Possible Solution to ATIKMDAG Driver Crash

Darkvette · Dec 4, 2008

Here is a possible solution to the ATIKMDAG.SYS Driver Crash issue that has plagued so many people. The following is from one of the M$ Newsgroups on the issue, from someone who actually took the time to sit down and test it.

Part of the way down the page at the link below, there is a post from a user Level5Owner, who says the issue is with the Catalyst Control Center itself, not the drivers.

Let me know if this helps anyone.
I'm going to try when I get home tonight and see if it works. Here is his post.

From Microsoft Newsgroup Site about ATIKMDAG Issue

Level5Owner's Post

My System Engineer and I have after many headaches and ALOT of tylenol have Identified the apparent Cause of this Problem.

What it is Not -

Vista ( 32bit or 64bit ), XP ( 32bit or 64bit ), .NET framework, System Memory, Heat, Dual Monitors ( Extended Desktop or Clone Mode ) .

What it appears to be -

The ATI CATALYST CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE ( Not the Stand Alone Driver )

Basis For Conclusion -

We tested all My Systems ( 4 of them ,2 XP ( 1 64bit and 1 32bit ) 2 VISTA Ultimate ( 1 32bit and 1 64bit ) from the ground up with NUMEROUS CLEAN installs of the BASE OS to try and reproduce the Error After every Software install. We did this with the OS Updated and With the OS Naked. The Error only Occured AFTER installing the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE.
We then Did Clean installs on All the Systems and Installed ONLY the CATALYST SOFTWARE to see if it was a Conflict with any other software.
The Error occured Almost Immediatly.

We then Purged the Systems of All ATI Software and Tried to install the Software in the Individual packages the ATI does Provide. As soon as we installed the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE the ERROR Occured.

We thenPurged the Systems again of the ATI SOFTWARE and Installed ONLY THE DRIVER. We ran the Systems for 2 weeks the ATIKMDAG HAS STOPPED RESPONDING AND RECOVERED Error did not reassert itself.

If you have the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL INSTALLED and Do a Seach of Your Primary hard Drive you will Find that the ATIKMDAG.SV file is ONLY found in the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE PACKAGE.

If you Remove the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL you will remove ATIKMDAG.SV from your System and this solves at least this Issue.

The problem seems to be an encoding error in how the CATALYST control Panel Software Interacts with ICQ's in relation to The OS instructions.

It should be Noted that ATI apparently is aware of the Issue as they Offer a Standalone Download of the Graphics Driver even thought they will not Officially Acknowledge the Issue.

My System Engineer and I both have Notified ATI of our Findings. They have not responded.

OF NOTE -

Graphics Performance Does not appear to suffer when runnig ONLY the Graphics Driver. The Only Differance is that You Can Not use the Features that the CATALYST CONTROL PANEL SOFTWARE provides. However for graphics Stability it is a Small Price to pay.

Also Before you Chuck your ATI graphics Card For an NVIDIA Graphics Card note that NVIDIA Graphics Cards Present a Simalar Error and More Importantly NVIDIA DOES NOT OFFER a Standalone DRIVER, you take thier CONTROL PANEL or Nothing.

Darkvette · Dec 4, 2008

Another possible solution from ATI's forums at game.amd.com is to remove Microsoft KB952287 from your system.

I called ATI's Tech Support today and they told me it was a hardware issue, that one of my cards was overheating, or that something wasn't compatible with Vista. This is damaging my future support for ATI and AMD. Basically, I got the run-around from them, more likely they don't know what's causing it to happen.

I'm going to try both solutions here and will post in a few days as to whether or not they worked.

Darkvette · Dec 6, 2008

I tried uninstalling KB952287 and that didn't help. I uninstalled the CCC and that seems to be helping a little. I also renamed the atikmdag.sys to atikmdag.sys.old to take out the driver completely. We'll see what happens there.

It's the Windows Kernel Mode driver. I'm not sure if it's even needed since Windows runs in User mode, not Kernel Mode. We'll see if I get any crashes or not. I'll post updates in a few days.

brainwashed_360 · Dec 9, 2008

I am getting this error and I'm fed up. I got an RMA on my card because of it as myself and the tech support from Visiontech felt it was a bad card.

The system passes all memcheck and Q95 tests but immediately throws a ATIKMDAG error or blue screen when attempting to run 3Dmark or any 3d game. 2D seems fine.

I will try to uninstall the Control panel drivers tonight, but this is sorely disapointing.

I am running:
Q6600
Asus Rampage Formula not OC'ed
4GD Crucial RAM
Visiontech 4870 512mb RAM
Catalyst 8.11 drivers, updated from 8.7 after the errors started 2 days ago

brainwashed_360 · Dec 9, 2008

I just went back to Nvidia with a GTX260. I'm tired of trying to get this card to work.

ShazBo · Dec 10, 2008

That is good info for people with this problem. Although I used to constently get that stupid error with my 3870, I have yet to get it with my 4870x2 (knock on wood) and I have the CCC installed.

Dr.Zyklon · Dec 10, 2008

yeah i usually get that error while playing several games because it usually freeze and the resumes but sometimes the whole game crashes, ill try uninstalling CCC and go with just the display drivers and see what it does.

Le_Loup · Dec 28, 2008

I'm still getting bsod from the said driver my bsod info...

Last night I installed SP2 Beta for Vista, and I left the laptop running all day to see if it bs'd by the time I get home.

Am considering trying to remove catalyst, and just putting in the drivers alone. Even went to dl the old 2007 drivers from toshiba which came with my laptop...

My laptop fortunately is not overheating or similar. I've even bought a cooler with it from the beginning to avoid said overheating issues that some people believe could be the problem. Used compressed air to clear it out, and checked cable connections, wiring, etc.

Has there been any more solutions found to possibly resolve? Or program conflicts with said atikmdag?

- Le_Loup

Darkvette · Dec 29, 2008

Yeah, unfortunately it's back to the drawing board with this

. I've tried this and several other things and I'm still getting the error as well. I'm almost convinced now that it is a hardware or possibly an issue with one of my monitors. I'm gonna play around with it a little more and see what happens.
Has there been any more solutions found to possibly resolve? Or program conflicts with said atikmdag?

gamervivek · Dec 29, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkvette

Yeah, unfortunately it's back to the drawing board with this

. I've tried this and several other things and I'm still getting the error as well. I'm almost convinced now that it is a hardware or possibly an issue with one of my monitors. I'm gonna play around with it a little more and see what happens.
Has there been any more solutions found to possibly resolve? Or program conflicts with said atikmdag?

does it happen with a single card only?did you try checking if powerplay might be responsible for this?i never got this error but still wanna know whatever helps.

Darkvette · Dec 30, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamervivek

does it happen with a single card only?did you try checking if powerplay might be responsible for this?i never got this error but still wanna know whatever helps.

Yeah it does. That's why I think it might be an incompatibility with my 19" LG Monitor. I just need another monitor to test it with.

Hmmmmmm.......

Le_Loup · Jan 4, 2009

I temp had this fixed with sp2 beta for vista, but unfortunately... the bsod came back with atikmdag...

It's an evil thing, so this am I decided, f* it, dl the DRIVERS ONLY from ati.com (amd), and get just the drivers, no catalyst, nothing. Note how I express that it's drivers only 100%...

This get's worse... I run uninstall, then...BAM bsod during uninstall of catalyst.. (go figure eh?)

Went into safe mode to try uninstalling in device manager, and catalyst manually... Device manager, was able to remove the video card itself (so to speak driver wise). And naturally vista started sending me messages NO DRIVERS for said card, blah blah blah. Duh... (fyi, po'ed @ ati).

Was able to try installing said "drivers only" from ati... again drivers only... and surprise surprise... catalyst started installing....***... explain that logic... if any...

I'm considering rebuilding the laptop again, if I get home tonight and am able to successfully access it, correct it, etc just to back the bloody thing up... I will 100% back it up asap... then use boot n nuke on it (fantastic formatting program).

I've tried searching omegadrivers to find ati hd2*** series drivers, and they're being "developed" but not made yet... which sucks, for vista 32bit (home premium). If anyone has alternate drivers only that work like omega, but are not ati direct... and 0% catalyst addon software... i'd very very much appreciate it!

- Le_Loup

Darkvette · Jan 8, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Le_Loup

I temp had this fixed with sp2 beta for vista, but unfortunately... the bsod came back with atikmdag...

It's an evil thing, so this am I decided, f* it, dl the DRIVERS ONLY from ati.com (amd), and get just the drivers, no catalyst, nothing. Note how I express that it's drivers only 100%...

This get's worse... I run uninstall, then...BAM bsod during uninstall of catalyst.. (go figure eh?)

Went into safe mode to try uninstalling in device manager, and catalyst manually... Device manager, was able to remove the video card itself (so to speak driver wise). And naturally vista started sending me messages NO DRIVERS for said card, blah blah blah. Duh... (fyi, po'ed @ ati).

Was able to try installing said "drivers only" from ati... again drivers only... and surprise surprise... catalyst started installing....***... explain that logic... if any...

I'm considering rebuilding the laptop again, if I get home tonight and am able to successfully access it, correct it, etc just to back the bloody thing up... I will 100% back it up asap... then use boot n nuke on it (fantastic formatting program).

I've tried searching omegadrivers to find ati hd2*** series drivers, and they're being "developed" but not made yet... which sucks, for vista 32bit (home premium). If anyone has alternate drivers only that work like omega, but are not ati direct... and 0% catalyst addon software... i'd very very much appreciate it!

- Le_Loup

I actually ended up finding out that one of my monitors was the actual cause of the issue. I switched to another monitor and it works just fine, no BSOD's since the 2nd of January. If you're using a laptop though, it might be worth contacting the manufacturer and having them send you out a diagnostics cd so you can test each piece of hardware individually. I found out that the file ATIKMDAG is actually part of the driver itself, so there's no way to get around using it. :-(

Like I said before though, back to the drawing board

SLeeZeY · Jan 8, 2009

I've never had the bsod, I've had the magic eye screen of death though.

I got told that the profile screen res settings are junk in CCC and even if set right to your monitors correct settings it will mess up and crash.

Not sure about that tbh though.

gamervivek · Jan 8, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkvette

I actually ended up finding out that one of my monitors was the actual cause of the issue. I switched to another monitor and it works just fine, no BSOD's since the 2nd of January. If you're using a laptop though, it might be worth contacting the manufacturer and having them send you out a diagnostics cd so you can test each piece of hardware individually. I found out that the file ATIKMDAG is actually part of the driver itself, so there's no way to get around using it. :-(

Like I said before though, back to the drawing board

monitor driver to be blamed?

Darkvette · Jan 12, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by SLeeZeY

I've never had the bsod, I've had the magic eye screen of death though.

I got told that the profile screen res settings are junk in CCC and even if set right to your monitors correct settings it will mess up and crash.

Not sure about that tbh though.

So does that mean that if you want to set everything properly, you need to set the resolutions through Windows?

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamervivek

monitor driver to be blamed?

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure. I know that I've only gotten the error once since I swapped out the monitor. I just can't tell if the card is bad though.

I know this is a dumb question, but how can I test the card to see if it's a bum card?

SLeeZeY · Jan 12, 2009

So far as it was explained to me, you have to have the windows/CCC/and monitor resolutions all set right (presumably the same)and the refresh rates. I have three monitors but they are all bog standard little ones so I have no idea about anything bigger than 19"

Higgins · Jan 13, 2009

I had this problem when i first got my 3870.

I found it to happen when the card upped the fan speed to compensate for temps. My 3870 had a trigger at 60C.. so after about 15min in CoD4 it would get to 59C and.. screen black/ATIKMDAG has stopped responding but has been restarted.

I manually set the fan speed for 60% and it went away, and i had a VF700 on it since then and havent had it once.

After searching google i'm almost certain that is what it is.

Le_Loup · Jan 16, 2009

Does anyone have a way to force fan speed on integrated laptop components to max 100% continually? Regardless what the heat is for a cpu / gpu at that moment? Speedfan doesn't help me there fyi... Because this might stop any re occuring of atikmdag issues for me... maybe...

- Le_Loup

ThatBad · Jan 18, 2009

I have a simple solution to this problem, its not practical but its still better than getting bluescreen at a critical point where you want your computer to run reliably.

Simply, go to C:\\Windows\\System32\\drivers search for atikmdag.sys, and rename it to atikmdag.sys(old), and then you should be able to run your computer whitout bluescreens.

But always when you boot your computer, you need to rename atikmdag.sys(old), back to atikmdag.sys .

And then repeat the step one when booting is done.

XiCynx · Jan 19, 2009

you can always use this to set your fan control speeds to 100% at least it should work like that.

RivaTuner 2.22

paulth0 · Jan 23, 2009

Ridiculous that people should have to adjust fan speeds and rename files to get a bloody video card to work. I have a one-year old quad-core system. Quality components, very simple, very stable, good power supply, no excess heat (GPU 37 degrees C), no over-clocking, running Vista 32-bit. The motherboard is an Asus P5K-V. I do not play games. I recently upgraded to a dual-monitor system, which required more than the integrated graphics, so I got the Radeon Sapphire HD4670, another simple mid-level solution that would provide two DVI outputs at any normal resolution. (Somewhat reluctantly, remembering other ATI cards in systems and years past.) I installed the latest stable driver (8.12). Now I am experiencing _daily_ crashes with the atikmdag display driver message. This is highly frustrating. ATI support says to check hardware issues, and attempts to put the blame on any and everything else in the system. For many enthusiasts who tinker with their systems this will result in them thinking "Hmm, I must have done something wrong here." I don't buy it. In my system the only change was the ATI card, so it is the problem. Looks like the tradition of shoddy engineering, incompetent programming and poor customer service is alive and well at ATI/AMD today.

XiCynx · Jan 23, 2009

Yep, that is very true, I constantly get the atikmdag error. I've learned to look past it. A lot of people said it deals with installing the CCC but I'm not sure cause I like using it and don't feel like uninstalling it. There is no fix to this, it's just all driver based. Maybe with the new 9.1 drivers that'll be coming out sometime will address this problem, but if they haven't fixed it in the past 5 releases i doubt they'll address it now.

Le_Loup · Jan 23, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulth0

Ridiculous that people should have to adjust fan speeds and rename files to get a bloody video card to work. I have a one-year old quad-core system. Quality components, very simple, very stable, good power supply, no excess heat (GPU 37 degrees C), no over-clocking, running Vista 32-bit. The motherboard is an Asus P5K-V. I do not play games. I recently upgraded to a dual-monitor system, which required more than the integrated graphics, so I got the Radeon Sapphire HD4670, another simple mid-level solution that would provide two DVI outputs at any normal resolution. (Somewhat reluctantly, remembering other ATI cards in systems and years past.) I installed the latest stable driver (8.12). Now I am experiencing _daily_ crashes with the atikmdag display driver message. This is highly frustrating. ATI support says to check hardware issues, and attempts to put the blame on any and everything else in the system. For many enthusiasts who tinker with their systems this will result in them thinking "Hmm, I must have done something wrong here." I don't buy it. In my system the only change was the ATI card, so it is the problem. Looks like the tradition of shoddy engineering, incompetent programming and poor customer service is alive and well at ATI/AMD today.

So right, i've tried everything, but my laptop IS integrated 128mb hd2400 ati... So i'm stuck with it

Next PC build = nvidia period. And I still get the atikmdag JUST RECOVERED several times, in game and out of game... NOT heat related... And i've tried to max fan's in Rivatuner, but it isn't available in the laptop format...

I just want this fixed, and Ati can go shove it... Their cards are ok, but... god why the bloody bad customer service!

- Le_Loup

P.S. I can't find it on the maximum pc's website, but I am VERY sure we need to sic the DOG on ati IN GENERAL, not some specific brand here or there, but ATI ITSELF...evil buggers..

P.S.S. Can't get omega drivers for laptop, AND top it f*ing off... I can't find the bloody way to get DRIVERS ONLY for ati video cards, because when I dl ONLY THE DRIVERS, I get CCC at the same fricken time, note, download JUST DRIVERS I GET THAT TO dammit... (Full uninstall of previous ccc and everything!!!!!!)

gamervivek · Jan 25, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Le_Loup

So right, i've tried everything, but my laptop IS integrated 128mb hd2400 ati... So i'm stuck with it

Next PC build = nvidia period. And I still get the atikmdag JUST RECOVERED several times, in game and out of game... NOT heat related... And i've tried to max fan's in Rivatuner, but it isn't available in the laptop format...

I just want this fixed, and Ati can go shove it... Their cards are ok, but... god why the bloody bad customer service!

- Le_Loup

P.S. I can't find it on the maximum pc's website, but I am VERY sure we need to sic the DOG on ati IN GENERAL, not some specific brand here or there, but ATI ITSELF...evil buggers..

P.S.S. Can't get omega drivers for laptop, AND top it f*ing off... I can't find the bloody way to get DRIVERS ONLY for ati video cards, because when I dl ONLY THE DRIVERS, I get CCC at the same fricken time, note, download JUST DRIVERS I GET THAT TO dammit... (Full uninstall of previous ccc and everything!!!!!!)

have you tried removing CCC after installing?
also try the catalyst mobility modder,you can use the drivers directly from ati website on your laptop.
http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php

Darkvette · Jan 28, 2009

I installed Windows 7 x64 Beta and so far, I've not had the atikmdag crash issue, and that's with the ATI Catalyst 8.11 drivers installed. I've had it up for about a week and a half now without any issues. However, Win7 has its bug issues. Graphics drivers are good and stable (for now).

Possible Solution to ATIKMDAG Driver Crash

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