I am happy to announce you that the lastest ATI catalyst drivers seems to corrects the problem encountered with ATI video card on java-opengl application.
(the JVM parameter “noddraw” is not sufisant because it do not correct this problem in most of case)
Bruno
great news ! I’m looking forward to check it !! 
Lilian
Some more precise informations:
version tested is : catalyst drivers version 6.1, downloadable from ati web site.
Bbruno
i have just downloaded latest drivers from ati - 6.1, tested, and nothing new again, freeze every about 10 seconds. I have ati 9000, win xp, latest jre1.5.06, i also think that the problem is not in firefox or jogl but in ati driver, beocuse that situation i have in every browser i am using - ie, opera, firefox, i have also tested it in win 98 and the situation is the same, but standalone jogl programs like for example jake2(quake2) are working good without any complications, so maybe this is a general bug betwean java runtime and web browsers?
also jack is not working correctly: http://www.javapause.com/games/jack/
DzzD what type of card you are using - ati or nvidia, and that demo you created without joglappletlouncher does it work without any freeze on your machine (if you have ati card) ? And finnaly please check how jogl appletdemo works you: https://jogl-demos.dev.java.net/applettest.html
Damn!!!
I have an ATI x800, and most opengl-java demo was not working before even in standalone mode (Applet and application was freezing/hanging 10s every 10s) I installed the lastest driver, I test again most of those demos with the new drivers and all demo that was not running before run fine now without any freeze or hang.
even my own demo was not working before and now they run all fine.
A friend of mine have also tested last drivers with an old ATI 9xxx (sorry I dont know exacly ) and it also resolved the problem for him.
Bruno
is there anyone here who have ati 9xxx but is using other system then windows for example linux, can you test it this applet demo and see if it freeze every 10 seconds:
jogl-demos.dev.java.net/applettest.html
matbe it is some win problem, becouse x800 and 9xxx have the same driver (tested on my computer and Dzzd ), can anyone test it please?
but on the other hand it is one step into good direction if some of ati cards works fine, but we must solve the problem of old ones…
I had a round with the ati support, and after running through all of the usual kindergarden stuff (updating to catalyst 6.1 etc…) they ended up telling me that they couldn’t help, I had to register to their developers network as this was an “advanced” issue. Naturally, the ordinary user support people couldn’t just pass it on to someone at the developers network that could help. I felt like dealing with the tax-man; as soon as you have explained your problems to one your’e sent to another office, asked to fill in a new form and start all over again :-\
However, I have only had those problems on an ATI 9000 stoneage PCI card, and I have now realised, only when using VBOs ??? When I select VA rendering everything run fine (but using more resources for rendering).
6.2 just came out so give that a try. Probably won’t fix anything but you never know.
you are saing about ARB_vertex_buffer_object, am i right? I was testing jogl applet using oficial apllet from jogl-demos.dev.java.net/applettest.html, this is gears demo and it is not using glGenBuffersARB etc only glGenLists(…). You said something about switching to VA rendering what do you mean, can you explain?
i have updated driver to 6.2 and nothing has change, the same freze…
Please try the following:
-Dsun.java.noddraw=true
Click OK, etc. Quit your web browser and restart.
Does that improve the stability with the JOGL Gears Applet? What about Jack Flowers?
Yupp!
Yea, and the common denominator here is that in both cases we are using geometry stored in GPU accessible memory (VBO and display lists). I suspect there is something fishy going on in ATIs memory handling, that there is some garbage collection or something that requires pauses. And on some configurations those pauses just takes too long, longer than the ATI developers have expected.
I have noticed by looking at the Ctrl-Alt-Del Windows process listing, and sorting on CPU activity, that the System (not the system idle) process maxes out when I have those pauses. It makes me wonder if some of the driver code runs in that process. Anybody knowing more about Windows drivers that can comment?
Vertex arrays, using glVertexPointer and glDraw(Range)Elements.
I cant understand how it is possible that this new drivers corrects some videocard and do not for others, but anyway 6.1 correct for me and I will not try the 6.2 (because I am afraid that bug get back).
It will be good to collect different configuration where bugs occur and where it doesnt maybe as a new topic with checkbox. It will enable better research for the probleme cause and its solution.
Bruno
i agree with you, thi is a good idea to create new thread for ati/nvidia issus.
My card ati 9000 is quite old, about 2 years, my friend who have ati 9700 have not this kind of problems that i have - i tested on his machine joglapplet demo , jake2 and game from javapause, there were no complications. I think that even with latest drivers ati resloves most common problems of their cards and is especialy focused on latest video cards. I have tried almost everything on my readon 9000, i was changing advanced options of gpu using rage3d tweak(special tool for ati cards) without any succes, i was thinking if other users of ati cards for example 9200, 8500 and all other clones have this kind of problems. I will make new test and see if something will change…
on Windows 98 javapause/gears demo on ati 9000 finally works
Ken Russell thanx for your time, at last on windows 98 everything works as expected without freeze (i did no know earlier that we can give applets parameters like in standalone progs). On win 98 i tested with ie and mozilla javapause demo and it works wihout any pauses - on 1024x768 i have 130 fps all the time - finally i was able to achive more than 120 points, but on windows xp nothing has cheange, so this parametr -Dsun.java.noddraw=true do nothing - framerate is the same -130fps but freezes occurs too every 10 seconds , but this is a step in good direction, again thanx Ken
i have tested gears applet demo and jack from javapause.com on my friend office computer and as i could expect freeze also occurs, computer has ATI 9550 128 mb card, win xp and 512 mb of system ram with the latest ati drivers 6.2 and java 1.5.06, i have tested both ie and mozilla without any succes, framerate is very high about 190 fps but again every 10 seconds freeze occurs. Of course i was using this parameter from KEN Russel:
-Dsun.java.noddraw=true
and also without it and the same annoing freeze. But what is the most intresting that i watched those demo with system menager and the usage of processor was very high ALL the time applet was working from 90% to 100% what is very streange becouse cpu is 3.0 GHZ and has also plenty of ram - 512 DDR. It is streange becouse on my home ati 9000 also high cpu usage occurs but ONLY during freeze, but normally is about 15%. I was not able to make tests on win 98 becouse i had no permission to install another system etc.
on this page you will find the most popular ati cards:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/10/thg_graphics_card_buyers_guide/page17.html
can someone test those demos using ati cards like:
ati readon:
-9250
-x300
-x600
-x700
and other, especially the newest…
I am realy intrested how those demos works on PCI-EXpress ati cards, becouse i was only testing on agp cards, i do not know if it has any realtionship but who knows? DzzD has x800 and everything works him, So please be so kind test demos and post your results here
Hi Kylix999 and thank you for taking the time to test these configurations !
I hope other forum users here will follow you and test on their own hardware… too bad I only have nvidia cards here.
Regards,
Lilian
i am investigating this problem becouse i am making a jogl applet game, and that frezzing was the most annoing thing, earlier i thought that maybe it is only my problem, but leater after another users post i realized that it is a generall issue. I have tested three computers with ati cards and nothing else can do , most of my friends have nvidia cards… so other users please intrest in this problem and try making some testing on your computers, we need you , uncle Sam need you:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/content/us_poster_l.jpg
that is right javagaming army need’s you!!! 
eh, jogl applet on demo page works for me. although, when u move the scrollbar it freezes and then runs normally at the new position of the page. i don’t recommend laying out web pages with jogl applet in such a way that the user have to scroll down.
Ka-El can you give your sytem configuration -what graphic card do you have?
well, on monday i will buy geforce , old ati models are still polpular but in one year time it will probably change and people will move to the latest even cheapiest models which do not have problems with freezing, it is time to make little upgrade
i have tested today radeon with x700 gpu and everything was working ok without any freeze even scrolling browser window etc, so freeze it is a problem with old ati cheapsets, the conclusion is :
if you want to make an applet using jogl always make some troubleshooting page with links to the latest drivers (ati 6.2 is absolutly minimum for all ati radeons,without it even the latest radeons have problems ) and informations about general problems with old ati radeons like 9200/9000 etc, a good idea is to make a java webstart version so users will be able to play it. Nvidia gpus have not such problems
ati x600se w/ driver dated july 2005. there’s a recent driver for this card, but not thanks to window update, it overwrote, reverted to the aforementioned dated driver.