ati2dvag

[mrcaptainbob]

Suddenly got a blue screen on the Dell running WXP Home. It says there's a problem with ati2dvag and it's in a loop and is dumping to physical memory. What is this? I immediately shut the system off, then restarted and found it still does this. Then I went into safe mode and restored back to the last known good point. This did not fix it either. So now what? Should I let it complete the dump?

[Psycho0124]

The dump is just a copy of what's in memory at the time of the crash and won't really do anything to solve the problem itsself.

That file is an ATI display driver. Having it crash could be caused by all sorts of things:
1. Maybe caught a virus and it corrupted the display driver.
2. Power supply might be going out and causing a crash when the GPU powers up.
3. GPU might have overheated at some point and fried.
4. A conflicting piece of software might be causing problem with the display driver.
5. A bad stick of ram might be corrupting the driver as it loads.

First things first, I would boot up windows into safe mode (with network support) and uninstall the display drivers. GPUs have a built in "safe mode" that will give you basic display functionality even with no driver installed. Download the latest ATI display driver and try to restart into normal mode. When it tells you windows found new hardware, hit cancel and run the ATI installer you downloaded.

If you can get it to boot normally (not in safe mode (even without a display driver installed)) I would highly recommend doing a virus scan. There are several on-line scanners that should work fine. Try one of these:
HouseCall - Trend Micro USA
Pandasoft Active Scan
Free Virus Scan - Kaspersky Lab

If it still crashes, I would move on to the memory. If you've got 2 sticks in there, Pull the first one and swap the second over to the #1 slot. If it still crashes try swapping in the #1 stick and booting again.

If you have a multimeter, it might be worth checking the voltages coming out of the psu. Stick the negetive into one of the black connectors on the 20 (or 24) pin ATX connector on the board. Now measure to the other wires in the connector.
Red = +5v
Purple = +5v
Orange = +3.3v
Yellow = +12v
Blue = -12v
White = -5v (some PSUs don't have this one)
If any of these are way outta whack (some deviation is perfectly normal), it probably means the Power supply unit is toasted and will need replacing.

Let me know how it goes. Either way, we'll get ya sorted out. My motto when it comes to computers; "If it POSTs, it'll run one way or another."

[mrcaptainbob]

WOW! Phsyco0124! Super info there! I will approach it in the order you stated. Do the software (drivers) first, then, go on to checking the hardware. I may have more questions later.
Thank you so much, Psycho0124!

[mrcaptainbob]

Okay. Cannot access internet while in safe mode. Clicked the second option of network and still could not access. I do have the original Dell Resource CD that contains device drivers, diagnostics and utilities and computer documentation. Is the ATI driver on that CD? I'll delete the existing when I'm sure of having a replacement. Also, should I first make a store point before I do anything?

[Psycho0124]

Go ahead and uninstall the display driver in safe mode then restart into normal mode and see if it boots up. The display will be basic but that should give you an internet connection to download drivers. Write down what kind of error you get if it doesn't start and post it here.

Remember, even if you remove the display driver, you will still have a display! You won't be able to do any high-end gaming or graphics design like that but things like windows, your web browser, and program installers will work just fine. The installed driver just enables the advanced features of the card like higher resolutions, color depth, 3d rendering etc, none of which you need to troubleshoot and solve the problem.

I wouldn't create a restore point right now as the system is not in working order. Think of restore points as snapshots of the systems condition. You wouldn't want to restore to a broken state normally. If you have a restore point saved from back before this started, restoring to it might cure the problem.

I would recommend avoiding those bundled drivers. Drivers are constantly being revised to improve performance and solve problems. Drivers on a CD are almost sure to be outdated and riddled with bugs.

[mrcaptainbob]

Okay, Psycho0124, I'll do that. The only high def stuff we do is wife's grandchildren pics..
So, to delete stuff I'll search for display drivers and then find a file that has ati2dvag in it and then delete it/them?

[Psycho0124]

That would sorta work but it would kinda leave windows confused when it tried to load its driver and found it missing. It would be best to uninstall the driver through the control panel to let windows in on what we're doing.

Remember, this low-res mode is temporary. As soon as we pin down the problem, we'll get some nice fresh drivers in there and you'll be good as new (probably better!).

You can remove the driver by going into your Control Panel-> System -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager. If you expand the Display Adapters section (hit the little + there), you should see an ATI Radeon XXXX or something similar. You can write down what you see there and I can hunt down the right driver for you. The correct driver can also be found using the model number on the unit so it's not all that critical. Right click the ATI device, go to properties, click the driver tab, then click uninstall. Hit "OK" on the confirmation popups until it tells you it needs to restart.

Let it try and boot normally (not safe mode). If it makes it, cancel the "Found new hardware" wizard, run a virus scan and download the ATI driver. If it still won't start normally, post the error you get here and we'll go from there!

[mrcaptainbob]

Hi, Phsycho0124. There are two items listed:
128 DDR ATI Radeon 9800 and
128 DDR ATI Radeon 9800 Sec.

[mrcaptainbob]

So....after typing the reply about the two items, I planned to follow through with the right click thing, but the mouse lost control of the cursor. AGAIN! I'll do as I normally ndo.....manually shut down the system and start over again. Frustrating!!

[mrcaptainbob]

I did the uninstall. After the first uninstall the system shut down with "installing updates 1 of 1" message, then restarted. Uninstalled the second file and restarted. Upon restarting there is now a message "Microsoft display not activated. Must be reactivated in 3 days". Also "This copy of windows not activated" and "3 days left for activation". during the times of turning the system on/off it went to the blue screen twice. The last time it did not. Since I don't have an internet connection yet, I tried using the original driver CD, but was unsuccessful with that. I think I know why there's no internet conne3ction and working on that hardware issue. Bumbed wire. Will purchase new one tomorrow and try that. It seems to start up okay now and keeps the display, but I'm sure it's only temporary.