Thank you very much!

Almir

I have a Toshiba Satellite M305-DS4830 running Vista x64 with the AMD Turion X2 Ultra and ATI Radeon 3100 integrated graphics card / chipset. I was getting an error that was, essentially, atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered. I downloaded ATI graphics drivers and tried various permutations including uninstalling the Catalyst Control Center as mentioned elsewhere. The problem kept recurring. I suspect it’s due to multiple monitors, as it didn’t seem to be a problem running on the laptop only.

After I couldn’t find a way to contact Toshiba by any kind of email or web form, I called Toshiba’s tech support. I was told that it was the 64 bit version of Vista and that I should have selected the 32 bit when I first turned on my computer. The solution, I was told, is to restore to factory defaults, except not really the factory defaults because I needed to end up with the 32 bit version of Vista.

I politely informed the tech that I thought it was a little absurd to think that the computer would have prompted me to select which version of Windows I wanted preloaded when I already had the computer. Indeed, as I told him, I purchased the computer specifically for the 64 bit version of Windows because it’s faster and more secure due to reasons like DEP turned on by default. In that case, he told me, I should revert to factory defaults using the 64 bit version and test it without any of the automatic updates to see if one of those caused it. I lied and told him I would.

Before hanging up, I asked him what the email address for Toshiba’s technical support was so that I didn’t have to waste time in a phone tree. He sounded flustered and put me on hold while he asked his level 2 supervisor. When he returned, he said in regards to Toshiba email support ‘we don’t really have it’.

I have solved the problem of atikmdag by selecting the Windows Classic theme in the Personalization section of Vista. I can now run dual monitors without difficulty or errors. I’m saddened, though, because this computer was the first I’ve used that was fast enough to run Vista Aero, the pretty effects and glass transparencies. Windows Classic makes the computer look like Windows 98, but at least it runs without error.

I’ll probably continue to try each new version of ATI drivers as they’re released to see if the problem is addressed. I’ll probably never try to use Toshiba’s technical support again for fear that it will actually make me dumber.