What is "VPU recover has reset your graphics accelerator..."

[Marlon1]

OK earlier this year I built my own computer. Tis an amazing computer, very fast and I recently updated my graphic card. When I switch my computer on in the morning everything is fine. I start to play Anarchy online and I have no problems. Later on in the day my computer starts to become a lot noiser (no idea why, think its somthing to do with the fan), then Anarchy Online Crashes and I get either the Blue Screen of Death with a message saying :-

"Windows has closed down to prevent damage to your computer"

or it goes back into windows and I get this message :-

"VPU Recover has reset your graphics accelerator as it was no longer responding to graphics Drivers. Please let ATi know about this"

Towards the end of the day this happens every 5 mins into the game and its impossible to play !!

Does anybody know what is causing this and how I can stop it? I personally thought it was just AO that was doing it so i reinstalled the game, no differnece. Then I noticed it does it when I play Sims 2 and Thief 3. Please help me as I am a leader of an important Organisation on Rimor and I dont want to crash in the middle of an org meeting again !!!!!


Here are my computers details:-

Processer: Intel Pentium 4 3000 MHz
RAM: 768 MB (256+512+0;DIMM,DRAM 2700)
Har disk drive: Size 117211 MB
Graphics Card RADEON Saphire 9800 PRO 128MB
Motherboard: ASUS P4S800
Power Supply: 550W (I think)
Graphics drivers : CATALYST 4.9

[leggosboy]

Uninstalling all your graphics drivers, and try reinstalling, although it sounds like you might want to reinstall your motherboard drivers too for the AGP slot (I'm assuming it's an AGP card since I don't believe they make PCI ones that good anymore).

[Marlon1]

I have reinstalled my graphics drivers 3 times with no effect. I will try reinstalling my motherboard drivers and get back to you.

[leggosboy]

I have reinstalled my graphics drivers 3 times with no effect. I will try reinstalling my motherboard drivers and get back to you.

Try the 4x AGP solution I just posted, I googled it and apparently this is a common issue.

[Marlon1]

Ok i have changed the "AGP 3.0 Capability" in BIOS from "8x Mode" to "4x mode". I have also reinstalled my AGP motherboard drivers. I then played Ao for 10 mins and it didnt crash but i had better give it a bit longer and get back to you.

[leggosboy]

Kk, let me know if you aren't set, you can PM me.

[Marlon1]

My computer hasnt crashed once today !!!!! I think it might have worked but I am not going to start jumping around untill tommorrow. My computer has never gone this long playing AO without it crshing tho so hopefully it has worked

[Marlon1]

Well my computer hasnt crashed once today. Seems that the problem is fixed. Thankyou very much for your help

[Kahlie]

It mostly means that your graphic card is overheated when using AGP 8x mode.

Falling back to 4x mode can resolve your problem, but, if your ati card is 8x aware, you won't benefit all of its capability.

The strange noise you heard certainly came from your ATI card's fan (maybe too old, or stuck with something) which could cause this overheat.

Hoping this will help ya.

[drowen]

If it crashes again, just turn the VPU recovery off in the ati control center.

[Marlon1]

Well that is what i did at first..and instead of crashing to Windows and a VPU recover box appearing, it just used to freeze and I had to restart the computer.

But now it seems to we working fine now.

So now I have my AGP 3.0 Capability in BIOS set to 4x mode, does this mean I will loose performace in my graphics card? i hope not

[doccat]

8x is better than 4x but i doubt you will notice much.

It does sound as if your gfx card is overheating when pressed, you could pop your computer box open and make sure nothing is impeding airflow over the graphics card.

maybe the stock fan on the card is dieing as well, there are 3rd party upgrades that can make a big difference. eg http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...c_Cooling.html