Solved Random BSOD's - Failed to restart graphics driver - New build

[sje123]

Hi guys,

I get random BSOD (about every 30mins to 1 hour) off my 1 week old new build. I am experienced at system building and this in my 6th self build and I have never had a problem, but this has me stumped.

I get the BSOD during general windows usage, checking email, browsing, youtube etc. I can run 3Dmark11 without a problem as well as Prime95 on the CPU.

The blue screen says the graphics driver has failed to restart.

THe failed file is atikmpag.sys

Spec:
Gigabyte X77 UD5 Motherboard
Intel i7 3770K CPU
16GB Samsumg DDR3 1600mhz RAM
120GB Crucial M4 SSD
3GB ATI 7970 GFX Card
Windows 7 Premium 64 Bit

I have the latest ATI drivers and have run Memtest86 on the RAM with no faults. I have even reinstalled the ATI drivers.

CPU and GFX Cards are at stock speeds and vaults.

Please find attached the dump file(s) and sys health report.

Any help appreciated.

 

[writhziden]

Security Software: ??? I recommend the following:

• Download and install Malwarebytes, update it, do not start the free trial, and then run a full scan. Also run a full scan with your antivirus software installed on your system. If you do not have antivirus software installed, see the http://www.sevenforums.com/system-s...-system-security-combination.html#post1732627 for better security steps and scanning tools. Make sure to update the security software before running the full scan with it.

Your Creative audio driver is out of date. It may be conflicting with the graphics card. Creative Worldwide Support

Your graphics card crash is due to a TDR Error.

• 
  

  These are all stop 0x116 VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE conditions.
  
  It's not a true crash, in the sense that the bluescreen was initiated only because the combination of video driver and video hardware was being unresponsive, and not because of any synchronous processing exception.
  
  Since Vista, the "Timeout Detection and Recovery" (TDR) components of the OS video subsystem have been capable of doing some truly impressive things to try to recover from issues which would have caused earlier OSs like XP to crash. As a last resort, the TDR subsystem sends the video driver a "please restart yourself now!" command and waits a few seconds. If there's no response, the OS concludes that the video driver/hardware combo has truly collapsed in a heap, and it fires off that stop 0x116 BSOD.
  
  If playing with video driver versions hasn't helped, make sure the box is not overheating. Try removing a side panel and aiming a big mains fan straight at the motherboard and GPU. Run it like that for a few hours or days - long enough to ascertain whether cooler temperatures make a difference. If so, it might be as simple as dust buildup and subsequently inadequate cooling.

  
  The above quote was taken from http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/25912-bsod.html#post280172, which is linked to in usasma's thread about this error. Closely follow the first three posts of usasma's thread outlining http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lo...op-0x116-video_tdr_error-troubleshooting.html and proceed through each step. Let us know if you need further help.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100356-video-card-stress-test-furmark.html may be helpful in your steps.

 

[sje123]

Thanks a lot for this, I will attempt this later and get back to you.

Cheers

 

[sje123]

After reading another forum, I tried using older drivers. The previous catalyst drivers still caused the BSOD's, but I am now using some from Jan and they seem to have solved the problem.

Cheers

 

[writhziden]

The 12.x drivers have caused problems on some systems. I'm not sure why, as I only had problems with them when I first installed them. A reboot cured my issues, but it probably depends on the system and the card installed. I also may just have gotten lucky.

Glad to see the thread solved, at any rate.

 

[rting]

This gentlemen is probably correct. I got BSoD with the atikmpag.sys and that was with Catalyst and the latest 12.4 driver. I guess I will not buy ATI Radeon in the future unless it is below cost, etc.

My system:
Motherboard: Asus P5Q-E
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66GHz
RAM amount: 8GB (DDR2) Kingston KHX6400D2K2/4G (1 set DDR2-333) and Kingston KVR800D2N6/2G (2 sets DDR2-400)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 OEM 64 bit
Graphics Cards: VisionTek AMD Radeon HD4850 driving 4 monitors. Driver version 8.961.0.0 - CrossFire enabled.
Hard drive: 1 TB Western Digital WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B1
Monitors: Four 22" monitors (ACER, LG).

 

[writhziden]

rting, just to be fair, nVidia had a similar problem back in September or October of last year where a set of their drivers caused problems on many systems. It happens to both companies from time to time. That is why I do not usually recommend updating drivers unless a system is actually having problems related to a specific driver. Updating drivers is not a recommended maintenance step for any system; drivers should only be updated if they are pre-Windows 7 and causing conflits or if specific drivers are causing conflicts. I have a Toshiba laptop with 2007 drivers that runs Windows 7 flawlessly.

 

[rting]

No kidding ... okay.