BSOD, system_service_exception when starting steam games.

PLEASE HELP , after extensive searching I am led to this site to try and sort out my problem

Until recently I have had no problems playing games that I have launched from steam. Only recently have I started to notice that when I launch specific games in my games library the BSOD with the system_service_exception error code 0x0000003b appears, this can be intermittent.

I have installed blue screen view and it seems to indicate that the driver atikmdag.sys and ntoskrnl.exe is causing the issue linked to the ati kernel mode driver and NT kernel and system which are their file names respectively, I have tried reinstalling the new catalyst drivers but this doesnt seem to make any difference. this is as far as I have gone

the minidump is uploded
the age of my system now is approximately 2 and half years - I have also considered updating my motherboard e.g flash bios and update chipset drivers but I do not know if this will make any difference.

Any thoughts or opinions will be greatly appreciated . Thank you

I have a very similar issue while streaming, NTOSKRNL.EXE --- have you had any luck? I am running intel/nvidia however.

after trying to reinstall the catalyst drivers it is unable to install AMD high definition audio device it says it is unplugged ?? - however my sound works fine , im using a creative X-fi soundcard this is not listed in the sound device manager area

Yes in your dump file your AMD graphics driver is causing the issues. Please remove it form the control panel and reinstall it.

Follow these instructions on how to install AMD graphics drivers.

Code:

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 3B, {c0000094, fffff880050cbb99, fffff88002a5c990, 0}

Probably caused by : atikmdag.sys ( atikmdag+7ab99 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

0: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION (3b)
An exception happened while executing a system service routine.
Arguments:
Arg1: 00000000c0000094, Exception code that caused the bugcheck
Arg2: fffff880050cbb99, Address of the instruction which caused the bugcheck
Arg3: fffff88002a5c990, Address of the context record for the exception that caused the bugcheck
Arg4: 0000000000000000, zero.

Your graphics driver is outdated.

Code:

fffff880`05051000 fffff880`05bc4000   atikmdag T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: atikmdag.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\atikmdag.sys
    Image name: atikmdag.sys
    Timestamp:        Fri Mar 29 02:27:04 2013 (5154FBF8)
    CheckSum:         00B25604
    ImageSize:        00B73000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

THE doctor thank you very much for your reply so I have finally fixed the problems definitely linked to the AMD drivers for my graphics cards


heres what I did



I uninstalled catalyst from my system from the control panel

then went to the device manager and maunually uninstalled the drivers from the display adaptors section



I then reinstalled some old drivers I had from my old installation CD, so far this has worked and has not caused any problems for me.



I hate that something so stupid could be causing this problem dam you ATI , AMD . I know this may not be the best solution but it allows me to play my games and that makes me happy. One thing i noticed when installing the new drivers it didnt have the AMD high definition audio device error like it did before, strange anyway moving on all seems well.



thedoctor what would be your thoughts on this and should i consider leaving my current status drivers as they are, what about if AMD release newer drivers in the furture should i install them



BTW thank you for all your help you have been great

Note from earlier before i installed old drivers i did try to install the newest drivers first of all form amd this still caused the problem

Maybe you installed the wrong drivers. But I've always believed in the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

If you start to have problems with your old drivers like not being able to play games then you should create a system restore point by following these instructions, then install the new ones. If you get BSODs again just restore your system.

System Restore Point - Create

I'll give you an example, I've had a lot of problems with my PC in terms of BSODs which has inspired me to help others because I find it interesting and I know how frustrating these problems can be. I found that for Nvidia 314.22 was the best stable release, however I couldn't play games like BF3 because the game required driver versions of 320 or higher. I eventually found another stable release and it worked. But if you aren't getting any compatibility issues or performance issues then I wouldn't bother updating the driver.