VPC-SA2C5E - AMD Graphics Driver crash

[The_Z_UK]

Hi, I'm having trouble with the latest AMD driver update (at least the latest available from Sony), whereby when running specific software (Minecraft) the graphics driver (amdkmdap.exe) crashes. Laptop is Sony VAIO VPC-SA2C5E with an AMD Radeon HD 6630M running Win 7 x64.

This issue did not occur with the factory installed drivers when I first received the laptop (I believe they were CCC 11.6). Current CCC (Catalyst Control Centre) version is 11.08 (26/8/11) with the specific driver version being 8.862.4.1000. The application that causes the driver to crash is Minecraft.

When running Minecraft for 2-5 minutes (starting from when a world is loaded), the game will freeze, the screen will flick to black, back to desktop (Aero disabled) and to black again. After this, normally, the desktop reappears with Aero enabled and a balloon message stating 'Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered'. Sometimes I just get a BSOD with amdkmdap.exe listed as the culprit. Minecraft used to and still runs very smoothly in terms of framerate. Game music keeps playing and the world autosaves fine after the crash and the Minecraft window remains displaying black and being unresponsive. Seems to have no cause at the moment. I had modded Minecraft so I patched it back to vanilla to see if mods were causing the issue and it still crashes. Minecraft is written in Java and runs in OpenGL only (in case you may not know). JRE version at time of crashes is 1.6 update 22. Will update to 1.6 update 29 and see if problem is resolved. Minecraft doesn't crash when running on Intel HD 3000 graphics (STAMINA).

Other 3D enabled applications work fine in both the old and new driver versions (Team Fortress 2, Battlefield 3, Google Earth) and Autodesk Inventor 2011 Professional I have only been able to test on the new driver version and it works fine.

How can the problem be alleviated? Should I roll back the drivers (and can it be done with little hassle)? Is a driver update coming soon?

EDIT 1: Updated Java to no avail. I even hit a new record - crash to BSOD within 30 seconds! This time it was amdkmdag.exe though.

EDIT 2: Just had a look at VAIO Update - horray! New AMD drivers are updating as we speak, though because my internet's screwed up at the moment, the update has only downloaded a small part of the installer. Guess I'll have to wait for a few hours for the internet to stop being rubbish so the update can finish downloading. Will update with results when it's installed.

Message was edited by: The_Z_UK (Edit 1)

Message was edited by: The_Z_UK

Message was edited by: The_Z_UK (Edit 2)

[CyborgMaster]

I have the exact same problem.  Sony Vaio SA running Win 7 x64 AMD Radeon HD 6630M driver version 8.862.4.1000.  Minecraft crashes for me after 1-5 minutes.  I saw the update to 8.862.4.2000 in VAIO Update, but couldn't get it to install for me. 

Has anyone figured out a fix for this issue?  Minecraft is my favorite game and not being able to play it on my new laptop stinks!  Did anyone get the new driver to install and see if that works?  Any success rolling back to an older driver that still worked with Minecraft?

Thanks!

[tfisher98]

I see the same problem, with the 8.863.4.2000 driver version.  The sony update failed to install this update, but it provides a link to download the file which I did and manually installed it.  (Driver packaging version 8.862.4.30110926a-126795-Sony.)  So the updated driver doesn't fix it.

I do see one thing that looks suspicious -- in the AMD Catalyst Control Center, the Information->Hardware tab incorrectly shows 4821 MB of memory installed; it should be 1GB.

My only workaround so far is to disable the Radeon graphics card by switching from "speed" to "stamina" mode.  Minecraft works okay with the builtin intel graphics.

[edit]

The latest version of the AMD drivers fix this problem.  Driver Packaging Version 8.92-111109a-129968C-ATI, catalyst version 11.12.  I found a link to download this on another forum -- I don't think this update is available from Sony yet.

Message was edited by: tfisher98

Message was edited by: tfisher98

[The_Z_UK]

I updated to the 8.862.4.2000 version and I still have the same problem. Playing on the Intel graphics has put me off a bit due to the low framerate, even with optifine installed.

The reason you're getting strange memory values are one of 2 things. Either it's telling you the RAM your system has installed, or it's telling you how much memory it has access to (since laptop cards use shared memory - as well as their own dedicated memory, they can use the RAM).

Looking at VAIO Support, there's an AMD driver update available to 32-bit systems (8.862.4.4000, not sure what CCC version that is) but not for 64-bit.

Where's the update Sony?

I wonder if there's any issues with installing the AMD CCC update, will it really screw up the graphics switching?

EDIT 1: Almost forgot to mention! Flash Player also crashes the drivers from time to time (less often than Minecraft). This happens when playing video. I'm not sure but I think it was the Google Chrome version of Flash (32-bit). It might also have happened with the x64 version in IE9. Video in player is replaced with green screen if the driver recovers, but sounds keeps playing. A simple refresh brings the video back. If the driver crashes like this in a browser session, after the page is refreshed or new pages with flash video are opened, it's very likely to lead to a full BSOD in the same session.

Message was edited by: The_Z_UK

Message was edited by: The_Z_UK