I've got a very unusual problem. First of all, I got an ati 3650 HD AGP graphics card for this computer because I wanted racedriver grid and modern warfare 2 to run on it. I got the ati2dvag.dll display driver stopped responding error every time I played grid after a while, although it didn't have any problems for the first week or so. After which, the computer would become completely unresponsive, or would turn down to EXTREMELY crummy resolution with huge icons and stuff and messed up colors (I assume the card turned off those times). I didn't own mw2 at the time. The first thing I did was to check the psu. The card needed 300w and was getting 250 so I guessed that was the problem and got a 500w psu, but that didn't help any. I tried all sorts of combinations of installing and uninstalling drivers but that didn't help. I uninstalled all symantec products. The device manager won't show anything, it's completely empty so I can't update everything I want to on the computer without spending $30 on some tool. Finally, at this point my bug is that every time I try to run mw2 or grid the screen for the computer will turn off but the game will still respond to controls. Even if I turn the moniter off and on again nothing happens. I haven't tried less graphics intensive games, but I can test them and tell you how they do if it would help. I'm kind of out of ideas.. This summer both my iPod touch and my computer broke, so I would very much appreciate your help.

Computer specs-

HP Pavilion a574n
only mods are ati 3650 HD AGP graphics card and a 500w power supply
3.4 ghz cpu
2 gigs of ram
Windows XP home edition 32 bit with SP3

Quote from jrs_4500 :

The device manager won't show anything, it's completely empty so I can't update everything I want to on the computer without spending $30 on some tool.

sounds like a virus to me...

Quote from bunder9999 :

sounds like a virus to me...

i thought the same.
but heat could be the problem because its after a while when ati2dvag.dll crashed

when did the drivers crashed.??
did u install software before the drivers crashed.

pls scan ur whole pc for virus/adware/spyware.

if u still have the same problem u might format ur pc and install windows back again

Thanks for the replies guys. I don't think it's a virus, but it could be. I've got avg free and panda cloud installed and they haven't found anything serious on the computer.

The drivers crashed both before and after I installed drivers. It was only after I uninstalled all symantec software (supposed to be a problem with ati cards in some cases) and ran a symantec complete uninstaller (I don't remember the name of) that the games continued running and the screen shut off. I'll give it a full system scan with both just to make sure, thanks for the suggestion.

As far as heat, the highest temp I've seen was 62. Speedfan for some reason won't tell me the names of all the things it's monitering, so I have no idea which component that was. I'll try these ideas this week and post any updates.

Just remembered something else that may be important- in Google Chrome, when I scroll down it kind of seems jerky which it didn't before the new gfx card. Also, in Portal when you look around the walls look unusual like there's no antialiasing on their textures and as you look around you can see the edges... It's kind of hard to describe. I'll try and post a video on youtube sometime if it would help.

I have had the same issue on two separate computers with different graphics cards, one was a defective graphics card, the other I never determined because even changing the card didn't make it go away.

The exact error you are getting is called an infinite loop, what happens is either your CPU or your GPU begins repeating the same instruction over and over because the other stopped responding. Since it never starts responding again the other continues this until it gives up and your computer auto restarts.

This can be caused by so many things that you'll have to do some component swapping to find out which. If you just put the graphics card in, it's likely defective. If the error continues after swapping it, it could be anything from ram to CPU, even the motherboard could be causing it.

Dragoncommando- do you mean corrupted software, or the hardware itself it defective? I would suspect ati's drivers because from what I've read they're somewhat notorious for this sort of thing.

One thing that could be important- I don't know why I didn't mention this before, but some less graphics intensive games seem to be fine with the computer. My little bro was playing combat arms and it ran well for about 30 minutes before anything happened. The other 2 I mentioned seem to have problems much quicker.

The infinite loop error is very rarely caused by software and from my experience ATI's drivers have been just fine

Every case of the infinite loop I've encountered has been hardware, either a bad motherboard, ram, or even a power supply that isn't sufficient to run the system can cause it. If it's happening in games it's likely to do with either the CPU not getting enough power, or the GPU.

Since the graphics card is new that would by my first suspicion and I'd get that replaced. If the error continues to come up after that (But didn't before the new card) it's possible the graphics card could have damaged the AGP bus or another part in line on the motherboard. ATI's HD series cards are internally PCI-e and the AGP versions use a chip on the card to make the switch to AGP, if this bus converter was defective it could have damaged the motherboard.

If it comes down to it, you could be looking at a new motherboard, which means new ram, a new cpu, and the switch to PCI-e. Thats what happened to me in the end, I simply could not get rid of the error once it started.

Edit: Also, some games stress the hardware more than others, or use features others don't. This can lead to the card working fine for some, and failing all together with others.

That's a bummer. It must be the graphics card. I just hope it hasn't messed anything else up. I'll sell it on Ebay and get a different one.

You are going to sell a graphics card you know is potentially defective?

Thats a great way to hurt your Ebay rating, the buyer will most likely come back to you wanting his or her money back.

That's true. Should I send it to ati or something?

Do a format and fresh install of windows... When was the last time u did it?..

Also a P4 3.4 is ancient nowadays and will struggle with those games...

Quote from jrs_4500 :

That's true. Should I send it to ati or something?

send it back to where you bought it.

I think it might simply be a driver issue because your card is still on AGP.
The best advice i can give you is to uninstall the ati drivers from the control panel (if you get there), choose the complete removal of all ati driver on your system, then simply reboot and since your card is on AGP, i don't advice trying higher drivers then 10.2 anything above is useless to AGP cards anyway.

I still have a pentium 4 with a Ati 9600 pro 256M AGP and it runs above 60FPS constant on 15" res, which is not bad at all for an 8 year old rig.

Good luck!

Hate to say it, but DON'T try anything the others here are saying you should, it's a waste of time and I know that from experience.

It isn't a bad install of windows, a corrupt driver, or a wrong driver version. Your graphics card, or possibly some other component in your computer is damaged or defective and no amount of messing with software will do anything, believe me, I tried it all when I had that error, I spent more than a year fighting with it.

Quote from dadge :

send it back to where you bought it.

....

I sent it to a friend for this week and possibly another week or 2 to look at it. He's in college so he might not get to it this week. I asked him to try installing 10.2 or earlier drivers (read your recommendation after I sent it to him), then try whatever else he can think of. If nothing he does fixes it I'll send the card back. Thanks for all your help guys!

Quote from dadge :

....

Well, other than that... didn't read that

If anyone's still reading this, here's an update. I sent it to my friend but he couldn't find the problem. He confirmed that windows was corrupted, so I'm looking around to find windows 7 cheap because I can't find my xp cd's anywhere. If that doesn't work I'll just build a new computer from the ground up.

download XP and use the reg code you already own.

I found a guide to finding your reg key and reinstalling xp, but I don't understand the first part of what you said. What do you mean download xp? Is the OS available for download somewhere, and if so will I need an external hard drive to hold it (I've got one if necessary)?

i think you can get it from the microsoft site. it's an image so you will have to burn it to cd.
you're using your own reg code so you are not breaking any laws by downloading xp.

Thanks, I'll try that in the next few days and post any updates.

I did just what you said, and that process completely wiped the computer and I reinstalled windows. The first time I tried MW2 it shut off after 10 or less minutes of gameplay. I'm going crazy.... Any other ideas? Can I get money out of ati, because this is just ridiculous that they're producing this kind of crap? It's completely out of the question now that it's anything but the graphics card. I installed the newest drivers and everything. I'll try anything but sinking more money into this computer unless I can take the parts back out and put them into a real gaming computer whenever I build one.

edit: by the way, the last SEVERAL updates in ati catalyst have been for ati agp cards.... hmmm.....

Quote from jrs_4500 :

I did just what you said, and that process completely wiped the computer and I reinstalled windows. The first time I tried MW2 it shut off after 10 or less minutes of gameplay. I'm going crazy.... Any other ideas? Can I get money out of ati, because this is just ridiculous that they're producing this kind of crap? It's completely out of the question now that it's anything but the graphics card. I installed the newest drivers and everything. I'll try anything but sinking more money into this computer unless I can take the parts back out and put them into a real gaming computer whenever I build one.

edit: by the way, the last SEVERAL updates in ati catalyst have been for ati agp cards.... hmmm.....

for the record, it was your friends idea to reformat.

Quote from jrs_4500 :

He confirmed that windows was corrupted, so I'm looking around to find windows 7 cheap because I can't find my xp cd's anywhere. If that doesn't work I'll just build a new computer from the ground up.

i just told you where you could get the xp disk.

I hope you haven't taken this wrong, you guys have been great actually. I was just commenting to draw other people's attention to the fact that the computer had been wiped, leaving a bad graphics card as the only possibility. I wasn't in any way blaming you. Here's the responses I've gotten from the ati/amd forum for a comparison (keep in mind it's the middle of the night here and i was a little tired when I posted that last one. :P )- http://forums.amd.com/game/mes ... =138066&enterthread=y

edit: didn't want to put 2 in a row, but do you think the period of time where I ran the card on only 250w of power and it needed 300w could've harmed it? I think the card ran fine for a week or 2 like that then just whacked out. That seems like a possibility to me because of the time frame but I don't know much about hardware.