Ken62465

New system I just put together as follows.

Asus M4A89TD Pro/USB3
AMD Phenom II x4 970 BE
Corsair Dominator 8gb(4x2) DDR3 1333 C7
Gigabytle Radeon HD 6950 2gb
Corsair AX750 PSU
Win 7 pro x64

System runs rock stable all day long and I've stress tested with Prime95 & Furmark extensively without issue. I work from this setup in an OpenGL 3D cad rendering program all day so it's pretty taxing...again without issue. Problem comes in when I power down at night...cold boot in the morning and BSOD 016 at atikmpag.sys. I reboot and away we go for the entire day. Strangest thing I've ever seen. I had downloaded the 10.11 CC driver set in preperation for the systems arrival then on the 26th of Jan. they uploaded a new let...11.1. I did a complete uninstall and then even used driver sweaper to rid the system of any left over ATI drivers, reg entries. Clean install of 11.1 and no cure or change.
Seems this car suffers some form of initialization issue on cold start up. But for a reboot to cure it I have no idea why that would get around what's going on.
I spoke with AMD tech support twice now over this issue and they gave me the typical tests I need to do to verify the card...test another card in this system. Test the card in another system. Seems driver or bios related issue to me dealing with initialization.
What stinks about performing tests on this I get 1 to maybe 2 shots a day because even right now I could restart the system and boots no prob. Yesterday I powered down but pull cord from PSU so no draw at all. Let it sit 3 hrs and the BSOD happened...tried 1 hour and it was fine...that's messed up. Capacitors or something holding a change pretty darn well. Guess I could get more than 2 tests a day but what a pain playing waiting game.
OK so anyone got an idea. I got 16 days remaining to RMA the card but I'm not convinced I have a hardware issue at all. If I RMA'd the card I wouldn't go with another ATI/AMD because I'd could very well be right back here with this possible driver and BSOD...in other words I'd be switching to Nvidia in hopes the drivers are stable.

OldBuzzard

Sounds like "the good old TDR" issue.

Here's something that you can try. Not a guaranteed fix, but it won't hurt anything either:

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 core, 2 for a dual core, 4 for a quad, etc.
5. Put a CHECK in "Maximum memory", and if it's not already there, key in amount of RAM you have.
6. Click OK, Click APPLY, and re-boot when prompted.

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

Ken62465

stop 0116 is the TDR issue right? I ran your suggestion and will reboot momentarily. I just wanted to have your steps on screen and repsond first...lol. Thanks and sure as hell hope it cures this nuisance.

I read a little about this TDR issue but it seemed people were experiencing it while gaming, youtube videos and sometimes even surfing. Mine is strictly a cold boot issue but since it is still a stop 116 you very well could be right that it's the same issue. It's just so strange how a reboot cures it and the rest of the day I'm good to go.

I prob won't know until a good cold boot tomorrow morning so I'll let ya know how this goes. Can't power down for hours right now...to much work to get done..lol

Ken62465

One last thing that might have bearing on this case. The initial BSOD screen I see from a cold boot has the stop code 116 at atikmpag.sys but I used a program called BlueScreenView to read the dump file once sucessfully in win 7. When I highlight the dump file and select properties it tells me the offending file was dxgkrnl.sys. The bottom view screen window lists the files and the first 3 are colored in pink...as if to say there's a problem. The order is as follows.

atikmpag.sys
dxgkrnl.sys
dxgmms1.sys

All dump files I looked at are the same.

OldBuzzard

Not in all cases. In my case, my system would always BSOD during boot if the ATI drivers were installed and I had not done the MSCONFIG FIX.

That started in Vista, and carried over to WIN 7.

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

Ken62465

Are you saying your problem was identical to mine? or close to it. From my search this issue seems pretty damn widespread.

OldBuzzard

Not quite identical. You can get into windows on the re-boot. I couldn't. It would just boot, BSOD, re-boot, BSOD, re-boot...

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

Ken62465

So what did you do about it?

I powered down for a spell...prob not long enough to trigger the BSOD issue. I swapped out the 6950 for an older Nvidia 6800 Ultra...all I can say is wow. Seriousely this Ultra ran OK under XP but under Win 7...what a dog!! I have a cad model that I used in XP and know exactly how smooth the rendering was so I tested that model here in Win 7 with this card. It's way slower than it was on XP..wonder why that is? Ahh really not important I guess. I might leave this card in over night and see if boots no prob in the am...hey it's the only card I had lying around to mess with.

Looking at this 6950 on my desk...what a beast. I'm thinking of tossing it into my other computer but it's running XP so not sure how much that's going to prove because I think the TDR wasn't borm until Vista so I don't expect it to BSOD, unless this is of course a hardware issue but I doubt it...I skipped Vista btw.

Someone said I should try booting into safe mode on that first morning cold boot. Might be worth trying.

Ken62465

I put the 6950 in my XP machine for the heck of it. Booted right up. It Loaded the slow standard VGA driver so I installed the ATI driver only set and it's running fine...on it as I speak. PSU is only a 550 multi rail design Enermax so it might be on the edge as I don't recall the amps per rail without digging for it.
Actually made me miss XP...this card flies under XP boy. Almost wish I just stayed with this OS. Sure Win 7 is cool and all but for what I do XP did the job just fine.

Ken62465

Interesting..actually scored 400 pnts more under XP than win 7 Furmark bench score.

Ken62465

To all with 0x116 video tdr timeout errors - Windows 7 Forums

Interesting suggestion. I know what this option means but the default was no and I've never had any issues with the Bios configuring the devices so I left it alone/default...you think changing this to yes and allow Win 7 to config devices would have any impact?

OldBuzzard

I did the MSCONFIG Boot fix. That's what cured my problems.

That's what worked for me and a lot of other folks.

However it didn't work for everyone, and something else you need to know...there were nVidia folks that had the same problems.

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

Ken62465

Sorry I must have misread your post when you said "and I had not done the MSCONFIG FIX" you meant yet and I thought you meant at all so that's why I wondered what fix you did.

I changed the bios option for PnP OS to yes and I'll see if that and the MSCONFIG fix changes this problem. Both machines with the flip flop on the video cards have been running flawless and I put them both threw some good tests and power down for a while without problems. This issue has every indication of a software/driver issue.

OldBuzzard

Actually, it could be hardware. There is a sticky thread the lasted almost 3 years and over 1600 post on TDRs.
Vista and 7.3 Display driver atikmdag stopped responding error

This was my last post there:

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

Ken62465

Ya might be right about a hardware issue as I got some strange results this morning for both machines cold boot. I left the gfx cards flip flopped in the machines. This morning the Win 7 machine with the old 6800 Ultra froze video at the window screen right before the flash to desktop...same point where the bsod would occur but oddly windows was functional behind this frozen screen. The XP had bios screen and showed the windows xp logo but then screen went black. The strange part is on both machines windows itself seem to load and was operational behind these screens...they even responded to me hitting sleep on my kjeyboard. A second boot on the XP machine I saw that checked board pattern I use to see when the 6950 was in the win 7 machine right when the video switched from the windows XP logo to the desktop...it held for about 3 secs then desktop appeared....covered 90% of the screen.

I have no idea what to make of this or what to do about it, or even where to point the fingers...or what to RMA. Completely lost on this one. Swap things via RMA and still end up with issues I'd bet.

I've been putting computers together for myself, family, friends for 20 years as just a hoby and as time has evolved I hate it more and more. Seems last 5 or so years have been headache after headache. What happened to those smooth sailing days?

Ken62465

Did more tests after both machines sat completely disconnected from power sorce since this morning. The Win 7 machine booted fine. I think the first time it would have booted also but I should have mentioned I just pushed video DVI cable in and it came unhooked while booting and I lost video for a sec and it kept bugging out and then keyboard was lost, another loose cable issue. It really was my own fault for not taking my time so I shoudln't have counted that first test or even bothered to report about it. Anyway this 2nd test I made damn sure the DVI was even screwed in and all cables were in properly. Booted without issue. So the board, memory, PSU, OS seems fine to me.

The XP machine with the 6950 card would not boot. The Win xp logo comes up...then right as the screen would normaly change and go to your desktop I again got the checker board pattern covering half my screen and video never came back. A reboot cured it and here I sit. So under Win 7 with the TDR functionality it returns a stop 0116 but XP does not have this feature so video just freezes.

Things are pointing to this 6950 card, driver, bios. I wonder if maybe I'll try the standard vga driver and see if this checker board pattern and no video is still present. Might help elliminate driver or not.

Ken62465

Prior to powering down this time I uninstalled the ATI drivers complete and then a final removal process with driver sweeper. Powered down for over 4 hours, which always triggers this the cold boot problem. Booted wihout issue using the windows standard vga. Not the way I want to run it but it was just a test. I can't come to any other conclusion than this being a driver issue for me. Judging from some of the ati driver post problems spanning a few years now I don't feel overly confident AMD is going to fix this issue any time soon or seems eager to make it go away. Driver failure in both OS's so to me the only thing TDR function did was trap the error and BSOD on you where XP would just lose video.

Tyrsonswood

Not saying it's not an ATi driver issue, but Windows standard VGA driver doesn't stress the card the same way either..... So it may not be likely but it could still be hardware.

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aerospace

I've seen stuff like this before, but usually it is because the builder made a change to bios settings AFTER the os has been installed, like changing the acpi revision. Even a bios upgrade after the os has been installed that has NEW or upgraded features can cause this too. This may not be your issue, but stuff I have seen in the field.

Ken62465

Funny you say that. I did flash the latest bios from Asus after OS was installed. The version delivered with board was one behind current available. I usually don't bother with bios updates unless update address an issue I had but this new bios on Asus's site said "Improved stability", rather blanket statement on their part. A statement like that could very well effect all of us..lol The ironic thing is I think this issue was happening first and one of the reasons I went looking for a cure. Honestly I can't be 100% sure...I've done so many test starting to wish the early stuff I wrote down but who really documents their test proceedure?

Also on the bios issue. I don't think this is an issue relating to what's going on because this system has now cold booted 3 times without problem with an older 6800 Ultra card in it. It also booted fine with the 6950 back in with the standard MS vga slow poke driver. Cold boot BSOD only happens when the ATI drivers are installed.

I didn't change any ACPI stuff...no reason to.

Come Monday morning I'm going to attempt another shot with AMD tech support and relay to them the test procedures I did and see what they have to say. I'm not counting on much but it's worth the phone call.

Ken62465

Here's the quote from Asus's site on the latest 1101 bios for the M4A89TD pro/USB3

"Improve syatem stability."

Nice spelling ha? I had to look at it again but it's a cut and paste job. These people scare me.

Tyrsonswood

That's not bad spelling compared to ECS..... Those guys scare me, ASUS, not so much.

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Ken62465

first boot this morning I tried to boot to safe mode instead of striaght into win 7...no problem. Reboot normal windows...no problem. It's just the intial cold boot loading the ati drivers. This is so strange. Last night before I powered down I ran FurMark for 30 minutes, and I don't usualy go that long with it. No issues at all. When it's up and running it's stable as a rock.

Dyre Straits

Somebody complaining about spelling?

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Ken62465

Never said I was the best speller...then again I'm not selling products either am I now. If I was I'd be proofing my posting. Don't think I really care here...right smart ass

Dyre Straits

Since you're the one who made "spelling" a topic of this thread [Post 11, above] I thought it might be worthwhile to point out that your own posts were at fault.

There's no need to be name-calling.

And, in fact, you are selling something -- Yourself -- when you post on forums.

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