Anyone notice more frequent driver failures with 8.12?

Eversince 8.12, it seems that my drivers have been crashing more frequently with the infamous atikmdag error. This happens only when I play COD4 and happens about every 30mins or so with the screen going black for a few seconds and then turning back on. Usually it's fine afterwards, but lately I'm getting weird graphics glitches after it turns back on - such as rain textures on surfaces that are too shimmery instead of looking like water or weird colored pixels even. Sometimes a portion of my screen disappears so my widescreen (1680x1050) looks likes its a regular screen.


The driver failure occurred prior to 8.12, but it seems to be occurring more frequently now. Before, it'd fail once and after it reverts, it'd be fine and I can play for hours more. Now, it seems to be failing every half hour or so, as mentioned above. And it doesn't happen with the other games I play such as AoE3 and CIV4.

Anyone else notice this?

Yeah, my card is overclocked. My 4850 is currently at 690/2320 MHz. But my temps are 44C idle and about 78-80C load so I figured it was ok.

But yeah, I'll try decreasing the OC by 5 MHz and see.

My 3870 is constantly getting the ATIkmdag error. Though it rarely happens in games. Usually, it will be when the desktop is idle or playing a movie or episodes of somethign for extended periods of time. Then vista will keep trying to reset the driver, then it will finally just give up and bsod.

I dont care enough to revert back, since I've got a 4870 on the way that I'll keep 8.11 on till .13 comes out.

There won't be a .13, it's already 2009, the next driver will be 9.1

The unfortunate thing is that this is a combination Vista and driver issue, it's essentially trying to avoid lock-ups and BSODs and if possible tries to keep things running, versus the bigger hassle of having to reboot, but unfortunately there's still a conflict somewhere and like most error messages (from any company) it's tough to troubleshoot the source. Sometimes driver or program re-installs helps, but other times not.

Looks like the 8.12s have increase the occurrence of conflicts though, so hopefully they reduce a bit with 9.1

PS, to the OP sort of related to the other thread, but not worth posting there just to post it, this isn't just an ATi+Vista thing, it's been going on for years with nV too (get it at work);

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=25381

It's annoying on both platforms, but definitely still better than a lock-up or BSOD if it recovers cleanly.

Exact same problem I had. Tried for hours to get 8.12 working but never got anything but BSOD.... Heres to 2009 and hoping Cat 9.1 fixes the issues...

It happens frequently:

I plan on just using 8.11 for my new build and getting 9.1 when they're out. I've heard a lot more complaints about 8.12 than normal. Also, I think your OC may be a little high (or your power supply a little low). That many resets in not normal for a 4850 (and Vista 32 bit, at least). Mine's only done it a few times in the many months I've owned it.

I have 8.11 and I believe it still works. Does it give an error or say anything or does it just not work for you?

Somebody told me that HD4850 need a 650W power supply as normal.. otherwise could'nt resist some display problems like that...

Yeah, I don't think that it should matter, and yeah, I have the latest BIOS. My graphics cards are actually the only 5.8 in the mix - who knows...

Anyway, lots of driver issues lately, let's just hope that 9.1 pulls it together.