Cat 2.5 + via 4.45 4in1 = instability

[Slappy00]

A couple things that i would like to validate with other R9700pro + KT400 owners


I had the Cat 2.5 installed on my system, while i waited for my chance to get the VIA hyperion 4in1 drivers (4.45)... No problems... Tonight I finally got the new 4 in 1 and man it took me a bit of time to get things stable again:

-Installed using default install (inf + agp + ide)
-rebooted...no problem at bootup...
-tried to run morrowind (ran fine 2.5 + 4.43), crash at startup...
-uninstalled 2.5 -> reboot ->installed 2.4
-tried to run morrowind... crash at startup
-checked ATI control panel
- agp = off
-fast writes = disabled
-Turned agp transfer on to 8x and fastwrites on ( had those on for 2.4 + 4.43 (i checked via powerstrip at the time b/c i didnt have SMARTGART as a tab at the time) )
-rebooted -> same problem
-uninstalled agp miniport driver (kept the inf + IDE) ->installed 4.43 miniport driver
-everything back to normal

youll have to excuse me , its 4am and I thought id get a quick game of morrowwind (does that game EVER end?!) before i went to bed but this sidetracked me and if i made some obvious blunders in logic youll have to excuse my reasoning...

the point is that I ahve a aching suspicion that the new 4in1 AGP driver does more harm than good for 9700pro owners, but it could just be me...

Anyhow if you have a similar configuration to mine and have no problems with the 4.45 and 2.5 then please respond so i can try and figure this out (hopefully its just a morrowind thing but there were several other anomolies when trying to do some simple resolution/refresh adjustments in the 2.5 +4.45 situation).

Gigabyte 7VAXP
Gigabyte Maya 9700Pro
AMD 2100+
Creative SB Audigy
512mb PC3000 DDR ram (kingston and kingmax)
Win XP SP1

 

[Bovinicus]

I'm guessing you disabled the ATi Smart service. This would explain AGP being off at one point. I suffered the same problem, as did another poster who is heavily into tweaking. If you have forgotten, then goto the control panel and select administrative tools, then goto services. Make sure ATi Smart is set to enabled. If it is not, then it cannot properly test your AGP bus. If this happens, then it disables everything that makes AGP different from PCI (Besides the extra bandwidth). OpenGL and DirectX games will not function at all.