A7M266: ati2dvag.dll infinite loop. Hopeless?

[ATI-sufferer]

Hi everyone!

I have had the same problem with the VPU recover for over a year now!
I have visited other forums and they suggested i disable fast writes in SMARTGART and set the AGP speed to 4x...i did so and i was able to play a game for a longer time but still it ended going blank on me!

I also tried Cobrakaru's solution and that seemed to work better but still the same problem after a longer time into the game:\ Should i set the AGP speed to 8x and the fast write to enable with that PCI to PCI change thing?? Btw in the system devices, the closest thing to that controller i saw was 'NVIDIA nForce3 250 AGP Host to PCI Bridge' so i selected that to update. But i'm going to try it again (i did a system restore point to go back just in case) in safe mode because i read someone else doing it here...and i'll also uninstall my current ATI drivers and install those Omega drivers.

This has been such a nerve wrecker for me...i had the same problems with my old video card....i buy a completely new custom made computer and i'm faced with the same problems!! If someone could help me or provide some advice that would be wonderful!!

Btw these are my system specs

AMD Athlon 64 bit 3000+ XP
512MB DDR RAM
Phoenix AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Radeon 9600 AGP 128MB
And my motherboard is a DFI AMD64 LanParty N-Force3-250, Socket 754
Btw my main driver in the dx diag is that 'ati2dvag.dll' does that mean anything??

[ATI-sufferer]

Ok i just tried it in safe mode and still same problem

I went back to my restore point and have downloaded the Omega Radeon driver...i disabled the VPU recover and now i'll try to play a game again! (Unreal 2 btw)

[ATI-sufferer]

Well if anyone is able to help....i have the same problem with the Omega drivers now....and in the ATI tray tools in smartgart my AGP speed is set to off, and the other read and the other one i forgot what it was called is set to off...i change them, i restart and they're still off....i'm out of options....

[Spirit Monk]

BIG THANKS Cobrakaun!! I also have joined this site just to thank you. Good Fortune to you!

[Gorganzola]

Is the fan still spinning on your GPU? Have you tried increasing the ventihiliation in your system?

Originally Posted by ATI-sufferer

Well if anyone is able to help....i have the same problem with the Omega drivers now....and in the ATI tray tools in smartgart my AGP speed is set to off, and the other read and the other one i forgot what it was called is set to off...i change them, i restart and they're still off....i'm out of options....

[hamlettaz]

O.K. WHO IS Cobrakaun AND WHAT DID HE SAY TO DO, I have a Toshiba , sATELLITE M-55-S1OO1 . i KEEP GETTING A MESSAGE ATI2DVAG, MEMOER LOSS AND COMPUTER SHUTS DOWN, HELP PLEASE TELL ME WHAT TO DO. unsp@earthlink.net, call me 910-483-5502, please help

[marcolopes]

I'm having the same problem (hangs, crashes, MOST when i come back from hibernation and when the secreen is REDRAWING with too much stuff opened)
It was hard to track down, and i don't understand THIS, because i CHANGED no HARDWARE, and for the last 6 months this is driving me crazy!

TRIED everything! EXCEPT this one!
I have 2 things to say:

1) WHAT changed in Windows XP software that made this happen? MY system was running smoothly. No hangs, no resume problems, nothing. This is a WINDOWS ISSUE, otherwhise not so many people would suffer it. Any ideas? Was AGP440.SYS changed in any microsoft updates?

2) THIS solution DISABLES AGP. SO, the AGP board ONLY transfers data through the PCI port. SPEED IS VERY MUCH affected (at least in my case, i loose 25 to 30% graphic speed...). For a ATI 9200SE this is NOT acceptable.

Regards to all.

Originally Posted by cobrakaun

A FIX THAT WORKED FOR ME AND A BUNCH OF OTHER PEOPLE!! READ ON!

Here we go folks, I've been having this problem for almost a year now with my computer, and tried almost everything my mind could possible think of doing. I've tried every solution on this board, and every other board I could find relating to this file and to the infinite loop, with absolutely no success. I tried every driver package available, bios updates, agp chipset updates, every combination of every setting. I've tried reducing power usage in my computer, I've placed more power in my computer... I've added more fans and created an optimal cooling system in my computer. I made sure there were absolutely no IRQ conflicts, and nothing was using the same IRQ as my video card. I've tried with one stick of ram, with one in 1 and 3. I've tried disabling onboard sound, and putting in a soundblaster card. Nothing... I mean nothing, worked at all.

Until now! I found a solution, that has worked for me and a bunch of other people who have tested it for me.
So give it a try, perhaps it will work for you too. My computer has been working 100% since I made this change. There is a chance it could reduce the effeciency of your texture drawing with your video card... but I've tested it with :

Unreal Tournament 2004
Rise Of Nations
Neverwinter Nights
Doom 3
Max Payne 2
Transport Giant
and a bunch of older games....

Anyhow, no more wait, give this a shot :

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.

Please let me know how this works for you.
Good luck.

[ctal]

Wow! ABXZone really is the best! A few weeks ago my four year old laptop, a Sager model NP8886V (which includes an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000), began displaying the symptoms described in this thread. About 4 or 5 times a day, for no apparent reason, the screen would corrupt and the system would crash. A few of those times either Event Viewer or a blue screen following reboot indicated that ati2dvag.dll had stuck in an infinite loop.

I did a Drive Image restore to a point in time several weeks before the problem appeared, and the problem remained (which is suggestive of a hardware problem). Extensive research and a lot of experiments did not help, until I found Cobrakaun's post (number 9 in this thread). Voila, problem solved, with no apparent side effects!!! I don't think it ever would have been solved without this suggestion.

I suspect that something in the design of the Mobility Radeon 9000 is marginal, such that aging, or increases in temperature due to dust accumulation would trigger the problem, and that the different methodology for data transfers between the cpu and video circuits provided by this fix somehow works around the problem.

Thanks to ABXZone & Cobrakaun!!

-- Al

[samtill]

I've been having this "blue screen" issue now for quite a while. I finally stumbled on this forum and wanted to try cobrakaun's suggestion. Problem is that I don't see a relevant item under my system devices that I should right-click on. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Here are my system device choices.


ACPI Fixed Feature Button
ACPI Power Button
Direct memory access controller
High Precision Event Timer
Intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge - 244E
Intel(R) 82801FB LPC Interface Controller - 2640
Intel(R) 82801FB/FMB PCI Express Root Port -2660
Intel(R) 82801FB/FMB PCI Express Root Port -2662
Intel(R) 82801FB/FMB SMBus Controller - 266A
Intel(R) 925X/XE Memory Controller Hub - 2584
Intel(R) 925X/XE PCI Express Root Port - 2585
ISAPNP Read Data Port
Microcode Update Device
Microcode ACPI-Compliant System
Microsoft System Management BIOS Driver
Motherboard resources
Numeric data processor
OpenManage Client Instrumentation device driver
PCI bus
Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator
Programmable interrupt controller
system board
system board
System CMOS/real time clock
System speaker
System timer




Thanks.

Dell Dimension 8400 3.0GHz
Win XP SP2
ATI Radeon X300 128 MHz RAM

[ctal]

You don't see it because your graphics card uses the more recent PCI-Express interface, rather than an AGP interface. I would suspect that this fix is not applicable to your problem. Look in event viewer/system (under Control Panel/Performance & Maintenance/Administrative Tools) -- at the times the problem appeared you should see a listing for an ati2mtag error; right clicking on it and looking at its properties will then indicate an ati2dvag.dll infinite loop error, if it is a similar problem.

Regards,
-- Al

[JeeVee]

A FIX THAT WORKED FOR ME
(Originally Posted by Cobrakaun)

I'm using a Sapphire ATI Radeon 256MB Pro Advantage VGA card with an HP W2007v 20" screen 1650x1050 32 bit 60 Hz. For about 4 months I become infinite loop errors and BSODs, caused in ati2dvag.exe. My hardware didn't change. Using restore was no solution. I was lucky to find this forum and the working solution for me from Cobrakaun.

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've noticed a slight loss of performance using my Space Plasma 3D Screen saver. But I'm not a gamer. Everything is working now!

[JeeVee]

Problem solved using another brand of mouse!!

I've applied the Cobrakaun fix, it worked very well, but with a reduction of the graphical performance of my ATI 9600 card (in fact the fix reduces AGP to PCI). There was another persisting problem, sometimes (once or twice per hour) without reason my cursor on my screen moves quickly down, to the right, left or up. Before the fix I've got problems using my mouse (freeze, BSODs (VPU off), infinite loop). Somehow my mouse seems to be involved. I was using a Logitech MX400 laser mouse and changed to a cheap wireless laser mouse brand Zolid. I suppose another brand will also do.

After the change my cursor problems are vanished.

I re-installed the AGP setting for my VGA and ..... it worked without any problem and with the original graphical performance!!

[Acid8000]

This error made me give up on using ATI cards after going through two of them in the one computer. Glad to hear that you found a solution that worked.

[JeeVee]

Problems caused by MS update of XP???

Refer to my former posts. I get more and more the feeling that everything started after a update of XP. My AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1G and ATI 9600 256MB VGA system was running smooth in this configuartion for about one year without any glitch, freeze, hangup, VPU recovery, infinite loops. Somehow the problems started at sudden and unexpected and without reason 4 months ago. Has anyone the same experience/feeling?

Plse react!!

[ctal]

That was about the same time that the problem began appearing on my Sager laptop (see post no. 98 in this thread above). However, as I indicated there I did an image restore (using Powerquest Drive Image 2002) to a point several weeks before the problem appeared, and it continued to appear. So that would seem to rule out an MS update being responsible, at least in my case. Regards,
-- Al