Catalyst 8.8 Driver Installation problems

Bacillus98

Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
11
0
0
Hello. I recently build a computer with the following specs: Core 2 Duo E8500, ATI HD 4870 X2, 4 Gigs of RAM, and a Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 motherboard. The issue I am having is getting the latest catalyst drivers to install properly. I try to install them and when everything shows up in device manager correctly, I try to run games. I have tried WoW, UT 3, and Doom 3. All will start up with a black screen, but sound can still be heard. For a test, I ran WoW in opengl mode by editing the shortcut. It showed video properly this time, so I believe the issue is with D3D video settings. I have tried uninstalling the drivers with Drive Sweeper and editing the registry. No matter what I have done, games still have a black screen but sound. Is there another way to install the drivers? I have tried updating via Vista (I have Vista 32bit) and even that doesn't work. Any suggestions to make this process pain free so I can have the latest 8.8 drivers will be greatly appreciated.
 

Bacillus98

Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
11
0
0
Yes, usually that is the case. But in my many times to get it to install right, I have issues from driver inf not found and other various install errors. I did not realize it was so difficult to install the latest video drivers. Compared to my old nvidia card (6800), it was a no hassle installation.
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81
Originally posted by: Bacillus98
Hello. I recently build a computer with the following specs: Core 2 Duo E8500, ATI HD 4870 X2, 4 Gigs of RAM, and a Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 motherboard. The issue I am having is getting the latest catalyst drivers to install properly. I try to install them and when everything shows up in device manager correctly, I try to run games. I have tried WoW, UT 3, and Doom 3. All will start up with a black screen, but sound can still be heard. For a test, I ran WoW in opengl mode by editing the shortcut. It showed video properly this time, so I believe the issue is with D3D video settings. I have tried uninstalling the drivers with Drive Sweeper and editing the registry. No matter what I have done, games still have a black screen but sound. Is there another way to install the drivers? I have tried updating via Vista (I have Vista 32bit) and even that doesn't work. Any suggestions to make this process pain free so I can have the latest 8.8 drivers will be greatly appreciated.

Try reinstalling your chipset drivers for your motherboard and also updating DX9.0C to latest version link (remember its for Vista too).

Let us know if this helps,btw what PSU do you have?
 

Bacillus98

Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
11
0
0
System Specs are as follows

Core 2 Duo E8500
Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4
ATI HD 4870 X2
Samsung Syncmaster 216BW 22''
Corsair CMPSU-1000HX 1000W PSU
Vista SP1


I updated my bios to F2 version (latest) and the problem still exists. Are you suggesting to roll back my Direct X 10 to Direct X 9?

Here's what I have tried so far:

I try uninstalling ATI drivers via this method (recommended by rage3d forums)
Use Drive Sweeper
Use CCleaner to help w/ registry cleaning
Delete ATI registry values in SOFTWARE portion of registry
Delete Display adapter in Device Manager
Delete all ATI folders in Windows

Then I reboot, and the frustrating thing is when Vista "automatically" installs drivers for my video card. I am not sure if they are the correct latest ones, but it does show up as ATI HD Radeon 4870X2 in device manager(it actually shows this twice, meaning there are two entries of Radeon 4870 X2 in display adapters). Even without installing CCC, once I try to run a game, a black screen once again ensues with sound playing normally.

So I decided to try something different using my method of uninstalling ATI drivers, I try installing the latest drivers (8.8 w/ CCC included) w/o rebooting Vista. I do this so vista does not get a chance to install its "recommended" version of drivers. What happens? Now I get a driver install: INF file cannot be found message.

I just don't understand what is going on here.
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81
Are you suggesting to roll back my Direct X 10 to Direct X 9?

It updates the DX9 part ,you'll still have DX10.

So I decided to try something different using my method of uninstalling ATI drivers, I try installing the latest drivers (8.8 w/ CCC included) w/o rebooting Vista. I do this so vista does not get a chance to install its "recommended" version of drivers. What happens? Now I get a driver install: INF file cannot be found message.

When Vista finds new hardware after reboot I just hit the cancel button and install my drivers ,always works for me.
 

Bacillus98

Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
11
0
0
I did what you stated. I even tried installing CCC first, then the driver separately as recommended here: http://www.tomshardware.com/fo...-catalyst-install-load
CCC installed ok, but the drivers wont. I will even get the drivers installed successfully message now, your system requires a reboot. Once I reboot, I check device manager to see if it's labeled correctly. What do I see now? In device manager I have a yellow question mark by Display adapter (Standard VGA Graphics adapter) and Other Devices (Video Controller).
 

Bacillus98

Junior Member
Aug 16, 2008
11
0
0
I finally fixed the problem. I installed CCC first, then extracted the 8.8 drivers to a separate folder. I then updated my drivers via device manager and browsed to that folder and it worked! Not sure why that worked, but I definitely glad its over. Thanks Mem for the help you tried to give :)
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81
Originally posted by: Bacillus98
I finally fixed the problem. I installed CCC first, then extracted the 8.8 drivers to a separate folder. I then updated my drivers via device manager and browsed to that folder and it worked! Not sure why that worked, but I definitely glad its over. Thanks Mem for the help you tried to give :)

Np,glad you got it working :).