NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Alienware Notebook Forums › Alienware General › Problem with ATI & AGP Drivers
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Problem with ATI & AGP Drivers

post #1 of 16
8/16/04 at 12:51am
Thread Starter 
I recently orderd an ATI 9600 Video card to replace the Nvidia Go5600 video card in my Area51m Laptop and I started to have problems as soon as I installed the ATI drivers. After I installed the ATI dirvers (v7.99) every time I moved or resized a window, windows would change resolutions to 640X480 and then I would get the error: "That windows had just experienced an unrecoverable error... blah blah blah... You must reboot". The system was so unstable it was completely unusable. I tried different versions of the ATI drivers 8.05 to 7.95 and had the same problem. I eventuly figured out the the ATI drivers were confilcting with the AGP drivers. As soon as I removed the AGP drivers, the problems stoped. Of course, with the AGP drivers removed, my video card is only working at AGP 1x. Is anybody else out there experiencing this problem and does anybody know what I can do to solve the problem, other than removing the AGP drivers, because I would like to use my video card to its full capability.

-TheMan
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 16
8/16/04 at 12:59am
Just suffered through the same issues myself. Here's what you need to do:

1) Go to the SIS website, download AGP Driver 1.17e for 648fx chipset

2) run the prog, reboot go back to same folder and look for AGPUtil. Run it.

3)AGPUtil will allow you to clock down from 8x to 4x AGP.

4)Reinstall 7.99 ATI Drivers.

All has worked as a charm for me since. A credit to the other brains of this board.

Dantes
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 16
8/16/04 at 2:33am
Which mobo revision do you have?
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 16
8/16/04 at 7:53am
Yes it took me around 3 weeks to get to the bottom of it and I've experienced exactly what you stated above. I'm running the latest Omegas and have used SMARTGART instead of the AGPUtil to turn down to 4x agp. Once smartgart was set at 4* agp I double checked the agp speed via the agputil as well and that showed I was at 4*agp too. I have had one or two lockups on 4x agp, but can't say for sure if it's the game I've been playing or the conflict the ati drivers seem to have with the agp drivers. Using 1.17e drivers for agp (btw). I'm a lot happier, but still not convinced the problem has completly gone away.

Just for interest, I ran 3dmark2003 on 4x agp and 8*agp, didn't seem to see any difference in performance either.

Any other users want to contribute to this as I'm only 90% convinced this issue is fixed by cutting down to agp *4.

Reply
Reply
post #5 of 16
8/16/04 at 11:39pm
The artifacting and game lockups haven't re-occured since I made the switch, but I have run into one lockup on windows start-up.

Like you Sarge I'm not fully convinced it's solved, but I am happier with the performance.

Dantes
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 16
8/17/04 at 5:22am
Cheers Dante.

I've had one lockup at boot, oddly enough had it today !

I managed to play Bliztkrieg and Joint Operations last night with no lock ups for near on 5 hrs (till I had to go to bed) at agp *4 so things are looking better

On a side note, things I've read in other posts...
I don't believe this problem at 8*agp is anything to do with heat for my system as I normally get a lock up within 10 mins (even from cold boot). Also why would smartgart test your system and be happy at allowing 8*agp, smartgart tests for system stability right ?

It must be an issue with ATI drivers and SIS drivers. That's my opinion anyway
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 16
8/17/04 at 12:13pm
Try using Omega drivers perhaps?
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 16
8/17/04 at 11:11pm
I'm thinkin' along the same lines as you Sarge. I've also been reading up on infinite loop errors that can occur between video cards and system boards, although it can be attributed to both hardware and software issues.

I've also heard there are conflicts between the pcmcia cardbus driver and the system chips. Too many unknowns......

Dantes
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 16
8/18/04 at 7:44pm
Dantes, conflicts between the pcmcia cardbus driver and the system chips....
Hmmm, I might just test that out. When I say test it out, I mean actually aply the AlienWare PCMCIA driver (I never figured to install it).

Ok, I'll let you know the results. BTW, do u have that driver applied ?
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 16
8/19/04 at 12:43am
Yeah I'm using the (what is it OZ? O2?) cardbus driver. It's given me issues before with both CF cards and my wireless card. I've only ever had BSODs with the agp driver issue (now performing much better), and something in the pcmcia slot.

Dantes
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 16
8/19/04 at 6:06am
Tried it, no good. At 8*agp I managed around 10 mins gameplay then it frooze. Ah well, back to the drawing board

The drivers where o2micro or something, so I guess that Windows XP had the same drivers built in, I don't beleive the drivers I grabbed off the Alienware ftp site were any different to what Windows had already.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 16
8/19/04 at 8:11am
I'm about to give up trying to get to the bottom of this now

I've done some tests (benchmarking) and theres no difference whatsoever with the results I get between 4 * and 8 * agp. I think I'm wasting my time worrying about this as I don't believe we'll see any improvements in performance.

Anyone agree ?
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 16
8/19/04 at 12:42pm
No card has even filled up AGP x4 right now, so you're not going to see a difference unless you get a card from 3 years in the future hooked up onto there...
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 16
8/19/04 at 2:53pm
Cheers Mario, I knew I was wasting my time From now on I'll spend my time gaming (as it should be)
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 16
8/19/04 at 4:56pm
Which games were you running with when you got the freezing Sarge?

Dantes
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 16
8/19/04 at 6:28pm
Unreal Tourney 2004, Joint Operations, Soldiers - Heroes of World War II & Bitzkrieg. Infact pretty much everything I have
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Alienware General
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Alienware Notebook Forums › Alienware General › Problem with ATI & AGP Drivers