Strange Driver Problem.

[J741]

O.K. I tried the game "Max Payne 2", and it caused my Windows XP Pro based PC to spontaneously reboot after playing the opening graphic novel sequence. No System Log entries show anything unusual. This is the point in the game when it should display the 3D graphics, so I figure it might be a video driver issue.

I have an ATI Radeon 9600 video card which seems to work just fine, and has been for as long as I've had it installed. Now, I download the latest ATI video drivers, created a Windows XP System Restore point, install the drivers, and re-boot Windows XP. All of this I have tried before with different display driver versions, and the end result is always the same. The Windows XP system device manager lists the display drivers, and indicates that they are working correctly, however the Windows XP display properties indicates that I have a "standard monitor on ", with nothing following the word "on". The ATI display drivers control pannel attempts to start with Windows, but aborts indicating that the display driver is not installed, or not functioning. Also, I suddenly can not obtain an IP address via my network adaptor!? It is at this point where the only immediate soltion seems to be to restore Windows XP to the previously created restore point.

Now I've tried this MANY times before with different driver versions, and I've e-mailed ATI's tech support and got nothing but a bunch of automated replies or 'canned' responces. I've done all the diagnostics I can think of on my system from a virus scan, to an adware scan, to Windows Updates, to a scandisk with surface analysis, and even a registry scan using Norton System Works 2003. I can't seem to find out why the display drivers act this way.

If anyone has any insight into this problem, or links to additional information, I'd greatly appreciate it.

- James.

 

[linney]

I'm not too sure of your exact state of play because of the intervention of System Restore that you mention. Are you back to the drivers that were present when your Max Payne 2 crashed originally?

I am surprised that the crash and reboot of Max Payne 2 failed to leave any report in the Event Viewer (System). I think you should find this recorded as an Information line mentioning a Save Dump event which when clicked-on will report a "recovered from a bugcheck" where the given numbers of the bugcheck equal the Stop Error that has caused your problem. You can search for Save Dump events by using the Filter procedure under the View menu of the Event Viewer (System).


Have you updated your DirectX and have you checked what the DXdiag tool might show.

DirectX: Description of the DirectX Diagnostic Tool

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;190900&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

 

[J741]

Yes, I'm back to my earlier drivers, thanks to system restore. For some reason, one of the things that happens when I install newer video drivers is that I loose my internet connection!? so I have no other option but to use system restore to go back to the earlier drivers and system state.

Yes, I have DirectX 9.0b. The DXDIAG report created after the installation of the newer display drivers reports the following:

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
Display Tab 1: The system is using the generic video driver. Please install video driver provided by the hardware manufacturer. Direct3D functionality not available. You should verify that the driver is a final version from the hardware manufacturer.
Sound Tab 1: The file cmuda.sys is not digitally signed, which means that it has not been tested by Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). You may be able to get a WHQL logo'd driver from the hardware manufacturer.
Music Tab: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Network Tab: No problems found.

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name:
Manufacturer:
Chip type:
DAC type:
Device Key: Enum Display Memory: n/a
Current Mode: 800 x 600 (32 bit) (1Hz)
Monitor:
Monitor Max Res:
Driver Name: vga.dll
Driver Version: 5.01.2600.0000 (English)
DDI Version: unknown
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 3/31/2003 06:00:00, 9344 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: vga.sys
Mini VDD Date: 3/31/2003 06:00:00, 19712 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B70EE0-4340-11CF-B063-282AAEC2C835}
Vendor ID: 0x0000
Device ID: 0x0000
SubSys ID: 0x00000000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Not Available
D3D Status: Not Available
AGP Status: Not Available
DDraw Test Result: Not run
D3D7 Test Result: Not run
D3D8 Test Result: Not run
D3D9 Test Result: Not run


It seems obvious to me that the display driver is not installing correctly, but I don't know why. I have tried every ATI display driver from the Catalyst 3.8 through Catalyst 4.6 driver suite. The only one that seems to install correctly on my PC is the original one which shipped with the Radeon 9600 Pro video card (version 6.14.1.6307 dated 28/02/2003).

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

 

[J741]

** PROBLEM SOLVED ** almost

It seems that my ATI video card is not an ATI video card after all, but a GeCube video card using the ATI Radon 9600 video GPU. This information was not diplayed ANYWHERE on the retail box, manuals, CDs, or even on the video card itself. I only found it by doing a google search for the model number I found on a sticker on the video card.

Anyways, it seems there was a video card BIOS update available. Now that the video BIOS update is installed, the ATI Catalyst 4.6 driver suite installed and functioned without any immediate problem.

Now the game MaxPayne 2 does not re-boot my computer, instead it simply locks-up with a blank blue screen displayed. At least it's an improvement, just not a useful one.

- James.

 

[linney]

Check with the manufacturer of Max Payne 2 and see if there are any updates or patches available.