Aurora

I wanted to upgrade my AIW 9000Pro to a AIW X800 XT. I tried Catalyst versions 5.9, 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4, and not one will install properly. (I was using 5.6 with the 9000, and I did fully purge the drivers with Driver Cleaner.) I was hopeful the Omega drivers would work for me, but they won't install either. I get as far as the message about Microsoft Logo stuff and to allow newer files to be overwritten. And then.....nothing. The installer just stops dead in its tracks. Even the Cancel button does nothing. If there is supposed to be a Proceed or Next button, it's invisible. The system isn't locked up; I can start IE and other applications. Is there some way to install the drivers manually or force the installer to go on? Or am I stuck with a $300 paperweight?

In case it matters....
Motherboard: ABIT AV8
CPU: AMD Athlon64 3200+
RAM: 2@512M (total of 1G)
PSU: Antec TruePower 2.0 TrueControl II 550W
OS: Win2000 + SP4 + Rollup 1 + tons of other updates
.net: 1.1

Dyre Straits

Hi, and welcome to DriverHeaven!

Sorry to hear about the problems you're having with installation of video drivers.

How long are you giving the installation before you give up on it? Do you see any hard drive activity evidenced by the HDD LED flashing on the front of your computer case?

If there's Hard Drive activity, it seems that something is working but taking an inordinate amount of time to do so.

You say you have purged the drivers, but, it's quite possible, not knowing what or how you proceeded with this, that something is left over in the Windows Registry. I advise that you download Crap Cleaner (Google for CCleaner) and run that to clear up errors and leftovers in the Registry. It's a fabulous program!

Otherwise, to do a manual installation, as long as you have extracted the OFFICIAL video drivers to the default of C:\ATI\Support\[video driver files] OR for Omega's here: C:\Program Files\Radeon Omega Drivers

you can do this:

Go to Device Manager and click on the + in front of Display Adapters.

Now, highlight the first of the two instances that show up there.

Next, go up to the options above this and select Update Driver.

From this point on you do NOT want to let Windows do it automatically. Rather, you will select the driver from the location in the C:\ATI\Support directory OR for Omega's here: C:\Program Files\Radeon Omega Drivers

Should you have problems after doing so, please report back.

We'll be glad to help you anyway we can.

Cheers and good luck!

Now,

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Aurora

So far, still no luck.

The way I purged the drivers was with the directions that come with Driver Cleaner Pro.

The first time I installed I waited 6 minutes before concluding the installer stalled out.

Before the second time, I restored my partition from backup and purged again, and then I used CCleaner + Microsoft's RegClean too. I started the install and walked away. I came back after 3 hours and saw the installer was still stuck in the same place.

When I'm in the purged state, the X800 doesn't show up under Display Adapters. Instead, it's under Other Devices. I get Video Controller and Video Controller (VGA Compatible), each with a "!" over the "?" icons.

If I don't uninstall the old drivers, the card does show up as X800 series under Display adapters (and 2 entries there). I tried installing the 5.9 and 6.x drivers over the old drivers before I got Omega, and they still gave me the same problems.

I also tried installing Omega over the old drivers, but with the ATI Control Panel removed. The Omega installer still got stuck in the same place.

It doesn't matter too much to me whether I end up with official or Omega drivers, as long as something works and I can fully use MMC. I never really used Hydravision with the 9000Pro AIW, so I guess I could do without it if the Omega drivers don't support it.

I also noticed a significant temperature rise with the X800 AIW. With the 9000, my CPU temps were usually 38-42C and the fan at 2200rpm. With the X800, it's 48-52C and the fan at 4400rpm.

Dyre Straits

How long has it been since you cleared your Temp folder? CCleaner can do that for you if you haven't done it in awhile.

Also, how long since your last Defrag and Disk Check? Go through those again if you haven't done so during this period of trouble.

Then go to Device Manager again and REMOVE the card from the list of Devices...wherever it shows up. Just rightclick on it....both instances...and then REMOVE.

Now, reboot and let Windows fully detect the card and install whatever native drivers Windows wishes to install. Allow it to complete its operation.

Once finished, proceed again to attempt to install your drivers.

If this doesn't work this time, I suggest doing a Windows REPAIR installation to clean up whatever ails the system.

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Aurora

Temp: I allowed CCleaner to do it while using it earlier.

Defrag: Did it on 4/11.

Disk check: Probably a few months, so I did it now.

I uninstalled the ? devices and rebooted. Windows detected the same things. I let it search for drivers and it said none suitable was found. I ended up with the same ? Other devices as before.

Windows Repair: Can I still do that? My Windows CD is SP2 but I now have SP4, RU1, and many other updates.

Dyre Straits

Just got in from work.

I've done the Windows Repair a few times even after getting SP2 on my XP Pro system. If you saved your Update Downloads you can use them to do the updates again. Or, with a broadband connection, just go through that process to make sure you don't miss something. I think it takes me close to 45 minutes to do the updates now after a repair.

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Aurora

I did the repair but came up empty. I still have ? devices and Windows says no driver can be found.

Dyre Straits

Have you checked for a BIOS update for that ABIT board? Also, are the chipset drivers installed for the motherboard? There's a CD that came with it...should have, anyway...and the motherboard drivers are on that. Also, there may be updated drivers on the ABIT WEBsite.

Even if you did install them previously, it's a good idea to do it again.

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Aurora

BIOS update: I didn't have to check. I already knew there is one to support dual core CPUs which I don't (yet?) have. I downloaded the very latest whose history says it improves compatibilty with "certain" (unnamed) VGA cards. So maybe this'll help.

Chipset and AGP drivers: I've been using an early 2005 version, but VIA has a version that's under a month old. That's now downloaded too.

And ATI's tech support actually told me something I didn't already know or try -- whodathunkit. I was told there may be issues with DAO, whatever that is. To me, DAO means a way of burning CDs.

Dyre Straits

This last tip just might be the issue. In fact, I've had the ATI DAO file cause problems with my DVD/CD burning program. I've uninstalled the ATI DAO without any apparent new problem cropping up. So, you might just simply uninstall that from the ADD/REMOVE items and see if that does the trick.

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Aurora

Still no progress.

1. Flash BIOS, install new VIA drivers, uninstall DAO, uninstall all other ATI stuff, reboot to Safe Mode, run Driver Cleaner. The 6.2 driver still says no components to install. Omega driver installer still gets stuck in the same place.

2. Restore partition from backup, re-install new VIA drivers, uninstall DAO and ATI Control Panel only. Omega installer still gets stuck in the same place.

Dyre Straits

One thing I do know that Omega drivers need is to get a popup that allows you to click on a "Continue Anyway" option. I'm wondering if your system is somehow blocking this popup message? You'll actually get TWO of these messages as you attempt to install them. The reason for this is that Omega's drivers don't have the Windows Approval like the official drivers do. So, you'll get this prompt to go ahead and install them anyway. Make sure there's not a screen behind another screen that has this message on it. OR, check the system settings re: popup blockers and such.

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Aurora

My only popup blockers are those internal to Firefox and the Google Toolbar for IE, and neither browser was open. I never did see any popups from Omega's installer, though I did get Microsoft digital signature warnings while installing the new VIA chipset+AGP drivers. I moved around the window where Omega gets stuck and found nothing behind it. I could do nothing with the big window except close it. I did choose Close but then Cancel when it asked if I really wanted to quit the installer. The Omega installer suddenly said extraction and installation was complete and it was time to reboot. The Finish button didn't work so I had to reboot as I was.

After rebooting, it looks like the old 5.6 drivers were still in charge, so I tried doing a manual update as you described earlier. But then Windows asked for my ATI disk. I don't know if it's safe to do that, so I bailed out there.

Dyre Straits

When Windows asked for your ATi disk, what you MIGHT have been able to do at that point would be to point to the folder where Omega's drivers are installed. It's looking for the .INF file. On my rig, that would be in this location:

C:\Program Files\Radeon Omega Drivers\v3.8.231\2KXP_INF

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Aurora

It wanted ati2mtag.sys and I found it there like you said. After rebooting, the Omega drivers were clearly in charge (yay!). I also went down from 6 unknown devices to just 1. How do I take care of whatever that might be? I know it isn't the remote since neither the 9000's nor the X800's remote has been plugged in since last week.

If it's not too early yet, how do I get the TV functions going on this new card? DAO is still uninstalled. Is it better to use 9.06.1 or 9.08? I was using 9.08 with the 9000 AIW.

Dyre Straits

I'm almost positive that the last Unknown Device is due to the absence of the WDM drivers. Install those and I think you'll be good to go. Once you get the WDM drivers installed, you should be able to activate the TV functions from within the Omega Control Panel.

Also, I'm using MMC 9.13 on my AIW 9600 on my 2nd computer. So far, I've had no real issues with that version.

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Aurora

I got WDM from the same place I got the Omega drivers. It seemed to install ok. But after the reboot, the device is still Unknown and Windows couldn't find a driver for it.

At least so far, MMC is uninstallable. 9.08's DAO part goes down when idriver.exe crashes. 9.06.1's DAO installs ok, but the other part also goes down with a idriver.exe crash. I even tried installing the second part of 9.08 with 9.06.1's DAO part, and I get the same crash.

It looks like 9.13 is not for Win2000.

Aurora

I tried to Google for information about idriver.exe crashes. I did what they said (/regserver every idriver.exe and set dcom permissions), but all that did was trash the add/remove programs system. Looks like it's time for another partition restore and starting over.

Dyre Straits

I hate hearing about problems like this. However, it's quite often some small incompatibility somewhere in the system. It could be a device conflict.

I admire your persistence in trying to resolve it, though.

Good luck!

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Aurora

Ok, a little progress.

Partition restored.
Uninstall ATI Control Panel only; everything else left alone. Reboot.
Install Omega drivers using the cancel out of the close dialog trick. Reboot.
Manually update drivers to get Omega drivers in charge. Reboot.
Install WDM. Reboot.

I took care of that last unknown device. It looks like installing WDM only put them in C:\ATI\SUPPORT but didn't actually install them. I found the right driver in the AVS_T200 directory. Reboot.

Now to try to launch TV from the old 9.08 install. No go (TV cannot initialize the video). ATI's PC Check approved of everything except the display drivers. It said Unknown graphics chip, not ATI RADEON or more re... (and I can't get the rest of the text).

How can I finish the WDM install since that seems to not be done? The only part of I manually installed was the AVS_T200. Or is it possible that MMC 9.0x just won't work with the X800 XT AIW?

Dyre Straits

Since I don't have an AIW card newer than the 9600, I can't say for sure from my own experience whether there's a problem with WDM and the TV function on X800 series cards.

However, I've had several AIW cards going back to the AiW PCI 8 MB card from the early-mid '90's and several since then. I don't recall having nearly as much trouble as you're describing to get them to work.

But, I've also not used Windows 2000. My own exposure to 2K is quite limited.

One method that has worked quite well at various times is this:

Clean up your drivers using DriverCleaner.

Install a previous official version of the Catalyst Drivers but don't install the Catalyst Control Center. Install everything else including the WDM drivers.

Once you get things working....if, indeed they do...simply install Omega's drivers OVER THE TOP of the official drivers and make sure to answer YES to overwrite anything that you're prompted to do. In other words, if you get a prompt that a newer driver is installed, do you want to overwrite it, say, Yes.

I have very, very seldom ever used DriverCleaner or any other such app and have not had issues installing and updating. I simply use an app like CCleaner to clean up any issues in the Registry.

If the problem continues to be with the TV app not working, we need to move this to the AIW forum for better responses.

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Aurora

I tried, and no good.

This time I picked 5.13. I downloaded the dd and wdm parts from the low speed users' section instead of the big download with everything. 5.13's dd installer just silently crashes. So it looks like I can't use any official drivers except the 5.6 drivers I installed using the 9000 card.

Aurora

I wanted to see if I could use Add New Hardware to get the WDM installed. I didn't really expect it to work, and -- sure enough -- it didn't.