game lockups - 3870 Related? 'infinite loop'

[Devnull]

specs are as follows

VisionTek 3870
Asrock 939 Dual SATA2
X2 3800+
4x512mb Kingston HyperX
650W PCP&C silencer
XP SP2

So I have had this card since january or so and recently I have been having more and more problems that seem to be related to the card.

I have been able to play some various games such as Bioshock, Planetside, Doom3, and Crysis without any issues, but when I play EVE Online I have had some hard locks.

For anyone vaguely familar with the game- it is completely stable until I am on a stargate. At that time I seem to have a chance of locking up, it also seems to be associated with mouse clicks/movements. Like if I am on stargate and trying to jump or if I am doing some other kind of action at the gate there is a chance of a hard-lock. So basically, the game is entirely stable unless I am trying to travel between different systems in space.

Now I have gone through all the usual diagnostic steps and I really can't find any kind of stability issues outside of EVE. I have found some other instances of people with similar problems, but not very many, and I don't see any kind of common connection or possible fixes.

The other day I had something different happen while playing EVE, I got this message:

Windows - Display Driver Stopped Responding : The ati2dvag display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work and reboot the system to restore full display functionality. The next time you reboot the machine a dialog will be displayed giving you a chance to upload data about this failure to Microsoft.

I got 640x480 res and 256 colors and ended up having to shut down because the system manually because windows would not shut down after a few minutes.

It got me thinking to check the event viewer and this is what I have found every time I have these hard-locks and also from the time I got that message:

The driver ati2dvag for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates.

Now this does somewhat lead to me believe that there could be some hardware issue, even though I have yet to be able to duplicate problems with any other games. I think I have ruled out all the obvious problems such as overheating, and I have tried various drivers and settings.

It's going to be a while before I can obtain a different video card capable of actually running this game, so does anyone have any other suggestions on how to diagnose this and try to duplicate the problem outside of eve, or how to fix it?

 

[Terpfen]

If it's the one game, and your system tells you it's a driver, then chances are it is indeed the driver.

What version of Catalyst are you using? Is it an upgrade from an older version? Did you uninstall the older version before you installed the newer version? Did you use Driver Cleaner? Did you check the release notes of whatever driver version you're using to confirm that it isn't a known issue?

 

[Devnull]

If it's the one game, and your system tells you it's a driver, then chances are it is indeed the driver.

What version of Catalyst are you using? Is it an upgrade from an older version? Did you uninstall the older version before you installed the newer version? Did you use Driver Cleaner? Did you check the release notes of whatever driver version you're using to confirm that it isn't a known issue?

Yeah, I've been up and down all the basic steps like that one. I always use driver cleaner and then also manually try to find any evidence of the previous driver.

I'm currently using the 8.5, and I've tried each version as early asthe first ones to support the 3870.

with the old drivers(maybe it was 7.11 IIRC) and an older version of EVE, it would actually do a VPU recover when I had this issue, and then the game would be fine afterwards. Even with the oldest driver, eve still locks up with the current version.

 

[risqu3]

this kept happening to me with vista. I had to take out my video card, clean it, remove the drivers for ati, re-install everything slowly. first install one video card, install 8.5's then install the second and enable x-fire. if that doesnt work, it means your power supply cant handle the load. (as mine had to be RMAd)

 

[philbrown23]

what cats are you using?? try tio unstall, driver cleaner, and reinstall

 

[Terpfen]

what cats are you using?? try tio unstall, driver cleaner, and reinstall

He's already confirmed both his driver version and the uninstall/reinstall process he used.

Devnull, try contacting EVE support and see what they say.

 

[Devnull]

He's already confirmed both his driver version and the uninstall/reinstall process he used.

Devnull, try contacting EVE support and see what they say.

Yeah, been there. Done that, many times. Been waiting on my 3rd reply back for a week. Don't know if you have ever played an MMO, but EVE support is pretty poor- hey just like planetside!

this kept happening to me with vista. I had to take out my video card, clean it, remove the drivers for ati, re-install everything slowly. first install one video card, install 8.5's then install the second and enable x-fire. if that doesnt work, it means your power supply cant handle the load. (as mine had to be RMAd)

I only have a single card, and I have done quite a bit to rule out the PSU. Sounds like you had an issue related to crossfire.

 

[Terpfen]

Yeah, been there. Done that, many times. Been waiting on my 3rd reply back for a week. Don't know if you have ever played an MMO, but EVE support is pretty poor- hey just like planetside!

I refuse on principle to pay more than once for a game.

 

[Devnull]

Well, the bug hunters(volunteers) have finally attached my issue to a defect, so they are basically admitting there is some kind of issue, but I still have no idea if I can do anything to resolve it on my end(short of getting a different video card).

I refuse on principle to pay more than once for a game.

That's what I said until I first read about planetside and I realized it wasn't about principle- I just could never be interested in all the fruity fantasy games with magic, elves etc....

 

[Terpfen]

Well, the bug hunters(volunteers) have finally attached my issue to a defect, so they are basically admitting there is some kind of issue, but I still have no idea if I can do anything to resolve it on my end(short of getting a different video card).

Who admitted there was an issue--the EVE Online guys or ATi?

That's what I said until I first read about planetside and I realized it wasn't about principle- I just could never be interested in all the fruity fantasy games with magic, elves etc....

Sorry, but it's about the gameplay for me. If I wanted to grind I'd load up my copy of Final Fantasy II and do it without a monthly surcharge.

 

[Devnull]

Who admitted there was an issue--the EVE Online guys or ATi?



Sorry, but it's about the gameplay for me. If I wanted to grind I'd load up my copy of Final Fantasy II and do it without a monthly surcharge.

It was from EVE, but from the "bug hunter" which is just a volunteer that collects the bug reports, tries to duplicate bugs and then forwards information to the devs. Doesn't mean too much.

What do you mean about grinding? Sure, games such as everquest and wow have grinding(would never consider playing them myself), but mmo does not equal grinding at all. Planetside has no form of grinding( and is very egalitarian. EVE doesn't really have any kind of grinding(your character advances in real time whether you play or not) either and is nearly as egalitarian.

 

[Devnull]

This issue is still driving me nuts, CCP has admitted that there is some kind of problem(and other people are complaining) but does not seem to intend to fix it. Any ideas? I'm about ready to try and get a new video card.

 

[Devnull]

any bright ideas? I'm currently trying to see if there is any way I can get a newer card replacement from visiontek, or some credit on a newer model. Seems that there is no way the 38xx series works on this game, or at least that it will not be resolved.