ATI X1800XT BSOD problem

[SourceQuench]

Hi All,

I've got a really annoying problem with a X1800XT card that I bought a little while ago.

Essentially I can use my computer, but sometimes when I go to the Start Menu and then click "All programs", the menu freezes as it is fading in, and then about 10 seconds later I have a lovelly BSOD (or black screen) with a STOP x10000EA displayed before a reboot; ether that or the ATI "VPU recover" kicks in. Today I had a slightly different message: "The ati2dvag display driver has stopped working normally".

I've clean-installed XP (SP2) a number of times now trying to isolate the problem - at first I thought it was the nVidia SATA drivers that were up the creek, so tried without but still had the same problem.

I've tried the latest Cats (6.5) as well as 6.4 to see if it is a problem with that - but still same issue.

Spec is below:

Asus A8N-SLI Premium
1Gb OCZ Platinum Rev 2 + 1GB Corsair TwinX 4400 C25
PowerColor ATI X1800XT
WD 2500KS Hard Disk
NEC 3540 DVD-R
Tagan 480W PSU
erm.. that's it.

I would've thought that the PSU would've been strong enough for this setup (to check I measured the 12V rail with a multimeter - comes out with 12.08V, whilst motherboard reports 11.84V).

I've also memtested for quite a while (everything has been at stock since the beginning) without problems.

Can anyone please suggest anything that I can do to help solve this issue? Is it software or hardware related?

[aidanjt]

Have you tried playing games on it?.. to be honest Windows places virtually no demands on GPUs.. see if you can game for awhile, keep checking the rails with the multimeter while that's going on.. Hit the Windows key+r to get the run dialog and avoid the start menu... honestly it could just be funky old drivers.. a windows reinstall would sort that.

[SourceQuench]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I've not played any games yet, I wanted to get the thing stable... I did do a little artifact test with ATI Tool (the furry cube thingie) and it said that there were no errors even after 10 minutes although everything did get a little warm.

Right at this moment I have the multimeter plugged in to the +12V rail. When the artifact test is stopped, it reads 12.08V and when it's running, it reads 11.89V, so I am thinking that this is not too much of an issue surely - or is it new PSU time? (can things like the hard disk cope with fluctuations like that?)

I've done several clean XP installs by this point, the issue still keeps occuring with the start menu even with nothing else but DX9 and .NET 2.0 installed

[aidanjt]

That's weird, the voltages are within tollerance, but it's fluxuating more than a Tagen should. I'm finding it hard to fathum how the start menu button causes a BSoD and ATI Tool can stress test ok.. It must be something else, try using SiSoft Sandra and step through all the stress tests and see what it breaks at.

[sawyen]

I have a bad feeling its CCC .NET acting up...

Unlikely its the card.. but I could be wrong.. Try getting the card up without using the CCC version.. just the control panel version would suffice...

[Cannyone]

I would agree with Sawyen. The Control Panel Version of the 6.5s can be found here. These are the 3rd set down.

It's worth a try, CCC is really goofy! And not very stable. Don't ask me why!

[SourceQuench]

Thank you for the link I'll give them a try (I was a little embarassed to ask such a basic question as I'd not heard of a CP version!)

[aidanjt]

Meh, I hate CCC, I wish they kept the oldstyle Control panel driver configuration.

[Cannyone]

Thank you for the link I'll give them a try (I was a little embarassed to ask such a basic question as I'd not heard of a CP version!)

I'm glad to help.

If you'd like to bump the clocks, or just set them to the "advertized speeds", you might also try Ray Adams ATI Tray Tools, or ATITool. Both offer the extra features that CCC has which the CP no longer has implemented.

I might also suggest taking a gander at this ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide, there is a nice bit of info there. Never can tell what obscure setting is causing instability. I started using this guide soon after TES4: Oblivion turned my computer into a crash fest...

[SourceQuench]

Those CP drivers are great - much better to use and the desktop menu doesn't take an age to display Can't say I miss the CCC!

I just measured my 12V rail again with a different multimeter (wish I had a Fluke), and unloaded it's ~12.15V and with the ATITool running its artifact check, it falls to ~11.95V. This is after swapping the cables around a little (the early Tagan TG480-U1 that I have has a "special" lead with a molex for the power-hungry AGP cards of old - I've now only got that attached to the PCI-E card using an Akasa converter) - the PSU says that it's capable of 28A on the 12V rail, surely that isn't enough?

Thanks for the links to the tools - very useful.

I'll reinstall from scratch again and let's see how it goes this time (fingers crossed).

[SourceQuench]

Thanks for everyone's input so far

Grrr! Still seems to be the same issue... even with the CP version of the drivers.

When I try to display the Start menu or the (right-click) dekstop menu most of the time it displays normally (i.e. fades in), but on occasions during a session, a menu will start to fade in, get about halfway and then stop. The screen appears to freeze and then the LCD panel I have goes to standby.

The machine itself doesn't lock because I had some music playing on media player and it kept on playing - I could even reboot (did it blind).

It's such a weird issue, that's what made me think it's driver related but I've tried the 6.3, 6.4 and 6.5 cats without success (I'll try the 6.6 cats later today sometime, but I am not optimistic!) - to be honest, I'm nearly out of ideas

Has anyone got any other ideas that I could try please?

[Cannyone]

If you've tried several drivers, and tried reloading Windows from scratch. Then I'd start to wonder if it's a hardware issue. Since the Power Supply might cost the least, start with that. Get one that is rated for 500W+ and has 2 12v rails. In my experience it doesn't matter as much if it doesn't put out more than 12v, as long as the ripple (how much it fluctuates) is low. Specifically I'm not talking about how well it holds a voltage under load, it should not waiver between say 11.85v and 11.94v. But if that is the cause you won't need to measure anything. Just replacing the power supply should "fix" the problem.

[sawyen]

Do you have a mate that has a system that can allow u to test the X1800XT with? If you're around Sheffield we can meet up and you can have a go with my system as it runs my 512MB X1800XT flawlessly..

[FatalSaviour]

Those CP drivers are great - much better to use and the desktop menu doesn't take an age to display Can't say I miss the CCC!

I just measured my 12V rail again with a different multimeter (wish I had a Fluke), and unloaded it's ~12.15V and with the ATITool running its artifact check, it falls to ~11.95V. This is after swapping the cables around a little (the early Tagan TG480-U1 that I have has a "special" lead with a molex for the power-hungry AGP cards of old - I've now only got that attached to the PCI-E card using an Akasa converter) - the PSU says that it's capable of 28A on the 12V rail, surely that isn't enough?

Thanks for the links to the tools - very useful.

I'll reinstall from scratch again and let's see how it goes this time (fingers crossed).

Still sounds like a driver issue to me, or at least a conflict with something else in your system somewhere.
I don't have much experience with ATI hardware I'm afraid, but regarding your PSU...
28A on the 12V rail is a really rather hefty about...that's over 300W on the 12V line remember...
You should also have two molexes plugged into that Akasa converter, not just the one.

[SourceQuench]

Thanks all again for your most useful thoughts and comments

The mystery deepens: Today I removed the Corsair TwinX (back down to 1Gb) and I noticed that if I turn off Windows' "transition effects" i.e. the menu fading in, everything seems to be ok (more crossed fingers). Perhaps it's the RAM? I did want to put 2Gb in this machine though

@Cannyone: I was thinking about buying a new PSU sooner or later (plus to become a little more future proof) - have you any recommendations?

@sawyen: Unfortunately not, most of the people I know don't know what a graphics card is! Thanks very much for the offer, but sorry to say I'm a little far away down in "delightful" Basingstoke :S

@FatalSaviour: Yes that's what I thought because surely I wouldn't've been able to run the ATI Tool artifact test for 10 minutes otherwise (including a quick round of HL-2 DM).

[SourceQuench]

Ah I think I might've found the issue... (not sure though)

At this point I feel totally stupid for not noticing it earlier:

With the two sets of RAM installed, 2GiB (OCZ and Corsair) the motherboard was running the FSB at 100MHz (200 MHz DDR) with a CPU/20 divider, whilst when I tried it with only the OCZ (1GiB), it ran the FSB at 200MHz (400 MHz DDR) with a /10 divider - could this be the source of the problem?