“Driver failed to respond, but has recovered” ATIKMDAG.SYS dual screen

[Abssorb]

Sorry for the long post.

I have a Sapphire 512Mb Radeon HD 4670 with two monitors connected on vista 64x.

I'm getting an intermittent video error, “Driver failed to respond, but has recovered”, Which flashes a few times and then the system dives with a BSOD, memory dumping from ATIKMDAG.SYS.

A few places on the net suspect that it's a dual monitor problem, where an old monitor is involved. In some cases replacing the old monitor meant the error disappeared.

I looked into this, and discovered something wierd.

Left monitor is an ATEC 18.1 connected on DVI
Right monitor is a Samsung 22" Syncmaster 2232BW on DVI.

In ATI Catalyst, these are listed correctly.
1. Monitor is ATEC 18.1
2. Monitor is Syncmaster 2232BW
The little graphic looks right, small monitor on left, big on right.

However, in windows Display settings, this is the wrong way around, suggesting windows is trying to use the driver of the wrong monitor.
1. Monitor is Syncmaster 2232BW
2. Monitor is ATEC 18.1
The little graphic looks right, small monitor on left, big on right, but if I click on the small monitor, it tells me that it's the Syncmaster 2232BW

I can't find anywhere for me to tell Windows it's got it wrong. All thoughts welcomed!


System:
Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz, OCZ Vanquisher, Gigabyte EP45-D5S, Corsair 4X2Gb 800MHZ, Sapphire 512Mb Radeon HD 4670, Enermax 385W 82+, 2x WD VelociRaptor 150GB 10Krpm, Antec P182 Mid Tower.

 

[mactronix]

As far as i know you can tell it which one is to be the primary display by clicking or dragging in the CCC.

Mactronix

 

[Abssorb]

No, all that does is move the taskbar to the other screen, the mix-up is still there.

 

[mactronix]

So you definatly have the Monitor you want to use as the Main(Primary) Monitor connected to the correct output on the card, they are numbered if you didnt know ?
Personally if it was me i would be looking at the drivers, Im guessing you have the latest ones ? If you have old ones or the ones that came with the card on a disc then update them to the newer ones. If you are running the latest drivers then sometimes it can be worth installing a previous set.
I would also look up the Monitors and specifically if there are any reported compatability problems with Vista.
Another option would be to only install the display drivers and not the Catalyst controls, I have done this in the past when getting stupid driver issues and it worked well. Ati Tray Tools which is a free download will work alongside the display drivers and give you access to all the advanced options that were in the CCC, and more.

Mactronix

 

[M-Ajesty]

Heh well, I can tell you this. This is a very common problem with ATI HD version cards.. I'm experiencing 2-8 Blue screens a day, when only using one monitor.
Does the problem occur once you are using only one monitor?

More information can be found here -> http://www.repairyourpcnow.com/resources/atikmdag-has-stopped-responding.php

 

[iluvgillgill]

ATI drivers are real bad these days with monitors as my HD4550 just switch from full screen to a 4:3 by it self.

 

[jtmudge]

I am having the same exact issue. One monitor works fine, two and one BSoD a day. Any resolution on this?

 

[Mousemonkey]

I am having the same exact issue. One monitor works fine, two and one BSoD a day. Any resolution on this?

After seven months I'm guessing they might have gone over to Nvidia cards and better drivers, hey presto problem solved. :lol:

 

[Mousemonkey]

Maybe it's because the Ati drivers are still installed when the [strike]better[/strike] Nvidia card is put in. [:mousemonkey]

 

[daye159]

will these ATIKMDAG.SYS errors and bsod's be fixed in 9.6 drivers when will they be out ?

 

[Guest]

I have the same problem as described in the posts above.

Currently running (late 2007 build):

2 x 22in Samsung SyncMaster 225BW LCD (Extended Desktop mode)
1 x ATI Radeon 2900 XT HD
4 x 1Gb Crucial Ballistix DDR2
1 x Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz
1 x ASUS P5K Deluxe Mobo
Vista HE 32-bit

This build worked perfect from fall of 2007-2008. Reformatted Mid-2008 and then again in March 2009 to keep system in clean operational condition.

In the last 6 months, I have been getting repeated “Driver failed to respond, but has recovered” errors whenever starting an application (besides Windows) that draws on the GPU for resources (iTunes, games etc). Following cold-boot, this will occur usually within the first 1-5 minutes of the system being up; it includes the fan on the GPU revving high and then slowing back down. As it was it was more of an inconvenience, because it would happen once, and then would be fine for the rest of the system's up time (even when sleeping/waking).

In the last week however I have started to get severe graphics corruption on both monitors with no warning; and this causes the system to repeatedly reinitialize the driver files that appear to be failing; it continues this until both monitors go black/BSoD/or lock up and auto restart.

The BSoD report always points to ATIKMDAG.SYS as the issue.

I can run the system perfectly fine in Safe mode on both monitors (cloned); which to me would indicate that the card, on the hardware side is OKAY.

I have removed any trace of ATI drivers in an attempt to resolve this issue; allowing Windows to run the bare minimum to figure out how to work two monitors (it of course got some ATI driver through Windows update to facilitate this).

I have tried the latest drivers from ATI as well with no success.

Yesterday, as a test I disabled Folding@Home and RocketDock from starting with Windows and the system ran fine in normal mode all day. But then with both of those programs still disabled today, the video went south on me again. Am at a loss on what to do...any help is appreciated. Thanks.