T400 Display Driver Issue

For some reason my game crashes whenever I play it with the dedicated graphics card. I have no problems on the integrated one. What happens is that suddenly the game stops, and I get a message at the bottom right of the screen that says the visual driver amdkmdap failled , then recovered. At this point I have to tell the computer to end the process (game), and start it over again. Any thought?


BTW its a t400 with 64bit Vista Business.

 

Check out latest graphic drivers.

 

This is a known issue. You also get the error when you have dual monitor setup. you end up getting BSOD. sucks.

 

I don't get the BSOD, I just get a software not responding message.

Where do I get new drivers?

 

As of today, there are no new drivers and no ETA for a fix.

 

I get the BSOD if I run dual monitors and have video running switching from screen to screen while having the screensaver on. The BSOD does not happen instantly with all these things running, it just eventually happens after a few of those amdkmdap errors. If I left everything runninging I say in 2-3 days a BSOD will happen.

 

The problem is, I'M NOT RUNNING DUAL MONITORS. I'm using the one monitor on the screen, but am getting this problem, whats going on?

 

Hi, this is my first post on this forum!

Please pardon the bump, but I have the same exact problem as you ozymandias. Have you found anything to help you with this problem since you last posted here?

 

same problem here. gear of war crashes and after a few seconds it recovers (in game). after about 3-4 times this goes away and I can play normally.

 

I think it has only recovered with me once or twice. It usually just goes back to the desktop. ThinkPads are supposed to be good, so you'd think there wouldn't be a problem like this. Unless, of course, it is due to something outside of Lenovo's control.

 

May be its vista related have you done any updates that might be conflicting with the driver. This may be drastic but i would format and reinstall windows and NOT do any updates Then try it see if it works. You never know could be related to the 64bit version of vista.

 

It isn't, unfortunately. Unlike ozymandias I'm using the 32-bit version of Windows Vista Enterprise.

 

According to Lenovo, the situation should now be improved. There is new video driver mentioned in the thread over at Lenovo Forums. The title of thread is "R400/T400/T500/W500: display driver "amdkmdap" crashes when an external monitor is active ".

If you still have amdkmdap crashes, I propose to report your problem over there. For then there is one place to share all the information.

 

Yeah, I was considering that; thanks. What about you ozymandias?

 

I already posted there. All that seems to happen there is people's complaints get compiled into one place. Whether anything is done about it remains to be seen.

P.S.- I found something that helps a little bit. If you play games in windowed mode it reduces the amount of times the display crashes. Albeit windowed Fallout 3 is small, but its still playable.

 

I think I might have just solved the problem on my laptop.

Well, I just installed the update to the graphics drivers that were released on the 17th (although they are mysteriously marked as being November drivers) and the latest Hotkey utility installed (I installed the latter manually). I just played Prince of Persia: Sands of Time for about an hour with no problems. Usually I can't play for more than a few minutes on ATI graphics without an amdkmdap crash! So it seems to have been solved. I'll hold my breath and hope it works this way with all of my other games, too.

 

I've been having driver crashes while playing Left4Dead, but usually the recovery system kicks in and prevents me from getting booted off the server.

However, lately I've observed less crashing by setting the computer to use the discrete video card, then rebooting, and then starting the game. If I don't reboot after switching, I am more prone to crashes.

 

Hmmm. I see. Well, it turns out that although I can play Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Savage: Battle for Newerth doesn't crash upon loading a server (note: I was only playing that game as a test because it crashes like crazy on my setup), the Bioshock demo still crashes after 30 minutes or so of play. I wonder if I should change the BIOS to not enable switchable graphics.

EDIT: Incidentally, my computer is listed as having multiple monitors connected, two for each of my two graphics chips:

 

There is now a new graphics driver from Lenovo which resolves the driver crash issue. See here: MIGR 71851.

It has a few document quirks but besides it runs great. I recommend to install this driver. Be sure to read the installation notes on the download page.

 

Thanks, Izmi! Would you even recommend installing it if you are using the Mobility Modder drivers?

EDIT: I mean, these new drivers are beta, correct?

 

Hi jtull,

These drivers are not beta. They have "public release" status. They are known to have some quirks which are documented on the download page. But besides, they run great.

Since you can use the switchable graphics functionality with them, I think that they are better suited for general use than modded drivers. An exception might be if you are really into gaming and want to use the latest and greatest ATI drivers. For the newly released Lenovo drivers are based on ATI's november release (8.11) and thus, some months older than the current ATI drivers.

 

The new driver didn't fix the igfxtray.exe and igfxpers.exe bug where it uses 50% of the cpu resources on idle. Ah well, looks like they'll have to still be disabled until the next release...

 

I definitely wouldn't say that I'm really into gaming, but yes, I have been a somewhat serious PC gamer since I got my new laptop (despite the budget graphics chip- my university asked us to buy this model) and I like having up to date drivers, but I'm not terribly hardcore. Are the differences in game performance that noticeable? I mean, I can find out myself, but I figured I might as well ask.

 

Since I do not run games, I have nothing to say...

I guess your choice is between
- switchable graphics but not maximal game performance
- ATI graphics with maximal game performance but without graphics switching

The right thing to do obviously depends on your preferences.

 

I've put your feedback on the "still-todo list" for a next driver release (see here). I think that your feedback is more than welcome there if you want to describe your case more in-depth.

 

Thanks! What information should I supply?