ATI x1800xl black screens

[Daniel Lapointe]

K, got a question, still experiencing constant black random screens of death
for no apparent reason. I look in control panel..problem reports....see
problems to check...and see 42 "video hardware errors" listed..all the same
with this info..I'm guessing this is the cause of my probs, but dont know
why on vista rtm..tried both built in and ati rtm drivers, still the same
probs..any ideas? Here's the error info it says:


Description
A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 4105

Files that help describe the problem
WD-20061115-1219-01.dmp
sysdata.xml
Version.txt

View a temporary copy of these files
Warning: If a virus or other security threat caused the problem, opening a
copy of the files could harm your computer.

Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 117
BCP1: 863F3C00
BCP2: 8AB01814
BCP3: 00000000
BCP4: 00000000
OS Version: 6_0_6000
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

 

[Guest]

I was getting black screens at the startup with my Mobility Radeon x1400 but
I did an update to Ati's latest driver
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/common-vista32.html
and the problems disappeared, but then again I'm still using RC1.

 

[JW]

Sounds like either your power supply is not big enough or the card is
overheating since the more load you place on the card the sooner the problem
occurs.

 

[Daniel Lapointe]

It's not overheating, in fact it's very cool. Running everest ultimate, and
temp probes are showing the card as still being very cool, and the power
supply is 550, so definately not that either. As I mentioned earlier, it ran
flawlessly in xp, so it's definately only vista related.

 

[JW]

Certainly a 550 PS is adequate I am not sure about a 400 for DblFun's system
however since it depends on the power requiements of all of the components
of your system and there is not a good way to measure the load without a
power meter and of course the power requirements vary depending on the what
the system is doing at any point in time.
It is hard to tell if the problem is Vista related or VISTA ATI driver
related or Vista MCE compatible MPEG2 Decoder related if processing video.
I don't have your origional post so I don't know what release of Vista your
are running or what ATI driver release or what decoder you are using.
Are there any event log entries that might provide a clue?

 

[Daniel Lapointe]

It happens with BOTH the built in ati driver, and the ati rtm driver from
ati's site. And the crashes are always random black screens. I out in my old
ati x550 to test, and it works flawlessly. If I put the x1800xl (non-all in
wonder version) back in, the problems happen again. It's not the hardware
itself of the card, as it works flawlessly in XP never a crash or anything
even under intense gaming, etc. SO yup, it's definately vista's drivers or
some bug in the way the driver is written for this model card.