ATI 4850 Dual Monitor problem - does not keep settings.

[Skimeister]

I am trying to run a dual monitor set-up with the just-purchased HD4850 (Diamond), Vista 64, and latest Drivers.

Monitor 1 (primary): Acer 22in 1680 x 1050 (landscape)

Monitor 2 (Secondary): Dell 20in 1600 x 1200 (portrait)

When I first connected the second monitor (Dell) I went to CCC, enabled the monitor, rotated to 90 degrees, and adjusted the resolution. Everything worked great. Then I re-started windows and my second monitor was disabled. Again, I manually re-enabled and adjusted the settings, but after re-start second monitor would be off. I Re-installed the drivers (8.9) and CCC but still could not get it to keep the settings after re-boot.

After hours of trials and frustrations I figured out that ATI will keep my dual monitor settings ONLY if the resolution on my primary monitor (Acer) is set to 1440 X 900 or below.

But I know that the card is capable of running both monitors at their native resolutions because I can go into CCC and manually stet the proper resolutions - it works...It just doesn't keep those settings after re-start.

Any suggestions?

 

[Zstream]

Isn't that a known bug in vista 64 and 8.9's? Take a look at the driver notes I thought it was included.

 

[Wuzup101]

I had the same problem... once more I also got several blue screens over the course of ~3 days when using multiple monitors on vista 64 w/ the 8.9 cats. I ditched CCC and am currently using only my primary 24" monitor. All of the blue screens were caused by the same ATI .sys file (can't remember the exact name right now).

Hopefully the next revision will fix some 4850 issues.

 

[smyffalis]

yeah wuzup same thing has been happening to me since 8.7 drivers, cant remember about the 8.6. although i do use a hd 3870 and 2 monitors. atidaig****.sys or something its called.

 

[Skimeister]

Yah, at this point I pretty much tried everything.
DVI/VGA cables, Switching ports on the card, etc etc...

Basically it's as if the drivers do not allow my Acer monitor to be at any resolution but 1440X900 in order to work with the Dell. In fact, once Dell is active, all other resolution options disappear from the Acer display, it's as if it is locked at 1440x900 as long as the other monitor is enabled.

Not only does ATI not allow the monitors to work at proper resolutions, but CCC is acting completely unstable with dual monitors. Sometimes it would crash when trying to run a 3D app, or I would get a driver error on start up, sometimes it would load my color profile, sometimes it wouldn't. At this point I went back to using single 22w monitor until ATI comes up with new drivers or I buy a bigger single monitor.

One thing I gotta give to Nvidia is that their drivers and control panel are much more stable and better designed.

 

[Wuzup101]

Originally posted by: smyffalis
yeah wuzup same thing has been happening to me since 8.7 drivers, cant remember about the 8.6. although i do use a hd 3870 and 2 monitors. atidaig****.sys or something its called.

Yup, that's exactly what it is. I thought it was my overclock at first, but after the same file caused a BSOD 3-4 times in a few hours, I decided that it was just ATI drivers (that and prime95 runs for 24hrs without a problem). I started with 8.7 cats because that was what came with my card (I promptly upgraded to 8.9... but did also get the BSOD with 8.7).

@Skim - I know exactly what you are talking about. I had to go into CCC very frequently to keep the resolution and arrangement of my displays constant. CCC kept swapping the resolutions on me, so I ended up with 1920x1080 on my 24" dell and 1920x1200 on my 40" Samsung (which is out of the range for the TV... so it would just blank on me). It seemed like turning off the display triggered problems every time. Furthermore, my start menu/task bar would jump from monitor to monitor.

The card/drivers are working great with a single monitor right now. I would love to always have my TV hooked up to this PC; however, it doesn't seem like that is going to be possible until ATI gets on the stick.

Edit: Any of you guys using hydravision? I just thought about that (I don't have it installed). I might give it a go and see if it does any good.

 

[Totally]

did you install the monitors' drivers before or after catalyst?