# ATiTool .24 w/ CAT 5.8 and Strange Problem



## decksla (Sep 7, 2005)

hi all

i am using ATiTool .24 with CAT 5.8 on my Xpertvision Vanilla X800 w/ Zalman VF700 Cu.

It is o/ced to 460/560 and is good for low to mid 60c's temps under load.

i am noticing a strange problem with the games i play (BF series, FarCry, etc) in that i will be playing anywhere from 5 mins to 1 hour when all of a sudden, the screen will lock and the sound will loop on where the screen has locked.  The screen will then go black (pc has not locked up), the sound will stop and then the screen will go back to normal and i can continue playing the game as if nothing has happened?

I log temps and everything seem ok, CPU is fine and GPU is good too.  With the CAT 5.8 drivers i have disabled the runtime function so it does not run on startup.  VPU recovery is also off.  3d detection is also turned off.

The only thing i havent tried is putting the .exe's in the 3d exception list.  Will this work?

Are the screen black outs a result of ATiTool dropping to default clocks?

any ideas?

cheers
dE


----------



## h0tsauce (Sep 7, 2005)

this is just a thought, but try going back to normal clock speeds and see if that still happens


----------



## W1zzard (Sep 7, 2005)

anything interesting in the atitool log file for that time? try playing at a lower clock .. maybe the overall increased heat makes other system components unstable


----------



## decksla (Sep 7, 2005)

ok, i know what its doing.

for some reason, whilst playing a game (any game for that matter), it will go good for a random period of time, then all of a sudden, black out, and come back in and play as normal.  sometime, i may need to quit out of the game then come back in, but i dont need to reboot and the pc never locks.

it happened about 5 mins ago and when i took a look at the clocks, it dropped it from 461/560 to 390/450 (default)!!!

the gpu temps are good, (low 60c for an x800) and overall system temps are good as well.

what i have done to see if this will fix my problem is to hard code the clock ranges from core 460 to 462 and memory 560 to 562 so the program cant drop below these values (least thats what im hoping).

ill let you know how it goes


----------



## decksla (Sep 7, 2005)

nope didnt work.  the game is still dropping down to the default clocks.

any reason why?  temps are fine, no artifacting or anything.

3d detection is disabled


----------



## decksla (Sep 7, 2005)

uninstalled .24 and installed .25 beta 7

ill see how it goes

ive looked on the forum and have gone back MANY pages to find that quite a number of people have the same issue but with no real answer on how to fix.

any suggestions would be great.

dropping the clocks would be the last resort


----------



## decksla (Sep 7, 2005)

ok, still dropping in .25 beta 7  

ive dropped the core to 450 and it seems ok.

just want to know what is stopping the games from running at that clock speed?  is there a safe guard built it to crash back to default on temp?  memory issues?  commands not received in time?

cheers


----------



## Jewfromdahood (Sep 8, 2005)

i have no problems with the 5.8 catalyst and atitool .24 on any of my games, it actually kind of raised my benchmarks even without ATItool's OC clocks. These are with the Specs of my current HP d530C with Intel 848 Mobo, Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS limited Gamer Edition, ATI X850XTPE AGP 8X (OC'ed from 540Mhz Core and 590Mhz Memory (1180Mhz) to 555Mhz Core and 630Mhz Memory (1260Mhz total). And this system has crappy cooling so i probably can achieve better speeds with new computer especially after i finish doing all the mods)


----------



## decksla (Sep 8, 2005)

its not really a problem, i just find it strange that when i have told the vid card to run at 460/560 it barfs it and drops back to default.

i have though, dropped it to 450/560 and its running good so far.  i just want to know what triggers off the need for atitool to drop back to default.  is it a high temp thing?  or a command not issued in time thing?  memory thing?


----------



## Jewfromdahood (Sep 8, 2005)

why not try using the built in catalyst Overdrive overclocking utility


----------



## Jewfromdahood (Sep 8, 2005)

i've used it and compared to ATItool and it is all good. Not as Fancy as ATItool overall but is still awesome. Since ATI Catalyst comes in both native 64 and native 32 bit, i think i will go with the ATI Overdrive with my new computer until ATI releases their own 64 bit native version, i will also compare it to the 32 bit versions and maybe a difference in benchmarks.


----------



## decksla (Sep 8, 2005)

i might.

does it output temps to MBM?  if not, ill give it a miss.

im a sucker for logging all information.  i also like having temp details the same so MBM does both my CPU and GPU temps in the system tray

plus CLI.EXE chews up alot more resources than atitool does, from my experience anyway.

thanks for the suggestion though, ill take a look tonight


----------



## Jewfromdahood (Sep 8, 2005)

not sure. but it has cool temperature gauge in the overdrive menu


----------



## decksla (Sep 8, 2005)

ive only got a vanilla X800 but read that in tweakguides that CCC only uses overdrive for the XT series of cards?


----------



## decksla (Sep 8, 2005)

just tried and i dont have the overclock option.

dont really want to steer from atitool though, its an awesome program, easy to use and outputs to MBM.  i couldnt ask for a better bit of software, except for this little bug though.

that is, if it is a bug, or just a safe guard for me damaging my vid card.


----------



## W1zzard (Sep 8, 2005)

no such safeguards in atitool .. since you ruled out all other things i can think of .. maybe you have a hotkey to load the default profile and accidentially press it during gaming? i know far fetched


----------



## decksla (Sep 8, 2005)

thanks for the suggestion, but i dont think i do.

i can actually load a game and leave it be, and in most cases it will crash out.

i think im pushing the card too hard.  im getting some better cooling next week so ill see how it goes.

thanks again


----------



## decksla (Sep 8, 2005)

on a side note, i tried ati tray tools for the fun of it.  the app seems a bit complicated and i hated everything having to be accessed from the systray icon.

one very cool thing it did have was the OSD FPS and GPU temp.  Very nice!  still, was a bit to involved for me, so uninstalled and re-enabled .25 beta 7


----------

