HELP!

I have some problems with some games. It's one of those black screen -> ''Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered'' (-> Game crash) Errors



Some games work fine, but some start messing too often so it has become unplayable. What can i do to fix this problem or at least find out what's wrong?
I heard it's a Vista problem. is it?

PC Specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.20GHz
3GB RAM (1x 2GB, 1x 1GB)
Club3d HD4850 512mb Overclocked Edition (Latest drivers)
580W PSU
Asus P5LD2-X/1333 Motherboard

Windows Vista Home Basic 32-bit

Let me know if you need more information.

List of games, in which i have gotten this error:
Dark Sector (Very often, Crashes the game, Sometimes even BSOD!)
Riddick: Assault On Dark Athena (Very often, Crashes the game)
Call Of Duty 4 (rarely and successfully recovers and i can continue playing)
Terminator: Salvation (Often, Crashes the game)
Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning (Very Often, Crashes the game, Sometimes even BSOD!)
And there's probably many more games....

hi dashx
try cutting back the game settings from high to medium.

I have tried. It lowers the chance that a crash will occur, but it's still gonna crash sooner or later.
But still, i'd like to know what's causing this thing?

well ir really doesn't stop responding, something is getting overloaded most likely your processor. 2.2 Ghz is a little slow by todays standards.

there was a big improvement in catylist drivers at version 9.4 and not so much in 9.5 although 9.5 has all the improvements included in 9.4. you getting catalyst from ati?

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

Yeah, I have been thinking about getting a new processor, was planning a Quad, but my MOBO doesn't support it so i gotta get a Good Core 2 Duo later on...

I found out that i don't have that new drivers after all...I had a March driver there. And yeah, i always download from ati...

Thanks for the link. I'm now installing the new driver, going to play some games, and see if anything changes.

I'm also gonna leave MemTest running for some hours tomorrow, and see if it finds anything.

If anybody ( You ) have any other ideas, what could be wrong, i'd like to hear it

Ok. I got 20 minutes of gameplay and then crashed again. Any other ideas?

is 20 min an improvement?

May also be a heat issue. remove the side cover and place a fan to blow cooler room air into the case.

20min... IS a improvement ( Just a little bit)
I'll post back later on, I'll tell u the temperatures

also if y'all haven't...get a can of air and blow out the video and processor heat sinks

Here are the temperatures while playing Riddick:Assault On Dark Athena.
System: 36 C
CPU:43 C
AUX: 26 C
Core 0: 45 C
Core 1: 46 C
GPU: 52 C

My graphics card is pretty new, and clean of dust. so is everything else in my PC, which i could access without taking anything apart.

MemTest found 0 Errors with 677% coverage

Seems like the ATI Driver didn't help after all... Still getting crashes (No improvement)

Any more ideas :O Could it be Software-related?

Maybe i forgot to mention something that may help:
I transferred from a NVIDIA Graphics Card to ATI. Could there be some nVidia stuff causing this?

I have been testing Windows7 for a couple of weeks, and 7 uses the same basic engine as Vista. I also have Radeon drivers. You can read my experience in the W7 forum HERE.

Upgrading to the latest Catalyst drivers helped, I didn't crash as much but it still happened. Then I noticed my monitor refresh rate; read my last post. Find the proper default refresh rate on your LCD and see what you are currently running at.

Still need help with this problem.

look in add/remove programs for any nvidia stuff and uninstall if there. boot in safe and remove any remaining nvidia entries

sorry it took so long to see what this problem is. your GPU is overheating. same thing happened to me. put more fans in the case, intake and exhaust fans like 120 mm fans.

>>>also, try checking your motherboard's manual for the RAM configuration. i suppose it's a dual channel architecture. 4 DIMMs, right? 2 DIMMs for the first channel and 2DIMMs for the second channel? so i wonder how u have come up with 3gigs of ram. just check the manual for the proper configuration.

I don't think 52 C is a problem for my card on full load... since it can handle heat up to 110 C ... at least that's what i read.


Motherboard's manual? I don't have one... At least not anymore. It has 2 RAM slots.

Edit: I have never updated BIOS... Is that useful?
Edit 2: I found the manual from internet. It says the MOBO supports up to 2GB of DDR2. I have 3GB and it still detects and uses it nicely.

>>>>i have seen the manual too from Asus website. please read carefully page 13 of the manual i think u miss something. i suggest you put 1GB ram on each DIMM.

Could that fix the problem? I should still have a 1GB RAM stick somewhere... But now i have nothing to test it on... I deleted all games that caused BSODs and crashes.
Oh and what does RAM have to do with display driver stopping working?

I also have graphics problems on games. Check this video out http://www.xfire.com/video/1218c8/
What can cause that?

110 is temp that it'll operate at without damage. most won't even go close to 110. get gpuZ from tech powerup.

What do you want me to do to it?

Get GPUZ and monitor the temps. all i can say is when my ati gets hot it fails. if you have catalyst control center you can set to recover after failure.

I have posted the temperatures already...

Here are the temperatures while playing Riddick:Assault On Dark Athena.
System: 36 C
CPU:43 C
AUX: 26 C
Core 0: 45 C
Core 1: 46 C
GPU: 52 C <---

Bump