Acer Aspire 4535 BSOD

hrudu · 04 Aug 2010

Hey guys,

Good day! Got an Acer Aspire 4535, installed Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit) on it and after a couple of minutes, the screen flickers and then displays "display driver has stopped responding and has recovered", this kept happening every few minutes until I get the BSOD and have to restart. At this point, I haven't installed ATI drivers yet, running on what Windows 7 detected and installed.

Sometimes gray lines appear, and stay that way until I restart the computer.

Installed ATI drivers, tried different versions, (the one specifically from the Acer support site) still keep getting the error. Some forums suggest I try 9.12, but it's much harder to track down older versions of mobility drivers. (This notebook has ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200)

It originally came with Windows 7 Starter, so I tried restoring that version using Windows.old --- and the errors were still there. (Didn't spend too much time on Starter to find out about the error.)

Re-installed Windows 7 (again), tried just installing drivers for the Acer, and I still get it.

I get BSOD's about atikmpag.sys.

Sometimes it stays on indefinitely and the TDR's are tolerable. Sometimes when I start the system, I get the BSOD by just looking at the desktop.

My prime suspects are:
1. incompatible drivers
2. bad memory
3. bad video card

Any help would be great, included are the dumps/perfmon files.

Thank you so much!

EDIT:
Also, I read from another thread here, running Win7x64 on an Acer Aspire 4540, that I should turn HDD Mode into IDE from the BIOS. (Acer-specific. Since these two models aren't too far off from each other, this might work?) Not exactly sure what this will do. Should I? Is there even an option? Is it safe?

**Capt.Jack Sparrow** · 04 Aug 2010

Hello ! Welcome to SF !

Here look this thread it give you as much information about your Bugcheck and TDR STOP 0x116: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR troubleshooting

Few out-dated drivers :

Code:

VSTDPV3.SYS  Thu Oct 16 06:02:04 2008
VSTCNXT3.SYS Thu Oct 16 05:59:13 2008 
VSTAZL3.SYS  Thu Oct 16 06:00:03 2008
DPortIO.sys  Fri Dec 23 13:43:04 2005

Hope this helps,
Captain

hrudu · 08 Aug 2010

Capt.Jack Sparrow said:

Hello ! Welcome to SF !

Here look this thread it give you as much information about your Bugcheck and TDR STOP 0x116: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR troubleshooting

Hey Capt.Jack Sparrow,

Thanks for the reply! I'm now monitoring that thread as well for any updates. Tried running a few 3d apps, and it gives me a TDR. (meaning I can't game on this machine ... yet)

Also, I tried out GPU-Z as per another threads suggestion and came up with this:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34...racon/gpuz.png

Notice the default speed for memory: it's 333 Mhz, but GPU-Z detects it's running on 394 Mhz. Could this be the suspect? (Never overclocked anything, this machine is from Acer, as-is.)

If this might be the case, could anyone suggest an overclocking utility for Windows 7 (ATITool doesn't work on 7) to maybe underclock the card's memory speed?

Thanks so much!

**Capt.Jack Sparrow** · 08 Aug 2010

He believe you have to do it in BIOS this is not my expert area so i have asked help for one of our specialist in this area.

Thanks,
Captain

Dave76 · 08 Aug 2010

Hi hrudu,

You can't overclock or underclock an OEM computer, the BIOS is locked.

Your ATI Radeon HD 3200 is integrated on the motherboard, it's not a discrete (separate) card.

Don't try to change your BIOS setting to IDE, you will get a blue screen, this is not likely going to do anything for your current problem.

Go to 'Device Manager' and check for any yellow triangles, this means a driver problem. Check the driver by clicking the arrow next to any yellow triangles, right click the item and click properties, then select the drivers tab.
Then check Acers website for a newer driver or re-install if it is the same.
Re-install the ATI Radeon HD 3200 driver.

Also check Acers website for an update for your BIOS. Read their instructions and be sure to follow carefully, update your BIOS to the newest version.

Another possibility is faulty RAM.
First, check all the drivers and BIOS for updates.

Then you should start with the suggestions on the thread Capt.Jack Sparrow linked above, STOP 0x116: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR troubleshooting.

Let us know your progress.

hrudu · 21 Aug 2010

Hey Dave76,

Thanks for the reply. I just downloaded/flashed the system with the latest BIOS update: from 1.00 to 2.07, and am currently waiting out if the TDR/bluescreen shows up again.

Am now going to check the linked thread above, thank you!

Will update if things go smoothly from here.

Dave76 · 21 Aug 2010

Thanks for the update.

Hope the BIOS update helps.

Let us know how the tests from STOP 0x116: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR troubleshooting are going.