I've been told it could be that one of my Pipes have blown, if that's the correct term.

Either that or my GFX Card is not quite in harmony with my K7 Chipset M/B.

Either way I've got to spend some money

I've uninstalled and reinstalled even more drivers to no avail.

I can play CounterStrike in Software mode, so surely that means something?

Anyone got an opinion on the K7 Chipset thing?

How about blown pipes?

When I was using Windows for basic tasks I was getting the ati2dvag.dll Blue Screen very, very frequently.

http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.cfm?catid=31&thread...TMP=Linear


Interesting new perspectives on this problem if anyone wishes to take the time to read them, try them out and report back.


It seems to be that more and more people are relating this problem to VIA Chispets with ATi Products.
I'd still advise others to have a read even if it's not the case for them.

There are various ideas which might just solve someone's problem.

Seems like I'm the only one still with an interest in solving this problem, but let it be known - I traded my cousin my Radeon 9800 Pro, for his Radeon 9800 Pro - his used a large power connector and was slightly larger, whereas my oneused a Floppy Driver Power Connector, was smaller and had 4 heatsinks on it.

Well?

Well quite simply his card works on my machine perfectly. I think I had one crash/freeze in the 2 hours I was playing games and that was solely because the game I was playing is fairly unstable as it's not final release.

So there you go people - If you have the smaller Radeon 9800 Pro with floppy drive connector for power, see if you can get a change to the larger power connector, cause it solved my problem. My cousin is currently testing my card on his machine - I'll report back with the results of that in due time.

A potential twist on this.... My son has a Toshiba Satellite S1591ST, new in December 2004. He returned to college with it in January & it started giving the ATI2DVAG message. He brought it home & I could not get it to fail, back to school & it would fail.

No fancy games, the fails were mostly while it was dormant, screen powered off. Upon 'wakeup' the message and reduced screen resolution, etc. He reported it did also fail while he was using it a couple times but usually it would be after sitting dormant. He rarely uses it on battery alone.

This weekend I remembered he had commented that his dorm was lots warmer than we keep the house (75F+ vs 65F at home). Hmmm....

After raising the ambient temp to around 80F the Toshiba failed. Certainly not solid, but within an hour and multiple times.

Toshiba support wanted me to restore it to 'out of the box' condition - partly I think to remove XP SP2. I did this to find that SP2 is integrated into the restore DVD. Ran for 3 hours sitting on the kitchen table after the restore @ 65F ambient, failed an hour or less later at 80F ambient temp.

It's on it's way back to Toshiba as soon as the shipping box arrives.

Will post the results.

Regards, Bill

I've been on a gaming spree since I got my PC fully functional about 4 hours ago and I've had no ati2dvag problems, those with trouble should contact ATi and maybe question them about a replacement card - However, simply changing the power supply might help - Worth a shot, at least if you fit it and it doesn't work you can take it back on warranty.

Bill, Ross,
You both may be experiencing some overheat issues.
From the laptop perspective, if he's sitting with the laptop on his futon, or the couch in the student common area, he may be blocking the intake vents, leading to system instability.

On the PC front, these modern GPUs and their memory generate a LOT of BTUs! If you don't have enough airflow, they are probably overheating. The ATI 9800Pro (from ATI) comes with a tiny little one or two ounce heatsink on the GPU and nothing on the DDR RAM.

Upon finding that I had the R360 core GPU I flashed my bios to 9800XT and was getting major problems in freezes and BSODs. The BIOS flash took me from the PRO 360/336MHz stock GPU/Memory settings to 412/365.
So I invested about $50 in some Artic Silver Compound and a Thermaltake Giant III (and it is GIANT). Upon getting the TTG III package, it took about 1.5 - 2 hours to mod my card (it works with NVidia as well as ATI) and get everything back up and running.
With the primary fan running at its lowest setting (I actually unplugged it for chuckless with no detriment) I am able to run XT speeds with no artifacting.

With both fans screaming (and there is a lot of noise), I'm able to achieve 435/372.

NO BSODs or Lockups since installation.

Well Gerritt, thanks for the input, it's been a while since I checked back - And I just got my first ati2dvag error in quite some while.

While browsing the Internet, I think I'll talk to my uncle about a new fan etc. come this weekend.

At least this is a new area pinpointed - Thanks.

Update from sunny (but cold) Central NY.

Toshiba laptop returned today with a new motherboard installed.. After testing is a nice warm bathroom - 80F - no more AT12DVAG nasty-grams.

Thanks for the input on the cooling.... but any laptop should survive at 80F ambient. When I did all the heat 'testing' the laptop was indeed free to breathe through it's vents.

Best regards, Bill

This Ati2dvag error is larger than first appears , many people are having this concern.I have tried everything above and still ....BSOD.

some fluff about resetting you PCI bridge to standard PCI bridge adaptor ... but then there goes your speed. And it still doesn't totally resolve it . With SP1 /SP2/ installed new drivers/ clean registry etc. etc. This error is totally random in my tests. I can generate it with word program in Microsoft Outlook by going back into the text and re-editting text I have just written . It either reboots after reporting endless loop ati2dvag , or reports the ati2dvag error and reverts to software mode . I even have my 8X card (9600XT) cranked back to 4X.

I think we need Ati to address this issue.


SCott

Hey,

I'm still having this problem and by the sounds of it so are alot of other people. I do find this happens completely randomly, but things like moving my laptop around when it's on can do it (which seeing as one of the reasons you have a laptop is so you can move it around it seems a bit silly ).

If anyone could give me any definitive suggestions as to how to fix this it would be helpfully...as otherwise I think I'm going to email ATI very soon.

Thanks for any and all help,

Caroline

Caroline,

Ati won't help you, you must go after the Compaq people. I had the same grief with my Toshiba Laptop. Try installing the Omega drivers. I had no problems for over a month now.

Hi,

I have been having problems with my graphics card ( ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB) ever since I installed Windows XP Professional SP2.Everytime I reinstall the drivers I still get the blue screen with the ati2dvag.dll error. I was running Windows 2000 before and was working perfectly with no problems.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have tried everything....
Thanks

This is an FYI to ATI Card owners who need to be aware of potential problems with a full install of Win XP SP2, not just an upgrade from SP1 to SP2.
First off last week my system crashed and it was due to a hardware failure involving the mother board and memory. Not sure which was the first to go but at this point it does not matter. Also seems (and let me stress SEEMS) nothing else had been damaged due to the melt down.
Prior to the melt down I had no problems running my ATI AIW 8500DV 64mb in XP Pro SP1 or later on with SP2 installed as an upgrade in 8/04 and the most current recommended ATI drivers at that time.

Specs on old system: All up to date Firmware and drivers were installed at that time of SP2 Upgrade.
MOBO: Abit KR7a Raid.
CPU: AMD 2000XP
Mem: 2 sticks Crucial 256Mb PC2100 DDR non-ecc / unbuffered
HD: Maxtor: 160gig 7200 ATA (Std IDE connection)
S/C: SoundBlaster Live 5.1
Video: ATI 8500DV AIW 64Mb
LAN: Linksys 10/100
PSU: Enermax 350W
DVD/CD: Sony DRU 530a + Memorex CD player

New System: Recommended up to date and drivers being used. (Mobo firmware still needs to be checked.) All components are the same as above except as listed below.
MOBO: Abit NF7S Raid
Mem: 1 Kingston 512Mb PC2700 DDR noe-ecc / unbuffered
LAN: onboard nVidia LAN controller
Note: Board can handle SATA but using standard IDE connections.

Now for the fun stuff:
Since I have not had any problems running SP2 I decided to use the full install SP2 instead of upgrading from SP1 to SP2.
Install went along normally until first boot into Windows after install was complete. Splash screen came up and then went to black with pointer locked dead center in the screen.
Reboot produced the same results.
OK, so video card maybe has a problem. Pulled an nVidia Gforce 400 64Mb DDR card from another box of mine and pop it in. Window boots, welcome screen comes up and proceeds to go through loading the drivers for the nVidia and asks for reboot. Reboot and system comes up fine. Mess with resolution and can take it to the max without any problems. So now it’s looking more like the ATI card is toast.
And no, silly me had not tried safe mode on the 8500 on the first round but more on that shortly.
Wanting to nail down if there really was a problem with the 8500 I popped it in the box that the nVidia came from (XP SP1 + SP2 upgrade) and booted the system. Windows came up loaded the drivers restarted and worked happy as a lark with the Window drivers and could hit the max resolution offered which was 1280 x 1024.
At this point I am wondering if there is a conflict between the NF7S Mobo and 8500 or XP SP2 and the 8500. I had noted that Abit only checked the latest cards from ATI so it could be a conflict with the Mobo at this point but seemed unlikely to get this kind of results. I did a quick searched on Microsoft and ATI and saw a few listing on the dll problem but did not see anything close to the problem I was having.
I decided to swap cards in my box back to the 8500 and see what happens. This time windows came up loaded drivers asked for reboot. After reboot the system came up but only in an 800X600 resolution. Shortly after coming up it flashed the message that the card could do more and if I wanted window to set the resolution, I hit OK and screen went black with pointer locked. OK so maybe a driver problem. Booted into safe mode and removed the 8500 and let windows reboot normally. Came up as before and this time said no to windows resetting the resolution. Went in manually and tried going to 1024 x 768. Screen went black as before and locked again. Repeated removing the 8500 in safe mode again and on reboot this time canceled the window drivers and loaded the recommended ATI drivers and this time after reboot it came up in 1024 x 768 and no problems. Also could run the resolution up to and beyond 1280 x 1024 without a problem.

So now it looks as if the drivers from ATI used in Windows XP SP2 are the problem. Did a low format on the drive and repeated the install with the same results as above. I repeated the install of the drivers from ATI but now get the dreaded ATIMMC.exe error when opening any of the ATI programs (TV, DVD player, File player, etc.). I have to get back to it tonight and try cleaning out the ATI drivers and software then reinstalling them but the upshot here is that initial set of ATI drivers XP SP2 full install seems to be a problem at this point. As for the ATIMMC.exe and ati2dvag.dll errors I will try and get an answer for and post any updates I find but suspect that it is either a bad directX file or codec at the root of the problem.

Well,,, we will have to let the guys at ATI work it out , I have sent all my info , and several 'crash' records to ATI , they are showing it as "work in progress" , so lets see what they come up with. I don't know how much this "hardware deadlock" "endless loop" is connected to WinXP SP2 , I don't think so , I experienced this error without XP SP2 , so .......
If other people also send in requests to ATI it might prompt some action.....( I know it is a pain to register and fill out all the forms) ,they are the ones responsible for writing the driver files so get busy !

Scott

Found a solution that seems to work for me.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-28206.html

Right click-mouse over My Computer
Properties
Hardware(Tab)
Device Manager(button)
Click [+] next to System devices
right-mouse on CPU to AGP Controller (or whatever your controller is called, mine was SiS AGP)
Update Driver(button)

Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)
Next(button)
Select Don't search. I will choose the driver to install.
Next(button)
Select PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
Next(button)
Finish(button)
Reboot.

I bet your card is overheating...
I had the exact same problem, and it was an overheating card. I have a ATI 9200 too...changed card, prob solved!

try cooling it...

Ati sent me a response and promised the catalyst drivers 5.4 will fix this! I will test it


//////////////////////////
We have responded to your issue.

Solution:
This is an automated message intended to notify you about a recent driver and software release.

ATI released CATALYST 5.4 including new display drivers and Multimedia Center 9.06.1 on April 7, 2005. This release applies to all RADEON and ALL-IN-WONDER (7000 and greater) series products running in Windows XP and Windows 2000.

We ask that you try this new release in the hope that it will correct the issue that you are currently experiencing. To obtain this update please visit http://support.ati.com and choose Drivers and Software. Please ensure that you read the release notes for installation instructions.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

ATI elaborates and provides links with help ...

I thought everthing was good , I ran the removal software tools they provide at ATI , and freshly installed the latest driver .... In 5 days it has only errored once with version 5.4


We have responded to your issue.

Solution: The infinite loop error can be caused by a number of system software settings or hardware failures. This is why you will find these errors documented frequently, and it is not an issue specific to ATI cards.

We have compiled an article on our website of the common causes of this type of issue. The article is below for your convenience.

"DEVICE DRIVER is STUCK IN INFINITE LOOP" or VPU Recover errors in Windows XP

This issue affects the following system configurations:
Windows XP
Any ATI display card
Based on our experience, the error "The drivers for the display adapter got stuck in an INFINITE LOOP" is a result of a system communication mishap. On some systems, the error "Unable to complete a drawing operation", or an ATI VPU recover error may also occur.

This error does not occur on all system configurations.

This issue can occur using any motherboard or graphics chipset along with the Windows XP Operating system. It appears that in most cases this problem is due to a BIOS setting, specifically options affecting the way the RAM, CPU and graphics card communicate with XP and DirectX. Improper timing settings can result in system lock ups or random system reboots.

This issue also affects different makes and models of video cards from various manufacturers.

In attempt to gather more information on why this error occurs, ATI developed a component to catch when the INFINITE LOOP occurs. This component is called VPU Recover. If the display driver detects that the graphics processor has hung, VPU Recover will attempt to reset the graphics processor, eliminating the need for a system reboot.

VPU errors can occur mostly while using 3D applications and games. This error has also been known to occur in 2D applications as well.

This error message may occur in the virtual video adapter driver that is used by Symantec PCAnywhere. If PCAnywhere is installed on a computer where this error message occurs, visit the Symantec Web site to determine if there are any available fixes for your version of PCAnywhere.

At the present time ATI is still gathering information on the Infinite Loop condition.

The following suggestions may help to correct this issue:

Verify that the system has updated software
Adjust basic settings within the system BIOS
Adjust advanced settings with the system BIOS
Test with different hardware configurations
1. Verifying that the system has updated software

a) Update the display drivers.
Ensure that you have installed the latest ATI CATALYST software for your ATI product. Drivers for your video card can be found on the ATI website.

b) Ensure that all three DirectX Features are enabled.
Run the available tests to ensure that each of the three components pass.

c) Update your motherboard chipset driver software.
Updating your AGP chipset drivers can add stability to the PC and may help to prevent the Infinite Loop error from occurring.

d) Use the ATI SMARTGART utility to adjust AGP Reads/Writes.
In newer revisions of the Catalyst Drivers, a feature called SMARTGART was introduced. With the latest ATI CATALYST software installed, you can use the ATI SMARTGART settings to adjust the Fast Writes and AGP BUS speed.

Select the "Start" menu -> click on "RUN" -> type "SMARTGART" -> click OK.

Ensure that both the AGP Read and Write settings are On. If these are set to OFF, then enable them and restart Windows as prompted. As a test you should try disabling the AGP Write setting. NOTE- AGP Writes may not be enabled on all chipsets.

e) Update the motherboard BIOS. Any updates can be found on the motherboard manufacturer's website.

f) Make sure you have an adequate power supply.


2. Basic BIOS options.

NOTE: These options may vary depending on the type/version of your system. You may or may not have all these options present.

Video BIOS Shadow - DISABLED
Init Primary Display - AGP (Toggle this setting if your video card is PCI)
AGP MASTER 1W/S READ/WRITE - ENABLED/DISABLED (Toggle this option)
AGP Aperture size - 128 MB
AGP Driving Control - AUTO
Disable AGP 8x/4x mode in the BIOS.
Disable AGP Fast Writes in the BIOS.
AGP Driving Control - AUTO
AGP Performance Control - ENABLED/DISABLED (Toggle this option)
Assign IRQ for VGA - ENABLED
System Bios Cacheable - DISABLED
Video BIOS Cacheable - DISABLED
VIDEO RAM Cacheable - DISABLED
Read Around Write - ENABLED/DISABLED (toggle this setting)
PnP OS installed - YES

3. BIOS Settings for ADVANCED USERS:

NOTE: These options may vary depending on the type/version of your system. You may or may not have all these options.

Load optimized defaults in your BIOS
Set your memory settings to default values (I.e.. DRAM Timing = SPD)
Lower the memory frequency to 133/166mhz (effectively DDR266/333mhz)
If available increase AGP Voltage to 1.6 - 1.8 in the BIOS
SDRAM Cycle length - 2.5
Bank Interleave - ENABLE/DISABLE (toggle this setting - It will only make a difference if you have more than one memory module.)
DRAM Burst length - 4

4. Recommended Hardware changes:

Test system with a single memory module if multiples are being used
Test with different memory modules.
Test with a different Power supply
Disable/Remove ALL non-essential hardware i.e. sound card, network card, additional HDD etc.
Test the video card in a different PC
Additional Information on the Infinite Loop:

Staying Out Of The Loop - http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=64

Microsoft Knowledge Base - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q293078

hi,
i have the same problem too. i`m new to this,and dont understand much of this stuff but am p**sed at the card.ive got win xp sp2.direct x 9.0c, the lock up or whatever happens in no particular order, the vpu recover thing works sometimes, sometimes i`ve to reboot, the message says its switched to `software rendering`, whatever that means, games low end do run ( star wars jedi academy, POP2, need for speed, etc, but it happens also while surfing, doing nothing comp just on too, i `ve tried all this reinstall uninstall, contact ati stuff, virus scans, spyware removal, etc too, tried loading the new drivers,no joy there.
athlon 64 2800+, MSI k8m-neoV
1 gb ddr-400
160 gb SATA
samsung dvd-rw dual layer, my old cd rom , and fdd are fitted too,also my webcam.
radeon 9550 , 256 mb , ( got smartgart too) cpu is software overclocked, shows up as 1.80 ghz
350 w smps,
my solution is just reboot, like now its happened twice in 15 min, and after rebooting hasnt happened for three hours. completely unpredictable.