Infinite Loop problem, what is this?

[skzyer]

For a few months my friends computer has been getting a blue screen which reads

Driver is in an Infinite loop ati2dvag

Now it wont even go to windows, and the monitor even says "No Signal"

any ideas?

 

[mulpsmebeauty]

Unplug everything and plug it back in. Check for power lights on the monitor and the base unit. Listen for noises within the base unit to indicate fans and hard drives are powering up.

Boot into safe mode with F8 and see if the problem occurs. If it's sporadic, it sounds driver-related to me. From the mention of 'ati' in the error message, I suspect your friend has an ATI card? Or has recently changed to an nVidia one? Do a search for 'driver cleaner' and uninstall the old graphics drivers and reinstall the latest ones for the card.

Note: This is just early speculation based on the information you've provided.

 

[undeadsac]

For a few months my friends computer has been getting a blue screen which reads

Driver is in an Infinite loop ati2dvag

Now it wont even go to windows, and the monitor even says "No Signal"

any ideas?

Whenever I run 3dMark05 with my 6600GT I get the BSOD N4Driver in infinite loop, I'm so angry at this computer.

 

[beanman101283]

Does it happen at random times or only during certain programs or games? I had that happen with my nVidia drivers with Far Cry until a patch for the game came out. So check if any of your programs have patches or updates online as well.

 

[möbiustrip]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I want to document this issue. It's come up here several times and google doesn't have a good answer.

The ati2dvag fault occurs with a variety of Radeon cards and a chipsets. Having wrestled this bastard to the ground on my own machine, and talked to some other folks:

It's not the drivers. Various builds of Cats and Omegas may not help.
It's not temps or clock speeds (but these should be within reason).
It's not hardware-specific (although people have reported success changing from a card with a floppy-size power connector to one with a full-size power connector, that sounds anecdotal).

Stolen:

We have responded to your issue.

Solution: The infinite loop error can be caused by a number of system software settings or hardware failures...

"DEVICE DRIVER is STUCK IN INFINITE LOOP" or VPU Recover errors in Windows XP

This issue affects the following system configurations:
Windows XP
Any ATI display card
Based on our experience, the error "The drivers for the display adapter got stuck in an INFINITE LOOP" is a result of a system communication mishap...

This issue can occur using any motherboard or graphics chipset along with the Windows XP Operating system. It appears that in most cases this problem is due to a BIOS setting, specifically options affecting the way the RAM, CPU and graphics card communicate with XP and DirectX. Improper timing settings can result in system lock ups or random system reboots.

This issue also affects different makes and models of video cards from various manufacturers.

I hate to reflash a BIOS, but clean driver installs did not work until I did so. Make sure you've got the latest for your mobo, and the latest chipset drivers.

Uninstalling old drivers:
0. Safe Mode
1. Through Add/Remove Programs. Note the item "ATI Uninstall Utility" is executed by clicking "Change/Remove."
2. Run DriverCleaner and Regclean, killing anything ATI-related
3. Uninstall the display adapters in Device Manager.
4. Delete ati*.* in windows\system32 and windows\system32\drivers.
5. Reboot.

XP should load without crashing. It'll chug, because it's drawing everything in software. It'll detect display adapters, and ask for a driver. Cancel these. If it autoinstalls without asking for a driver, you missed an ati* file.

Now unpack your drivers and run the setup. Reboot when prompted. I use the driver-only package; YMMV with ATI's memory-hog softmod utils.

The black flickers as you see your desktop are a video self-test. Let them all finish, then run dxdiag to see if you've got direct3d. If you don't, try run->services.msc, start the ATISmart service, and reboot.

My setup: 9500 Pro, P4 2.53, TH7II-RAID (i850)

Hope it helps someone.