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]

Computer check....

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]

ati2dvag

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]

ati2dvag

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]

Ati2dvag issue....

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

[mrcaptainbob]

mouse drag...

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]

ati2dvag update....

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.

[HayZee518]

I found this after googling the web.
How to Fix Ati2dvag.dll Errors
Important: Do not download ati2dvag.dll from a "DLL download" website. There are many reasons why downloading a DLL file is a bad idea. If you need a copy of ati2dvag.dll, it's best to obtain it from its original, legitimate source.

Note: Start Windows in Safe Mode to complete any of the following steps if you're unable to access Windows normally due to the ati2dvag.dll error.

1.

Restore ati2dvag.dll from the Recycle Bin. The easiest possible cause of a "missing" ati2dvag.dll file is that you've mistakenly deleted it.

If you suspect that you've accidentally deleted ati2dvag.dll but you've already emptied the Recycle Bin, you may be able to recover ati2dvag.dll with a free file recovery program.

Important: Recovering a deleted copy of ati2dvag.dll with a file recovery program is a smart idea only if you're confident you've deleted the file yourself and that it was working properly before you did that.
2.

Run a virus/malware scan of your entire system. Some ati2dvag.dll errors could be related to a virus or other malware infection on your computer that has damaged the DLL file. It's even possible that the ati2dvag.dll error you're seeing is related to a hostile program that's masquerading as the file.
3.

Use System Restore to undo recent system changes. If you suspect that the ati2dvag.dll error was caused by a change made to an important file or configuration, a System Restore could solve the problem.
4.

Reinstall the program that uses the ati2dvag.dll file. If the ati2dvag.dll DLL error occurs when you use a particular program, reinstalling the program should replace the file.
Hayzee

[Psycho0124]

You can select the driver here:
Just choose Xp Pro/Home, Radeon, and the 9800 Series
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Its a large download (72mb) but getting those drivers replaced may just get you up and running again. If you still can't get the internet connection working, could you download it on another computer and burn it to a CD maybe?

Also be sure and do that virus scan as soon as you get the machine online. I bet there's something nasty in there chewing up system files.

[mrcaptainbob]

Partial success....

A new ether net card got me back on the internet. Now...on to the malware issue: will return shortly.

[mrcaptainbob]

Update on virus scan...

Went to House Call and had to download Java. I feared the worst, as I've tried that in the past with no success, but gave it another whirl. Even after running and executing still could not use Java and House Call. So I moved on to Panda. It's scanning now and found two infected files so far. Will report back when finished.
Thanks for all the great help!

[Psycho0124]

Ahh don't mention it! I love fixing stuff, computers especially. I found my sons computer on the side of the road, rained in once and the processor was jammed in backwards with a bunch of bent up pins.

He's watching a movie on it right now I believe.

Yeah those online scans can take quite a while to finish on a well-used system. Lot's of files to sort through. It's a good one though!

Have you installed the new Gfx drivers yet? I'm really curious as to whether it will boot with fresh drivers in there. If it doesn't, we might need to start testing hardware.

Oh save your receipt for the NIC card! It might have just been a corrupted driver that was keeping you from getting online with the old one. We can try and solve that one too once when get the big problems solved if ya like!