Catalyst 10.x breaks OpenGL (Can't run any OGL app/games, only on 9.x)

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
L

lobski

Junior Member
Apr 17, 2008
22
0
0
This is a problem I have been trying to fix ever since the first 10.x series came out. Let me first say what the problem is.

After installing the 10.2's, my OpenGL capabilities broke entirely. I could not run ANY OGL application/games. Whenever I tried to launch something that used OGL, I would get this error message:

"LoadLibrary failed with error 126: The specified module could not be found. opengl"

I didn't bother to find a fix then, since I was going to wait for the 10.3 finals.

So in the end, I ended up trying: 10.2, 10.3 leaked, 10.3a and the 10.3b's that were released a few days ago. EVERY SINGLE ONE of them kills my OpenGL capabilities.

I tried everything. Uninstall the old drivers normally, boot into safemode, user Driver Sweeper and/or Driver Clearn dotNET, etc. I even tried uninstalling normally, without using special driver cleaners. As far as I can tell, I used three different methods for uninstalling/installing drivers:

1) Uninstall drivers, boot into safemode, use Driver Cleaner, boot into Windows, and install 10.x

and

2) Uninstall drivers, restart and install 10.x

and

3) Don't both uninstalling, install 10.x drivers over on top



Same problem. No matter what I seem to do, 10.x ALWAYS breaks my OGL for me.

Yes, I also tried the OGL 4.0 driver suite that was released.



Here's the kicker: If I uninstall the 10.x and install 9.12, my OGL works! I can run and use any program/games that utilizes OpenGL on 9.12! I tried installing the 9.12s, and installing the OGL 4.0 on top, but that STILL breaks my OGL capabilities. As a last resort, I unstalled all the drivers, installed the 9.12s, restarted, and ran an OpenGL benchmark took in windowed mode (Fuzzy cube in GPU Caps Viewer), then I procceded to install the OGL 4.0 (10.3's). Once the installation got to the video driver portion, the screen flickered, and the benchmark window disappeared. I couldn't run it again after the video drivers were complete! WTF.



So there is something that's changing my OGL in 10.x video drivers....

Now, does anybody have any ideas?
 
T

thedosbox

Senior member
Oct 16, 2009
961
0
0
FWIW, I can run an OpenGL game (UT99 using the custom renderer) fine on my Win 7 x64 system with the 10.3 WHQL drivers. And this is on a system that previously had the nvidia 192.61 drivers. Just uninstalled the nvidia drivers, popped in the new card, and installed the 10.3's.

In other words, it's not necessarily the drivers. Check the event log to see the detailed error messages?
 
L

lobski

Junior Member
Apr 17, 2008
22
0
0
How can it not be the drivers? My exhausted process of elimination points to the drivers...

4870x2 BTW.
 
t0mn8r

t0mn8r

Member
Nov 6, 2005
49
0
0
I recently got a 5770 card. I have 10.3 drivers installed and it seems to me that I am getting a real performance issue with OpenGL.

I run a legacy game (VQuake, yeah I know lol and all that) which is of course OpenGL based. Never had performance issues with my 8800GTS but now I get major slowdowns.

:-(

HTH
 
S

SniperWulf

Golden Member
Dec 11, 1999
1,563
6
81
sounds like its probably your machine and not a case where the driver is broken for everyone. I just fired up Riddick and good ole Quake 3. But work like expected
 
taltamir

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
yet another broken driver from ATI...
Also, I really wish they allowed you to just install a driver over a NEWER driver for a quick downgrade.
 
Golgatha

Golgatha

Lifer
Jul 18, 2003
12,392
1,058
126
taltamir said:
yet another broken driver from ATI...
Also, I really wish they allowed you to just install a driver over a NEWER driver for a quick downgrade.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is a pet peeve of mine. The 10.4 Beta drivers wrecked my system, so I had to revert to the 10.3 ones. You have to uninstall, run Driver Cleaner Pro after using F8 to do a minimalistic boot into Win7, and manually delete the installation directories named ATI from Program files and Program Files (x32). Such a hassle.

If I'm not in a rush, I'll often make a system image before I install new ATI drivers so I can just walk away while it re-images if they hose my system.
 
yh125d

yh125d

Diamond Member
Dec 23, 2006
6,886
0
76
taltamir said:
yet another broken driver from ATI...
Also, I really wish they allowed you to just install a driver over a NEWER driver for a quick downgrade.
Click to expand...

That other people have openGL working fine with the same drivers, it would suggest that something else is at cause here. Also, if 10.xx flat out broke openGL I'm sure it would be mentioned more :|
 
L

lobski

Junior Member
Apr 17, 2008
22
0
0
I am 100% sure its not a localized problem, as a google brings up the same problem (albeit a few).

I mean, my process of elimination points to the drivers...

Anyway, I am going to try the 10.5 betas!
 
L

lobski

Junior Member
Apr 17, 2008
22
0
0
Wow. I fixed the problem.

It was actually exhilarating, and I feel like I've accomplished something epic. Internet was not much help, and this problem wasn't widespread so I was pretty much alone.

I feel like screaming out 'hurrah' or something a few times. I now have full OGL capabilities after months!

What I did was use Process Monitor to run a variety of programs that used OGL, and where it would fail to find a file. After all, that was the problem. It couldn't find a module (dll) of some kind.

So after running a few OGL programs with the same "Loadlibrary failed" error every single time, I noticed that it would load dozens of dll files. I had to go through hundreds of lines of logs, as even after filtering, it was hard to miss.

I kept searching, hoping to find a .dll file that the OGL program would fail to find completely.

Then I found it! Even if the program couldn't find a .dll file initially, it looked in other folders and found what it was looking for. But this specific dll file would not be found. Any OGL program would try to find this dll file and it would fail to find, thus my horrible LoadLibrary failed error.

dllprob.png


The file was simply ".DLL". Any OGL program would look for this in a variety of folders and fail, since it was not there. This is very strange, as it's a dll file without a name. I decided to use the command line and copy and rename opengl32.dll into ".dll". My OGL programs no longer crashed, but it was the wrong DLL or something, the program would error out again. So, I've isolated the problem! After remembering the old suggestions about missing "atioglxx.dll" file, I copied and renamed THAT file into ".DLL" into /windows/system.

I then ran my OGL programs.... And they magically worked! I think I've fixed the problem. Only took a few hours of my day.





Here's the important technical part:

Now, why would after installing 10.x drivers, would OpenGL programs start looking for ".DLL"? Copying over and renaming atioglxx.dll as ".DLL" seems to fix it.

What's the best way to tell the Catalyst Crew about this problem?
 
B

Borealis7

Platinum Member
Oct 19, 2006
2,901
205
106
ATI got owned by Case Sensitivity.

email their support or something. go to their site they must have a forum.
 
ViRGE

ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
31,516
167
106
lobski said:
Wow. I fixed the problem.

It was actually exhilarating, and I feel like I've accomplished something epic. Internet was not much help, and this problem wasn't widespread so I was pretty much alone.

I feel like screaming out 'hurrah' or something a few times. I now have full OGL capabilities after months!

What I did was use Process Monitor to run a variety of programs that used OGL, and where it would fail to find a file. After all, that was the problem. It couldn't find a module (dll) of some kind.

So after running a few OGL programs with the same "Loadlibrary failed" error every single time, I noticed that it would load dozens of dll files. I had to go through hundreds of lines of logs, as even after filtering, it was hard to miss.

I kept searching, hoping to find a .dll file that the OGL program would fail to find completely.

Then I found it! Even if the program couldn't find a .dll file initially, it looked in other folders and found what it was looking for. But this specific dll file would not be found. Any OGL program would try to find this dll file and it would fail to find, thus my horrible LoadLibrary failed error.

dllprob.png


The file was simply ".DLL". Any OGL program would look for this in a variety of folders and fail, since it was not there. This is very strange, as it's a dll file without a name. I decided to use the command line and copy and rename opengl32.dll into ".dll". My OGL programs no longer crashed, but it was the wrong DLL or something, the program would error out again. So, I've isolated the problem! After remembering the old suggestions about missing "atioglxx.dll" file, I copied and renamed THAT file into ".DLL" into /windows/system.

I then ran my OGL programs.... And they magically worked! I think I've fixed the problem. Only took a few hours of my day.





Here's the important technical part:

Now, why would after installing 10.x drivers, would OpenGL programs start looking for ".DLL"? Copying over and renaming atioglxx.dll as ".DLL" seems to fix it.

What's the best way to tell the Catalyst Crew about this problem?
Click to expand...
I'm a bit rusty on OpenGL, but I believe there's a registry entry somewhere that tells the system what the name is for the vendor-specific OpenGL driver. If that entry were corrupt, then that would certainly explain what you're seeing.

http://www.opengl.org/wiki/FAQ#How_Does_It_Work_On_Windows.3F

When you run your program, opengl32.dll gets loaded and it checks in the Windows registry if there is a true GL driver. If there is, it will load it. For example, ATI's GL driver name starts with atioglxx.dll and nVidia's GL driver is nvoglv32.dll. The actual names change from release versions.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Sylvanas

Sylvanas

Diamond Member
Jan 20, 2004
3,752
0
0
Nicely done Lobski! Indeed I'd email ATI support and let them know- good work on the troubleshooting.
 
W

wlee15

Senior member
Jan 7, 2009
313
31
91
My HD 4870 works fine with catalyst 10.3a, on my system Furmark uses d3d8.dll and and dxgi.dll.
 
M

majeric

Junior Member
May 5, 2010
4
0
0
lobski said:
Wow. I fixed the problem.

It was actually exhilarating, and I feel like I've accomplished something epic. Internet was not much help, and this problem wasn't widespread so I was pretty much alone.

I feel like screaming out 'hurrah' or something a few times. I now have full OGL capabilities after months!

What I did was use Process Monitor to run a variety of programs that used OGL, and where it would fail to find a file. After all, that was the problem. It couldn't find a module (dll) of some kind.

So after running a few OGL programs with the same "Loadlibrary failed" error every single time, I noticed that it would load dozens of dll files. I had to go through hundreds of lines of logs, as even after filtering, it was hard to miss.

I kept searching, hoping to find a .dll file that the OGL program would fail to find completely.

Then I found it! Even if the program couldn't find a .dll file initially, it looked in other folders and found what it was looking for. But this specific dll file would not be found. Any OGL program would try to find this dll file and it would fail to find, thus my horrible LoadLibrary failed error.

dllprob.png


The file was simply ".DLL". Any OGL program would look for this in a variety of folders and fail, since it was not there. This is very strange, as it's a dll file without a name. I decided to use the command line and copy and rename opengl32.dll into ".dll". My OGL programs no longer crashed, but it was the wrong DLL or something, the program would error out again. So, I've isolated the problem! After remembering the old suggestions about missing "atioglxx.dll" file, I copied and renamed THAT file into ".DLL" into /windows/system.

I then ran my OGL programs.... And they magically worked! I think I've fixed the problem. Only took a few hours of my day.





Here's the important technical part:

Now, why would after installing 10.x drivers, would OpenGL programs start looking for ".DLL"? Copying over and renaming atioglxx.dll as ".DLL" seems to fix it.

What's the best way to tell the Catalyst Crew about this problem?
Click to expand...

I don't understand you very good how to rename?

I cannot leave blank I have to type the name so it cannot be .dll if I try to change it to .DLL.dll it doesnt work either...And also if I'm using Win 7 64x where should I put it? Windows/System is empty...


Thanks!
 
taltamir

taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
majeric said:
I got that lol am not stupid...I just cant leave it empty....
Click to expand...

you are not supposed to leave it empty. its supposed to be ".dll"
not empoty, not dll.dll
just .dll

and not knowing something wouldn't make you stupid, nobody is born with knowledge
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom