Error: Display Driver R300 stopped responding

I am now getting the following error message most times when I swicth on my PC:

"Display Driver R300 stopped responding and has recovered".

Is this serious? What is wrong? What can I do to fix it?

[nick.king]

Disable Dreamscape perhaps, if you have NVidia 8800

Sorry to bring an old thread to life but I have a DELL VOSTRO 200 with the ATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256 MB. It's been fine for the first week, last night I installed the latest ATI drivers (BIG MISTAKE), all day today and I'm talking every 10 mins I get the R300 error or the atikmdag error.

The screen flashes black, the resolution changes and after it's done this a few times the system either locks or reboots.

I've spent the last hour or so doing what I can before it locks, it works perfectly in safe mode by the way.

I've tried all the suggestions I've found on google, i.e. windows classic theme, disabling aero (never had it enabled to be fair), system restore, removing items from startup but nothing worked.

I'm at the stage now where I've removed everything ATI using the uninstall utility (still can't get rid of the catalyst install manager though, any help would be appreciated) and I'm now using a standard vga driver.... the system has been solid ever since, obviously it looks a mess but it's working. I think that's proof if any that it's the ATI drivers causing me grief.

I'm looking for more help if possible.

Thanks for your reply. This is the info I have: ATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256 MB
DVI/VGA output with 1xS-Video output. Hope this helps, but it doesn't mean
anything to me!

Thanks for your reply. This is the info I have: ATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256 MB
DVI/VGA output with 1xS-Video output.

Have you gone to ATI's website and downloaded and installed their latest drivers?
I'm not that familiar with ATI products however.
Other causes might be a program you recently installed. You could try to see if uninstalling
the program solves the problem.
You could try a System Restore. You could try Windows Update.

[Steve]

Many thanks for your reply - much appreciated. I did try to do a System
Restore but Vista wouldn't let me (it failed after trying) despite the fact
that I hadn't changed anything or installed anything. I was trying to
restore to a point 5 days ago when the display driver problem started.

I only get the error when I switch on from cold, on power up. Havn't had it
when the PC has hibernated (monitor power down). Had it again today - i.e.
most times now when I power up. I don't use video games so I don't think the
drivers have been under a lot of pressure. Is it possible to uninstall the
new ATI drivers if a problem results?

Thanks. It's nice to know that I am not alone here - didn't know if it's a
problem with my new PC (already had to have a new mother board due to a
problem) or with Vista. It seems to be Ok if I reboot. Let's hope an update
will fix it.

Make sure you send the error report to MS, it's sort of a vote on what bugs
to fix next. Control Panel - Problems Reports And Solutions (if MS knows the
fix it will tell you here).

Yes, you can uninstall the new ATI video drivers if the problem persist. But
I'd have to ask, why would you want to uninstall the latest drivers and go
back to older drivers ?

You'll get the option to uninstall in the control panel - Programs applet.

Really odd that you are seeing that error on power ups.

Steve, looks like we are having the same problems. When I get the R300 error
while working on something or on the internet, my mouse diappears and my key
board stops responding. I checked "event viewer" in the Control Panel and see
that I get this error all the timewhether the machine is sleeping or if I am
working on it. I had a Senoir ech at Dell in Austin work on it. and it seemed
to disappear for a while. It started again recently and I think it was
because I allowed a website download an actve X add on. I don't know if this
is a problem with Dell PC's alone or if other makes are getting this R300
error.

[Perski]

OOh what a coincidence iam not alone! i bought the same desktop from dell in semptember and i got the same problem with the radeon video card. i mailed them a couple of times but with no response so far. i ve been to every forum i could find on the world wide web. luckily for us we have these vga integrated video cards... but the point is, how long are we suppose to wait to get a great working stable desktop with vista? i hadn't paid a bulk of money just to worry and keep installing and deleting drivers... too bad that dell hadnt told us anything about the problem...

umm... right, good for you that helped you! i've tried your way and guess what? i got it up to date. anyway, im tryin to figure out what is te connection between intel card and problematic radeon? could you specify what ati drivers you have? i got 7.10 and when i switch to radeon and turn on CCC, open large pic, play a movie or wait till screen saver turn on, it freezes and needs restarting...
Do you think that restoring you desktop to the company settings might help? (yknow, default settings as they were when you bought it)

I have a HP Pavilion 2gig of ram 1.8 processor and my performance rating
is a 3.0 this being my lowest score. All of the others are above 4.1
with the highest at 4.7. Currently on my laptop I'm running a Duel Boot
XP Media Edition and Vista Premium on an equally partitioned hard drive
40 gigs each with an external hard drive of 200gigs. AMD Turion 64 and a
ATI Radeon Express 200M graphics card.

I installed Vista recently because it had been awhile since it had come
out and thought I would give it a chance and see if they have fixed all
of the bugs yet. Vista does have some really cool features, but
definitely doesn't have the dependability of XP.

I can run most everything with no problems. I also put Dreamscene on
and it works without a hitch. However my problem seems to be when ever I
watch streaming video on the net in full screen. The screen goes black
and I still have sound. After I esc out of it I get the R300 error also.
I have downloaded every update I can think of including tools to control
the fan in the laptop along with a fanned platform my laptop sits on.

I have read allot about this dreaded R300 error and other related type
errors. I don't think it's a hardware issue. I think it's a software
issue. It's VISTA........

Microsoft obviously hasn't worked out all of the kinks yet. We should
all blow up their forums and tech support hot lines. Hell if some one
has Bill Gate's number I will call him myself.........Too many people
are having the same exact problem with the same and different hardware
for it to be hard ware.

WHY are you putting this in a thread that was started by someone else?
Are you just STUPID?

Not only THAT... but the only post in the thread is over THREE MONTHS
OLD.

First off if you read my post you would realize that i wasn't looking
for any help. I was adding comment to what others have posted. I was
answering one of the questions in the thread about it being vista
compatibility not the hardware. i realize that the last post was over 3
months ago, but that didn't stop you from responding did it.

I like how someone like you could stop in make stupid comments. Some
one like you only has big nuts on paper. Deep down your heart pumps
little puppy piss and you would shake in your boots once i pulled mine
out.

[coolbean]

i know it was last year but has anyone managed fix this horrible bug yet? i have got dell xps 210, 256mb radeon x1300 pro. i may try using xp soon