Skype crashes your ATI T60? Problem description and solution inside
Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 3:04 pm
I recently added a webcam to my T60, and was expecting to use it sometimes to have video conversations with people over Skype. This T60 has the ATI X1400 GPU, and is running Windows XP with the latest driver that Lenovo released for this model (8.593.100.7000, from 29/Sep/09), coming from the 79d179ww.exe package.
[digression]
Personally, I don't like Skype much anymore. Since version 4 it has been gradually getting more bloated, ad-infested, buggy, annoying (forced automatic upgrades + old versions that stop functioning + often buggy new versions = killer combo). There have not been any important user-oriented features added after version 3 (and really, how much can you really add to a voice+video+IM chat application that works well).
IMO, Skype has long deteriorated into garbage, bordering on malware (if only for the excessive obfuscation used by the application). Before you jump in blaming Microsoft - no, they did not ruin Skype. It has already become crap before they acquired it. They just didn't fix whatever was broken (in the overall approach more than in the specifics), and even continued to break it further a bit.
They can get away with it, because Skype has established itself as a monopoly, and if you have contacts from more than one circle, there is no way you can feasibly break them off it, so you end up having to use the darn thing, just like I do.
[/digression]
Well, it turned out that, in my attempt to enable Skype video chats on my T60, I encountered a great example of everything that's wrong with Skype these days.
Symptoms of the issue:
Having a video chat quickly showed to be impossible. Trying to place or receive a video call would cause the application to hang as soon as connection was initiated, and within a second, the entire PC would stop responding. Funnily, audio could continue working fine for a while, but eventually the whole system would freeze, requiring a hard shutdown. Upon resume, you would be informed that your system just crashed with a Bugcheck 0xEA - THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER - from aticqag.dll. This DLL is the Central Memory Manager / Queue Server Module of the ATI video driver.
Additional data on the crash:
Downgrading Skype to version 6 (latest build of which I think is 6.22.0.107). Note that by default, when you install this version, Skype will try to auto-update itself to the latest version! It will do so without a prompt (unless you are quick to disable the automatic update in the options). I wasted at least an hour of my investigation thinking that I am on version 6, before I realized that it auto-updated itself!
Note that you cannot disable the automatic update while offline (because you need to be logged in to an account to have access to these settings!). If you disable it, Skype will still try to update itself, it will just ask for your permission. Skype actively fights against its users, and it has been for quite some time.
To date, as far as I know, the only sure method to disable Skype updates is to block download.skype.com in the HOSTS file (or in your firewall). This will of course prevent you from manually downloading versions from their server. Another way which seems to work is blocking off its update vector - the SkypeSetup.exe file in your Local Settings\Temp directory. To do so you can create a dummy file with this name, and set it to read-only. Skype will not be able to download anything over it. So far it worked for me (the nagging to update ceased), but I was told that this solution may not work 100%.
Also, at some point, version 6 will likely stop working, so this is a temporary fix at best. As low as my opinion on Skype and its development team is, I will still try to report it as a bug and hope that they would fix it. More likely it will just be fixed accidentally in some future drop, or maybe they will accidentally break it worse for newer customers, and then they would not be able to ignore it.
[digression]
Personally, I don't like Skype much anymore. Since version 4 it has been gradually getting more bloated, ad-infested, buggy, annoying (forced automatic upgrades + old versions that stop functioning + often buggy new versions = killer combo). There have not been any important user-oriented features added after version 3 (and really, how much can you really add to a voice+video+IM chat application that works well).
IMO, Skype has long deteriorated into garbage, bordering on malware (if only for the excessive obfuscation used by the application). Before you jump in blaming Microsoft - no, they did not ruin Skype. It has already become crap before they acquired it. They just didn't fix whatever was broken (in the overall approach more than in the specifics), and even continued to break it further a bit.
They can get away with it, because Skype has established itself as a monopoly, and if you have contacts from more than one circle, there is no way you can feasibly break them off it, so you end up having to use the darn thing, just like I do.
[/digression]
Well, it turned out that, in my attempt to enable Skype video chats on my T60, I encountered a great example of everything that's wrong with Skype these days.
Symptoms of the issue:
Having a video chat quickly showed to be impossible. Trying to place or receive a video call would cause the application to hang as soon as connection was initiated, and within a second, the entire PC would stop responding. Funnily, audio could continue working fine for a while, but eventually the whole system would freeze, requiring a hard shutdown. Upon resume, you would be informed that your system just crashed with a Bugcheck 0xEA - THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER - from aticqag.dll. This DLL is the Central Memory Manager / Queue Server Module of the ATI video driver.
Additional data on the crash:
- The crash happens whenever Skype tries to initialize the webcam. It often happens (although not 100%) even when you try testing the webcam via the video options.
- It is not related to a specific camera or driver. It was easily reproduced with a Microsoft camera, a Logitech camera, as well as a Logitech camera using generic Windows USB video driver instead of the Logitech-provided one.
- Skype is the only program (so far) that I found to have this issue. Testing the webcam via Window's built-in interface, or via the manufacturer's utility works fine.
- The issue is present in the latest Skype version (7.24) as well as in at least one earlier version (7.16).
- Messing with random settings in the video driver. Disabling most of the hardware acceleration in Windows does make the issue go away, but leaves a system that's hardly usable.
- Downgrading the video driver or reinstalling it with default settings, or without the Catalyst Control Center.
Downgrading Skype to version 6 (latest build of which I think is 6.22.0.107). Note that by default, when you install this version, Skype will try to auto-update itself to the latest version! It will do so without a prompt (unless you are quick to disable the automatic update in the options). I wasted at least an hour of my investigation thinking that I am on version 6, before I realized that it auto-updated itself!
Note that you cannot disable the automatic update while offline (because you need to be logged in to an account to have access to these settings!). If you disable it, Skype will still try to update itself, it will just ask for your permission. Skype actively fights against its users, and it has been for quite some time.
To date, as far as I know, the only sure method to disable Skype updates is to block download.skype.com in the HOSTS file (or in your firewall). This will of course prevent you from manually downloading versions from their server. Another way which seems to work is blocking off its update vector - the SkypeSetup.exe file in your Local Settings\Temp directory. To do so you can create a dummy file with this name, and set it to read-only. Skype will not be able to download anything over it. So far it worked for me (the nagging to update ceased), but I was told that this solution may not work 100%.
Also, at some point, version 6 will likely stop working, so this is a temporary fix at best. As low as my opinion on Skype and its development team is, I will still try to report it as a bug and hope that they would fix it. More likely it will just be fixed accidentally in some future drop, or maybe they will accidentally break it worse for newer customers, and then they would not be able to ignore it.