What the frick is going on with my ati drivers?

[ivwshane]

This is really pissing me off. I'm building a system for a friend and I've already built a similar one for another friend without any problems. First for some odd reason I can't freaken do a windows update it keeps saying there are no updates (I know that's BS)!

But what's really pissing me off is the fact that I cant get an ati driver to install and stay installed.

I have an asus p4pe mobo and an ati AIW 8500DV and a 15" LCD

I installed the drivers and directx from the cd that came with the card and all seems fine till I reboot. After I reboot windows (win2k) tells me that it finished installing a new device and that I must reboot, so I reboot. When windows comes up again the AIW driver appears not to be installed and if I try to go into the display properties I get a blue screen. So after pulling my hair out I tried installing a newer driver from ATI, well that went freaken fantastic, now I get some wierd refresh thing going on (it looks like everything is refreshing really slow and it's doing some kind of wierd scrolling thing).

Here is what I've done

Installed win3k w/sp3 (I've also tried it with no service pack)
installed the intel inf chipset driver and the intel acceleration application
installed the ati drivers from the original cd (I did the express install that installs everything)


any ideas?

 

[ivwshane]

bump

 

[Tates]

I installed the drivers and directx from the cd that came with the card

Try downloading the latest drivers from ATi

 

[ivwshane]

I did that too and after installing them I rebooted, everything looked good but windows asked me to reboot again, after rebooting again it appeared as if the drivers had never been installed (it was in 256 mode) and an ati pop up came up stating that it would disable itself since no ati driver was installed.

 

[Duvie]

ATI is very finicky when it comes to clean installs and particular order....

I have same card so let me help you here...I have xp but it should be same drivers....


1)install os
2)install sp packs...reboot
3)install mobo chipset and IAA...reboot

leave vid card as standard vga...

4)install direct x 8.1 or 9....reboot

5)install WDM drivers (latest)....no reboot
6)install catalyst 3.1's....no reboot
7)install control panel (latest)....reboot

Uninstalls of ati drivers are tedious and most likely you have reminences of older cd set on there...reformat and reinstall OS...basically start over...

 

[ivwshane]

So I will need all three files(downloads) that ati offers?
How should I install the tv tuner application?

 

[Quino]

About the Windows Update telling you there are none happens when you use the same cd key for windows for two machines and try to install it Windows update page picks up the serial number and tells you there are no more updates because the same number was already used and it is up to date.

 

[ivwshane]

Originally posted by: Quino
About the Windows Update telling you there are none happens when you use the same cd key for windows for two machines and try to install it Windows update page picks up the serial number and tells you there are no more updates because the same number was already used and it is up to date.

So how do I update my OS considering I'm no longer using win2k nor that serial # on another machine?

 

[ivwshane]

I figured out why I couldn't update. My computer time was set incorrectly (it was set for 2002) once I fixed that windows update worked fine, doh


Now if I can get this other problem fixed.

 

[cjsketchy]

Sounds like a smartgart problem... once you're in video properties check the smartgart tab (it should be there) and check if agp is at 4X. Also check services (start > run > services.msc) and make sure ATI Smart is running.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: ivwshane
So I will need all three files(downloads) that ati offers?
How should I install the tv tuner application?

That comes with loading of the MMC program....Do this after control panel....Get the version 7.6 dvd and the mmc 7.7.0.1...install dvd first....reboot...then load mmc 7.7.0.1.....reboot...

 

[ivwshane]

Can the 7.6 dvd and the mmc 7.7.0.1 be downloaded from ati or should these be on the disc. My friend doesn't have a dvd player in the system and he probably wont get one either.


I'll look into that smartgart thing.

 

[Duvie]

yes both can be downloaded...If no dvd then dont install the 7.6...just go with the 7.7.0.1 which does not include the dvd player...during the install it may ask you to place in cd, but that is just a verification of rights to get upgraded programs...


Also make sure you copy those drivers to the main root drive directory....follow atis instruction on that...

 

[ivwshane]

So far so good

Thanks for the tips, I think I'm going to ghost this installation so I don't have to go through it again

I did check the smartgart settings and it was set to 4x and the service was set to automatic.


I hope not all of ati's customers have to go through this otherwise that's bad news for them.

 

[merlocka]

<rant>

Ya know, hat's off to ATI for really kicking nVidia's butt in the performance arena. I raise a glass to em.

But I have had nothing but a pain in the butt with ATI drivers. Don't get me wrong, when installed properly they are great... but my success rates for stable installations on ANYTHING BUT A FRESH OS INSTALL is really poor.

Does anyone else find it annoying? 3dfx, Kyro, nVidia, heck, even S3... I never had a problem switching between drivers, all on the same machine. ATI drivers have just been driving me nuts.

</rant>

ATI fanATIc's don't burn me up. I'm with ya on all the merits of ATI. I just wish their drivers weren't so sensitive to the installation procedure. I'm leaving this GF3 in my main PC because the OS is rock solid with all my development tools and I don't wanna spend 2 days reinstalling all my software just cause I want a 9700. I guess I need to buy another PC just for my ATI game machine!

 

[CurtCold]

I've went from Nvidia to ATI, VooDoo to Nvidia, ATI to Nvidia etc, and not had to reinstall the OS any of those 4-5 times.

 

[ivwshane]

I usually don't have problems installing drivers for any device and like I said earlier I installed the same card in a similar system already with no problems.

I do like ati's hardware but their drivers are really bad and I'm not only talking about this previous issue but another one I'm having with my own machine and my ati tv tuner:|

 

[Duvie]

I hear ya!! I agree and I agree with above rant....I have seriously biatched at www.rage3d.com about how sad it is when the drivers on the cd are insufficient to run the card and all the features...very sad...

I like ati as no other company has an answer to the all in wonder products...


Problem solved????

What is your issue on your personal box???

 

[ivwshane]

The tv tuner software is just really buggy. When I had win2k and I would turn the channel it would turn it pretty quick, now if I'm lucky it will turn the channel and it might even tune it in correctly (yes I've done the setup wizard) on top of that some times I don't get sound, so I have to play with tuning the channels back and forth and sometimes I have to switch between svideo and cable. I'm using mmc 7.6 and I've tried all the tricks of getting it to work and I read everything at rage3d plus I even posted my problem there but it went unanswered.

 

[Duvie]

Have you tried MMC 7.7.0.1 with it instead??? I had a issue with my tv wonder that some channels would say mono when I know damn well they are not....I never ran mine outside of win98 so I don't really know how the drivers are adapted for the win2k/xp environment...

 

[ivwshane]

No I haven't tried 7.7, will it work with XP and the tv wonder? I thought it would only work for the aiw cards with out hacking the driver (which I really don't feel like doing).

If it should work then I assume I would need the same mmc that I downloaded from ati for the 8500dv?

 

[Duvie]

Yes it works but yes it requires that bit of intensive install and driver modifications.....I sold my tv wonder basically because I was switching to winxp at the time and ati was not supporting it with drivers to run in winxp....many early on couldn't get it to work period....

I say sell it and get an avermedia or leadtek tv tuner...if all you want is a tv tuner both those cards in my opinion are better....If you want an all around solution what is your current vid card???

 

[ivwshane]

I'm using a geforce 3 which is doing fine for me right now but I have been looking into a new tv tuner. See this thread to find out why I haven't bought one yet

 

[Duvie]

I guess either look at getting a 8500 AIW which would be an upgrade from the GF3 (albeit not as great as a radeon 9700pro but friendlier to the wallet) so you can get a remote, all the pvr options, plus mpeg2 and tons of other codec support thru MMC, plus a tuner that has no issues (that I have seen using latest cat drivers and MMC) in winxp...

Or

I recommend you do some research on your own goinmg to the manufactures websites and comparing the specs...i think you should also look at the WinTV PVR card....It is nice but can set you back 99-150 9the 150 one I believe has the hardware mpeg2 decoder...advantage?? Offloads cpu utilization to card during captures thus freeing up cycles for other things)....The leadteks are cheaper but I don't know if they offer everything you listed in that thread

 

[ivwshane]

I like the aiw but I'm staying away from the combo cards because I upgrade often and it wouldn't make sense to replace both components if I don't have to. I was looking at the wintv's but the one's I like are more than I want to spend, when I create my ssf pc for my htpc I'll be buying a highend card that will do HDTV but for now I just want something that's problem free, has some sort of guide plus type software, and looks good and has relatively fast tuning capabilities.