Catalyst driver = windows won't boot

[lord_emperor]

Summary:

On a completely fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate on a new hard drive, after installing the Catalyst Control Centre and drivers, windows will not boot. It stops just before the welcome screen with the windows logo.

More detail:

Hardware:
Phenom X4 940 Black
XFX HD4890 1GB
2x2GB DDR2
MSI K9A2-CF
Antec EarthWatts 650W
Antec Three Hundred
Seagate 1TB (new boot drive)
WD Green 1TB
Seagate 160GB (old boot drive)

Got myself a new 1TB Seagate also to replace my old 160GB OS drive. Installed Win7 using the same USB key I used to setup my computer ~1 year ago, I have also used this media to install Win7 on my GF's computer with a HD6850, OS and CCC install went perfectly.

Installed Win7 with no problem, downloaded and installed Catalyst 10.12, got aforementioned no-boot problem.

Chalked it up to cosmic rays and re-installed windows, let windows update run until it was done, then installed CCC 10.12 again, same result. Booted into safe mode (worked), system restored to before driver install, downloaded and installed CCC 10.11 (with old version of CCC), again same result.

Gave up for the night and switched boot drive back to the Seagate 160GB, booted into existing Win7 install just fine, played some WoW this morning.

My system is ~one year old, passed memtest, prime95 and furmark at the time of building, but I'll be testing again today after work.

Truly confused by this problem, especially since I have read a few similar issues on the net as well as AMD's forum, no solutions offered.

 

[busydude]

Had the same problem with cat 10.10 I guess. Anyway, you can try downloading individual components.. or go to advanced install options and install just the display driver.. restart and then install the CCC... and again restart. This method worked for me.. you can try it out too.

 

[lord_emperor]

^ Thanks I'll be trying this when I get home.

 

[MentalIlness]

nm

 

[MentalIlness]

<----I just had a Seagate 160 fail. I hate Seagate.

Upon reading your OP...I misread and thought the Seagate drive failed.

 

[Zstream]

I never had a boot problem with any of the 10 series catalyst drivers. I'm not saying it is not the drivers problem but it seems very odd to me that it would be causing a problem. I would suspect a .net problem before an AMD problem.

I've done more than a few hundred desktops with a split of 50/50 Nvidia and ATI/AMD. The issues so far have been bad hard drives, bios not being updated and .net.

Did you install the complete package from AMD or just the CC panel?

 

[lord_emperor]

Did you install the complete package from AMD or just the CC panel?

Complete 110MB package. Exactly the same process I did on my GF's computer which worked flawlessly.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Me no likey SeaGate...

Try going into SafeMode and uninstall CCC, then boot back up again and see what happens.

 

[lord_emperor]

Me no likey SeaGate...

Try going into SafeMode and uninstall CCC, then boot back up again and see what happens.

Covered:

Booted into safe mode (worked), system restored to before driver install, downloaded and installed CCC 10.11 (with old version of CCC), again same result.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Covered:

System restore doesn't wipe everything, go into safe mode and try to use Driver Sweeper, analyze, remove ATi, reboot, install 10.10 then, worth a shot.

 

[Acanthus]

sounds like file corruption.

 

[lord_emperor]

System restore doesn't wipe everything, go into safe mode and try to use Driver Sweeper, analyze, remove ATi, reboot, install 10.10 then, worth a shot.

Will reinstall windows again (it's so fast from USB) and try v10.10.

 

[Absolution75]

Sisters Radeon was DOA, wouldn't boot windows (screen corruption as well in bios, very obvious).

Consider putting the videocard in another system.

 

[lord_emperor]

Solved!

Partially PEBKAC.

Got a 42" TV for xmas, "secondary" DVI was hooked up to it. Install of Catalyst driver suite decided the TV (which was off) was the primary display. Only noticed because I was watching movies before rebooting to try again.

Leaving this up so someone else can benefit from my stupidity.

 

[stargazr]

Solved!

Partially PEBKAC.

Got a 42" TV for xmas, "secondary" DVI was hooked up to it. Install of Catalyst driver suite decided the TV (which was off) was the primary display. Only noticed because I was watching movies before rebooting to try again.

Leaving this up so someone else can benefit from my stupidity.

The other day I couldn't understand why my display didn't show anything on fresh boot until Win 7 logon screen "for no reason". Finally realized I had my TV plugged into secondary HDMI port

 

[Arkadrel]

shouldnt thread title be changed then?

if it had nothing to do with the catalyst drivers...but which output you had the tv plugged into instead?