ATI Radeon 9700 Drivers Completely USELESS! HELP?

[Kriosym]

If someone knowledgable and/or who also has a 9700 pro would please read carefully through all of this I would much appreciate it.

Here's the deal, Every game under the sun freezes my system up unless I use the Omega Plutonium 1158 drivers for ATI cards by Cyborg. If I use ANY version of ATI drivers (I've tried catalyse 2.2, 2.3, as well as two different beta drivers, doing regcleans and full removals in between as well, and now an OS wipe to boot!). So just use the Omega drivers then, DUH! Problem is the Omega drivers cause 2d slowdown just at the desktop level and texture problems in UT2003. But no lockups and all other games I play run smoothly with the Omega drivers. Here is what I've tried (*EVERYTHING*)..

After trying every single driver under the sun, totally cleaning out all garbage from my system as best I could including reg edits to ditch remnants of old software/programs/drivers, as well as tweaking every bios setting down from hell and back where I usually have them, (having an intimate knowledge of my bios and having read up on every single feature from more sources than I care to admit having wasted time at), including total SAFE DEFAULTS of bios, low performance everything, running my PC133 ram at PC100 as well as my bus that low and EVERYTHING, all to NO avail, still freezeups in UT2003 and DAOC with the retail 2.3 drivers with or without the ati 'fix' for freezups. Also had tried the latest via 4in1 drivers, all soundcard mix/rate/accleration levels, as well as reading online in several forums trying to find someone with the same problems as me, and finding some luckily, I finally decided that windows SP1 was the problem (lack thereof). I could not install Windows SP1 because when I tried it told me my kernal was not the correct Windows XP kernel. I know I have a valid (legal) CD key, but what happened was months ago I lent my Windows XP cd out to a friend and he never returned it. So I got a burned copy from a friend and used it to install (still using my own KEY). I think now he must have had some hacked version or beta copy or SOMETHING which is why SP1 wouldn't install for me. The reason I figured it was SP1 was because DX 8.1b seemed to be the answer for some people, which comes with SP1 according to some posts, but nowhere else is it available for XP. So I backed up important stuff to my wife's system, and did a complete format/reinstall, (after getting a burned copy of a friends VALID XP cd). After all that work. The very first thing I did was go to windows update and it installed WinXP SP1 just fine. Then I installed the Latest Catalyst 2.3 drivers from ATI, rebooted, installed the control panel, rebooted into safe mode, installed the ATI d3d patch, rebooted, then I installed the UT2003 demo and fired it up. So far so good. All the textures were there. I was able to play for 5 minutes! Then BAM freeze, same as before. Complete system hang, needing the old power button for 5 seconds trick to shut her down, ctrl-alt-del nor waiting avails me. Which inevitably means when I try to play DAOC it will freeze up as well. I rebooted and went into windows sound options and turned quality down to best performance, and went into UT2003 and put it on 'safe mode', it froze up within 30 seconds, *THATS* definately not the answer, <shrug>. Well. Only thing left on THIS installation of windows is to install the via4in1's (although that didn't fix it last time, no reason to believe it will this time), and try forcing UT into openGL mode. But I have little faith at this point that it will fix my problem. The ONLY thing that makes DAOC and UT2003 not lock up is the XP 1118 omega drivers, in fact with those installed every game works good EXCEPT UT2003, which is then missing all sorts of textures, and windows desktop (2d) becomes buggy as all hell, going uber slow sometimes after exiting a game, only fixed (for the most part) if I go to display settings and reset the display resolution. I am at my wits end, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEONE ELSE GET A 9700 AND POST HERE so I can see if I am insane or what!?!, here are my settings if ANYBODY has similiar setup and this card is WORKING for them correctly please let me know! What's sad is my ATI Radeon 8500 worked FLAWLESSLY with ALL games before my upgrade, no lockups, freezing, slowness, NOTHING, so it has to be this card. And YES I did go back and get a hwardware replacement at COMPUSA earlier today before I finally reinstalled windows. All to no avail. Below is my system specs, and the error I get when windows pops back up. Suggestions?

AMD ATHLON XP 1700+ Not overclocked.
ASUS A7V133 MB with KT133A chipset. (no raid)
Promise ata100 IDE controller w/20GB ata100 WD HDD. (& now w/16 gigs free space! uhg).
1GB crucial PC133 SDRAM (yeah yeah I know, CHEAP)
Sound Blaster Live mp3+.
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB DDR using 2.3 catalyst with ATI D3D patch/fix.
6Megabit DSL w/Caiymen router!
A massive headache and voices in my head telling me that my computer and I need to have a suicide ritual together involving a bathtub...


When the game crashes and I let windows sit there for awhile before a reboot I get an error message saying it was the radeon 9700 driver that caused it! I just reinstalled windows or I would post a link to the image, but I dont have office installed, therefore no IIS and therefore no HTTP server yet, grr. But it reads

******************
____________________________________________
Computer restarted after an unexpected shutdown
Microsoft Windows detected a possible device failure
____________________________________________

The driver for the display device was unable to complete a drawing operation.
Please check with the device manufacturer for a driver update.

Please tell Microsoft about this problem.
The display driver for RADEON 9700 Series seems to be responsible for
the system instability.

To see what data this error contains, click here.
//and then it gives a link to C:\WINDOWS\LogFiles\Watchdog\020914_2245_01.wdl
//when I open that file up in notepad, it reads as follows.

//
// Watchdog Event Log File
//

LogType: Watchdog
Created: 2002-09-14 22:45:13
TimeZone: 480 - Pacific Standard Time
WindowsVersion: XP
EventType: 0xEA - Thread Stuck in Device Driver

//
// The driver for the display device 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
// display device vendor for any driver updates.
//

ShutdownCount: 6
Shutdown: 0
EaRecovery: 1
EventFlag: 1
EventCount: 1
BreakCount: 1
BugcheckTriggered: 1
DebuggerNotPresent: 1
DriverName: ati2dvag
DeviceClass: Display
DeviceDescription: RADEON 9700 Series
HardwareID: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E44&SUBSYS_00021002&REV_00
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
DriverFixedFileInfo: FEEF04BD 00010000 0006000D 000A1816 0006000D 000A1816 0000003F 00000008 00040004 00000003 00000004 00000000 00000000
DriverCompanyName: ATI Technologies Inc.
DriverFileDescription: ATI Radeon WindowsNT Display Driver
DriverFileVersion: 6.13.10.6166
DriverInternalName: ati2dvag.dll
DriverLegalCopyright: Copyright (C) 1998-2002 ATI Technologies Inc.
DriverOriginalFilename: ati2dvag.dll
DriverProductName: ATI Radeon Family
DriverProductVersion: 5.1.2600.0

******************

 

[demalion]

1) You're much more likely to get efficient help at www.rage3d.com, since the site is dedicated to ATi cards (see my PM for a longer version of the same statement)

2) The 9700 draws a bit more power than your 8500, and your problems sound very possibly power related. You didn't list your power supply that I noticed, but I'd recommend that you consider looking there. Again, more detail and info can be found at www.rage3d.com

 

[demalion]

Pardon me, but I felt this was important. Your post comes across as seeking a resolution to your problem, and I responded accordingly, but in reply to me via PM you indicated that this was not your goal.

Here is my PM message, to provide full context:

Your post is very detailed and provides a lot of info for someone to help you, but not many people have a 9700 here, and it is very likely to be sidetracked by other discussions due to the types of discussions conducted in this forum. Also, anyone who DOES have a 9700 here likely frequents another forum as well...

This forum, a much better place to go for help, is at www.rage3d.com , and it has a Driver forum and a 97000/9000 forum. Since those forums are dedicated to the topic, there is less chance of side discussions that don't help you. Also, your problems are very common installation problems with drivers, and you may find a solution already posted there...well, either driver installation problems or an inadequate power supply.

EDIT: BTW, this was in the 3D Hardware and Technology when I first saw it. Forum bug? Forum feature? Anyhow, I'm pretty sure I'm not mistaken.

Here is your reply...I hope you'll agree I'm not disclosing any private information unsuitable to be discussed here, or that seemed implied to be private?

Actually if you read my problem thoroughly theres no way in hell you can call what I am having a driver installation problem. And no, I have a brand new 400 watt adjustable power supply that my motherboard monitor assures me is giving adequate power. I've reinstalled my OS and tried every driver under the sun. I think this points very much to the inadequacy in ATI drivers, when a 3rd party driver works better than their own. Thats why I posted it here. Thought you all would have a good discussion on it.

I think you have an alternative agenda that is misrepresented by your post. In conjunction with the thread title, I think this points to a different desire on your part than just trying to actually resolve this issue.

First, a few things you seem not to be aware of:

The Omega Plutonium drivers are not "3rd party drivers", they are ATi drivers with different settings than default. You don't have to take my word for it, ask Omega or Cyborg themselves (the set you are mentioning is basically done by these two people). The same stability can be achieved with the same settings on standard ATi drivers.

"brand new 400 watt adjustable power supply" means nothing (what brand and model?), but "that my motherboard monitor assures me is giving adequate power" can indeed be an indication that this isn't the problem if you go ahead and provide some info on what that assurance is.
As part of that...

When are you looking at your motherboard monitor? Does it have an indication that shows adequate power being provided when a 3d accelerated game you are having problems with is being played? The power requirements of the card would be increased at that time.

All of this information is available at the forum I mentioned, and your not knowing this leads me to believe you haven't searched there. My question to you is if you reject my suggestion to go there for help, and haven't gone there before this, how important is it to you to resolve this issue compared to complaining loudly about it and labelling ATi drivers as "useless"? Demonstrably, not important at all, atleast currently. For the price of the 9700, this attitude and your responses really don't make any sense to me. EDIT: BTW, temperature issues are discussed there as well...I assume you also checked this.

Also...I do believe the set of Omega/Plutonium drivers you mention are rather old, as in predating the actual release of the 9700...I propose that the problems you encounteer in 2D and UT2k3 with them may be related to that, and that the R300 support in that driver set may be missing features. See my comments above about the power supply monitoring for why it might be crashing with drivers with fully functioning R300 support. Or, you could take a look at Rage3D.

I realize now that buried in the middle of that rather large single paragraph you did state you reinstalled Windows, and understand now that a driver installation problem from that point on should not have been an issue. Sorry about that, but please break up your communication a bit more for clarity. But, to be clear, the only 2 things that lock up after the reinstall are UT2003 and DAoC? If other games worked (your text reads as if they do, atleast to me), it does seem there may have been some sort of problems with conflict between your 8500 and 9700 installations (there is a driver clean install guide on Rag3D too, by the way).

Finally, please be a bit more honest in your presentation...your reply to me makes your post here and its title look rather dishonest.

 

[bas1975]

I don't know if this is of any relevance or not, but I get the exact same error message playing Morrowind on my Geforce2 GTS. No matter which driver version I use, I get the same message over and over. System freezes, reboots, and then the message pops up. I'm using Windows XP with SP1 as well.

 

[Austarian]

Radeon 9700 lockup problem

Dude, I have the same exact problem. Ever since I've installed the Radeon 9700 card the screen freezes and my system locks up whenever I play WarCraft III. I don't seem to have problems playing StarCraft or Diablo though. I have been in contact with Blizzard and ATI but no solutions so far.

One interesting thing of note: in one instance, I hit ctrl-alt-delete and I got an error message that said to go to my Bios menu, and go to Power for more details. When I went to the Power menu of my Bios, nothing seemed to be out of order. I have a Enermax whisper 430 watt.

All other times, ctrl-alt-delete doesn't work and I have to mannually restart my machine.

If it isn't fixed soon I am going to return the card and go back to my trusty 4500 Prophet until ATI fixes this issue.