Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error

Raduque · Dec 24, 2008, 03:59 PM

Well, I haven't seen a TDR since the first reboot after I installed the 8.12s - but my rig's been under a 100% load almost since that reboot due to my transcoding app (converting recorded TV from my HTPC to WMV files).

SV110MHH · Dec 24, 2008, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by E-D@N

yey... i don't think he can replace the video card.. he have a laptop...

But it is a hardware issue!!!!!

See how stupid that is to say... I just wish someone would fix the dang thing.

rychas · Dec 25, 2008, 12:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SV110MHH

But it is a hardware issue!!!!!

See how stupid that is to say... I just wish someone would fix the dang thing.

Two days ago I updated my Intel Chipset drivers (965) and tried the DNA 8.11 drivers, which someone was kind enough to mention eariler. And I thought I was having my own Christmas miracle: I managed to use 3D Max and Bonjou for hours straight without getting a single TDR!

... until about half hour ago. Fortunately it didn't bsod, but boy was it a long TDR... so I'm now ready to try my luck installing XP on this machine (très dificult, believe me, this not being ready for XP and all. But it should be possible).

Anyway, until then I'm sticking with the DNA drivers. So far they were much more stable than the official ATI ones, so you might give them a try.

I regret the day I chose to stick with a pc instead of a mac... damn you, corporate bastards!

DisposableChainsaw · Dec 25, 2008, 06:04 AM

The issue shouldn't be attributed to either hardware or software, it obviously arises from some interaction of the two. I solved the problem by flashing my BIOS to the latest version--firmware saves the day! But really, don't point the finger. There's more than one way to solve this problem.

SV110MHH · Dec 25, 2008, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DisposableChainsaw

The issue shouldn't be attributed to either hardware or software, it obviously arises from some interaction of the two. I solved the problem by flashing my BIOS to the latest version--firmware saves the day! But really, don't point the finger. There's more than one way to solve this problem.

I will agree...

I just get sick of seeing "it's a hardware/overheating issue" When obviously it ISN'T.

I mean... when people are having problems surfing the net... yeah that is really taxes the GPU.

E-D@N · Dec 25, 2008, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rychas

I regret the day I chose to stick with a pc instead of a mac... damn you, corporate bastards!

cool.. at least it works...

mmm... BTW you know u can install windows on mac PC right?
and then u can have Windows and Leopard in the same machine...
very cool stuff...

grog · Dec 26, 2008, 02:52 AM

Overclocking is the only means that I can cause a TDR on my system.

If your problem is not due to overclocking and your air-flow is fine then look for another solution.

For some, using dual monitors can cause a TDR. This is easy to test. Remove the secondary monitor and see if the problem still exists.

What we are really talking about is system stability.

The GPU sends a request and that request does not complete in two seconds. In this case we get a TDR.

Remember; the communications between the system and GPU was lost for a long period. When the timeout occurs the GPU is reset. If we did not reset the GPU the system would hang.

The information has been provided to extend the TDR timeout as well as how to disable the TDR completely. Microsoft claims the only time you should see a operation of more than two seconds is if you have very slow hardware or you are running benchmark programs. Games should not cause this issue as a general rule.

So why do we get TDR's. It's a system issue. Power supply not providing enough juice during extreme game play. The 12V dips and we loss connection to the GPU. Bad system RAM can also cause the GPU command to be corrupted when sent to the graphics engine. Running memtest86 and prime95 torture test is a good idea.

You might want to read this paper from Microsoft.

GPU Hang Detection and Recovery

GPU Hang Detection and Recovery

Now let's think about something here.
Some ATI VISTA users see TDR issues.
Some NVIDIA VISTA users see TDR issues.
Since the GPU is not the same and the GPU software is very different we can only conclude that the common cause is not the GPU but the stability of the system as a whole.

The important part of the about Microsoft white paper is the GPU hang issue is not new.

ATI for example introduced the VPU Recovery method many years ago.
If you search you will find many with 8500, 9600 and similiar cards which users had VPU Recovery errors all the time.

This is the ATI white paper on VPU Recovery.

http://ati.amd.com/products/catalyst/VPU_OVERVIEW.pdf

I know you want this issue to be a magical software issue but it is not going to happen. Users will see TDR's in Vista and VPU Recovery errors in WinXP as long as there are places where stability may be at risk due to system build differences.

In all the years I have used ATI based cards I have never seen a VPU Recovery message.

Will we see TDR issues reduced by some software update. Maybe... But stability issues will always be with us. If you have a bad power supply or bad RAM no software update will help.

I do agree that you might have the perfect setup. You power supply is fine, you RAM is perfect, your GPU is running cool... etc....

In this case I can't offer you anything to try. You will just have to wait for some magic to happen.

Remember; we do have many with no TDR issues and I am one of them.
So maybe, just maybe there is a system issue you have not yet resolved.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SV110MHH

I will agree...

I just get sick of seeing "it's a hardware/overheating issue" When obviously it ISN'T.

I mean... when people are having problems surfing the net... yeah that is really taxes the GPU.

Danielg922 · Dec 26, 2008, 05:04 PM

I'm on ATI Radeon driver 8.12 and its a long story.

I bought a Dell XPS 720 in Feb 08 with 2GB memory, a Q6600, and an
nVidia 8800 card built, I think, by Dell. While Vista was crashing on all
sorts of programs, I had no video problems until early Sept.

Then I started getting the nvlddmkm errors in a couple video games,
Powerpoint, Internet Explorer, etc.

I had a Dell support contract so I got online with their techs in India.
That's been hell. Each one of them wanted me to reload the nVidida
drivers (about 40 times in all) and reload Vista (reinstalled 4 times). Each
time I reinstalled Vista, some new problem came up -- its incredibly bad
code in my opinion. Anyway, upwards of 40 hours on chat and phone with
Dell so far plus a couple chats with Microsoft and 3-4 software purchases
trying to get Vista stable. Vista is pretty good right now.

So then they sent me a new nVidia 8800 board. Like all major repair
efforts with this bug, things worked great for 2-3 days then got
progressively worse. Thats one strange part. Sometimes I can play my
video game for an entire day with no driver faults, or maybe just 1-2.
Other time its so constant I'm lucky to get one move done in the game.
I've been playing Civilization IV (BTS), Halo 2, Call of Duty World at War,
and Assassins Creed. They all have the problem. As I said, even IE7
gets the error sometimes.

I got to reinstall Vista again because some dufus in
India wouldn't honor my Dell support contract if I didn't. Did it. No luck.
They then sent me an ATI Radeon 3870 graphics board (HUGE) which I
installed and now I have ATImdag resets fairly often.

I've got a 750w PSU with 2 500GB disks, 2GB memory, and 2 CD/DVD
drives. I've run it without the APC battery backup and with. I've had 3
monitors on the machine (21"Viewsonic CRT/VGA, cheapo sony CRT I had,
now a 27" Dell LCD using the DVI connection). None of the hardware
changes seems to have any effect. I even tried shrinking the Windows
paging file to minimum, no luck, then pushed it up past recommended
1.5X memory size. Also no luck. I've got the newest driver from Dell
on every one of my devices (except 1 back level) and the latest BIOs.

I've installed Vista SP1 and ATI 8.12. I've installed dozens of Vista fixes.
The problem gets no better.
Dell said "we are waiting on a patch from ATI" but they told me that back
in September about nVidia too but somehow every Rajeev and Habib I
connect with seems to lose that information and send me out chasing
snipes and left-handed smoke turners.

And yes, it turns out there are 100s of thousands of forum entries all over
the web on the nVidia and ATI driver not responding problems. Of course
when I was first installing the new 27" LCD and running on the Vista
generic PnP driver, nothing crashed. But Vista auto installed ATI drivers
and now I'm in trouble again.

Sometimes I crash hard and the only way to recover is manual power off.
Sometimes I crash with triangular splash rays on screen and I'm lucky to
get a restart going. Usually, I have to manual power down.

I don't overclock or fool with anything. I take defaults on all the hardware
stuff. With the Catalyst installed, I can't even touch the overclocking on
the GPU (gray, inaccessible but shows 777Mhz clocking?) and the temp
meters are always at zero.
I could use some help.

I'm on the verge of installing XP but don't want to reinstall everything one
more time. The Dell has good airflow and I am not in a hot room. The PSU
was straining my APC battery backup so I had to take the Dell 27" LCD off
it plus my 3rd disk unit (APC doesn't beep overload now -- this never
happened with nVidia 8800)

Yep, I need help.

sparkies · Dec 27, 2008, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danielg922

I'm on ATI Radeon driver 8.12 and its a long story.

I bought a Dell XPS 720 in Feb 08 with 2GB memory, a Q6600, and an
nVidia 8800 card built, I think, by Dell. While Vista was crashing on all
sorts of programs, I had no video problems until early Sept.

Then I started getting the nvlddmkm errors in a couple video games,
Powerpoint, Internet Explorer, etc.

I had a Dell support contract so I got online with their techs in India.
That's been hell. Each one of them wanted me to reload the nVidida
drivers (about 40 times in all) and reload Vista (reinstalled 4 times). Each
time I reinstalled Vista, some new problem came up -- its incredibly bad
code in my opinion. Anyway, upwards of 40 hours on chat and phone with
Dell so far plus a couple chats with Microsoft and 3-4 software purchases
trying to get Vista stable. Vista is pretty good right now.

So then they sent me a new nVidia 8800 board. Like all major repair
efforts with this bug, things worked great for 2-3 days then got
progressively worse. Thats one strange part. Sometimes I can play my
video game for an entire day with no driver faults, or maybe just 1-2.
Other time its so constant I'm lucky to get one move done in the game.
I've been playing Civilization IV (BTS), Halo 2, Call of Duty World at War,
and Assassins Creed. They all have the problem. As I said, even IE7
gets the error sometimes.

I got to reinstall Vista again because some dufus in
India wouldn't honor my Dell support contract if I didn't. Did it. No luck.
They then sent me an ATI Radeon 3870 graphics board (HUGE) which I
installed and now I have ATImdag resets fairly often.

I've got a 750w PSU with 2 500GB disks, 2GB memory, and 2 CD/DVD
drives. I've run it without the APC battery backup and with. I've had 3
monitors on the machine (21"Viewsonic CRT/VGA, cheapo sony CRT I had,
now a 27" Dell LCD using the DVI connection). None of the hardware
changes seems to have any effect. I even tried shrinking the Windows
paging file to minimum, no luck, then pushed it up past recommended
1.5X memory size. Also no luck. I've got the newest driver from Dell
on every one of my devices (except 1 back level) and the latest BIOs.

I've installed Vista SP1 and ATI 8.12. I've installed dozens of Vista fixes.
The problem gets no better.
Dell said "we are waiting on a patch from ATI" but they told me that back
in September about nVidia too but somehow every Rajeev and Habib I
connect with seems to lose that information and send me out chasing
snipes and left-handed smoke turners.

And yes, it turns out there are 100s of thousands of forum entries all over
the web on the nVidia and ATI driver not responding problems. Of course
when I was first installing the new 27" LCD and running on the Vista
generic PnP driver, nothing crashed. But Vista auto installed ATI drivers
and now I'm in trouble again.

Sometimes I crash hard and the only way to recover is manual power off.
Sometimes I crash with triangular splash rays on screen and I'm lucky to
get a restart going. Usually, I have to manual power down.

I don't overclock or fool with anything. I take defaults on all the hardware
stuff. With the Catalyst installed, I can't even touch the overclocking on
the GPU (gray, inaccessible but shows 777Mhz clocking?) and the temp
meters are always at zero.
I could use some help.

I'm on the verge of installing XP but don't want to reinstall everything one
more time. The Dell has good airflow and I am not in a hot room. The PSU
was straining my APC battery backup so I had to take the Dell 27" LCD off
it plus my 3rd disk unit (APC doesn't beep overload now -- this never
happened with nVidia 8800)

Yep, I need help.

OMG. What a nightmare. What about swapping the whole lot? I mean, it sounds to me like its not actually your graphics card but something else in your system, another component on the motherboard, or the bus or something... Unfortunately I don't know the magic word you have to say to get Dell to replace your kit.. maybe someone else here might know what it is?

E-D@N · Dec 27, 2008, 03:17 PM

Danielg922, have you tried something else beside looking at the graphics?
it could be a bad RAM stick... or maybe a faulty Motherboard...

you have a lot to check... so start with the basics...

Luke Dupree · Dec 28, 2008, 12:41 AM

WOW!!! This error is all over the net and there seems to be bo easy fix as couple of post have indicated. I too have been trying to overcome the dreded - Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error. first installed two VisionTek Radeon HD 4670 cards to run in Crossfire mode but never even got that far. My system crashed shortly after install and when I booted it back up there it was, the error. I went through all of the same things in these other post, went to Microsof Support site ( Less than no help there), ATI's support tickets, clean install and so on. What is interesting is that after the clean install I had no error prior to installing microsoft updates. I ran my system hard running Crysis in Very High mode for over two hours. No problem, excellent performance. Benchmarked at 5.9 for Vista Windows Experience Index and assumed the clean install had rid me of the issue. But once the Updates were installed it was back.

Now as I have two of the video cards I went to one card and the same issue, switched to the other and had the same issue. Pulled my wifes PC down and installed the cards and had the same issue. My MB is an MSI DKA790GX and hers is an ASUS M2R32 - MVP. Other than MB's both systems are pretty comperable except I amd running a AMD 9950 Quad Core Phenom 2.6 GHZ and she is running an AMD Dual Core Athlon X2 2.4 GHZ. So my point is it's a software or driver issue. I have chenged memory, PSU's any and all drivers for both systems and vid cards. Both systems are rock solid with the Gforce 7800 GTX 512 cards that were in them.

I have tried pretty much every suggestion on this forum to no avail. The TDR adjustments just wasted alot of time for me.

I am loading Ubuntu 8.10 this evening and throwing the towel. If the cards wont run there it's time to return them. Or maybe it's time already.

Raduque · Dec 28, 2008, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luke Dupree

WOW!!! This error is all over the net and there seems to be bo easy fix as couple of post have indicated. I too have been trying to overcome the dreded - Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error. first installed two VisionTek Radeon HD 4670 cards to run in Crossfire mode but never even got that far. My system crashed shortly after install and when I booted it back up there it was, the error. I went through all of the same things in these other post, went to Microsof Support site ( Less than no help there), ATI's support tickets, clean install and so on. What is interesting is that after the clean install I had no error prior to installing microsoft updates. I ran my system hard running Crysis in Very High mode for over two hours. No problem, excellent performance. Benchmarked at 5.9 for Vista Windows Experience Index and assumed the clean install had rid me of the issue. But once the Updates were installed it was back.

Now as I have two of the video cards I went to one card and the same issue, switched to the other and had the same issue. Pulled my wifes PC down and installed the cards and had the same issue. My MB is an MSI DKA790GX and hers is an ASUS M2R32 - MVP. Other than MB's both systems are pretty comperable except I amd running a AMD 9950 Quad Core Phenom 2.6 GHZ and she is running an AMD Dual Core Athlon X2 2.4 GHZ. So my point is it's a software or driver issue. I have chenged memory, PSU's any and all drivers for both systems and vid cards. Both systems are rock solid with the Gforce 7800 GTX 512 cards that were in them.

I have tried pretty much every suggestion on this forum to no avail. The TDR adjustments just wasted alot of time for me.

I am loading Ubuntu 8.10 this evening and throwing the towel. If the cards wont run there it's time to return them. Or maybe it's time already.

Luke, what you should do is re-load Windows Vista and go through each update one at a time till you find the one that causes TDRs and let us know the KB number of the update. It's going to be a pain, but it might save us all a lot of trouble if we can tell Microsoft "it's caused by update KB-whatever". Then, they can narrow it down, see what changed and maybe issue a fix.

Since you're formatting anyway.

OldBuzzard · Dec 28, 2008, 11:29 PM

I did that some time ago...

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldBuzzard

CATALYSTCATCHER

I've joined the ranks of the "TDR Afflicted" too

Anyway, I also ran into another 'interesting' problem.

I had been running Vista Ultimate 64 using an X1950, and I wasn't having a problem. It was rock solid.

I just installed a Sapphire 3970 x2, and now I have the TDR's. I also had a BIG problem after one of the MS updates.

I wiped the Vista partition, did an install of VIsta Ultimate 64 bit with SP1 integrated, installed the MB, mouse, vid, sound and printer drivers. It was going OK, but I was getting the occasional TDR.

Then, I installed the MS updates. After they installed, on the re-boot I got a BSOD. It was the 0x00000116 one saying that the problem was with ATIKMDAG.SYS. It would BSOD, dump, re-boot, BSOD, dump,....

I booted into safe mode and did a system restore. There were 8 updates, so to narrow it down, I started installing the updates one at a time, and re-booting after each update, even if the system didn't request it.

The one that gave me the BSOD was KB938371 "Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems". Not much to go on, other than the 'KB' number.

Whatever is in that update seriously impacts ATIKMDAG.SYS to the point that it BSODs.

I'm hoping for a 'cure' as I've been waiting for some time now to be able to run FSX in all it's DX10 glory, but as it stands right now, it isn't gonna happen.

Oh well, I've waited this long, so a little longer won't matter all that much

grog · Dec 29, 2008, 12:20 AM

KB938371 is needed for SP1 to work.

The BSOD could have been caused by the USB update but no other issue has been reported with the 938371 update.

KB938371

A software update is available for the Windows Vista installation components
A software update is available for the Windows Vista installation components

Quote:

Update information

The original release of Update 938371 updates several internal components that Windows Vista requires in order to install or to remove Windows Vista Service Pack 1 more reliably. This update must be applied separately before you install Windows Vista SP1 to make sure that Windows Vista SP1 can be installed or removed from the computer. Update 938371 is necessary to install and to remove Windows Vista SP1 on all versions of Windows Vista.

When you install update 938371 from Windows Update, you may lose access to the USB mouse or the USB keyboard on a computer that is running Windows Vista
When you install update 938371 from Windows Update, you may lose access to the USB mouse or the USB keyboard on a computer that is running Windows Vista

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldBuzzard

I did that some time ago...

Luke Dupree · Dec 29, 2008, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raduque

Luke, what you should do is re-load Windows Vista and go through each update one at a time till you find the one that causes TDRs and let us know the KB number of the update. It's going to be a pain, but it might save us all a lot of trouble if we can tell Microsoft "it's caused by update KB-whatever". Then, they can narrow it down, see what changed and maybe issue a fix.

Since you're formatting anyway.

Good idea but too late. I took both cards back and bought two PNY 9800 GT 1gb cards. Installed and have had zero issues. I just don't feel like spending any more time resolving ATI's and or Microsofts issues. The drivers from ATI have WHQL digital signatures so neither Microsoft or ATI are willing to aknowledge the issue other than saying it's your hardware, drivers etc... And maybe it is, but it's their hardware and drivers we are discussing.

The web is full of this error, unbelieveable there are 257,304 views of this thread and this is just one website. I have found many others all the same ol stuff in them. No one has a clue to the real problem except the it is software related. The tread started back in March of 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There's not going to be any help coming. We are on our own. So get rid of the ATI cards in a big pile I guess.

Biffes · Dec 29, 2008, 12:53 AM

Hay, guys! just a small update. my system runs nice on sync refreshrates since the reg-hack- but(t) i used a bd-drive this day- i got some interessting tdrs that were fullscreen while using a windowed windvd... the interessting part is: you could clearly see a crash on 1080p 5 minutes before ist happens. seems like crappy ram. i really have to say- i am outta here, i will give nvidia a try- my r560 is running like a charme on 3 displays

apc boss · Dec 29, 2008, 10:25 AM

hey guys i feel for all of you! so dont get all bent out of shape when i say this!

this forum is not msn or yahoo chat !stay with the facts dont come here and pollute this thred with i am just a normal humen and cry your eyes out about your computer!this is science and if ati morons or nividia doctors would have an easy fix to this problem they would have done that already because they want you of their backs too!just in most cases they wait till heat rises from pissed off users to no believe.they count on your post tomorrow saying i upgraded this 4850 to 4870 or 260 to280 and all my troubles where gone!

infact they are not!!!!
stay with grocs posts on this! he simply states the facts!
powersupply drivers airflow software conflicts!
if you buy a complete system you usually get 1 maybe two feature components cpu graphicscard and the rest is but absolut low budget junk for a very high price!and the poor people that assemble this junk for dell hp acer dont even know how to turn on a computer!

after almost half a year tinkering with this embarrassing (for ati nividia microsoft)problem i came to see and understand a couple of facts for my specific system.

powersupply who cares ones you are over 600watt and only have a single 4850

drivers oh well one works better with your configuaration and the other works better then mine-if you have problems get latest drivers for devise-if no problems dont upgrade(dont ever fix whats not broken that goes for drivers bios and generally everything you own!infact that is one of the problems that keeps this error from reacuring dont just jump in changing this nd that the first or second time you have a trd

start at default make absolutely sure (THANKS Groc)that you have propper airflow(my case is so cold if you keep your hands in there to long your fingers will fall off)upgrade to the latest drivers clean insatll everything all traces removed of old drivers dont bother reinstalling windows because fresh install is like little baby that needs to be fed alot takes time needs to grow fixed and tweaked
use an uninstaller for ccc components than driver sweeper than regfix than install fresh driver!

by now i hope you made sure you have great airflow!and i mean airflow (not cranking the fan up to a 100%)let ccc do that when it needs it!thats what i meant by default everything to be sure!

doing the fan thing thru software only helps overclocking and only very very little! 4850 doesnt overclock well anyways!one more one less but all in all laughable!on top the gain is minimal!

now try little!
if your display driver stops working crashes during regular video apps or just watching a dvd something (a component is toast KAPPUTT)face it now find it and replace it!!
i know that sucks but thats computers for ya if you dont have the nerve to deal with it pay somebody and you can bitch at him or her(not likely)cause you paid for it

now playing games is a different story! believe it or not most newer high end videocards dont like all the oldie but goody games!some do some dont everybodys experience vary!there are no more new patches written and microsoft is to busy working on windows seven to worry about old vista 64 (funny vista 64 is actually pretty stable compared to xp64)
however if those oldies dont work they never will in your present configuration no matter how many fixes and hair you pull out.sometimes you get one going but the other wont work 1step ahead two steps back!

and what is really dissapointing is that knew games arent any better chronic malfanctioning crysis is just one example of many but most trd go as fixes patches ripen

the game industry is under high pressure to get these games on the shelf as quick as possible time is money and the big fat bosses need that paycheck and a raiseso keep on going release date was two weeks ago!with that push combined with microsofts push and ati vs nvidia know intel vs amd alot of mistakes are made and nothing really works in harmony it goes as far as that crysis is more stable with a nividia card but ati works much smoother on high settings

now i have one of these palit 4850 and trust me its not as bad as everybody says if i wouldnt have battled trds for to long!
there is nothing wrong with it ! it sits in an icecold homemade housing it runs stress tests for weeks!never stops no complaint from display driver no trd but boy put the wrong game in there doesnt matter 2d even the wrong chess game or 3d latest on the market and there you have it! bang! you know!

glad i joined the forum i already feel much better!

Liqourice · Dec 29, 2008, 01:03 PM

Darn..

I'm getting this error in Vista x64 too now, but only when trying one particular game. I've played FSX and Fallout 3 for hours, surfed the net and done both this and that and no problems at all but when I try to load Battleground Europe this happens when it moves into the loading screen.

I see the splash screen fine, it opens up the loading screen but then after a few seconds screen goes white and I have to tell vista to stop the program and I get the "Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered" message.

Strange that it happens only at this particular moment and it happens every time. Doesn't matter if I have the CPU overclocked or not.

Evileye · Dec 29, 2008, 05:08 PM

Found this info on another Forum. Thought it might be helpful....

Quote:

My System Engineer and I have after many headaches and ALOT of tylenol have Identified the apparent Cause of this Problem.

What it is Not -

Vista ( 32bit or 64bit ), XP ( 32bit or 64bit ), .NET framework, System Memory, Heat, Dual Monitors ( Extended Desktop
or Clone Mode ) .

What it appears to be -

The ATI CATALYST CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE ( Not the Stand Alone Driver )

Basis For Conclusion -

We tested all My Systems ( 4 of them ,2 XP ( 1 64bit and 1 32bit ) 2 VISTA Ultimate ( 1 32bit and 1 64bit ) from the ground up with NUMEROUS CLEAN installs of the BASE OS to try and reproduce the Error After every Software install. We did this with the OS Updated and With the OS Naked. The Error only Occured AFTER installing the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE.
We then Did Clean installs on All the Systems and Installed ONLY the CATALYST SOFTWARE to see if it was a Conflict with any other software.
The Error occured Almost Immediatly.

We then Purged the Systems of All ATI Software and Tried to install the Software in the Individual packages the ATI does Provide. As soon as we installed the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE the ERROR Occured.

We thenPurged the Systems again of the ATI SOFTWARE and Installed ONLY THE DRIVER. We ran the Systems for 2 weeks the ATIKMDAG HAS STOPPED RESPONDING AND RECOVERED Error did not reassert itself.

If you have the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL INSTALLED and Do a Seach of Your Primary hard Drive you will Find that the ATIKMDAG.SV file is ONLY found in the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE PACKAGE.

If you Remove the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL you will remove ATIKMDAG.SV from your System and this solves at least this Issue.

The problem seems to be an encoding error in how the CATALYST control Panel Software Interacts with ICQ's in relation to The OS instructions.

It should be Noted that ATI apparently is aware of the Issue as they Offer a Standalone Download of the Graphics Driver even thought they will not Officially Acknowledge the Issue.

My System Engineer and I both have Notified ATI of our Findings. They have not responded.

OF NOTE -

Graphics Performance Does not appear to suffer when runnig ONLY the Graphics Driver. The Only Differance is that You Can Not use the Features that the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE provides. However for graphics Stability it is a Small Price to pay.

Also Before you Chuck your ATI graphics Card For an NVIDIA Graphics Card note that NVIDIA Graphics Cards Present a Simalar Error and More Importantly NVIDIA DOES NOT OFFER a Standalone DRIVER, you take thier CONTROL PANEL or Nothing.

Hopefully ATI will address this issue in a Newer Release of the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL.

Source:

Code:

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/126861-atikmdag-error-message-computer-freeze.html

rychas · Dec 29, 2008, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evileye

Found this info on another Forum. Thought it might be helpful....

I never installed the Control Panel on my machine, I don't even have that file on the system, so that excludes this option at least for me.

apc boss · Dec 29, 2008, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evileye

Found this info on another Forum. Thought it might be helpful....

Source:

Code:

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/126861-atikmdag-error-message-computer-freeze.html

thanks alot for sharing that solves the problem for alot of systems and was recommended even by ati in the beginning but is not the whole sum of it.

some games just have an issue with the cards that is after everything is in perfect condition without ccc!

grog · Dec 29, 2008, 08:42 PM

atikmdag.sys is part of the standard driver package not CCC.

C:\ATI\SUPPORT\8-11_vista64_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_70230\Packages\Drivers\D isplay\LH6A_INF\B_71400\atikmdag.sy_

Not sure why removing CCC would have any effect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evileye

Found this info on another Forum. Thought it might be helpful....

Source:

Code:

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/126861-atikmdag-error-message-computer-freeze.html

Liqourice · Dec 29, 2008, 11:41 PM

After some trials I've noticed this:

If I have the GPU's only overclocked it happens, if I have the CPU only overclocked it happens. Obviously it happens if I have both overclocked as well.

Though, if I run everything at stock settings it works for me.

apc boss · Dec 30, 2008, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liqourice

After some trials I've noticed this:

If I have the GPU's only overclocked it happens, if I have the CPU only overclocked it happens. Obviously it happens if I have both overclocked as well.

Though, if I run everything at stock settings it works for me.

my cpu is always overclocked to the highest possible irun benchmarks stress tests without a problem just sometimes some little or big game makes the display driver stop responding!my memory irun also overclocked at times it never had an effect on the display driver other problems arise if i go to high!

i never overclock 4850 or i have trd as soon as system starts using videocard

cpu and memory are not linked to our problem they have their own if they do!my Q6600 runs at 3.8 and i stress test it with intels burn in test for those who know the app know what i mean i always get equal numbers at that speed.

so video card stays default and everything is fine till some game loads up not all a lot of them play nice with 4850 8.12 drivers and stupid ccc on in my system.like i said the push in the game industry thru competition and not much competition for microsoft(no push just their fat greedy asses)intel nvidia vs amd ati causes alot of things just not to work in harmony and its a combo between OS Hardware DRIVER and APPLICATION (Game in most cases)maybe even motherboard(chipset) drivers always make sure
you got them up to date too

grog · Dec 30, 2008, 01:24 AM

The CPU over clock effecting the GPU is interesting.

My bet here is since you are using air cooling on the CPU the increased over clock on the CPU is making the case temps go up. I would expect the VRM's on the GPU to be at a higher temperature in this case.

I bet if you increased the air-flow across the VRM's on the GPU you might be fine with the CPU over clock.

As I have said from the start, get the system stable first then blame the software.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liqourice

After some trials I've noticed this:

If I have the GPU's only overclocked it happens, if I have the CPU only overclocked it happens. Obviously it happens if I have both overclocked as well.

Though, if I run everything at stock settings it works for me.

demskyr · Dec 30, 2008, 09:13 AM

I think it was all summed up nicely by using the word "magic"

The problem isn't the same for ANY 2 people. It is not a dual monitor problem, it is not an overclocking problem, it is not an overheating problem, it is not an ATI/nVidia problem, it is not a CCC problem, it is not a bios problem, it is not a RAM problem, etc, etc, etc...

I never once got a TDR, my system ALWAYS went to Blue Screen of Death. Worked on it for a month. Nothing worked. Not surprised to see there hasn't been one solution posted since I was last on in November. (Nothing new that is.)

Sent my system back, am sticking with my P4 for awhile. Never had a problem with it in 7 years.

Since it is a magic problem, it will take a magic solution. Good luck to all of you.

Liqourice · Dec 30, 2008, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grog

The CPU over clock effecting the GPU is interesting.

My bet here is since you are using air cooling on the CPU the increased over clock on the CPU is making the case temps go up. I would expect the VRM's on the GPU to be at a higher temperature in this case.

I bet if you increased the air-flow across the VRM's on the GPU you might be fine with the CPU over clock.

As I have said from the start, get the system stable first then blame the software.

It can't be temps. My case is very cool, I have to defrost it now and then. :P

No, but seriously.. if it was temps it would happen in XP as well. Temps aren't high either when it happens. I've run other games and I've done benchmarks with 3DMark06, I've run stress tests in Vista and all have been fine, it's just with this one single game it happens and it happens when the game is loading.

I have very good cooling and airflow. The GPU's rarely go over 70 degrees so no, it's not that.

Why it works if I have all settings at stock I have no idea. I guess it's easy to think it is temp related but since everything runs just fine at even higher temperatures in XP it has to be something else.

apc boss · Dec 30, 2008, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liqourice

It can't be temps. My case is very cool, I have to defrost it now and then. :P

No, but seriously.. if it was temps it would happen in XP as well. Temps aren't high either when it happens. I've run other games and I've done benchmarks with 3DMark06, I've run stress tests in Vista and all have been fine, it's just with this one single game it happens and it happens when the game is loading.

I have very good cooling and airflow. The GPU's rarely go over 70 degrees so no, it's not that.

Why it works if I have all settings at stock I have no idea. I guess it's easy to think it is temp related but since everything runs just fine at even higher temperatures in XP it has to be something else.

agree to that some dialog between game and our os and video driver is causing it almost impossible to know what would have to get into the structure of the games and compare one with another till we know

Raduque · Dec 30, 2008, 03:33 PM

Liqourice, I don;'t think it's temps either. My temps are regularly 90-100C in games, and 40 at idle, and I only have TDRs are idle. NEVER have I EVER seen a TDR in-game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luke Dupree

So get rid of the ATI cards in a big pile I guess.

Problem is a lot of people have the TDR issue with nVidia too. Look for "nvlddkm has stopped responding" on google.

Edit: Evileye, is that Bianca Bouchamp?

apc boss · Dec 30, 2008, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raduque

Liqourice, I don;'t think it's temps either. My temps are regularly 90-100C in games, and 40 at idle, and I only have TDRs are idle. NEVER have I EVER seen a TDR in-game.

Problem is a lot of people have the TDR issue with nVidia too. Look for "nvlddkm has stopped responding" on google.

Edit: Evileye, is that Bianca Bouchamp?

however you temps are extremely high for 3870 bro
you should do something about that
but like i said in earlyier post it does not matter how graphic intensive the app is but if you are getting trd just idling along in windows you are missing something some driver did you upgrade chipset drivers?

Dec 24, 2008, 03:59 PM	#1441
Raduque DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 32 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error Well, I haven't seen a TDR since the first reboot after I installed the 8.12s - but my rig's been under a 100% load almost since that reboot due to my transcoding app (converting recorded TV from my HTPC to WMV files).

Dec 25, 2008, 06:04 AM	#1444
DisposableChainsaw DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 1 Rep Power: 0	Re: Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error The issue shouldn't be attributed to either hardware or software, it obviously arises from some interaction of the two. I solved the problem by flashing my BIOS to the latest version--firmware saves the day! But really, don't point the finger. There's more than one way to solve this problem.

Dec 26, 2008, 05:04 PM	#1448
Danielg922 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Re: Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error I'm on ATI Radeon driver 8.12 and its a long story. I bought a Dell XPS 720 in Feb 08 with 2GB memory, a Q6600, and an nVidia 8800 card built, I think, by Dell. While Vista was crashing on all sorts of programs, I had no video problems until early Sept. Then I started getting the nvlddmkm errors in a couple video games, Powerpoint, Internet Explorer, etc. I had a Dell support contract so I got online with their techs in India. That's been hell. Each one of them wanted me to reload the nVidida drivers (about 40 times in all) and reload Vista (reinstalled 4 times). Each time I reinstalled Vista, some new problem came up -- its incredibly bad code in my opinion. Anyway, upwards of 40 hours on chat and phone with Dell so far plus a couple chats with Microsoft and 3-4 software purchases trying to get Vista stable. Vista is pretty good right now. So then they sent me a new nVidia 8800 board. Like all major repair efforts with this bug, things worked great for 2-3 days then got progressively worse. Thats one strange part. Sometimes I can play my video game for an entire day with no driver faults, or maybe just 1-2. Other time its so constant I'm lucky to get one move done in the game. I've been playing Civilization IV (BTS), Halo 2, Call of Duty World at War, and Assassins Creed. They all have the problem. As I said, even IE7 gets the error sometimes. I got to reinstall Vista again because some dufus in India wouldn't honor my Dell support contract if I didn't. Did it. No luck. They then sent me an ATI Radeon 3870 graphics board (HUGE) which I installed and now I have ATImdag resets fairly often. I've got a 750w PSU with 2 500GB disks, 2GB memory, and 2 CD/DVD drives. I've run it without the APC battery backup and with. I've had 3 monitors on the machine (21"Viewsonic CRT/VGA, cheapo sony CRT I had, now a 27" Dell LCD using the DVI connection). None of the hardware changes seems to have any effect. I even tried shrinking the Windows paging file to minimum, no luck, then pushed it up past recommended 1.5X memory size. Also no luck. I've got the newest driver from Dell on every one of my devices (except 1 back level) and the latest BIOs. I've installed Vista SP1 and ATI 8.12. I've installed dozens of Vista fixes. The problem gets no better. Dell said "we are waiting on a patch from ATI" but they told me that back in September about nVidia too but somehow every Rajeev and Habib I connect with seems to lose that information and send me out chasing snipes and left-handed smoke turners. And yes, it turns out there are 100s of thousands of forum entries all over the web on the nVidia and ATI driver not responding problems. Of course when I was first installing the new 27" LCD and running on the Vista generic PnP driver, nothing crashed. But Vista auto installed ATI drivers and now I'm in trouble again. Sometimes I crash hard and the only way to recover is manual power off. Sometimes I crash with triangular splash rays on screen and I'm lucky to get a restart going. Usually, I have to manual power down. I don't overclock or fool with anything. I take defaults on all the hardware stuff. With the Catalyst installed, I can't even touch the overclocking on the GPU (gray, inaccessible but shows 777Mhz clocking?) and the temp meters are always at zero. I could use some help. I'm on the verge of installing XP but don't want to reinstall everything one more time. The Dell has good airflow and I am not in a hot room. The PSU was straining my APC battery backup so I had to take the Dell 27" LCD off it plus my 3rd disk unit (APC doesn't beep overload now -- this never happened with nVidia 8800) Yep, I need help.

Dec 27, 2008, 03:17 PM	#1450
E-D@N DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 72 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error Danielg922, have you tried something else beside looking at the graphics? it could be a bad RAM stick... or maybe a faulty Motherboard... you have a lot to check... so start with the basics...

Dec 28, 2008, 12:41 AM	#1451
Luke Dupree DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Re: Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error WOW!!! This error is all over the net and there seems to be bo easy fix as couple of post have indicated. I too have been trying to overcome the dreded - Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error. first installed two VisionTek Radeon HD 4670 cards to run in Crossfire mode but never even got that far. My system crashed shortly after install and when I booted it back up there it was, the error. I went through all of the same things in these other post, went to Microsof Support site ( Less than no help there), ATI's support tickets, clean install and so on. What is interesting is that after the clean install I had no error prior to installing microsoft updates. I ran my system hard running Crysis in Very High mode for over two hours. No problem, excellent performance. Benchmarked at 5.9 for Vista Windows Experience Index and assumed the clean install had rid me of the issue. But once the Updates were installed it was back. Now as I have two of the video cards I went to one card and the same issue, switched to the other and had the same issue. Pulled my wifes PC down and installed the cards and had the same issue. My MB is an MSI DKA790GX and hers is an ASUS M2R32 - MVP. Other than MB's both systems are pretty comperable except I amd running a AMD 9950 Quad Core Phenom 2.6 GHZ and she is running an AMD Dual Core Athlon X2 2.4 GHZ. So my point is it's a software or driver issue. I have chenged memory, PSU's any and all drivers for both systems and vid cards. Both systems are rock solid with the Gforce 7800 GTX 512 cards that were in them. I have tried pretty much every suggestion on this forum to no avail. The TDR adjustments just wasted alot of time for me. I am loading Ubuntu 8.10 this evening and throwing the towel. If the cards wont run there it's time to return them. Or maybe it's time already.

Dec 29, 2008, 12:53 AM	#1456
Biffes DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 30 Rep Power: 0	AW: Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error Hay, guys! just a small update. my system runs nice on sync refreshrates since the reg-hack- but(t) i used a bd-drive this day- i got some interessting tdrs that were fullscreen while using a windowed windvd... the interessting part is: you could clearly see a crash on 1080p 5 minutes before ist happens. seems like crappy ram. i really have to say- i am outta here, i will give nvidia a try- my r560 is running like a charme on 3 displays

Dec 29, 2008, 10:25 AM	#1457
apc boss DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 27 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error hey guys i feel for all of you! so dont get all bent out of shape when i say this! this forum is not msn or yahoo chat !stay with the facts dont come here and pollute this thred with i am just a normal humen and cry your eyes out about your computer!this is science and if ati morons or nividia doctors would have an easy fix to this problem they would have done that already because they want you of their backs too!just in most cases they wait till heat rises from pissed off users to no believe.they count on your post tomorrow saying i upgraded this 4850 to 4870 or 260 to280 and all my troubles where gone! infact they are not!!!! stay with grocs posts on this! he simply states the facts! powersupply drivers airflow software conflicts! if you buy a complete system you usually get 1 maybe two feature components cpu graphicscard and the rest is but absolut low budget junk for a very high price!and the poor people that assemble this junk for dell hp acer dont even know how to turn on a computer! after almost half a year tinkering with this embarrassing (for ati nividia microsoft)problem i came to see and understand a couple of facts for my specific system. powersupply who cares ones you are over 600watt and only have a single 4850 drivers oh well one works better with your configuaration and the other works better then mine-if you have problems get latest drivers for devise-if no problems dont upgrade(dont ever fix whats not broken that goes for drivers bios and generally everything you own!infact that is one of the problems that keeps this error from reacuring dont just jump in changing this nd that the first or second time you have a trd start at default make absolutely sure (THANKS Groc)that you have propper airflow(my case is so cold if you keep your hands in there to long your fingers will fall off)upgrade to the latest drivers clean insatll everything all traces removed of old drivers dont bother reinstalling windows because fresh install is like little baby that needs to be fed alot takes time needs to grow fixed and tweaked use an uninstaller for ccc components than driver sweeper than regfix than install fresh driver! by now i hope you made sure you have great airflow!and i mean airflow (not cranking the fan up to a 100%)let ccc do that when it needs it!thats what i meant by default everything to be sure! doing the fan thing thru software only helps overclocking and only very very little! 4850 doesnt overclock well anyways!one more one less but all in all laughable!on top the gain is minimal! now try little! if your display driver stops working crashes during regular video apps or just watching a dvd something (a component is toast KAPPUTT)face it now find it and replace it!! i know that sucks but thats computers for ya if you dont have the nerve to deal with it pay somebody and you can bitch at him or her(not likely)cause you paid for it now playing games is a different story! believe it or not most newer high end videocards dont like all the oldie but goody games!some do some dont everybodys experience vary!there are no more new patches written and microsoft is to busy working on windows seven to worry about old vista 64 (funny vista 64 is actually pretty stable compared to xp64) however if those oldies dont work they never will in your present configuration no matter how many fixes and hair you pull out.sometimes you get one going but the other wont work 1step ahead two steps back! and what is really dissapointing is that knew games arent any better chronic malfanctioning crysis is just one example of many but most trd go as fixes patches ripen the game industry is under high pressure to get these games on the shelf as quick as possible time is money and the big fat bosses need that paycheck and a raiseso keep on going release date was two weeks ago!with that push combined with microsofts push and ati vs nvidia know intel vs amd alot of mistakes are made and nothing really works in harmony it goes as far as that crysis is more stable with a nividia card but ati works much smoother on high settings now i have one of these palit 4850 and trust me its not as bad as everybody says if i wouldnt have battled trds for to long! there is nothing wrong with it ! it sits in an icecold homemade housing it runs stress tests for weeks!never stops no complaint from display driver no trd but boy put the wrong game in there doesnt matter 2d even the wrong chess game or 3d latest on the market and there you have it! bang! you know! glad i joined the forum i already feel much better! __________________ the truth you tell tourself,the truth you tell others and the truth

Dec 29, 2008, 01:03 PM	#1458
Liqourice HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Stockholm Posts: 1,551 Rep Power: 84 System Specs	Re: Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error Darn.. I'm getting this error in Vista x64 too now, but only when trying one particular game. I've played FSX and Fallout 3 for hours, surfed the net and done both this and that and no problems at all but when I try to load Battleground Europe this happens when it moves into the loading screen. I see the splash screen fine, it opens up the loading screen but then after a few seconds screen goes white and I have to tell vista to stop the program and I get the "Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered" message. Strange that it happens only at this particular moment and it happens every time. Doesn't matter if I have the CPU overclocked or not.

Dec 29, 2008, 11:41 PM	#1463
Liqourice HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Stockholm Posts: 1,551 Rep Power: 84 System Specs	Re: Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error After some trials I've noticed this: If I have the GPU's only overclocked it happens, if I have the CPU only overclocked it happens. Obviously it happens if I have both overclocked as well. Though, if I run everything at stock settings it works for me.

Dec 30, 2008, 09:13 AM	#1466
demskyr DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Oregon Posts: 10 Rep Power: 0	Re: Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error I think it was all summed up nicely by using the word "magic" The problem isn't the same for ANY 2 people. It is not a dual monitor problem, it is not an overclocking problem, it is not an overheating problem, it is not an ATI/nVidia problem, it is not a CCC problem, it is not a bios problem, it is not a RAM problem, etc, etc, etc... I never once got a TDR, my system ALWAYS went to Blue Screen of Death. Worked on it for a month. Nothing worked. Not surprised to see there hasn't been one solution posted since I was last on in November. (Nothing new that is.) Sent my system back, am sticking with my P4 for awhile. Never had a problem with it in 7 years. Since it is a magic problem, it will take a magic solution. Good luck to all of you.