Ati2dvag problem
If you ever experienced your computer freezing/crashing without warning all of a sudden, with a blue screen on your monitor saying your computer was “caught in an infinite loop”, plus there is a mention of the word - “ati2dvag”, it means your computer has caught the ati2dvag bug. This bug seems to affect ATI video cards.
I was having this problem on and off since last year, but it got really bad a few days ago. If you have not yet experienced this problem, then keep your fingers crossed and consider yourself fortunate, because this is a REALLY annoying problem that does not have a sure solution or cure, and can give you enough fits to trash your old faithful PC.
The usual symptoms of the ati2dvag problem are:
- PC crashes without warning, sometimes the display shows weird patterns before the crash.
- Resolution may revert to the lowest resolution settings upon restarting your PC.
- The CPU temperature may shoot up prior to crashing.
- PC may not be able to reboot back after the crash, unless you turn off the power supply unit of your PC and switch it back on again.
- Your PC tells you (sometimes only) that the ati2dvag driver has failed to function.
This is a universal problem afflicting thousands of PCs worldwide and can occur in totally new or old computers; it doesn’t discriminate. Imagine the frustration of buying a new PC only to have it crash on you after a few weeks and thereafter.
There have been many hypothesis’ postulated. Some say it is a very stealthy virus, some say it is an incompatibility with Windows XP SP2 and ATI, some say it is a problem with the hardware acceleration settings in the ATI graphic card, others say it is a problem within Windows XP itself…etc.
The 2 most common “solutions” are:
- Reinstall the ATI driver. You are advised to launch Windows in Safe Mode (press F8 before Windows boots), go to Windows Add/Remove programs and uninstall everything ATI. Remove the DAO/MDAC component as well. You can use the ATI removal tool utility which can be downloaded from the ATI website. The complete set of instructions on removing ATI can be found here on the ATI website.
- Go to System Devices in My Computer > Properties > Hardware, and locate the option, PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge. This could under other names on your PC, so contact your PC vendor if you’re unsure. Right click, and select the “update driver” option. Manually search and install the PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge.
ATI and Microsoft have never issued public statements regarding this ati2dvag issue up till this day. There is no definitive prevention or cure of this problem also. What works for some may not work for others….I’ve reinstalled the drivers and now it only crashes while I’m playing some graphics intensive game.
If you think this is a trivial problem, look at a forum thread on this problem which has been running for 3 years with no “real” fix to date. It’s about time ATI and Microsoft consider this problem serious enough to warrant a concerted investigation into why this problem happens, and come out with the best possible fix.
Edit: I’ve published a newer page on the matter following up with a very long comment made by an ATI user here.
Popularity: 100% [?]
[...] for example the ati2dvag problem I’ve been suffering from for more than a year now. Pretty good enough reason to change to [...]
I figured this problem out. When you’re system gets too hot, the ati chipset crashes. The solution is to clean you’re cooler. I cleand it out with compressed air, and it solved the problem.
High temperature is amongst the leading causes of the ATI driver crashing, but in my case, opening up the side panel only kept the problem at bay for about 5-6 months.
If you don’t see the problem coming back in a few months time, then congrats
But all the same, to be on the safe side, better upgrade your driver if you’re updating your windows all along.
I had the same problem on a Toshiba A60 Laptop. I have tried all the suggestions given but none seemed to work. I contacted Toshiba who basically said it was a microsoft issue, I contacted Microsoft who said it was a Toshiba issue??? Well after long hours of trying different things my soloution was this.
1. Update mainboard Bios
2. Download drivers (unzip but do not install)
3. Goto Device Manager/Hardware/VGA
4. Update driver
5. Don’t let windows search, use advanced choose your own driver
6. Browse to where you unzipped your downloaded driver
7. Choose the ATI driver that matches your chipset
8. Restart
This worked for me. No loops or crashes so far.
Hi Nick,
Do you notice that quite a number of Toshiba machines are having this problem? Not only Toshiba, but also AMDs (the 64 bit)…
Maybe something in Toshiba machines (especially laptops) are not optimized for Windows and ATI to run together in harmony.
But good for you to lick the problem, *fingers crossed so far.*
Thanks for sharing.
i’ve been experiencing this problem since i got this WinXP.
I’m not computer literate so please help me.
Thanks a lot!
Hi Raffy,
WinXP is just the short name for Windows XP.
When did you get Windows XP? Is your PC old or new? Old computers can mess up with Windows XP, especially if your hardware is also old.
We’ve got a Sony Vaio here (WinXP, ATI mobility radeon 9700) with the same ati2dvag blue screen problem. It all started this spring and the crashes became more and more frequent. On some forums they blame SP2 for the problems, but this wouldn’t explain all symptoms.
I’ve now installed the latest Omega drivers and the PCI-to-PCI bridge system driver… at first it seemed to work! but then, immediately after login, the system crashed with another blue screene. This time it didn’t blaim ati2dvag, however.
Should I find a solution, I’ll let you know…
After the one blue screen it seems that all drivers have “sattled down” and Vaio then run through the whole night, without any crash! Here is a modified version, which should cause no crashes inbetween:
1. deinstall all ATI things (reboot)
2. install Omega drivers (reboot in safe mode)
3. install PCI-to_PCI-bridge (reboot)
Good luck!
Thanks to all, who shared their experiences and knowledge. Without it I would already throw away that Vaio.
Danijel, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you
You might want to install a system checker tool and monitor the temperature for a few months. I found one good one called SIW.
I had this ATI2DVAG issue and following the instructions of removing the video driver and re-installing the driver from Dell helped. Now working just fine. Thanks.
I also recommend running a spyware scan and a virus scan after removing it and reinstalling.
Ok u had this error thingy for a long time now. i only had the blue screen pop up a few times and that was last year, but wat does happen is then i play a game or duel exe a game and im playing both exe for about a hour or more i can tell my PC starts to run vary vary hot. When i try to close one of the exes my PC just crashes no blue screen or anything. Just today when i logged off my game i ran to my car and when i got back the blue screen came up so i write down this file name and Google it. In the blue screen i dont remember it saying anything about running in a loop or anything and this was the first time i got this error in about a year but the PC has all ways been crashing. Im going to try the steps u guys have posted and i hope they will fix this bug im having i really dont want to throw this PC away we been thro a lot :
I’ve had my IBM T40 Thinkpad since about 4 years with WindowsXP. Never had a problem, about 6 weeks ago my wife has installed some new cheap USB hardware and drivers. Since about 2 weeks the laptop is giving me the ATI2DVAG.
I’m not sure if it is a driver incompatibility or the over heating (possibly due to 4 years of dust collection). The funny think is that the bug comes up preferably when I have the laptop on my lap. Recently I worked for hours on the cold glas of the kitchen table and the bug did not show up.
Hi Steven,
When I was having the Ati2dvag problem, one of the things I found out, was removing the side panes of my PC casing improved matters, probably because my AMD 64 was too hot. After that, I could play graphic intensive games without interruption. I thought I had nicked the problem. But this state of affairs only lasted about 5 months, LOL. AMD have improved their processors a lot since then, and I’m still on AMD rather than Intel. In your case, it looks like driver incompatibility with the overall system, but I would “turn over each stone” just to be sure.
I have this bloody problem more then a year. First it was just from time to time when i want to start my computer. But today, it happen 14 times. Everytime I want to opes some folder my copmuter’s freezing and then crashed with well known blue screen and ati2dvag “explanation”. But second before crash i hear the procesor in hyperwork.
I done everything i can so i don’t know what to do. I’m desperate, coz my job is depending of computer. Believe me if i don’t fix this problem i will say goodbye to microsoft and start to use apples.
Hi,
Is this problem related to the graphics card and not windows? Becuase I am having the problem on my other computer and ever time a boot it up it gets stuck with a black screen and then just blue screens saying and error has ecoured “atidvag” I called dell support and tried to reinstall the drivers also updating them many times but ever time it just BSODs on me. And I kind of need help. Shoule I buy a new graphics card? Maybe like nivida? I dont know. If anyone could please reply that would be helpful. I am in troulble if i dont get it fixed. Yeah I am confused….
Thank You!
Kyle, for me, I’m now running Nvidia, and so far nothing bad is happening. But Nvidia also has its share of problems. So far as we know, the ati2dvag problem is/could be -> related to any one of these - graphics card/power supply/dust/Windows configuration/CPU temperature/viruses…
Did the Dell guys help? All the techs I sent my PC to, were stumped. I personally believe for my case it’s Windows and graphic card incompatibility. Some updates in Windows may slowly throw your system configuration off balance.
Another one is power supply, if your power supply is failing, it can lead to the ati2dvag. Make sure your fans and temperature are running at optimum speed.
I had the same problem with my sony s360 (w/ ATI 9700 series) laptop. It had all the symptoms as listed here and it kept crashed on me every 20-30 mins or so. I tried to update all the drivers like you guys suggested. However, that didn’t solve the problem. So I opened up my laptop and found the fan was really dirty, covered with a thick layer of dust. I cleaned it up and now it works fine. You guys should try that too. Worth a try, I guess.
updated mine (Radeon Mobility 9700) to an omega driver (www.omegadrivers.net) - now works absolutely fine.
Guys I had the same problem… Except I couldn’t even get to my desktop because the screen was so messed up. I actually took my video card out and found a huge layer of dust buildup where my air intake of the fan is… (radeon 850xt).. I suggest pulling your card out and cleaning it well before doing any of these tideous tasks… this problem was obviously related to a heat problem. The dust buildup was causing the card to reach a higher heat and the card would shutdown the computer to prevent damage. Wow I almost was gonna reinstall XP.
Well guys, I think the top two “cures” [so far] would have to be cleaning the dust off, and updating/replacing the graphics card/driver.
Had the graphics card installed a couple of days ago. Thought it worked fine, expect for when i played certain games. I tried the cleaning and reinstalling methods, but surely enough they didn’t help much. The problem most likely is the card itself. Personally I don’t recommend installing an ATI graphics card for game-playing as it doesn’t support a very wide range of games.
It would work fine when i played Portal (it even states it is best played with ATI :)) but when attempting to play other games such as World of Warcraft or Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, it would either rip the screen images frequently or freeze and crash… eventually showing me to the blue error screen.
On my driver crashed when tried to switching to external monitor. This problem occurred after upgrading the BIOS of computer’s motherboard. I tried to update the ATI driver, searched after Radeon Xpress 200M series and found, but it didn’t install, it said that setup not found drivers matching with my hardware… Now I’m angry!
Those solution didn’t work for me, at all!
My specs:
Gigabyte main/motherboard - can’t remember the version.
1GB DDR2 RAM
250GB Seagate HDD
Club 3D ATi Radeon HD 2400 Pro AGP
Can it be, because of my graphics card is AGP?
I reinstalled Windows and everything was fine, no more BSOD… Until I installed Everest Ultimate. Now I removed this program and let’s see if this was cause.
Just blow the dust off of the card. Worked for me.
LOL, if only it is that simple 90% of the time
When I get the blue screen, it says ‘Beginning dump of physical memory’ or something like that. I have left the computer on for quite a while, but it does not complete. I have to just hold down the power button until it restarts. How long should this take considering I have Dual Core 2 2.2 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM. I don’t think the processing speed makes a difference or not so I included it anyway.
As stated above, there is no method that will work for all machines. Some can probably never be fixed.
This may reduce the frequency of the problem if nothing else works:
- If you are using a laptop which allows you to adjust the processor speed and fan cooling power, turn the processor speed right down (normally around 1/2 - 1/4 of the full speed of the chip), and turn the fan power to maximum, and save these settings as the default power regime.
- Place a vacuum cleaner hose over the fan’s output system and vacuum for around 5 minutes. Next, spray some air duster into the fan’s input system, while still vacuuming the output vent.
- Use blue tack or similar to attach a small stack of coins to the rubber feet of the laptop. This will raise it around 0.5 cm and allow the air to flow more freely.
I have taken all of these steps and reduced the crashes from around 30 to 2 or 3 times a day.
Joe, those are pretty innovative tips. I’ve honestly never heard of these before.
Had to take a drastic step on a friend’s laptop with the same problem. It would literally crash constantly and could never stay stable for more than 30 seconds. Overheating wasn’t an issue as the laptop never got hot and doing my tricks (above) didn’t help. I simply uninstalled the graphics drivers - and let windows xp handle the graphics. The laptop now can’t play video full screen, but it can play DVDs in a small window perfectly - since doing this it hasn’t crashes a single time and you can always put the drivers back on if you have to.
I am also getting this error, I have a Dell Latitude C640, running windows XP, Pentium 4 processor, and ATI Radeon Mobility 7500. altho unlike anyone else I have read, mine only gets this error when I am changing displays or screen resolution. (and not always at that) I am going to take this laptop apart and clean the dust out. I doubt this will change anything for me, since I just had the motherboard replaced 2 months ago, and have been keeping the temperature on it less than 120F. I believe it is a driver issue, only problem is I have the newest driver that I am aware of.
hello, just last night I was bitten by this ati2vag bug. tried 2 run in safe mode and deleted all ati2dvag i cud search. when i restarted and got to desktop features, there was sumthing funny bout the resolution and it always drags. I’ll try on cleaning the fan later after work and try to remove and then re-install the ATI on my computer. Need to try all options. tnx for the tips here.
Back..
I tried these solutions:
Reinstall drivers - nothing
ridicilous… 
install omega drivers - nothing
tried to disable in BIOS videocard - nothing
Tried catch errors with HijackThis, registryboot, lot of antiwirus programs, SDFix, - nothing nothing nothing
Tried
1. deinstall all ATI things (reboot)
2. install Omega drivers (reboot in safe mode)
3. install PCI-to_PCI-bridge (reboot)
Good luck!
Nothing
wtf wrong with ATI =/ they can die with this problem, and in market will be only nVidia … monopoly = bad
I have the same problem alig, and once I get another 100 dollars I dont even care if the ati card wasnt the problem im throwing this pos card in the trash so I never have to deal with random ati shit.
Ati cards may be a bit more vulnerable than we thought. But that is usually the last thing any company would do - admit a problem. It’ll be nice if we could have some stats to prove this, but I don’t think there will be any.
An interesting bit of info. IBM T40 had this problem intermittently till my wireless quit working. Didn’t have this problem while my wireless was broke. Had the wireless issue repaired, (not hardware) which involved reloading all the software for the wireless feature on the T40. Now this loop issue has returned. Trying the PCI Bridge driver update prescribed in various forums. We shall see.
ati2dvag problems
installed an ATI 2600 HD pro for watching videos and playing doom3, everthing worked fine for a few mounths and then this crash happens during any video playback or 3d rendering (.avi files, doom3 , youtube).
no amount of reinstalling (operating systems , and drivers) fixes this problem.
Are these products not stable ?. how can hardware malfunction after a complete software wipe ? , it would seam that the hardware has the problem.
i second the comment here that the next card i buy will not be from ATI , that makes me sad !
considering i used a “voodoo 3″ for the best part of 8 years with no problems, and an ATI 2600 HD pro for a matter of a few mounths . i now am wishing i had my voodoo 3 back.
however i think we must realise that when running a windows operating system , your going to be shafted no matter what hardware your running.
it amazes me that this kind of thing still happens , and people are still handing over the money.
I had the same issue for months I went emailed ATI twice in a week and it’s been 2 weeks I never heard back so I uninstalled the ati and hydrovision drivers took my ati x1650 pro out and threw it away and bought a Nvidia 8600 1gb gt. how much I have missed Nvidia my graphics are much faster and the update is so dang easier to follow. only reason i had a radeon was for that game America’s Army, with it you could see a bit farther and bit more through the fog. I would never suggest ati again and I was warned before I even bought it last year. I should have followed my fellow gamers advice.
I’m getting this, too, and am no where as adept at answers as you folks. I appreciated the suggestions a great deal — and am simply glad I’m under warrantee! “Dusting” it out has helped so far, though I’m sure it’s not the only answer! I don’t know what it is, but I did have one quick comment: after 5 months, dust will have accumulated all over again. Vacuumming out the dust is not a one-time solution any more than cleaning your dishes, right? So, if it started back up again after almost half a year… wouldn’t that really make sense? That’s why you have to dust your house more than once a year, too, or it builds up everywhere else. (I’m not suggesting that I think this is the only reason this error happens — I’m not that smart!!)
I’ve gotten the ati2dvag error once in a while when I play a game called “jewels of cleopatra”. But a couple of days ago it started showing up almost constantly. Once I didn’t even get the game loaded before it showed up again. Other times I could load up a level and within 5 or so minutes, it would crash.
Luckily, I remembered my most recent change that I made. I was trying to load an online casino game and it kept defaulting to 60hz refresh rate - too flickery for me. So I went to the catalyst CC and forced the refresh rate to 85hz. It was after that change when I really started getting crashes in “jewels of cleopatra”.
Realizing that the 85hz change may be causing problems, I lowered it to 75hz and it worked better…but…still got the crashes…just not as often.
But to me it seemed it has something to do with the refresh rate so my next attempt was to change the “wait for vertical refresh” option in the catalyst CC. I had it set to “performance - always OFF” and have changed it now to “quality - always ON” - and am happy to say that after a couple days of intense testing, I haven’t had any ati2dvag crashes.
Funny thing is, I can run FSX for hours without a problem, but a simple match 3 game like “jewels of cleopatra” causes a crash. Though the difference there is the FPS rate. On FSX, the FPS on my computer is locked at 35fps. But “jewels” might be going much much higher 100+ and that’s where the “wait for vertical refresh set to quality always on” option may be helping out.
By the way, I am running XP pro SP2 and HD 2600 XT.
It start happens to me =S, I build a PC JUST FOR PLAYING GAMES!!! …. and what I found is, I cannot play games, for god sake, what the hell is going on, what with this bug >=’(. Happens with EVERY game I play, it doesn’t matter if is 3D or 2D or if consume to much resources, happens while playing, Doom 3, Ragnarok Online, Any of the “Orange Box”, Never Winter Nights, EVEN POPCAP games, come ON, POPCAP GAMES?!! …. =( I don’t know what happens, the only thing I know is, ATI and MSI get me enough problems the never get any product from that franchise anymore
Oh I forgot, My OS Windows XP SP2.
Dx version: DirectX 9.0c
Graphic Manufacturer: Diamond MM.
Product: Radeon, Serie: HD 2600 PRO 512 DDR2 128-bit
I did not have time to read through this whole thread due to time constraints. So, I am sorry if I am repeating someone elses solution. From my experience the BSOD has a tendancy of blaming drivers and software for a completely unrelated problem. From my findings it gives you that specific file only because that was the last thing it was trying to access when it crashed. It took a lot of research for me to find a possible solution to the problem. From scrolling through I see that many of the people with problems have one of the newer HD type of ATI cards.
The thing about these cards is that they suck up a ton of juice. More than any others on the market from what I understand. I thought because I had a 650 watt PSU that there was no way it was my power supply. However, I never thought about how much power was being supplied to each component. I have a ATI RADEON 3870 HD 512. I kept getting the same error on a brand new system I built. I even replaced my motherboard trying to correct the error. One main thing that many people do not look at is AMPERAGE. Most or all of the HD line of ATI cards require at least 26-30 amps running down the 12V Rail. Most PSU’s only push around 18 amps down a 12v rail. If you have a video card with TWO 6/8 pin connects and you have them both plugged in then you have 18amps X2 which is fine. With mine I only have one 6 pin input. So I find that I only had 18 running to mine. I replaced my 650w with a corsair 550w. The difference is that it has only one rail that distributes power to what needs it effectively. The corsair PSU I got has 41 amps running down the 12V rail. Problem solved. With that power supply I am running a Q6600 Pentium Quad core, 4gig dual channel hyperx kingston 6400 DDR2, ATI Radeon 3870 HD 512, 2 DVD Writer, 1 SATA HD, and old faithful Sound Blaster Audigy 2. I got it from newegg and read people running much more than myself including dual SLI or Crossfire with this PSU.
At newegg:
PSU CORSAIR|CMPSU-550VX 550W RT
Thanks Sysmai, for your input. My old power supply was only 300W, but my system back then was no where near yours. I’m now running 450W, on a newer AMD system, and fingers crossed, no problem so far.
FireGL V7200. Formatted drive and re-installed windows. Started loading drivers and as soon as I got to the ATI drivers - blue screen. I couldn’t go more than 5 minutes without a blue screen. Now I’ve been installing software for 3 hours with no problem. My secret: An 8″ personal fan. I took the case off and pointed the fan right at the video card (which has a huge heat sync and a fan of its own).
According to one of the engineers in my office, when the card gets too hot it draws too much power from the PS and that’s what causes the BSOD. That goes right along with what Sysmai says.
The fan is too loud, so it’s not a solution. Instead of juicing up the PS, I think I’ll pitch this card and buy an NVIDIA.
I was having the problem with a refurbished Dell, and when I called tech support I was told that 25 previous calls had been made with respect to my computer for the same problem - obviously the original owner had the exact same issue and the dolts at Dell never really addressed the problem. After being told my issue was being sent “to the highest level” I didn’t hear back from anyone for almost a week, and after trying a few fixes suggested by lower level personnel and having to do a system restore, I basically gave up and just installed a new non-ATI video card. I know I could have gotten my money back or a new card out of Dell, but the time it takes dealing with the folks in India, and the complete aggrevation of it all just is not worth my time. Plus I got a reasonably good deal on a comparable video card. So far everything is running smooth.
Hi Jim,
Accidentally deleted your comment, but I’ve reinstated it. Thanks for reminding me about a potential problem with refurbished models. One of the hazards of buying “second hand.”
people that suggest to pass to a non ati video card are right…and im no nvidia fun or something, like that…
the dam cards are consuming too much power when hot and start going loony…im not changing my 600psu for the ati9600pro… and i already tried everything that is written in this thread. im going to buy a new card…hmm better ill by a new computer with an nvidia card.
Unbelievable, but since I uninstalled the program “Everest Ultimate” (2 days ago), as Hannes said, the problem solved!!! Hope to stay solved
I ‘m afraid the problem came back, so it did’t had to do with “Everest”. I think it has to do with the voltages…
I noticed that i get this error when something screwy happens with my network card. The other day, I unplugged my network cable and the re-plugged it back in. WHen I did that, I got the BSOD with the ATI… Error. I can reproduce this every time too.
Sysmai, I also have a Corsair PSU (TX650W): 52A@12v. Still have the BSOD. It’s also not a temperature problem (GPU min:52, GPU max:72, CPU and HDDs well under control).
Worse thing is, to ATI there doesn’t even seem to be an issue… they just ignore it. You need only to google it to see the extension of the problem.
Stay away from ATI, let them know through your wallet how you feel about it. I know I will.
I was playing cod4 and then in a midlle of a match bam bluescreen , restart like 5 times (1 cu vioce went down) played second map, wait like 15 min went playing cod 2 bam… and then i let it restart bay it’self and there it was ati2dvag error, tried allsort’s of driver’s no gud…
cleaned graphic put extra vent on it temp seem’s fine donno what to do
PCI-to_PCI-bridge what is this ?
Hey I did a DXDIAG and noticed under the Display 1 section the Main Driver seems to be ati2dvag.dll. I don’t know if that’s already been pointed out cuz I don’t want to read the whole page, but it seems to me that the error is in the video drivers for sure.
Sorry if I only pointed out the obvious. This is my first time investigating this error for my computer.
Just thought I would point out as an afterthought, the solution of deleting your video drivers and reinstalling them might be a reasonable solution. I have the latest drivers from ATI so I bet installing the OMEGA drivers right off the bat might help things.
Maybe the problem is in one of the files that were changed for the OMEGA versions that is still in ATI’s, carried on from older versions? I dunno, someone smart will figure it out I’m sure lol
I purchased an acer travelmate 7720G and after about a week it kept crashing with the above fault. After a lot of searching on the net for a solution as acer/microsoft and ATI dont have a clue, i ended up uninstalling all the ATI drivers and CCC in the add/remove programs of control panel and installed an alternative driver combination from omega.
link is
http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati.php
Just follow the directions and install, since then I have had no problems whatsoever.
Best solution probably is not to buy a laptop with an ATI video card.
Hope this helps someone else
regards Robo
I have the same problem. All was (almost) fine until i bought new hd3870 and put them in cf… Im becoming a noob cause my pc doesnt work…..:(
my laptop is asus z99Sseries
ati radeon HD 2400
have 250GB HD
2GB RAM
firstly my laptop is windows vista (don’t know if it original or not). then i have format to windows xp pro(not original).
and this ati2dvag problem occured when i have format to windows xp pro.
it is caused by that windows xp?
now,what should i do?
grrrr I have the same issue. It takes about 4 goes to get my laptop to even bring up any screen. I hear something but the screen is black.
My toshibia laptop gets so hot that it actually makes my room heat up, i bought a cooler but its not so helpful.
now back to the screen, when it does start working its ok for 5 to 10 minutes then I get lines, then the screen gradually goes lighter , the darker up nothing, then after about 5 minutes I get blue screen the a message about ati2dvag blah blab loop blah blah…
I am totally hopeless when it comes to anything tech…
I wonder if there is any correlation to how people handle their hardware and the presence of the error. Have you guys ever put your laptop on a surface that stops airflow? Like your lap for long periods or your bed?
I fixed the ATI2DVAG (infinite loop) failure I was experience on my desktop. I started having the problem three months ago, and noticed that my computer was a lot hotter than usual. I recently moved from Va, to a new apartment in San Diego that gets pretty hot during the day, and the air flow here is pretty bad. I thought the problem was caused by my graphics card (ATI X1900XTX), because it would get really hot; so I bought a new graphics card (ATI HD3650). I thought I fixed the problem but the following day I received the errors all over again (of note; the HD3650 ran 10 degrees cooler than my ATI X1900XTX). I decided to take apart my computer, and take my motherboard to the local computer store. According to the technician that was assisting me, my CPU was getting way too hot, because a slight burn mark was appearing on the core. I had a P4 3.0GHZ core that I bought in 2006. I bought an intel Core 2 Duo 2.5GHZ core, but it wasn’t compatible with my motherboard. After replacing my motherboard with a new ASUS P5Q Deluxe, and the combination of my new CPU, I’m no longer having the ATI2DVAG problem. From my experience, it wasn’t the graphics card that was causing the problem, but my CPU getting way too hot. I’d replace the CPU (or at least make sure it still functions properly) before I do anything else. Hope this helps. Cheers.
Yeah, heat is always a problem. During my system crashes, the temperature would always be through the roof…
I have not noticed any heat problems at time of seize up.
The one program that consistently is on when ever there is a problem and being used is Google earth. A series of horizontal lines then appear across the open window.
yes this was caused by overheating. laptop users remove keypad, get a powerful vacuum cleaner and clean around all fans and heat sink for a couple of minutes and also around the vents. Do this well and should be better. Also found usb laptop coolers dont work!
This error came up yesterday for me. I like all the fixes,etc. I’ve opened my box for air, dusted, vacuumed, etc. When I get to safe mode it is in another language. I don’t know if I could put anything new in the machine to start with. Has anyone seen this:
‘gefap RGE BAGS PDUS Versagf 1&10 A06
Cgpqrag’t 1105%1100 P’gefap Tec’fgdggaes Dtd&
And it goes on from there. Any ideas? Does this mean my machine just burned out?
I have had the same problem, i even re-formatted my hard drive as ik thought i had a virus, can not seem to rid myself of this, will buy a mac i think!!1.. less problems apparentely..
I had the same problem. My is a Acer Extensa 4420 using ATI Radeon 1205. I downloaded the official driver from Acer Europe and my computer started to crash intermittently. I went to ATI and downloaded their generic most current one for all drive update program. When I ran it, it refuse to update and stopped. Apparently, there is an agreement between AMD and ATI about updating each other’s driver despite being the same hardware. I just went into the directory (luckily it was on C:\) and updated the driver from their via control panel hardware. It now uses a 1200 series driver and I have not had a crash since then!!!!
I have Ati Radeon HD 3850 agp,
My system is:
AMD Athlon 5600+ X2
AsRock AM2NF3 VSTA
4 GB ddr2
hdd 200 gb.
power supply 650w.
Everything worked perfectly and boom. When i turn comp. some weird patterns, windows cant start normal. when it does blue screen ati2dvag problem, i can turn only windows when i enable vga mode, 640×480 res. 4(bits) low.
I tryed everything but no help. Should i change card or… ihave still waranty. tnx
@Marko,
You might want to check your power supply. Inadequate power supply is one of the reasons behind the ati2dvag problem. Your system is quite impressive - therefore consumes lots of power. Is your power supply a pure power supply type and how long has it been running? Hint: A good quality power supply unit is usually quite heavy. Mine is. Cheap power supply brands won’t last very long on a high spec system.
Just an idea.
If anyone is using an ATI AGP card, make sure there is no PCI cards on the same bus. This caused me no end of problems over the past 4 days (and 2 different motherboards had the very same issue).
try removing all cards from the PCI slots and run windows for a while and see if it behaves differently.
But for the ati2dvag problem, i just got that while playing flight sim X.
Graphics were quite high and it crashed except windows this time told me that the ati2dvag driver has stopped responding (and reset my display to 8bit 640×480)
Tnx guys, i have this comp. for 3 weeks and my pw. supply is ocz stealhXstream…ill try another. thank u very much
Damn..no help. but my comp. is not hot CPU: 39-46 °C GPU:45-51 °C
Another thing.
Have been getting the ati2dvag crashes myself and noticed a couple of things while messing around with some settings and come up with a possible workaround that i have tested today (very hot day too)
if you have a dual core system, set the affinity of the application to one core instead of two.
This worked for flight sim very well as it is a notorious crasher.
I found i was getting more crashes while the case was open (no moving air around the inside of the pc can cause it to heat up from stagnant unmoving air)
So i closed the case with case fan oriented to suck air in. The gpu did not get over 62 deg (C).
Dear all,
I have bought a new sapphire HD4670 512MB DDR4 display card three weeks ago. But now, when I try to play any 3D games within 5 mins, the display shows weird patterns and then a dialog appears which shows “ati2dvag stops normal operatons”.
http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr351/on5537/test/testsetdg.jpg
I have tried to re-install the newest driver and the problem does not solve. Afterward, I take the display card back to sapphire for checking, they said that it works well and no problem during the tests.
Would you please please help me to identify what problem it should be…
Thank you for your help!
Ati2dvag problem again.
I’ve had this crash every time I’ve run my new computer since I built it 2 days ago. The longest time before crashes has been an hour or so.
It’s not old drivers because this is a brand new, clean hard drive (Seagate Barracuda 500gb SATA)
It’s not dust because the ATI Radeon HD4830 and all the other components are brand new.
Motherboard (MSI P43 Neo-F iP43) supports PCIe 2.0
The powersupply (460W) should be more than sufficient to run one hard drive, one HD4830, and one DVD drive. (I based this on other builds that I know work).
The case is a Coolermaster Elite 300, with very high airflow, and plenty of fans. My cpu runs very cool (18-22C). Doesn’t seem to be a heat issue.
I tried updating the ATI drivers. It just made the crash happen even quicker (within seconds of windows starting). I tried the PCI-to-PCI bridge thing, but it made no difference.
I don’t think it’s a virus because the computer just has WinXP (SP2) and the drivers installed, two games, and Office. It’s not connected to the internet.
Now I’m reinstalling windows to see if this helps, but I’m not optimistic.
This is an ATI/Microsoft issue.
If I can’t get this card to work, it’s going back.
@ Alan,
Your problem sounds like deja vu to me, if you’ve tried everything, and your system is new, than send it back. My problem also happened with my new PC. ATI and XP may have a conflict causing this, although like I said, nobody’s addressing it.
I have had this same ATI2DVAG problem, I thought it was only when I played WoW but now it happens a lot more often
I have had the same ATI2DVAG problem also. I tried everything in the previous responses except for extra cooling fans, nothing worked. I just gave up for time being and installed my old Nvidia card(downgraded but stopped crashing) from ATI Radeon 9200se to Nvidia GX100/200 32MB. ATI support keeps telling me to do the most common solution which is even found here. I have a desktop MSI motherboard 1G RAM, and I always make sure the dust is to down to a minimum, defragged, and diskcleanup, specially virus free.
I was just playing rainbow six vegas 2 today and i got the same thing, i was like ok let me just restart that usually fixes it?
started up the game again 20 seconds into the game and BAM. Again.
its been ok the past few weeks (ive only had it a few weeks)
(HD2600PRO)
i will try reinstalling drivers
i was hesitant on ATI cause i had a NVIDIA 6600 and i never had ANY problems with the NVIDA card whatsoever but the fan on it gave out(after about 4 years of heavy use and about 5 moves(overseas aswell)
hopefully i wont have to send this back.
if i do, for sure im getting a NVIDIA
Same problem here… computer is only few months old. I changed graphics card and the broblem started on the same day and I havent have found any cure to it yet.
Graphics card is HD4850
DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Motherboard: Intel Dragontail Peak DP35DP
XP PRO SP3
DX 9c
2×2 GB DDR2-800
I think this is last Ati card I bought !
Hi, there! I’m experiencing the same problem about 3 months or so. The funny thing is that it began to happen just after when i moved from one city to other
So, the Q is: “Is it the voltage problem or not?”. My system is quite simple:
If I uncheck the VPU recovery option in CCC, the result is BSOD where ati2dvag is mentioned. And this happens several times daily, which is pretty annoying. And the strange thing is that it NEVER happens when I play games! 
CPU: Sempron 3200+ s.AM2
MB: AsRock ALiveNF6G-VSTA
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 2600Pro Core 700/Mem 1400, 256 mb GDDR3
HDD: 1×80 GB Excelstor/ 1×160 GB Hitachi (both SATA2)
RAM: 2×1 GB A-data DDR2-800
CASE&PSU: noname but i swear the PSU is good, with 120mm fan, ATX, 430W
CD/DVD: Samsung DVD-RW, PATA
OS: Windows XP Pro SP3
No crossfires, no dual core CPU, or any other thing that could load very heavily the PSU.
I always keep my PC clean, so the dust couldn’t be the reason. I removed the video drivers, then restarted in safe mode and ran Driver Cleaner and swept all the remaining files/folders. Then installed the latest Catalyst 9.3 and CCC for Win XP.
And the final result was the same:
When I just browse the internet, or work with MSWord, or skype (not when i play games, even 3D, like FarCry2), the screen goes black, after that the VPU recovery util window appears and says that the driver stopped working and blah-blah…
Can anyone HELP ME?
I’m running a Radeon HD3870 and have the same problem. Mostly happens on Warhammer Online, where either the client crashes or the whole PC crashes (the usual ati2dvag.dll infinite loop BSOD). I tried the Omega drivers and i must say the number of crashes and BSOD’s have been reduced significantly but the problem is still there. The thing is that i’m not running it on an AMD and don’t know if that’s what causing the problem.
I thought of overheating too, but i’ve got an extra cooler on the gfx card and my case is open and i don’t have any readings out of the ordinary. I hope this matter finally gets the attention it deserves.
@ Sopaklos
AMD hasn’t got nothing to do with ati2dvag cos it happens to Intel too. BTW, I used to leave my PC case open too, and that helped for some time (some months). After that, the problem came back.
Attention ATI Attention MS… 2007 to 2009… I got this error just today 3/31/09… and still no offial statement from this two company…. just great..
Same problem troubles me for almost 3 months already both in XP and Vista. BSODs are completely random. Sometimes they didn’t appear fo 5+ hours, but sometimes the appear just after a few minutes of playing game. This error bothers me only while playing games. I’ve noticed, that this error doesn’t come while playing older games like Max Payne 2, Worms, NFS Underground 2, SWAT 4, Scarface.
My configuration:
AMD Sempron 2600+ @ 2GHZ
256 + 512 + 1000 = 1.76GB DDR400 RAM (run @ DDR364, because FSB/DRAM ratio is set to 1:1)
MSI HD 2600 Pro 256MB 128BIT DDR2 AGP
MSI K7N2 Delta L Motherboard
80GB + 120GB HDD
300W PSU (don’t know the brand, but I’m sure it’s decent, because voltages seem to be stable while idle or under load)
For those, who are interested - I changed my CPU from Sempron 3200+ to Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane core AND…… SH.T!!! THERE’S NO F….NG DIFFERENCE! The system acts like before - crashes often with the same VPU recovery message, or needs to be rebooted. Hey, ATI! Microsoft! Are you blind, deaf or what else??? How many posts have to be posted in order to repair this BIG problem for ATI users? When you will be interested in solving the problem? Maybe when all loyal to you users migrate to LINUX and NVIDIA?! You stupid money-grubbers!!!
Its the PSU.
The “pci to pci” did the trick for me on my xp rig.
It seams like the “ati2vag” only is a problem with xp, i havent had it in vista, so most likely ATI get monney from MS for every vista user having an ati component iside
I’ve had this BSOD for over 4 years now. I wished there was a lawsuit I could be a part of.
@ Chuck C,
Wow, 4 years is a long time….
i think, ati cards may be a bit more vulnerable than we thought. But that is usually the last thing any company would do - admit a problem. It’ll be nice if we could have some stats to prove this, but I don’t think there will be any
I wonder, what will happen if I fullformat c: drive and reinstall Windows XP Pro on that clear NTFS drive and the last DirectX and the last Catalyst drivers and so on? I have many programs installed and I’ll have to reinstall most of them in this case, so if anybody knows is this a cure for the problem, please tell me. Because it’ll be my last effort to solve the problem. And then I’ll change my videocard with NVIDIA based one
http://zxcongducxz.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/ati2dvagdll/
It’s Vietnamese But you’ll know what pictures say
@ Casondra,
Thanks for your input. That’s the longest comment I’ve ever seen to date.
my 5-yr-old vaio VGN-S260 laptop has this problem starting about 4 mos ago. it goes to large resolution 90% of the time and 10% of the time it goes to bluescreen. The one thing guaranteed to set it off is picking up the laptop and moving it. The unit always gets hot first and the fan always goes into overdrive before it crashes. The pc-pc bridge and new ati driver didn’t work. the on-off switch works only sporadically but that may be an independent problem. i’m going to try taking it apart and cleaning the dust off next.
Wow,I had same problem with the dreaded ati2dvag infinite loop BSOD. MB is Asrock A780gmh with integrated ATI HD3200 onboard.
I read through these posts and have literally tried everything.
Tried installing latest drivers from mb manufacturers website (dated fall 2008)…that didn’t work. Tried PCI bridge thing…didn’t work…etc, etc..etc
Finally, downloaded the latest southbridge driver for this board from ATI’s site (dated 5-15-2009) and installed. Problem solved!!! YAY!!!
Well BobA, It is very nice to see that the problem in your case is solved. But in my case - it will never be solved, bacause as I wrote above, my motherboard is AsRock ALiveNF6G-VSTA, which latest drivers (NVidia all in one driver package ver. 1111) are from 25.10.2007 and they are already installed on my PC.
SO, ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS ABOUT THIS STUPID THING?
I still think that ATI&M$oft are idiots
I got this problem for about a year now.. and have tryed everything, tryed all u guys have wrote u should do.. but it still crash..
Got a MSI Laptop..
think i gonna buy a new computer.. =/
# PC crashes without warning, sometimes the display shows weird patterns before the crash.
I was playing L4D and the game crushed causing pc to shutdown, because of the error in early ver of the game, so i got stubborn and re lunched the game and i got the same crush, after that i started to have weird patterns every time i start the windows and sometime it’s just black screen.
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE WEIRD PATTERNS IN THE SCREEN KNOW THAT:
your vga is Half dead, it become so hot and when it does it show you those weird patterns.
Some solutions:-
1- Low resolution will keep the Vga life longer.
2- Let your VGA rest by shuting down your pc for an 1hr or 30 min if you want.
3- use some cooling system to keep it alive
After the Vga get enough cooling you are good to go and play any game you want for a whole day.
well just want other to know my case in this stupid overheat.
I was installing a new operating system and half way through (after formatting) I got the blue screen and the dreaded display driver message ,for the first time.Now I’m stuck with no OS and a machine that won;t run long enough to install one.Reading the thread (ok…browsing )I get the impression all the solutions require a functioning OS.Any suggestions before I throw it out the window?
@ cdajoe
Your problem sounds even more odd because you got a BSOD while installing? Now that is weird… Maybe someone else may have something to share.