Solved BSoD in BF3/sometimes random / dxgmms1.sys // atikmpag.sys // atikmdag

[chimpindistress]

So since i've completely rebuilt my computer i've had this BSoD problem specifically in BF3 since i've tested by hardware in other games which yielded no crashes.

My Specs are:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T BE (Thuban)
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
CPU COOLER: Stock Fan
RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600mhz 4gig
GPU: Asus Radeon HD 6950 2GB
HDD: Seagate 2TB
PSU: Thermaltake Tough XT 875W

alot of bsods in the past 24 hours were in BF3, the last 1 just occurred randomly when i tried to open Windows Media Player and the one before crashed but made no referrals to a file. just stop codes. This BSoD business is driving me mad!

. I've attached my minidumps.

This is what i have tried so far (since initially my first BSoD referred to atikmpag.sys) :

- deleted display drivers using drive sweeper and re-installed Catalyst Suite 11.9
- updated mobo bios and drivers
- noticed that dxdiag was reporting my DDI version as 10.1, so redid first point, now showing DDI as 11
- disabled easytune + realtek audio + 2 other addons from Gigabyte from the startup list
- Disabled AMD Overdrive feature

I also did cloned my C drive which was on a 30gig IDE drive to my current 2TB Sata drive using Acronis True Image.

Appreciate the help.

 

[panais]

Hi.

Update (or uninstall) MagicTunePremium or PortTalk Driver by Samsung Electronics, Inc or Beyond Logic

Samsung

Beyond Logic

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


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 DirectX


Red very carefully the instructions and run video-card-stress-test-furmark

Run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html


Finish with these steps and post back with any results.
[/FONT]

 

[chimpindistress]

Thanks

Thanks for all that info! I'll get on them.

Except memtest64, that might take a while. Computer doesn't have a CD/DVD reader/writer.

 

[panais]

Thanks for all that info! I'll get on them.

Except memtest64, that might take a while. Computer doesn't have a CD/DVD reader/writer.

Read carefully all the tutorial

""Method 1: With a USB Memory Stick""

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105647-ram-test-memtest86.html

 

[chimpindistress]

Alright, heres what i've done so far. Haven't had the chance to run memtest, can't even find a USB stick!

- uninstalled magic tune (always had on/off problems with this)
- updated all out of date drivers using Uniblue's drive scanner (oddly enough when checking through the driver versions for each of the devices in "device manager" it still showed the old driver versions)

- uninstalled my ati driver/software, used drivesweeper and cleared the files, re-installed latest drivers which is the catalyst 11.9
- directx is already the latest according to the webdirectx application

- ran the video card stress test, the results are in a screenshot (attached).

- will run memtest possibly on monday after work when i have the chance of purchasing one. However, i could try replacing my ram now with 4 1GB sticks i have laying around somewhere from my previous com.

Thanks again.

2am here in Aus time to catch some sleep.

 

[chimpindistress]

Have a question.

Is is possible that there is a problem with RAM if the majority of my BSoDs are when i am in BF3?

I stress tested this in another GPU intensive game - The Witcher 2 and there was no failure.

 

[chimpindistress]

Well, i put my previous graphic card in (4850 512mb) card back in and did not get a single BSOD in a 1 hour period.

Probably a bunged card.

 

[upinya03]

I think I have the solution for this one. The problem for me was the Ambient Occulsion setting. Here's the steps I used to work this out.

In BF3 SET:
Graphics: Custom
Turn all quality related settings to low. This will be the baseline starting point.

Disable all anti-aliasing, deferred and post. Motion blur off.

Set anistropic filter to 1X

Set Ambient Occulsion to HBAO.

This seems to be the problem. When I have this set to "SSAO" or "Off" I get crashes with the same error that everyone else sees. What's funny to me is this is the quality setting. HBAO should result in lower frame rates, but that's OK with me if it means stability.

I haven't had a single crash since I made this change to Ambient Occulsion. Played 5 or 6 games last night, and have slowly begun increasing quality settings today, up to 8x anistropic filtering and medium quality settings with no issues. Next will be anti-aliasing.

My System:

Asus P6T Professional
Intel i7 920. Currently not overclocked as I had to eliminate that is a possible cause.
6GB Memory, 2x2x2
Radeon 5970 Default clock and memory setting, again eliminating that as a possible cause.
CPU and GRAPHICS are water cooled.

 

[chimpindistress]

Hi upinya03, thanks for your input

Should hve mentioned taht i have resolved all my crashes.

I removed BF3 and re-installed it (downloaded 11gigs again)
Found 2 faulty RAM sticks
And the 2 remaining RAM sticks was being detected as single channel instead of dual channel (AMD Mobo) - fixed that and upped the voltage to my RAM sticks from v1.485 to v1.505

have not had a single BSOD or crash from BF3 in a long time.

 

[panais]

Good news!

Thanks for posting back!

 

[upinya03]

So turns out my fix wasn't so hot, but I have learned more. Mainly by going directly to Origin support. Their primary recommendation was to disable crossfire if it's enabled. Unfortunately that can't be done on a AMD 5970 card because it comes with two procs built on the board. So after continued trial and error I came to find stability by.... running in windowed mode rather than full screen. I just expand the screen out to get full screen but still have the windows frame. That change has given me the best stability so far.

The gist of Origin's advice was don't use SLI or Crossfire. My brother has a single GPU card, for him disabling windows Aero and bumping the per process virtual address space in windows made a big difference, but he still get's the occassional lockup when changing maps. For that I say go windowed mode.

Additionally, this post on tomshardware.com has some interesting insites.

Benchmark Results: AMD Graphics Cards, CrossFire : Battlefield 3 Performance: 30+ Graphics Cards, Benchmarked

The part about restarting after every resolution change might be a key. For whatever reason BF3 sucks balls on dual card/GPU setups. And apparently Origins take is that it's not supported in that configuration and they recommand disabling crossfire or SLI. They call it a hardware issue, I say it's bug in BF3 if it doesn't even support those technologies.

 

[panais]

Thanks for keep us inform.