I just built this computer (specs below), and I keep getting a BSOD as soon as vista 32 home premium loads up.. error ATIKMDAG.SYS... I can boot into safe mode just fine, but reinstalling ati drivers (catalyst 8.12) does not help... even when the computer starts, I see dotted lines about an inch apart through out my entire monitor.. even during the gigabyte logo screen and post. so what do you think, any suggestions on troubleshooting this? think its a driver issue, or a probable hardware failure??? specs: Gigabyte EP45-UD3R asus radeon HD 4850 with latest drivers intel Q9550 Corsair Dominator 1066, 2gb x 2 corsair TX650W 640 Western Digital HDD samsung DVDRW drive nothing is overclocked, everything is set to gigabyte's "optimal defaults"
Reboot in Safe Mode,go to C:\Windows\system32 and rename atikmdag.sys to atikmdag.doc - now reboot. Good Luck
@sam i was thinking it was probably a bad vid card too, but I seem to be able to get into safe mode w/ networking every time without any problems... doesn't that mean it's a problem with windows? I assumed if I had faulty hardware I wouldn't get into the OS at all... thanks though, tomorrow I'll try to swap out vid cards, ram, etc to see if the problem goes away, I do have an Nvidia card handy... @elusiv, It's my friends computer that I built so I dont have the ability to try that right now, I'll check it out tomorrow and see what happens.
Not necessarily, initially I would have thought so, but the corruption at the BIOS screen tells me otherwise. Note, uninstall all ATI drivers before sticking the nvidia card in or you'll probably get even more BSODs.
I just realized that my friend can uninstall ATI drivers... and if windows vista assigns generic drivers, the computer boots fine... not sure if that helps you help me though just thought i'd mention it before I start testing the hardware... Note that the lines during initial boot at gigabyte logo still appear.
Graphics cards aren't activated when drivers aren't in use (i.e. BIOS screen, safe mode, and when they're not installed) - they act as dummies - the CPU does all the video processing. When you install the drivers the GPU activates, so it's still probably a faulty card.
didn't have the install disk for vista handy so I restored windows to first configuration after uninstalling everything ATI. plugged in the nvidia card (6200LE, LOL!)... lines gone, boots fine... guess it was the video card, thanks sam! bad news for my friend he already mailed in the rebate so he has to go through asus RMA... oh well :\ thanks again, glad I know I can rely on you guys to help!
hiya red umm if memory serves me right that ATIKMDAG.sys is a known issue i believe its a driver issue, if you check out the ati forums theres ton of info there about it, only reason i remember this is because i was having a issue with my 4670's with a dvi connections and i happened to past by a few threads talking about atikmdag.sys. Smee edit'd to add the link to the ati atikmdag.sys faq thread http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.c...7&enterthread=y
ATIKMDAG.sys is just one part of a graphics driver. If there's a badly installed driver, or a fault with the hardware, the part of the driver that could crash is often atikmdag.sys.
