You have such a good computer system, and you are crippling it by putting in
a card that is a few product generations behind?
I'd seriously consider getting a more current video card but that's just me.
--
Gary Tsang
Microsoft MVP - Windows XP Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
Hi Craig
I have emailed ATI, I have quite a long corespondence with them actually.
This was my initial email to them:
I'm putting together a new computer with the following parts:
ECS K8T890-A
Antec 350W Power Supply
2x512MB Dual-Channel Corsair RAM
AMD 64-bit 3200+ Processor
Seagate 250GB Hard Drive
Upon installation of Windows XP, the computer would crash, show a blue
screen and almost immediately restart. I'm able to boot into Safe Mode ok
but not normal mode. I swapped out the video card with an nVidia card and
the computer booted into Windows XP normally.
The error from the event log is:
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x100000ea
(0x863c8650, 0x86361c38, 0xf7a0fcb4, 0x00000001). A dump was saved in:
C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini030606-04.dmp.
I've attached a zip file of the minidumps.
I've installed all of the Windows updates available, and the most current
ATI drivers. I found the Microsoft post about the 0x100000ea and it says the
problem can be worked around by disabling write combining and turning off
hardware acceleration. However, this didn't fix the problem. Thank you for
your help and I hope you can find a solution.
From this, I received an automated response to which I replied and received
an email asking me to create a problem report, which I did.. I emailed them
the following back:
I updated my motherboard BIOS to the most recent version. This motherboard
supports PCI-E and AGP Express so there are no options for fast write or
different AGP modes in the BIOS. However, I did lower the memory settings in
the BIOS, with no fix t o the problem. I purchased a brand new Antec 350W
power supply with the computer and I shy away from the powe supply as the
problem. I removed all non-essential hardware.
The driver I've been installing and trying to use is the ATI All-In-Wonder
for the Rage 128 PRO chipset in Windows XP. There are no Catalyst drivers on
your website I saw would work with the Rage 128 PRO chipset.
Some of the options in your solution suggest using functions of your drivers
to fix the problem. However, you must understand, when I install your
drivers, the problem starts. I can boot into safe mode and that's it. When I
uninstall the ATI drivers and Windows detects the card as a Standard VGA
device, a resolution of 800x600 works ok.
One interesting thing I noticed yesterday was if I install the drivers in
Windows XP, then try to adjust the screen resolution to 1024x768 before
restarting the system after the driver install, the problem occurs! The
computer bugchecks and restarts! It seems to me the problem is caused by
Windows adjusting the screen resolution.
The problem is not specifically related to the video card. I installed the
ATI video card in another Windows XP x64-bit computer and it worked fine,
even at higher resolutions like 1024x768. Vice versa, I installed the nVidia
card from the XP x64-bit machine in the machine which had the ATI card and
it worked fine. I just can't make the ATI card work in the one machine.
Because of this, I see no reason to RMA the card because it works.
I hope this extra information may help us come to a conclusion. I'm building
this computer for someone who would like to continue using this card, and I
would like to do that if possible.
I attached another problem report to this submission because I ran it in
regular mode and not safe mode, it contains more information which may be
useful to finding a solution to the problem. Thank you.
Once again, here's ATI's response:
Based on our experience, the VPU Recover error is a result of a system
communication problem. On some systems the errors "Unable to complete a
drawing operation" or "The Device driver is stuck in an Infinite loop" may
also occur.
This issue is seen when using any motherboard or graphics chipset and the
Microsoft Windows XP Operating system. It appears that in many cases this
problem is due to a BIOS setting, which has to do with the way the RAM, CPU
and graphics card communicate with XP and DirectX. This can result in
timing problems and may lock the system or cause random reboots.
Ensure that you have installed the latest ATI CATALYST software for your
product.
http://support.ati.com/
If this is behavior occurs with the latest CATALYST software then you should
also try a previous version to determine if this is driver specific.
http://support.ati.com/
Go to RUN and enter DXDIAG, click Ok. Select the Display tab and ensure that
all three DirectX Features are enabled. Run the available tests to ensure
that these do also pass. If they do pass then this would indicate proper
driver installation.
In many cases this issue is system hardware specific and may be related to
the motherboard BIOS, motherboard chipset, power supply, system RAM or
graphics card.
Try the following:
- Load optimized defaults in your BIOS
- Set your memory settings to default values (I.e.. DRAM Timing = SPD)
- Lower the memory frequency to 133/166 MHz (effectively DDR266/333 MHz)
- Test system with a single memory module if multiples are being used
- Make sure you have an adequate power supply
- Disable/Remove ALL non-essential hardware i.e. sound card, network card,
additional HDD etc..
- Update your motherboard AGP chipset drivers
- Update your motherboard BIOS
- Disable AGP Fast Writes in BIOS
- Try AGP 8x or 4x mode in BIOS
- If available increase AGP Voltage to 1.6 - 1.8 in the BIOS
Further BIOS settings have been included below for you to verify and toggle
as necessary.
With the latest ATI CATALYST software installed you can use the ATI
SMARTGART settings to adjust the Fast Writes and AGP BUS speed. Go to
Advanced Display Properties and select ATI SMARTGART. Test with the AGP
Fast Write setting Off. You can also try lowering the slider to 4x, 2x or
1x if available.
From RUN, enter SMARTGART, click Ok. Ensure that both the AGP Read and
Write settings are On. If these are set to OFF then enable them and
restart Windows as prompted. As a test you should try disabling the AGP
Write setting. NOTE- AGP Writes may not be enabled on all chipsets.
If the problem should persist then it may be specific to a problem with the
video card. If possible, you should try installing this card in another
system to better determine if it is defective. You may consider either
exchanging with the vendor or request RMA warranty service from the
manufacturer. For products built by ATI, you can complete the online form
available at the URL below. Otherwise you should contact the vendor of your
Powered by ATI product.
http://support.ati.com/
========================
BIOS Settings:
========================
- Video BIOS Shadow - DISABLED
- Init Primary Display - AGP
- AGP MASTER 1W/S READ/WRITE - ENABLED/DISABLED (Toggle this option)
- AGP 4x/8x Mode - DISABLED
- AGP Fast Write - DISABLED
- AGP Aperture size - 128 MB
- AGP Driving Control - AUTO
- AGP Performance Control - ENABLED/DISABLED (Toggle this option)
- Assign IRQ for VGA - ENABLED
- System Bios Cacheable - DISABLED
- Video BIOS Cacheable - DISABLED
- VIDEO RAM Cacheable - DISABLED
- Read Around Write - ENABLED/DISABLED (toggle this setting)
- PnP OS installed - YES
Finally, after emailing them back again, I got this wonderful response:
You have tried everything and still same issue and this is the compatibility
issue with your motherboard and we do not have any new driver for this video
card to resolve the issue.
They basically told me to screw off and I won't be able to get this video
card working...
I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers numerous times with no
success.
Chris
