auto-Tune utility.... just to see what happens...

GPU Suggested setting .... 665 MHz
Memory Clock ... 1038 Mhz

How can this be an overheating (hardware issue) when it passes that kind of test.

Sorry if that seems like a stupid question.... but really I have no idea how any of this stuff works....

SV110MHH

How do you underclock the 3D mode?

evilid

In CCC, just slide the bar below the original 3D clock (typically between 625-635).
Today I tried even 550MHz but it crashed anyhow.
I guess this method doesn't work for me.

SV110MHH

Are you talking about in ATI Overdrive?

The_Azor

I also noticed a certain stability after driver changes or major configuration tweaks, and yes it only makes it really frustrating.

On sunday afternoon I cleaned all my "fixes" and drivers too...Installed cat 8.11. TDR's aren't gone, but have become surprisingly uncommon. Moreover,on those two incidents I had since sunday, I was actualy "able" to get a TDR when before all I got was BSODīs every 30-40 minutes. I tested it with Rhinoceros 4.0 (rendering a model), fallout 3 (no holding back on the graphics, all full) Crysis & NFS-Undercover.

E-D@N

Okay... just got a bit stronger PSU for testing...
now that i have 450W PSU, insted of my 280W PSU... maybe i'll finally be able to see ATI's TRUE power!

so I have fulfilled all the hardware requirements for my HD2600 PRO...

now i can dismiss the msconfig tweak... i can also throw down the underclocking...

i'll supply the news soon guys... wish me luck!

LET THE TESTING BEGIN!!! Bwahahahaahah!!!