Catalyst Control Center - new install, can't get it working

[luger]

I have a Dell XPS 8300 with AMD Radeon HD 6450 graphics card on a Win7 system. The motherboard also has Intel onboard graphics. I have this running great with 3 monitors. Catalyst Control Center works fine - version 2011.0104.2155.39304

Device Mgr shows following display adapters:
- AMD Radeon HD 6450
- Intel HD Graphics

To access CCC, I have to go to the Start menu. If I right click on desktop, select Graphics Properties, that launches Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel. Anyway, this setup runs great.

I recently picked up a solid state drive. So I disconnect my current boot hard drive, connect the SSD and install Win7. I start installing drivers in the order Dell recommends. When I get to the video driver, Dell driver R294998, it installs fine, no error messages in the install log, but behind the usual 'restart windows' popup is another popup that reads:
"Failed to access Catalyst Install Manager engine. Please ensure that no other instances of Catalyst Install Manager are currently running."

So I reboot. When I right click on the desktop, the menu takes a very long time to appear. When it does, CCC is the first option (no "Graphics Properties" like on my original setup). When selected, I get the following error message:
"Catalyst Control Center cannot be started. There are currently no settings that can be configured using CCC."

Also, the Device Mgr shows the display adapters differently:
- AMD Radeon HD 6450
- Standard VGA Graphics Adapter (not "Intel HD Graphics")

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the video driver/CCC. Tried downloading driver package from Dell again and installing that. Always end up with the same error. The two systems are identical in terms of hardware except that one uses a hard drive as the boot device, while the other uses a SSD.

1. Do I need to install an Intel graphics driver separately? I recall reading that you only install the discrete graphics driver, but obviously I must have installed another driver which is why my working system shows the display adapters differently in Device Mgr than my non-working system. Plus the working system has Graphics Properties available from right clicking desktop, and this launches Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel. Non-working system does not have this.

2. How can I get CCC working?

3. Any other suggestions? Any other info I can provide that would be helpful in diagnosing the problem?

Side note: I am *so* glad I disconnected my boot hard drive and didn't wipe it as I was planning to (to make it a data drive for this system). Posting this from the same Dell after disconnecting the SSD and reconnecting the hard drive. I have a separate laptop, but I'd have been hurting if I couldn't go back to this working setup.

 

[brandonb]

CCC requires the .Net Framework. Make sure you download those from Microsoft.

 

[peterjedi]

Win7 Driver Issues? Microsoft, AMD Recommend Uninstalling KB3004394

by Ryan Smith on December 11, 2014 10:00 PM EST
Posted in

GPUs Software Microsoft AMD Windows 7

Though we don’t normally report on Windows updates, we’ll make an exception on this one. AMD sends word this evening that they are advising users to remove update KB3004394, which was released as part of this week’s Patch Tuesday, due to driver installation issues this update is inflicting.

The update, designed to update Windows’ root certificate store, has apparently been causing havoc on some Windows 7 configurations. In AMD’s case what they are finding is that the update prevents the installation of new graphics drivers on affected systems, with both AMD and NVIDIA drivers refusing to install. More broadly, Infoword is reporting that KB3004394 is also being blamed as the culprit behind certain issues affecting Windows Defender, Task Manager, and other software.

At this point this looks like the update only affects a small number of systems – Windows 8 is not affected, and even then most Windows 7 systems appear to be fine – but Microsoft has not taken any chances and has pulled the update. In the meantime for those users that are affected, uninstalling the faulty update reportedly fixes the issue.

 

[luger]

CCC requires the .Net Framework. Make sure you download those from Microsoft.

I installed from a Win7 SP1 cd. I think it has .Net Framework. Will have to check on version. Good idea to update that to a later version though and see if that resolves the issue.

I'd have thought the CCC installer would complain if a prerequisite like the correct .Net Framework version was not detected. Will report back.

 

[luger]

Win7 Driver Issues? Microsoft, AMD Recommend Uninstalling KB3004394

by Ryan Smith on December 11, 2014 10:00 PM EST
Posted in

GPUs Software Microsoft AMD Windows 7

Though we don’t normally report on Windows updates, we’ll make an exception on this one. AMD sends word this evening that they are advising users to remove update KB3004394, which was released as part of this week’s Patch Tuesday, due to driver installation issues this update is inflicting.

The update, designed to update Windows’ root certificate store, has apparently been causing havoc on some Windows 7 configurations. In AMD’s case what they are finding is that the update prevents the installation of new graphics drivers on affected systems, with both AMD and NVIDIA drivers refusing to install. More broadly, Infoword is reporting that KB3004394 is also being blamed as the culprit behind certain issues affecting Windows Defender, Task Manager, and other software.

At this point this looks like the update only affects a small number of systems – Windows 8 is not affected, and even then most Windows 7 systems appear to be fine – but Microsoft has not taken any chances and has pulled the update. In the meantime for those users that are affected, uninstalling the faulty update reportedly fixes the issue.

Installed from a Win 7 SP1 cd, no Windows updates, so I don't think this is the issue. Plus, from that report, it looks like MS has pulled the update, so I wouldn't get it even if I ran Windows Update.

 

[KingFatty]

Ideally you can start over, and reinstall windows, but take a different approach when installing the graphics drivers.

The thing that jumped out at me is that you are having trouble with Catalyst, so maybe prioritize that by doing the fresh windows install, then installing the AMD drivers. Confirm that it works at that point, before you jump into installing any of the other drivers.

If it doesn't work, then perhaps there is a hardware issue with the computer or video card? The point is that you want to troubleshoot by stripping away the affects of other drivers etc., so once you install those, it could contaminate the results for testing whether catalyst is installable.

 

[luger]

CCC requires the .Net Framework. Make sure you download those from Microsoft.

You are correct.

Seems Win7 SP1 cd does not install any version of .Net Framework. I installed .Net Framework 4.5.1, then installed CCC. The earlier popup/error message no longer appears.

After reboot, I get a warning:

"The Catalyst Control Center is not supported by the driver version of your enabled graphics adapter. Please update your AMD graphics driver, or enable your AMD adapter using the Displays Manager."

So I started over:
1. restored a drive image containing basic Win7 install + chipset driver + Intel Mgmt Engine + SATA driver (everything seemed to work fine to this point).
2. installed Intel HD Graphics driver (which Dell says you don't need to do if you have a discrete graphics card)
3. installed .NET Framework 4.5.1
4. installed ATI/AMD driver package from Dell

After mandatory restart, CCC works fine. All seems good.

Then I shutdown/power up, and after launching into the desktop, the OS freezes. Mouse moves, but can't left/right click any icons, keyboard is frozen and clock isn't updating. Tried restarting a couple of times, with same result.

It's times like these that I contemplate crossing over into the walled garden!

 

[luger]

Ideally you can start over, and reinstall windows, but take a different approach when installing the graphics drivers.

The thing that jumped out at me is that you are having trouble with Catalyst, so maybe prioritize that by doing the fresh windows install, then installing the AMD drivers. Confirm that it works at that point, before you jump into installing any of the other drivers.

If it doesn't work, then perhaps there is a hardware issue with the computer or video card? The point is that you want to troubleshoot by stripping away the affects of other drivers etc., so once you install those, it could contaminate the results for testing whether catalyst is installable.

I can start over pretty easily because I have a drive image I made after first installing Win7 on the SSD.

It's clear now that my working setup has the AMD driver, Intel HD Graphics driver and .NET. Just have to figure out how to get them all working on the SSD system.

 

[luger]

Alright, got it working!

After restoring an image with basic Win7 install + chipset drives + SATA driver:
1. use Windows Update to install .NET 4.5.1
2. use Dell video package to install AMD Radeon driver and Catalyst Control Center (error message after restart as mentioned earlier)
3. use Windows Update to install Intel HD Graphics

This works, though there was some occasional severe lag when opening the Start Menu or Control Panel or right clicking on the desktop. I think this was because there were still other devices for which no drivers were installed and this was driving Windows a bit mad. In the past, I've always just installed drivers sequentially without stopping to check if each driver worked, and only rebooting when forced to. So I think that's how avoided the choppiness of Windows when multiple devices don't have drivers installed. That's my theory anyway.

After the remaining device drivers were installed, the system seemed pretty snappy. And yeah, a SATA III SSD for a boot drive is a huge speed upgrade over a SATA III 7200rpm hard disk!

Gonna create an image of this setup (Win7 + drivers) before applying a slew of Windows updates. Hopefully they won't break anything.

And then I've got a pile of apps to install.

 

[Charlie98]

FWIW, I installed the Catalyst update on my HTPC with a HD6450... and it completely messed up the install. I had to finally restore the OS from a backup Acronis image (with the old Catalyst driver.) As it stands, I probably won't install any more drivers... not only because I probably have nothing to benefit with the old tech HD6450, but largely because I don't want to go through that again.