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Ati Radeon VPU Recover
Troubleshooting ATI Radeon VGA cards
April 2005
"VPU Recover has reset your graphics accelerator or it was no longer responding to graphics driver commands" - this error message is just the diagnosis of a long list of possible problems, showing that your vga card had problems and it has been restarted. Unfortunately, there is no ultimate solution, the final tip that works for you depends on your own particular problem, therefore on the card, on your drivers, on your motherboard, etc. It can also happen, that there are several issues with your card, like it suffers both from insufficient heating and old motherboard BIOS.
VPU Recover is a feature unique to ATI, which saves you from a blue screen of death. When the VGA card stops responding to driver commands, VPU Recover resets the vga card, and turns you back to Windows. This allows you to save your work and safely reboot - a detailed description of VPU Recover can be found in the ATI white paper (see bottom link).
Contents:
Before You Start Experimenting
Altering the Hardware Setup
Changing Software Settings
Heat Issues
Conclusions
Links
Before You Start Experimenting
All in all, because we have no specific error messages to narrow down the source of the problem, it is very hard to tell where problems raise. All you can do is to make clear reasoning, if you have a feeling about the origin of the errors, try it first, then you can try some of the more than 30 tips listed here. The possible solutions are gathered from the web, you can try them one by one. I suggest to do obvious things first before the exotic changes, so first upgrade the motherboard BIOS, downgrade to the driver CD ATI driver, etc.
Because all this is very time consuming, I wouldn't spend more then a full working day to experiment to resolve such an issue - if it still doesn't work after a day of work, I would rather consider something radically different, like to switch to a different manufacturer or to nVidia, instead of wasting more time on troubleshooting. My experience shows that if I don't find the solution during the first day, then it needs much more time, therefore I have to decide whether the problem worth that much of energy or not.
ATI VPU Recover error message
Then it is good to have a second PC in the neighborhood for the hardware changes. First, you can test the card in the other PC, so you can be sure it is not faulty. Then, you can use the PSU and the memory modules from the other machine for the hardware tests.
Settings in ATI Catalyst
I suggest to turn off the submission of error reports, ATI doesn't care anyway and you save yourself a few unnecessary clicks (ATI Catalyst\Graphics Settings\VPU Recover). We already know there is a problem, and it's enough to see that your screen goes blank. However, I don't recommend to uncheck "Enable VPU Recover", because next time not only your vga card driver will be reset but Windows itself and you might get into an infinite boot-freeze-boot-freeze loop (in such a case, press F8 during Windows boot and choose Safe Mode).
VPU Recover settings in Ati Catalyst
Then, if there is only one computer around, the one with your new state-of-the-art, but not working ATI vga card, it is better to print all necessary documentation. Simply because you just cannot both troubleshoot and read the forums on the same machine at the same time. If you cannot print, at least make some notes to avoid the typical ineffective procedure of "change settings - reboot - test - launch explorer and look for new ideas - change settings - reboot - etc.".
When turning off the VPU Recover feature, instead of the restart of the VGA card, the whole system needs reboot.
After your vga card froze (screen goes blank then comes back, etc.), I suggest to reboot, so you have the same conditions / environment each time. To shutdown with no display, use the following keystrokes (Windows XP, English): Ctrl+Alt+Del, S, Home, Down Arrow, Enter. This brings up the Windows Security windows and selects Shut Down from the drop down menu.
I also suggest that you:
Back to the Shop - When?
When to decide and bring the card back to the shop is a very good question. I still remember when we bought on a Friday afternoon our HP LaserJet 5 L printer a couple of years ago. I have spent the whole week-end from Friday night to Monday morning troubleshooting the printer. I tried everything from BIOS install, Windows reinstall to tweaking the printer drivers. After two days and three nights I finally run out of ideas (those that I found in the manual and the web), however I didn't try the first line in the troubleshooting section of the manual: changing the parallel cable. This was because I hadn't any extra printer cable. Well, on Monday, I went back to the HP shop and ... they said to be sorry for the faulty cable, they knew about the problem and changed the cable. Unfortunately, because on Friday, we were in the shop just before they closed, they were busy to pack up and let us go and forgot to give an extra cable and then the week-end came, they could not call us about the bad cable included in the box.
I think it is a good idea first to top up the software environment to recent versions:
If you have the possibility to test the VGA card in a different machine and it shows the same symptoms - then, if the card doesn't work flawlessly under Windows with all settings at default, I think it is reasonable to bring the card back and ask for a replacement before going much further and investing a lot of time in troubleshooting.
First, before you insert/remove the vga card, pay attention to turn off the machine (hardware turn off, not just software off from the motherboard), and to unplug the power cord from the PSU. You can damage both the motherboard and the vga card if you insert pci cards (or remove) into the motherboard under current.
IRQ mapping of a PIII motherboard. As you can see, PCI Slot 4 and the AGP slot shares the same IRQ (INT-A); removing the expansion card from the PCI slot No. 4. might help.
To check the IRQ settings in Windows, go to Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\System Tools\System Information\Hardware Resources\Conflicts/Sharing. Unfortunately, it is not possible to change the IRQ settings in Windows XP, all you can do is to remove / relocate PCI add-on cards.
IRQ and I/O sharing in Windows XP. Apparently, the Via USB 2.0 PCI card can be a problem.
When there are problems under plain Windows, even with fresh drivers/BIOS, it can be a compatibility issue. When Windows is OK and also some of the games work flawlessly, but others keep the card hanging (ex. only with UT 2004 and PoP Sands of Time), you might need a special patch for those games or try to turn on/off some of the exotic features in the driver/BIOS.
Upgrade BIOS and Drivers
This game probably needs a patch from the developer web site.
Experiment with motherboard BIOS, ATI driver or Windows graphics settings
You can have a heat related problem if your ATI vga card only hangs under heavy load, like after 5 minutes of 3D gaming, which mostly happen when you have a 'manipulated' hardware. Like you changed the heating on the vga card (installed a silent fan, water cooling, heatpipe), you overclocked the card with ATITool or the card itself is pushed to its limits by the factory (ex. GeXcube Radeon 9550 eXtreme). Cards with original factory cooling should work flawlessly in the average PC case. Factory built passive heating (heatsink without fan) is usually no problem; although these cards run hotter, they are still in the spec range. I have a Connect3D Ati Radeon 9600 vga card with passive heating, it is 44°C idle, 59°C gaming.
Temperature is a thing that you can measure, before adding an extra fan for better cooling, it is better to check the temp exactly. First option is to check it with ATITool (if your vga card supports it, ex. Radeon 9600 doesn't but 9600XT does; if it has 'Overdrive', it should support). It is also possible to attach a digital thermometer (like those from Oregon Scientific or Conrad) which has the heat sensor on a cable to monitor outdoor temperatures. Just fix the sensor on the heatsink with Scotch.
Fixing the heat sensor with Scotch on the heatsink. The Connect3D Ati Radeon 9600 gets hot when gaming - temp inside the case is 30.4, the card is 58.4 C.
Checking the temperature of the card with your fingers is a bit risky, as you have no idea how hot it is, and Aluminum has the same color both at 30° and at 90° Celsius. As a guideline, temperatures under 30° feel comfortable, 60° degrees feel very hot (around double of your body temperature and triple of your finger temperature), but you are still able to keep your fingers on it and way over 60°, it can burn your finger (at least you know it was way over 60).
Components inside your PC case should be around 30-40 Celsius when idle and shouldn't get hotter than 55-60 Celsius under heavy load. Temperatures over 60 Celsius are usually considered dangerous. As there is always some kind of cooling/protection in a PC case, temperatures usually don't get higher than 90° C.
This Ati Radeon Rage 128 Pro card has a passive heatsink (the red card), but the neighboring PCI card blocks proper air flow - this setup should be avoided!
Well, you were attracted by the reputation for the better picture quality and more impressive brand-feeling of the ATI cards, but you have spent (let's be honest) more time than it worth and vga still doesn't function properly. Well, solving this kind of hardware problem with your ATI vga card is really not easy because we don't have any proper error messages with a hint where to go. So it takes time and patience from your side. If the card doesn't work despite our your efforts, I think it is time for change. Remove all the software mass installed, put settings back to defaults and get (again or finally) a card from nVidia. However, I like troubleshooting hardware problems a lot, it is like a challenging puzzle to solve, I also learn a lot on the way and it is such a good feeling when it finally works.
If you are before the vga upgrade, I suggest to buy a nVidia chipset card. Although current sales (2005) of Ati vs. nVidia are almost 50-50%, there is much less chance for compatibility problems. For the last 3 years it was all about nVidia cards and 99% of the games start with the nVidia logo; before, it was very common to download special patches for certain resolutions for Ati graphics cards. As for picture quality, Ati delivered cards of much higher quality picture output, especially in high resolutions, however, today cards from both manufacturer deliver equally very high quality pictures. If you're a sound freak like me, you can buy a heat-pipe based passive cooler from Thermaltake for 20-30 USD which is more than sufficient for any mid-range (Ati Radeon 9600, nVidia FX 5700, etc.) vga card.
Finally, I would be happy to hear about you, what your particular problem and what the solution was. Also, if you have ideas not included in the article, write to me so I can add them as an update.
Comments can be added through this page.
I won't check the links in the future, if they are broken, try to look for the page with Google. However, if you report broken links, I will update them.
Driver downloads:
Utilities:
Other:
Last edited on 29-Jan-2006.
(c) Imre Oliver Kozak and @Foxpop.
