Tech Forum

I am both the Stake Clerk and Stake Technology specialist. We just swapped out the older Optiplexes in 11 units (including the Stake) with new ones (one left to go). Now I'm getting reports from several units - including the Stake Computer (saw it myself yesterday) of a Blue Screen of Death error related to the Video Card. I set up all of these computers myself, updating them to SP 3, all the Windows and hardware patches, and the full complement of Church software. The BSoD doesn't happen all the time, but it is very inopportune when it does, and some of these units are over an hour away for me (welcome to Montana) so I can't just go out there if problems arise.

I got it last night after logging in to the church website with Firefox 3.6.16 and pulling down the Tools menu. MLS wasn't open. The error details told me the error was a STOP error
0x000000EA (0x88E00810, 0x89D704D8, 0xBA4EBCBC, 0x00000001) in ati2dvag. Apparently the video card driver has some issues.

Is there a fix or mitigation for this anywhere?

Could it perhaps be the same problem discussed in THIS thread?

I was just about to point him to the same thread, in particular, this post.

I looked at the thread, but had a hard time downloading the old driver. At 87 MB, that seems excessive for a driver, and some of my buildings only have dial-up... Also, the error I was getting wasn't the same, so I figured I'd post this one just to be sure.

blarman wrote:I looked at the thread, but had a hard time downloading the old driver. At 87 MB, that seems excessive for a driver, and some of my buildings only have dial-up...

You can always download it once with a high-speed connection, then save it on a flash drive that you then take to the various buildings. That's probably the easiest way, even for buildings with fast Internet.

aebrown wrote:You can always download it once with a high-speed connection, then save it on a flash drive that you then take to the various buildings. That's probably the easiest way, even for buildings with fast Internet.

I have, but most of my buildings are > 45 minutes away - some up to 2 hours away - and I have 11 units to take care of (only three+ Stake Center are local). Downloading to a flash drive only solves part of the problem, unfortunately.

What I was hoping was that someone from Church support had contacted Dell to ask them about the issue and see what they were recommending. I just spent three months getting all the PC's in the Stake upgraded. I really don't want to have to spend another three months worth of Saturdays/Sundays traveling.

blarman wrote:I looked at the thread, but had a hard time downloading the old driver. At 87 MB, that seems excessive for a driver, and some of my buildings only have dial-up... Also, the error I was getting wasn't the same, so I figured I'd post this one just to be sure.

Download it, extract it take out the XP_INF folder (from R253665\Driver\XP_INF), rezip that folder and send that.
That will compress down to ~15 MB (13MB with 7zip set to max compression) and should include everything you need to update the driver on XP 32 bit (directions).
It (IMO) is still WAY bigger than it needs to be, but such is life these days.

Alternatively, you could burn the 90MB file to CD and send it to someone in the unit who can install it.

Aaron Z

I just had another idea: We have semiannual training in a week or so. I'll tell them to bring a flash drive with them and give them the driver then.

Maybe this will also encourage them to come to training.