Unstable Radeon Win2K Drivers?!?!?! Grrrrr......

[cbuchach]

I was wondering if anyone else has been having issues with Radeon drivers in win2k? I just upgraded from a Diamond Banshee and having been getting lockups and blackouts of my video every couple of days. In these instances I really wasn't doing anything but browsing the web or working with Photoshop. No blue screen messages either, just a system lockup. Also running 3DMark will consistently lockup my system. The reason why this concerns me is that previously my system was as stable as could be. It never, ever, ever, ever crashed, locked up, or blue screened no matter how hard I punished it. It would run for weeks without needing a restart. So, since stability is by far the most important attribute of a system to me, I am so far very disappointed with my Radeon.

I guess I am asking if people have been experiencing similar things with their Radeons, or if someone has any ideas what I could do to shore up the stability of my system. I am currently running the WHQL certified 5.0.3052 drivers under a clean install with all the latest Via 4 in 1's. The rest of my system config is in my signature.

Thanks for any suggestions or tales of similar problems.:disgust:

 

[Hawk]

Did you install MS's AGP fix? And try different drivers too, especially the newer ones, could solve your problems.

 

[SupremeDalek]

I'm yet unsure which videocard to order if I'm gonna use win2K.
The Radeon64mb or Geforce2.. I want the excellent dvd playback and image quality of Radeon, but not the "crappy" and unstable 3D performance.

What would you choose with the following?

Asus A7M266 Socket-A AMD760 DDR ATX
AMD Athlon 1000 MHz socket-A 200 FSB
Apacer 128 MB DDR-ram PC266 orginal
IBM 75GXP 45.0GB Ultra ATA/100 7200rpm
Adaptec AHA2930U 50pin w/ BIOS
SoundBlaster Live! 1024
Plextor SCSI 12X/4X/32X CDRW
Pioneer DVD 10x/40x slot-in SCSI retail
Win2k

Dalek

 

[PeAK]

While socket-7 based motherboards have served people well, fuller implementations of the AGP 2X specifications that enable more features can lead to instabilities.
There is a "Radeon Installation Guide" that you should follow to ensure proper install and elmination of legacy registries from previous installs of other graphics products and orphaned files.

Last, there are an assortement of "beta" drivers that have shown increased stability on a number of systems. In particular the 3073 release.

Last, when the forums are back on line, check www.rage3d.com

 

[Ajay]

No problems. I'm using the 3073 drivers for w2k SP1, with the MS via agp patch and latest via agp driver. I've had fewer problems with my Radeon than I had with my Elsa Gladiac (6.34 drivers). But I only play Tribes and UT. The Radeon 2D is excellent, the Gladiac was not so good, above 1024x768 it gave me a headache.

-AJ

 

[cbuchach]

Thanks for all the info, I've applied the MS AGP patch but am unsure it will help as primarily lockups during 2D display mode are my main concern. I have tried some of the beta drivers but with very poor results. The 3073 garbled my display and the 92's made 3D crash entirely. This might have to do with the way I installed the drivers (not too clean) but still was not impressed. Also, I feel more comforatable with WHQL certified drivers.

The Socket-7/Via AGP implementation I am then assuming is at the root of my problems. I am going to be building soon (this card was really for my next system but I needed it early for several reasons), so hopefully more recent motherboards will provide better and more stable support for the Radeon. Thanks for the info.

As for SupremeDalek's question about what card to get--I guess I would have to recommend the Nvidia products. I can't imagine their drivers being more unstable, and their win2k performance is on par with or beats win98 performance. As for image quality, I haven't noticed a marked difference from my Diamond Banshee. DVD performance with the Radeon has been impressive however. ATI compensation brings my cpu utilization down to 50-60% with only a K62 550.

 

[FarENheiT]

Yeah, its the drivers. The earliest win2k drivers were garbage. You need the latest betas. Mine are rock solid (3092's). They could still use alot of work, but the system is stable. You need to first uninstall the drivers from control panel/add remove programs. Dont restart. Then open up the regedit and delete all the ATi registry keys. Search for ATi and opengl among other key words. Then go to c:\winnt\inf. Look through the oem*.inf files. Double click them and read the headings. Delete the .inf files that belong to ATi. Finally, go into device manager and expand display adapters. Right click the radeon and click uninstall (or delete).

Now you can reboot. Go into safe mode. It should load the standard vga adapter for you. Add new hardware, let windows try and detect it. Then go to "add new device." Let windows search for a driver. Check "specify a location" and point it to the folder where you installed it. But point it to the 'atidrive' folder inside that folder (e.g. c:\ati\atidrive\). Let the drivers install, then let it reboot the computer. Should be cool.

Since you've had the banshee, did you format/clean install OS after taking it out? Having old drivers or old registry keys from other cards might cause instability with this card...also if you have an old Apollo MVP(?) chipset, they're known to cause problems too. Make sure you have the latest BIOS installed.

Dalek, you have a good system to house the Radeon. Which one you get depends on what you want. Radeon has great image quality right now. With the right tweaking it has great 3D as well. the majority of people dont have problems with the radeon. You hear about all the problems, because thats what people post in forums. I'm happy with my radeon, great image quality and my 3d is FAST. Not as fast as a Geforce2, but I get steady frame rates in Q3 (90's in game, ~85fps timedemo demo001, 10x7, settings max).

 

[imusbhi]

The 3092 drivers are pretty good, but if you use the ATI DVD player, don't go to the 3092s. They break the DVD player. Go instead to the ATI released Specials, or to 3073s.