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Okay.  I thought for sure that I solved this problem five months ago, but just a little while ago, I was taking pictures in one of my lots.  I go to rotate the camera (while the game is paused) and all of a sudden, the Blue Screen of Death freezes my computer.  :chainsaw:   It says that the problem lies in that same deadly file, ati3duag.dll, but without the "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA" dialogue...

I have EVERYTHING updated from DirectX to my current video driver,  Radeon Omega Drivers 3.8.291 (Catalyst 6.9), so I really don't know for sure what the heck happened.  I still have the same EPs from before, which are EPs 1-3 sans stuff packs.

I have also been noticing a few semi-noticable changes in my graphic quality at random times, such as red flashing walkby sims or objects (rare) and neighborhood objects and buildings viewed while in a lot suddenly going black (occasional).  Not sure if it's all related, but that's one thing that puzzled me a bit.  As always, any input and assistance is greatly appreciated!  Thanks!  :angel:

try deleting the Windows page file, rebooting, then restoring the pagefile.

there are instructions for this:

• Start --> My Computer
• In the left hand column click View System Information.
• In the next System Properties window that opens click on the Advanced tab.
• In the first box called Performance click on Settings.
• In the next pop-up window click the Advanced tab.
• In the bottom box where it's labeled "Virtual Memory", click on Change.
• In the new Virtual Memory window it should show you all incidences of paging files on your system. Highlight the one you want to get rid of and select the "no paging file" check box and then press set - repeat for all drives that show a page file.

Now confirm all your changes, click OK as necessary, and reboot the computer.

repeat the steps above

• Start --> My Computer
• In the left hand column click View System Information.
• In the next System Properties window that opens click on the Advanced tab.
• In the first box called Performance click on Settings.
• In the next pop-up window click the Advanced tab.
• In the bottom box where it's labeled "Virtual Memory", click on Change.
• In the Virtual Memory window select your hard drive (usually C, but you should remember which one from the previous work), then select "System Managed Size".  If you are a guru of such things, you might try a custom size, but opinions vary on how best to choose that setting.

Now confirm your changes, click OK as necessary, and once again - reboot your system.

If this does not resolve the issue, it is possible you have a bad RAM chipset and will need to run a memory diagnostic utility. I use a free piece of testing software called Memtest86, you can read more about it and get it here:

   www.memtest86.com (http://www.memtest86.com/)

Last ditch efforts may require replacing the video card to see if it is a bad one (they do die) and changing the slot the card is in (not always an option)

Thanks!  I think that solved it for the moment.  Hopefully it won't happen again for a long time.  :)

Okay.  I spoke a little too soon.  This time the same exact thing popped up, but the file error was with ati2dvag.dll.  Should I do the same thing mentioned above, or is it something else I need to do?

Hey Tenshii:

Have look at this: http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/31775/ (http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/31775/)

What I suspect is that you may need to completely uninstall the driver with the ATI tool and re-install with a new version.  Also turn off "Fast Writes" if it is in your BIOS.

There may be no solution, that link shows that many people continued to have problems inspite of the solutions provided.  I have had a lot of negative experience with ATI drivers in the past that led me to buy nVidia cards instead.

have you tried an older driver?

An older driver makes my graphics glitchy for everything on my laptop, and I already have the Radeon Omega Drivers Catalyst 6.9 (most recent update I can find on Omegadrivers.net) installed properly, and after my experience of trying to work with the official drivers, I'm hesitant to even try the updated 7.1 on the ATI site. (and not to mention that it doesn't even support Dell. :?)  If I had the money, I'd probably ask my mom if I could get a new one (either way, the answer from her would be no, and that I have to save enough to finish up at college).  I'll have to get my cousin to work with any hardware issues directly, since he's my local and loving "Geek on Call"  and I don't have that vast knowledge for dealing with hardware/video chips directly.  :D

Also, I made sure to completely uninstall the old driver, so if that was the problem, I might have gotten the ati2dvag.dll error a lot sooner than the ati3duag.dll one... but I guess I could be wrong about that, too.  :)