WTF, ATI smartgart is acting up. help please.

[BoomAM]

Hi,
for some reason, every now and then, the ATI smartgart utility, set the AGP speed to off. Why? It runs perfectly fine at 4x, and the only time that i realise that its off is when my game start to go jerky.

Sapphire Atlantis 9700PRO
Abit KT7A-RAID
768mb PC133 Memory
WindowsXP Home Edition w/Service Pack 1 & All available updates
DirectX 8.1 (waiting for DX9 to be on a magazine cover cd)
Catalyst 2.4
Via 4-in-1 Hyperon 4.45

 

[Radiohead]

Try the latest Catalyst 3.0. I think there was in issue with the older versions

 

[SickBeast]

I've been trying to get them to make this sticky at Rage3D.com/forums but they won't listen...anyways...here is what you do:

1. Uninstall drivers and cpanel.
2. Uninstall 4 in 1
3. Reinstall 4 in 1
4. Reinstall drivers.

It's strange...but that's how I fixed it on my system. Oh, and make sure AGP texturing is enabled in your mobo bios.

 

[Glitchny]

i had a problem with it when ati smart wasnt enabled under services in windows XP after i turned that on smartgart was fine

 

[308nato]

I just built my first AMD rig for my kids for Christmas. You know, just for something different. 1800+ T-Bred revA on an Asus A7v266-C.
Using a retail 64meg Rad8500. I am liking it a lot but this numbnuts SmartGart thingie is giving me fits as well. Disabled everything AGP wise.

After fighting with the biatch for a few days I got it all squared away EXCEPT I cannot get AGP texture acceleration to enable. DXDIAG and Powerstrip verify everything is enabled but that item. Sucks.

I don't know whether to cuss ATi drivers or Via chipsets or both. I am sure that is holding things back and is frustrating me to no end. I am running it with a multiplier of 12 at 145fsb on default voltage. There is a lot more to run with with but I haven't really messed with it for a while because of the AGP troubles.

What finally got it was manually installing the drivers so SmartGart doesn't load. As soon as it gets loaded everything is shut off.

Any hints as to what else to try? How does AGP texture acceleration being disabled affect the rig ? Should I just fugget about it?

I put the same card in two Intel boxes and no sweat at all.

EDIT: This pc has 98SE on it if that helps. The kids have a lot of old software that I haven't had a chance to see if it will play on XP or not.

 

[SickBeast]

AGP texture acceleration made a ~1500 point difference for me in 3dmark2001.

 

[BoomAM]

Will the catalyst 3.0a drivers fix the problem then?
I ve noticed, that occasionally, as well, that its set the AGP rate to off, even if the PCs been running for a bit, without restarts inbetween!!!.

 

[SickBeast]

i'm using the cat 3.0s and they fixed it for me in combination with the latest 4 in 1s from via.

 

[BoomAM]

Ive compeltely disbables the AGP fast writes thing, in both windows/drivers, and the BIOS, and it seems to have fixed the problem.
But, for some reason, it still sometimes says that AGP is off, but close the display propeties completly, go back to it, and it then says that its on, also confermed by SiSoft Sandra.

If the problem re-occurs, then it`ll post an update, if not, then anybody reading this should take it as a possibe fix.

 

[SickBeast]

cool.

yeah i had heard something before about fast writes messing things up. good to know.