md5

Hello

I've got an HP Laptop with a Mobility Radeon 9600 with the official cats (which are now over 2 years old). I've been reading through this forum, but I'm still uncertain if I should update its graphics drivers or not. What are the risks? Will i have any unwanted problems (e.g. shorter battery life) ? I can live with older cats, I don't play many games on my laptop, but I'd hate to reinstall everything if something goes haywire (and I've got a lot of things I need on this laptop).

The official installation verification tool from ATI over here claims that the mobility cats are not compatible with my system... which is what I expected after reading this thread

So what are my options here? Should I install modded desktop drivers, modded laptop drivers or just leave it be with the official ones? As I said before, I'd like things to be stable and working first of all - I wouldn't want to format right now

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swimtech

For overall stability in both performance and features, the latest manufacturer's driver is the best IMO. I have used Omegadrive's driversets on the Dell below (now about three years old) but experienced playback issues with video files and freezes during DVD playback from about his version of Cat 4.xx forward, which were fixed entirely by using the latest driverset from Dell, in my case. However - for gaming - the Omegadrive sets worked great (those being desktop drivers that were modded by Omegadrive to support my laptop video chip in his .inf files, or by using Patje's Mobility Modder). The video playback issue exists (on some, not all laptops) for modded sets overall, not just Omegadrive's.

Having said that, if there are no recent driver updates from HP for your laptop, you might want to give the Omegadrive driverset a go as long as you have your original driverset file backed up, along with any other important files - or image your hard drive first as a precaution against a catastrophic failure (requiring a reformat) - which thankfully are very rare.

I haven't noticed any shorter battery life due to video drivers on this laptop - or ever heard of that being an issue...

I know FarCry requires a Catalyst version later than 3.something to run, but trying to get older Omegadrive sets has been troublesome.

The ATI Mobility Driverset is too new for me to comment on, and I haven't tried them...

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It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

md5

Thanks swimtech, I'll perform a backup and I'll give Omega a go

How about modding the official drivers with patje's tool? Will that work as well?

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Vikingod

I try and stick with the Omega's on my Dell laptop, but I have never had a problem with the tool as well, and I use it almost every driver release. Omega's are nice because of the resolutions (i seem to have a few resolution/scaling issue after an official set, easily fixed in 5mins, just more of a pain). I haven't had problems with video playback in over 2 years of Omega's. I would definetely try something other than the manufacturers drivers, you won't go back afterward.

swimtech

There ya go, one (of many, and a trusted member - thanks Vikingod, I'm sure - most of what we hear about are problems - right???) who doesn't have the video problem - hooray!

And yes, that's why Patje made the DH Mobility Modder tool - it does work with the official ATI drivers - but check with Patje on the latest Cats (5.8) being compatible just to be sure. I read a note from Omegadrive that says something about ATI changing the .inf files in the latest version (he's working on either the 5.8s or 5.9s...) that he gives as a reason his latest ATI based set is delayed.

Remember - if it ain't broke - break it, and use both hands!

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It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

md5

Haha

Thanks for the replies Vikingod and swimtech, much appreciated! You guys cleared up my confusion about those drivers

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