atikmpag.sys BSOD

phil128 · 20 Jan 2011 at 19:09

I really wanna buy an nvidia card now. I've never had any problems with ATI stuff until now.

Mr Paul · 20 Jan 2011 at 19:17

Then buy one :confused:

paradisiac · 20 Jan 2011 at 19:22

just because you get a BSOD doesnt mean replacing with an Nvidia card will fix it. whose to say its not an unstable OC thats causing it, and whatever card you stick in wont fix that.

phil128 · 20 Jan 2011 at 19:42

paradisiac said:
just because you get a BSOD doesnt mean replacing with an Nvidia card will fix it. whose to say its not an unstable OC thats causing it, and whatever card you stick in wont fix that.

Well this BSOD and previous ones have been related to ati (.sys) modules.

paradisiac · 20 Jan 2011 at 19:45

phil128 said:
Well this BSOD and previous ones have been related to ati (.sys) modules.

but thats because you dont have Nvidia drivers :confused:

stick in a Nvidia card in and can you 100% hand on heart know that you wont get nvidia(.sys) BSODs?

Final8y · 20 Jan 2011 at 19:46

Put everything back to stock & get gaming.
Most mobos have a save multiple OC Profiles features in the BIOS.

welshdragon · 20 Jan 2011 at 19:51

Final8y said:
Put everything back to stock & get gaming.
Most mobos have a save multiple OC Profiles features in the BIOS.

This. Save your profile and go back to stock on everything and see if it still bsod's? Also, you got the latest bios installed?

Peace · 20 Jan 2011 at 21:29

I had the exact same issue with my crossfire 5850 setup even when I had everything running at stock. Replaced them with a GTX570 and haven't had any problems since then.

phil128 · 20 Jan 2011 at 21:51

Peace said:
I had the exact same issue with my crossfire 5850 setup even when I had everything running at stock. Replaced them with a GTX570 and haven't had any problems since then.

I've had a few graphics cards from nvidia and they've never failed on me. This would be my 3rd Ati card now, and every one, I've had problems with. I started out with the 9800pro, xt850, and now my asus 5850.

Why do ati, putting it nicely, suck.

I cannot even play trials 2 in fullscreen because it bluescreens! LAME

The Running Man · 20 Jan 2011 at 22:01

I had the same random issues when I went ati last year
Gone back to nvidia no problems sand couldn't be happier.

Final8y · 20 Jan 2011 at 22:24

phil128 said:
I've had a few graphics cards from nvidia and they've never failed on me. This would be my 3rd Ati card now, and every one, I've had problems with. I started out with the 9800pro, xt850, and now my asus 5850.

Why do ati, putting it nicely, suck.

I cannot even play trials 2 in fullscreen because it bluescreens! LAME

Seeing as you have made up your mind that it is just that ATI cards suck & you have not made any indication that you have tried the running everything at stock suggestions then what was your point in posting at all.

phil128 · 20 Jan 2011 at 23:07

Final8y said:
Seeing as you have made up your mind that it is just that ATI cards suck & you have not made any indication that you have tried the running everything at stock suggestions then what was your point in posting at all.

I ran my system at stock settings for two months, and I was (still) getting BSOD when I tried to play trials in fullscreen. Plus my ATI CCC was kept on saying VPU recovering etc etc due to a driver issues. I still get the same problems even when I've overclocked my PC.

Mr Paul · 20 Jan 2011 at 23:17

Phil, sell the card and buy an nVidia card, as thats what you seem to be wanting to do.

Hopefully you'll be ok

phil128 · 20 Jan 2011 at 23:36

Mr Paul said:
Phil, sell the card and buy an nVidia card, as thats what you seem to be wanting to do.

Hopefully you'll be ok

Will do. I brought this card in October last year for £270 been having problems ever since clocked or non clocked system.

Final8y · 20 Jan 2011 at 23:36

phil128 said:
I ran my system at stock settings for two months, and I was (still) getting BSOD when I tried to play trials in fullscreen. Plus my ATI CCC was kept on saying VPU recovering etc etc due to a driver issues. I still get the same problems even when I've overclocked my PC.

Just to prove a point that you cant rule anything out.

Final8y said:
Memtest does not rule out memory & motherboard compatibility issues that can lead to CTD, Blue screen, driver has stopped responding from 3 to 8 times a day while gaming for 3 weeks to nail this one down.

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) (1333MHz)
Asus M4A79XTD Evo.
Passed memtest 12 hours, Passed Prime-95 8hours passed, Furmark passed, 3Dmark06 passed.
Changed the gfx card.
Drivers 10.4/ 10.5 hotfix/10.6.

Fire up WOW which is the only game the customer plays at the moment & instant multiple driver has stopped responding or sometimes hours or more would pass.

Put in some G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C8 & not had a single issue.

kingy666 · 21 Jan 2011 at 00:15

I am adding phil128 to my list of people who insist on saying brought instead of bought. When judgement day arrives all those on my list are going straight to hell.

A few years ago I was the opposite. I had lots of trouble with a nvidia FX5200 and also 6600. I once had trouble with an Ati 3870 but that was because i run something like driver sweeper and it deleted a file needed by my 3870. The only thing to do was re-install my operating system and install the drivers, which fixed my problem.

paradisiac · 21 Jan 2011 at 08:01

kingy666 said:
A few years ago I was the opposite. I had lots of trouble with a nvidia FX5200 and also 6600. I once had trouble with an Ati 3870 but that was because i run something like driver sweeper and it deleted a file needed by my 3870. The only thing to do was re-install my operating system and install the drivers, which fixed my problem.

agreed, sound more driver related than the the fact its ati if you have had issues from day 1. did you use the original drivers? do you update them regularly? do you apply all the hotfixes when they come out? is CCC setup properly? have you tried a fresh install to rule out corruption in windows or drivers? do you regularly virus scan, could be something running in the background is causing issues? seems a bit odd that millions of people buy ati cards and dont get the same issue if it is 100% down to ati being to blame.
if you have your heart set on getting a new nvidia card, then buy one. but for me that would bug me forever, i would want to know why i was getting the issue, just incase i decided to ever buy another ati card, or shell out £150+ on a nvidia card only to find i get other BSOD or instability.

paradisiac · 21 Jan 2011 at 08:10

also to point out from another thread :

harlo115 said:
Hey guys
I got a new msi gtx580 in the post today, I installed it and downloaded the latest drivers (266.58), so to test it I thought i'd try running crysis on max, this worked fine for about half an hour untill I got a driver failure, i thought it might have been a problem with dx10, so decided to benchmark it in heaven 2.1, this ran for around a minuite then crashed, giving the error message "d3d11 appwindow::do_swap(): device removed" I then tried the 266.35 drivers and it's still having the same problem.
What do you guys think, is it the drivers or a hardware problem?
Any other questions, feel free to ask.
Cheers lads

so nvidia are not 100% stable on drivers either

Vertigo · 21 Jan 2011 at 09:29

Whilst I realise there's no certainty here and most people have no issues with ATI drivers, I personally have had shedloads, including this ATIKMDAG.SYS error either crashing the machine or endlessly "recovering" from a crash.

I think the ATI cards and/or drivers just don't get on with certain permutations of other hardware as obviously most people don't have issues. I myself have ended up replacing three ATI cards in different machines due to insurmountable driver problems and crashes that have been known about for years and yet ATI/AMD simply won't fix. This ATIKMDAG.SYS issue dates back literally years. In all three cases the replacement NVidia card and drivers have worked flawlessly with no other changes.

I'm sure there are just as many people for whom NVidia drivers cause problems yet ATI ones work fine but frankly, if you're having these issues with ATI, I'd recommend switching to NVidia. It's not a question of "fanboy-ism", it's just a question of what works for you. No there are no guarantees but I strongly suspect switching to an NVidia card will sort your problems, as it did for me on three different boxes.

paradisiac · 21 Jan 2011 at 09:37

Vertigo1 said:
Whilst I realise there's no certainty here and most people have no issues with ATI drivers, I personally have had shedloads, including this ATIKMDAG.SYS error either crashing the machine or endlessly "recovering" from a crash.

I think the ATI cards and/or drivers just don't get on with certain permutations of other hardware as obviously most people don't have issues. I myself have ended up replacing three ATI cards in different machines due to insurmountable driver problems and crashes that have been known about for years and yet ATI/AMD simply won't fix. This ATIKMDAG.SYS issue dates back literally years. In all three cases the replacement NVidia card and drivers have worked flawlessly with no other changes.

I'm sure there are just as many people for whom NVidia drivers cause problems yet ATI ones work fine but frankly, if you're having these issues with ATI, I'd recommend switching to NVidia. It's not a question of "fanboy-ism", it's just a question of what works for you. No there are no guarantees but I strongly suspect switching to an NVidia card will sort your problems, as it did for me on three different boxes.

but if its system instability or windows/virus issues, then he could be wasting money for nothing. personally i would have a go at resolving a problem rather than ditching it and shelling out money.