Can't stop Ati3duag.dll BSOD, please help

[Lunarbob21]

Hi, I am reaching the end of my rope of patience here with my video driver. I tried to overcome this on my own with days of poring over message board posts, but nothing has worked.

My problem is this, I don't know when it started but I really noticed it a month or two ago while playing The Witcher 2. I am playing a game, and it runs just fine, but then out of nowhere 1 of 2 things happen. Either the screen freezes on the image and automatically reboots the computer a few seconds later or the screen goes black and the same thing happens.

I have tried a LOT of things to fix this. I was using a floor fan to keep my computer cool, so I thought the problem was overheating. So I took the cpu apart outside and cleaned it out and applied new thermal paste. The fan situation is normal again and things run much cooler, but still I get the BSOD.

So I tried everything I could think of including.

1. Updated CCC to newest drivers, downgraded to older driver, uninstalled and re-installed drivers.

2. Run as Admin, disabled Avast, lowered graphic settings, unplug gamepad, try offline mode.

3. Tried setting the game.exe to a single core, and tried setting to high priority.

4. Set the GPU to stock settings, ran Memtest to no errors, ran defrag.

No matter what I tried, still the same random BSOD. Finally I thought I had it figured out and did the following.

1. Log on Admin account and uninstall from Add/Remove. Then uninstall the adapter through device manager.

2. Reboot into safe mode, Run Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), boot back into safe mode.

3. Look for left over ATI files, Here I had a problem where the computer automatically detected and installed the 6800 card]. I could still see the same old ATI files.

4. Restarted computer normally, installed the driver [I even tried the driver directly from HIS], restarted.

5. Tried gaming, and absolutely nothing has changed.

I have ran WhoCrashed and everytime it is the Ati3duag.dll causing problems, except once when it crashed youtube and it was ati2 then.

So now I have ran out of ideas, and implore the experts out there to help me figure this out please.

I have this problem for:
The Witcher 2, Dishonored, and Starcraft 2, so I know it is not the game itself.
So far Torchlight 2 has ran without a single video crash.

My specs are: Windows XP SP 3
Motherboard
===========

Manufacturer: AsRock
Model: M3A770DE
Chipset: AMD 770 Rev.00
Southbridge: AMD SB700 Rev.00
LPCIO: Wnbond W83627DHG-P

Bios

Brand: American Megatrends Inc.
Version: P1.60
Date: 05/20/2010

CPU
===========
Name: AMD Athlon II X3 445
Code Name: Rana
Max TDP: 95W
Package: Socket AM3 (938)
Technology: 45nm
Core Voltage: 1.368V
Specification: AMD Athlon(tm) II X3 445 Processor
Family: F Model: 5 Stepping: 3
Ext. Family: 10 Ext. Model: 5 Revision: BL-C3
Instructions:

Memory
============
Type: DDR3 Dual Channel
Size: 4GB
NB Frequency: 1995.6Mhz

Module Size: 2048 Mbytes
Max Bandwidth: Pc3-10700 (667Mhz)
Manufacturer: G.Skill
part Number: F3-10600CL9-2GBNT

Graphic Card - HIS Radeon 6850 IceQX Turbo
============

Name: Radeon HD 6850
Code Name: Barts
Technology: 40nm
Clock Core: 820 Mhz
Clock Memory: 1100 Mhz
memory Size: 1024 Mbytes
Type: GDDR5

 

[ingtar33]

the type of crash you're describing is often caused by an undervolted k10 cpu... the witcher2 was a very cpu dependent, that's an old k10 based cpu, it's possible it's nearing the end of its lifespan and as a result is unstable at stock voltage. (as cpus wear out they typically become unstable without adding a little voltage to them)

i'd hop into the bios and try giving the cpu a little more vcore. (don't go crazy here... just 1 or 2 ticks up over stock). see if the problem goes away.