zmatt
The Bulldog
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- 4,660
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- In an empty Ramen packet
So this has been plaguing me (and many others) on and off for some time now. ATIKMDAG.sys is the source of much system instability and crashes. It isn't alone to ATI users either, nvidia cards have the same problem with their equivalent to atikmdag crashing even more often. there are a million workarounds posted online and their success rate is very hit or miss. So far none have worked for me.
The problem occurs with either video playback or 3d games running. The system hangs and you get the most awful sound where whatever sound was playing is looped. The screen either goes black, goes to static or BSODs. Every time the culprit is atikmdag.sys timing out. Now, M$ says that with Vista and up windows has driver sandboxing and the failure of a driver should not bring a system down. I'm running server 08, which should be even more secure and stable than Vista and it crashes very easily.
The workarounds I have tried are as follows:
Periodic driver updates (duh)
Forcing 100% fan speed 24/7
underclocking the cards
Disabling Aero
various registry hacks
disabling certain services tied to catalyst
tweaking windows startup
Running both of my cards individually
switching card order in crossfire
none have worked and after each fails I undo it to make sure I don't cause any other issues.
I have heard of many explanation for what exactly is going wrong here and they all make a bit of sense, but the logical fixes given for the explanations don't work.
Given this, here is what I know for a fact;
-This is not a hardware issue.
-The problem is caused by windows.
-It is not ATI's or Nvidia's fault.
-Workarounds are pretty much a shot in the dark, as the error isn't tied to one setting or application.
-The problem is indicative of an architectural flaw with the WDM driver model introduced in Vista.
-Microsoft has released patches for windows with about as much success as everyone else.
-Although I can't prove it, I'm guessing that this is caused by Microsoft not sticking to the specs they laid out -in the WDM model, or WDM not acting as intended.
-There is no surefire fix.
-We are shafted.
I'm open to input. I have been researching possible fixes for some time, but I may have overlooked something.
The problem occurs with either video playback or 3d games running. The system hangs and you get the most awful sound where whatever sound was playing is looped. The screen either goes black, goes to static or BSODs. Every time the culprit is atikmdag.sys timing out. Now, M$ says that with Vista and up windows has driver sandboxing and the failure of a driver should not bring a system down. I'm running server 08, which should be even more secure and stable than Vista and it crashes very easily.
The workarounds I have tried are as follows:
Periodic driver updates (duh)
Forcing 100% fan speed 24/7
underclocking the cards
Disabling Aero
various registry hacks
disabling certain services tied to catalyst
tweaking windows startup
Running both of my cards individually
switching card order in crossfire
none have worked and after each fails I undo it to make sure I don't cause any other issues.
I have heard of many explanation for what exactly is going wrong here and they all make a bit of sense, but the logical fixes given for the explanations don't work.
Given this, here is what I know for a fact;
-This is not a hardware issue.
-The problem is caused by windows.
-It is not ATI's or Nvidia's fault.
-Workarounds are pretty much a shot in the dark, as the error isn't tied to one setting or application.
-The problem is indicative of an architectural flaw with the WDM driver model introduced in Vista.
-Microsoft has released patches for windows with about as much success as everyone else.
-Although I can't prove it, I'm guessing that this is caused by Microsoft not sticking to the specs they laid out -in the WDM model, or WDM not acting as intended.
-There is no surefire fix.
-We are shafted.
I'm open to input. I have been researching possible fixes for some time, but I may have overlooked something.
