By allocating 128 megabytes of memory for video, I managed to render Windows completely inoperable — now it only works without the video card driver :(
Unclear what’s going on. Here’s a description of the symptoms:
I have an ASUS X51RL laptop with ATI onboard video that can use system RAM for its own purposes. After using the standard tools of the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) software to increase the amount of memory used by the video card (the manufacturers call it “UMA Buffer Size”) from the default 64 MB to 128 MB, Windows broke. The process of increasing the allocated memory was accompanied by a reboot (which was expected) and a “BIOS checksum error” message (which was already strange).
- On boot, the welcome screen proceeds normally. During user logon, the firewall, antivirus, and a couple of small utilities attempt to load, but crash with “Unhandled exception” or “Error (0xXXX)” messages. FAR and CCC refuse to launch, reporting insufficient system resources. Additionally, the hard drive activity light blinks continuously (and accordingly, the drive churns non-stop). The only way to shut down is by force.
- When booting in Safe Mode or with VGA mode enabled, all applications work, the network is available, and the drive behaves in a more familiar manner. Launching CCC to reduce the video memory size is impossible, as the card’s driver is absent.
What was tried:
- Multiple uninstall/reinstall cycles of drivers in various combinations (order / versions / driver components).
- Installing a fresh copy of the same Windows (XPSP2) on a neighboring partition and then installing the driver on it — the new Windows behaves EXACTLY the same way.
- Flashing the BIOS with the same version. A newer version was not tried due to support.asus.com
being unavailable. - Searching in ATITool and ATI Tray Tools for a way to change this cursed parameter. Did not find one.
- UPD: Flashing BIOS version 2.02, followed by a reset (Load User Defaults / Load Manufacturer Defaults).
The last remaining idea is to install Kubuntu (since that’s the only one I have) and hope that the ATI driver for Linux will allow restoring the status quo. And I turn to the esteemed members of the community: what other shamanic rituals can one try? The service center is far away, and getting there is long and expensive :( That is being considered as a last resort.
UPD: Linux is out — ATI doesn’t make drivers for it, Xorg won’t start and sends the system into a reboot. Another thought — reflash the GPU’s BIOS. The question is: where to get it?
This cry of the soul has been published in the Russian sysadmins community. Any constructive comments are welcome. Even more so: I will be very grateful for your helpful and constructive input, dear friends. Sincerely yours, a victim of ATI (Asus?) incompetence, Me