atikmpag.sys, mostly

[Trinitrotoluene]

Hello and Merry Christmas (almost!),

I've been getting some BSODs lately with atikmpag.sys mostly being involved. I also remember a file watchdog.sys (what the..?). I reinstalled windows this morning, see what that would do, but again another BSOD with atikmpag.sys involved. I'm running Catalyst 11.12, also tried 11.11, 11.10 (I think) and 11.9

I already ran memtest from cold boot, for 5 ours or so with no errors being reported. Furmark just ran stable for 75 minutes with 88 degrees Celcius maximum, showing a nice flat line for the temperature. Also I must note that I can game on this system for hours at once, without problems.

Sometimes it just BSOD during a game, sometimes (like today) while in windows. I think I wanted to maximize the Steam window, then it bugged out.

Since my system is overclocked, I also reverted the bios to default but it still gave a BSOD at some point (before I reinstalled windows this morning).

Not sure at all what causes this, maybe the videocard is trying to tell me it wants to retire to FPS heaven.

 

[panais]

Of course stop any overclocking first

For testing purposes,remove ESET NOD32 Antivirus from your system.


Download,install and use Microsoft Security Essentials with windows firewall enable.

Update the Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver.

Boot into safe mode with networking and update it using Intel® Driver Update Utility.


Then,

[FONT=&quot]Download and install the new version of [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Driver Sweeper.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]


Download the most recent software\driver for your ati [/FONT][FONT=&quot]AMD Graphics Drivers & Software[/FONT][FONT=&quot].

Uninstall ati software\driver,restart in safe mode,run driver sweeper,choose only AMD-Display and clean,restart in normal mode.


Install the new ati software\driver,restart.

Update[/FONT][FONT=&quot] DirectX [/FONT][FONT=&quot].


Read carefully the instructions and run [/FONT][FONT=&quot]http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/160729-nvidia-amd-video-card-test-occt.html[/FONT][FONT=&quot] post here the results.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]

Then run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100352-hardware-stress-test-prime95.html
Have always in mind the temperatures.


Finish and post back.
[/FONT]

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

Just to let you know:

- reverted system back to stock speeds via bios fail safe defaults, only editing memory timings and so on
- newest AMD graphics driver was already installed this morning after reinstalling windows, catalyst 11.12
- uninstalled NOD32 via software panel
- installed MSE
- installed intel rapid storage technology, I always get confused on their site on which driver to download. It used to be known as matrix storage manager driver, right? But neither are required for a functional system?
- directx was already up to date

Will run GPU and CPU stresstest later when I have more time.

 

[panais]

Just to let you know:

- reverted system back to stock speeds via bios fail safe defaults, only editing memory timings and so on
- newest AMD graphics driver was already installed this morning after reinstalling windows, catalyst 11.12
- uninstalled NOD32 via software panel
- installed MSE
- installed intel rapid storage technology, I always get confused on their site on which driver to download. It used to be known as matrix storage manager driver, right? But neither are required for a functional system?
- directx was already up to date

Will run GPU and CPU stresstest later when I have more time.

Though reinstall\update gpu driver using the above driver sweeper mode.
Dont use catalyst 11.12.
Use 11.10 or 11.11.

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

Alright, will try both 11.10 and 11.11 and uninstall 11.12 with Driver sweeper.

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

OCCT GPU just ran without problems (results attached). Also had no other crashes in the mean time. Which seems weird to be, because last time I also got a BSOD at default clock speeds. Perhaps I didn't reset the bios properly, or it comes down to something else like NOD32.

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

Prime 95 blend test is 3.5 hours stable, plus everything else I've done with it in the meantime. I guess you could say the overclock might have needed a bit more voltage, somewhere, after having run for a year or so (I could easily check the error code and see how that translate to usual low voltage causes, but I think I like it this way!). Or the problem was something else like NOD32. If anything interesting happens, I'll let you guys know, thanks for the help.

 

[panais]

So far so good

Give it time,(1-2 days)work,play as usual and post back with news.

 

[Trinitrotoluene]

Reinstalled NOD32 in the meanwhile as well. No problems encountered!

Guess it all came down to the quality of the overclock deteriorating overtime. It might need a bit more voltage somewhere, but I think I'll keep it like this for now. HA. Pretty stupid, I thought I had something more serious on my hands here. I remember reverting the bios settings and then still getting a BSOD. But I didn't "reset to fail safe defaults". Lesson learned.

 

[panais]

The important is to solve the problem