Display Driver Problems

Pse help I'm confused but I think the Manufactirers are more confused than me. When My Dell Dimension 8300, WinXP crashes Ms Online Crash report says " Crash casued by the following file: ati2dvaa. The device driver got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Ms and ATI Corporation have investigated this and there no solution identified. Pse check with your hardware device vendor for any driver updates. Technical Information: ***0x000000EA, (0X829 D0DA8, 0X82B12148, 0XF89E9CB4, 0X00000001) ati2dvaa Beginning dump of physical memory, physical memory dump complete. Contact your Systems Administrator or Tech Supoort for further assistance" I contact ATI Corporation and they 'guess' which downloads I should have to rectify problem. They are downloaded on the computer and immediately after installation it returns with a bang " Fatal ERRROR, Sorry we could not find appropriate gadgets to instal it to". The company Technicians try SEVERAl times with those 'guesses' until they tell me to 'go and search at 'Driver Guide.com". Driver guide is 'unfriendly to layman' and I fail to find the appropriate one. I contact Dell, the Computer Manufacturer and they say "No, your Computer should not have 16MB Ati rage 128 Ultra but 256MB …Radeon 9800xt." I install that and it is accepted without a bang at the end. But my computer still crashes. I check under Device Manager and I still see the 16MB …128Ultra still there. If I uninstal it in add/rremove hardware the display is disfigured…PHE-U-EU-EUE-UE-W! DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I should go from here PLEASE?

Find out exactly what Video Card and Drivers you have currently installed, with:

Everest 2.20 (free)
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html

Then go to the manufacturer's site to get a fresh downloaded copy of the appropriate Driver.

If this Video Card came pre-installed in your Dell Computer, the correct Driver should be available to you on the Drivers CD that came with your original purchase.

Best Regards

Sir Thanks Dough, I have found the video card driver at EVEREST HOME EDITION:Being Device Description: 16MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra Adapter String: 16MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra Display Adapter I downloaded it from ATI.com and unfortunately it returned the same message "SEVERE ERROR….Video Card not found" after installation. The other issue you pointed out was that the drivers should have come with a CD from the Manufacturer. I did not get that CD. Everything came installed but the computer did not come straight from Manufacturer but through some 'Agents' whom I now suspect of having installed different components from those specified (if that's possible). That could be the only reason why both ATI and DELL now appear confused…failing to find the appropriate device/driver. That 'middleman' has since vanished. I guess there is a physical component that needs to be physically removed from the computer and an appropriate one fitted. Thank you again for writing. Regards MM

Bummer!
And a Pox on all unscrupulous "agents".

The card currently installed in your machine, 16MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra, can be purchased new for about $25.
In my limited experience, I think it is a relatively "old/slow" card and was released for use with Windows 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0. ATI has full support for DirectX 6.x. It "might" run with your XP machine.
(it is quite possible that you've been treated badly by your "agents".)

Please take the following into consideration.

1. You MUST completely uninstall the current AGP Driver from your machine BEFORE attempting to install a fresh copy of the same driver or an updated version of the Driver.

2. The ATI Rage (family of Video Cards) may require DirectX 8.x at this time. Therefore, you MUST install DirectX 8.x or highter BEFORE installing your Video Card Driver.

3. The ATI Driver for the 16mb ATI Rage (family of Video Cards) can be found here:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default…dge&folderID;=27

When Dell told your THIS:

I contact Dell, the Computer Manufacturer and they say "No, your Computer should not have 16MB Ati rage 128 Ultra but 256MB …Radeon 9800xt." I install that and it is accepted without a bang at the end. But my computer still crashes. I check under Device Manager and I still see the 16MB …128Ultra still there.

They didn't mean that you should get the Radeon 9800xt "Drivers" and try to make them work with an ATI Rage 128 Ultra AGP Card in your Dell machine.
They meant that they do not believe that they "physically" put a AtI Rage 128 Ultra Video AGP card into your machine, and that they believe that they did "physically" put a Radeon 9800xt into machines like yours.

If the Radeon 9800xt card isn't there now, Dell probably believes that someone took it out.
I'd give them high marks for their suspicion, which may be correct.

Best Regards