digitalwanderer

I never reveal me sources mate, have no fear!

I have this weird fixation about keeping me word and keeping confidences and such, it's made me life a heck of a lot simpler!

I had the Rage Fury (non-Pro) and loved that thing to pieces, as well as me Radeon 7200 that I upgraded it to. Granted the Rage128 drivers took a while to mature, but once they did it was a great card. (Well, that and I sort of got into tweaking trying to figure out how to get it working and sort of ended up here...LOOOOOOONG story, but a good ending. ) I also really liked me 7200 and thought it was a good card, but I must admit some disapointment with the 8500. It just ain't all there for me, it actually made me swear off buying ATI until they proved to me they've changed.

Who'd of thunk they actually would?!? They sent me a 9500 Pro to check out for a few weeks, and it's the main reason I'm such an ATI enthusiast right now. The 9500 Pro was an INCREDIBLY schweet card to me all around, I experienced no troubles with nothing and it took everything I could throw at it and just came up smiling. I was HELLA impressed, and still am!

I'll get around to writing up the experience as soon as me family gets healthy and quits making so much demands on me "meat-puppet who types". Sorry for the delays ATI & me bosses here, thank you very much for being so understanding and letting me have the opportunity to see for meself just how really new and improved your company is...I'm nothing but flat-out impressed all around.


Try disabling TV-out, it sounds like you have it enabled and that can tend to make your desktop do a few super-freaky things...it's an idiosyncrity of almost all the ATI cards I've ever owned.

Gotta run, it's FINALLY time to put the kids to bed. (YEAY!!!!)

__________________
WTF is up with the sigs?

Thunderball.se

I don't think you understand. The problem itself has nothing to do with TV out.

Look at the screenshot in this thread. Then compare it to an advanced display tab on a computer which doesn't have an ATI card (or Catalyst drivers). The actual dialog window is much taller with Catalyst, than without.

I think I narrowed the problem down to the Direct3D tab. That tab is huge.

YO, driver maker... think you can compress that Direct3D tab, so one can use it even in an 800x600 resolution? (I can't even select 640x480, though that would be VEEEERY welcome, since a PAL TV only has 485 lines, and yes, even though it can fake higher resolutions, 640x480 would be the sharpest, I think... but I've seen debates on that... borders on religion it seems, so let's not go there!)

msix

Dear Catalyst Guru:

Thank you for your explanation... Its the first time I got a response from someone in ATI. That should be something to be happy as I sent thousands of emails to ATI support asking about Mobility lack of drivers from the "BRAND" who sells the Notebook, Compaq in this concrete case...

I still cannot understand how "COMPAQ" and other brands lets its notebooks go out with that poor 2d, 3d deceleration... Ati should let users download reference drivers under user´s responsability, it´s easy to warn us that the driver you would download is not the one choosen by the brand.

Anyway, if you say that you develop all drivers to support all chip types, why "COMPAQ" doesnt have new drivers on their web page? It is not as asking ATI for a new set?

Sorry for my bad humour on that, but is my second notebook with ATI and my second time having low gfx power because of drivers... And by the way, I dont want the drivers to play games, I´m a musician and I need acceleration for audio editing works...

Sorry for being a flamer without a cause (?) Now I have all the info from you about why Notebook users are not allowed to use every new Catalyst... But I still don´t understand why notebook brands doesnt them users to be free to update their drivers...

Anyway, thank you and I´ll stay here using my P4 with IGP340M like if it was a P2 with an S3 Virge... Or you should point us ( Notebook users ... ) to download Catalyst 3.1 with support for ALL Radeon products?

Alex Martin ( Steinberg, Native Instruments, PropellerHeads product manager for Spain )

PD
Sorry for my heating up and the "lazy" terms that I used... Doesnt want to blame nobody, just to see if there was any reaction, I guess everybody does the job the best they can...

patje

Have no fear, I is here.

Dear M7,9 IGP users,

I'm also tired of waiting on OEM companys for a driver. Escpecially when ATI is doing there very best for develloping great drivers.

So, Today, I will start modding the 3.1 sets for use with M7, M9 and probably the IGP also.

Don't expect tweaked drivers like Omega's no no no just 3.1 drivers installable on your Laptop.

When they are ready I'll start a new thread with the location of the drivers.

Happy waiting

Patje

edit: check my new thread http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...threadid=10960

msix

Thank you for being our hero!

I hope you can mod those info files for IGP 340M users...

If you need any help, ask for it...

Alex

Thunderball.se

Don't forget the M6 (4c59)... that's what I have, and my laptop is just a year old.

CATALYST maker

Hi Alex,

Let me answer a couple of your questions so it can be clear what is happening.

1) ATI can not let users do that as the OEM's who are our customers do not permit us to. Unfortunately you are not in theory our customer. Compaq is our customer and you are Compaq's customer. So its not an issue of us giving warnings or anything like that.

2) You probably need to ask Compaq that. My feeling is that we add many new features in CATALYST and this causes a couple of issues for OEM's. The first is that they would need to train their customer support on all our new features. That is a lot of work for companies that big. Secondly they would need to update their help files and documentation every CATALYST. (It is easier for us to do it). Actually I can think of a third reason and that would be that they would need to extensively test our drivers every CATALYST and that is probably a very large effort.

3) Hey there are many drivers on the web that the community makes that use the newest CATALYST, go ahead and try them out. If you like them keep them, if you dont go back to Compaq's driver!

Hope that helps buddy

patje

Will do m8

aboukirev

Quickly modified Cat. 3.1 to work on Mobility Radeon 9000 (M9). Runs pretty well so far: no artifacts in Dungeon Siege (some driver versions made parts of terrain disappear), Soldier Of Fortune 2 works well. I'll try UT2003 and Jedi Outcast next.

CATALIST maker, the item 2) seems irrelevant to me. If I buy Compaq desktop and put a different ATI-based videocard there (typical scenario), they'll still have to support computer, right? I'll have the same chance to use new CATALYST drivers there. Do they have to train their support people in that case? The difference with laptops is that I can not replace video in laptop, so it's less worries for Compaq. Otherwise, it should be the same as desktop situation.

Alexei

CATALYST maker

No they dont. If you have a CATALYST driver then we (ATI) have to support you because you bought the board at some retailer. You have become our customer.

Compaq desktop will only support you for the latest driver on their web page. That is the driver they have tested and qualified, and that is the driver they support. Any newer driver is only endorsed and tested by ATI not by Compaq.

aboukirev

That is if I bought card Built by ATI. If I bought a 'Powered by ATI' I'm not a direct ATI customer and theoretically should only rely on custom driver releases from card vendor(e.g. Sapphire). Yet ATI provides drivers for 'Powered by ATI' desktop cards and not for 'Powered by ATI' laptops. All I'm seeking is fairness: release drivers for both or neither. Right now it seems like clear discrimination to me.

Not that it's critical to me. I can mod drivers when I need it. But I see this question asked time and time again on Usenet. Of course, I point people to Omega and Cyborg drivers.

Regards.

Alexei

CATALYST maker

Do you not agree or not understand the explanation? If you dont agree with it there is nothing I can do. If you dont understand let me say it again we are NOT allowed by our customers (the OEM's) to post drivers for mobile computers.

By the way there is no difference between powered by and built by drivers they are one and the same.

Zardon

If Terry was in a position to post new updates for mobility drivers he would. it really does seem pretty straightforward to me. you cant break a contract.

I do understand your frustrations and im doing all in my power to rectify this. im holding a conference with Omega and cyborg soon to see if we can help you guys keep up to date with modded drivers for your laptops. you have to understand though that these modded drivers will not always work 100% with your particular model.

im sorry this situation isnt a little better for those of you with laptops, I have one myself and I make do with a much older set. its just one of those things that people have to accept when buying one. I wish it would change. and im making an effort shortly to email each company involved as the owner of this site to see if I can get some feedback.

I am requesting that all dissatisfied laptop owners email me their problems to zardon@driverheaven net and I promise ill use all my sway to get something moving for you.

aboukirev

CATALYST maker, I'm really sorry if I sounded harsh. Please accept my apologies.

I really did not understand that contract forbid ATI to release drivers for Mobile chips (who would expect that?).
I do not blame ATI for the situation at hand. I guess, I should point my frustration at Compaq.
Although I understand why Compaq is not keeping up with Radeon drivers. I monitor their FTP and they put several updates (Softpaqs) there practically every day. It's hard for them to support as much equipment as they have sold in all these years and it's not just video drivers.

Zardon, thanks for the effort. So far, my problem with laptop manufacturer's drivers was just that they were out-of-date: DirectX 8 based when DirectX 9 was released, slower than it is possible, some artifacts in newer games - same things as many people were experiencing on desktops and laptops alike.

What would help is if there was some info available on changes in registry parameters with new Catalyst releases so that I would not blindly copy/paste things from one INF file into another and hope that it works. It does not have to be official info for modders either. Just some guidelines from those who know things.

BTW, I really like Cat. 3.1. Definitely an improvement from 3.0a.

Alexei

Zardon

I understand your frustration aboukirev as I said, and I personally feel that laptop manufacturers should put a little more resources into supporting their customers on a driver level.

I have made omegadrive and cyborg aware of this thread and the continuing problem regarding this, and we have a great community here, ill make sure we make an effort in improving modified drivers if its possible. and as I said, if anyone needs me to email companies regarding this and support. please contact me.

issues get resolved better if we all work together as a team, and everyone who comes here is part of that team.

wolfmanstout

Dear Mr. Catalyst maker,
Everyone seems to have a different opinion on what you need to do before installing new Catalysts. What is your opinion on how to uninstall the old Catalysts before you update? I'm not asking for a long guide, I just want to know: is it necessary to change the registry, delete inf files, and all that other stuff that some people claim is necessary? Can we just uninstall the drivers and control panel using the built in uninstallers? Is there some other way that I haven't mentioned?


Thanks a lot,
wolfmanstout

CATALYST maker

Well lets put it this way. When I install new drivers I just install the drivers first then the control panel and then I reboot. I dont uninstall my old drivers, I dont delete registries or inf files and all that.

The reason why people are having problems is because of all the various 'tweaked' drivers they install. If you were to only ever use ATI drivers you would not have any problems. i.e. go from Catalyst 3.0 to Catalyst 3.1 to Catalyst 3.2, etc.

Harboe

Ohh Catalyst 3.2!!! when when when?

Just kidding. Great job with the latest drivers, just a shame that it didnt fix Mafia for me at least. I have a 8500LE and i'm running WinXP-SP1a with all updates.

tdd

To Mr. Catalyst Maker:

I have an ATI Radeon 9700 TX which came with my new machine about 5 week ago. Its never been tweaked, altered, touched or anything. In short, its a virgin. I'm not even sure if it came with any sort of Catalyst. I downloaded the Catalyst 3.1 but have never installed it because of all the different "how-to"s flying around about uninstalling this, that, and another, tinkering with the registry, etc. The ATI site sez (without any explanation) to "uninstall the drivers"...I assume that means the existing drivers...and then install Catalyst 3.1, reboot, etc. Can I just install Catalyst 3.1 without uninstalling anything and without going through all the other stuff like the how-to for the "noOBes"which if I printed it out was 28 pages long (The guy who wrote it did a great job but the task was a bit daunting...especially for a newbie like me.)

Thanks for your help.

__________________
"I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming and in panic like the passengers of his bus."

Pretender

i have to say unfortunately that this is a very untrue statement as i have never used 'tweaked' drivers, and recently was using catalyst 03.0 and tried updating to 03.1 unsuccessfully i might say.

the update may have preformed ok, but when you go into ati tv 7.7 program and start a capture on first boot it will work, but after system is in use for a couple hours and you try to record again, it doesn't capture, it captures 212 bytes and capture time count stays at 0.

if i run tests it says capture drivers are not installed, if i reinstall capture drivers, reboot, it'll work again. but again after a couple hours i can no longer capture.

only catalyst drivers i have been successful with are the 0.30 and only on a clean install.
also have noticed in 0.30 agp fast write is enabled, in 0.31 is disabled.

oh
heh
Catalyst 3.2 ?


Windows XP Pro
AIW Radeon 32mb agp (yes is old but still works great, sometimes )
DirectX 9
Gigabyte GA-7VAXP F12
Athlon XP 2100+
512mb DDR333 2700
Audigy Platinum

Paladin06

OK, I've been from 2.5 to 3.0 to 3.1 and the performance keeps dropping off. I've lost about 700 points in 3D Markn2001SE. In all honesty I don't see any noticable improvement in the graphics either. Is it me or what's the deal?

I'm open to suggestions!

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WinXP-SP2
P4 3.4 @ 3.5
PE800CE-A
GeForce 7800GS OC
1 Gig PC3200 (Corsair)
Audigy Gamer 5.1
Creative Inspire 5700 Sound system
19" SyncMaster LCD 931B Monitor
Razor Krait Gaming Mouse
80 and 60 gig ATA 100 HD
MSI 48x16x48 CDROM
ARTEC 16x DVD-ROM EIDE

brian911

Cat3.1 seems to not work properly with Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Jedi Knight II. RTCW displays some sort of texture map after a game finishes loading then XP gives me some sort of error pointing towards the opengl dll. Jedi Knight II works 50% of the time - the other 50% gives me the same result as RTCW.

PoopyTheJ

Catalystmaker mister sir,
DX stutter is not fixed in this release. Do you have any ideas on when this will be fixed? It's really annoying to keep having to turn my Troubleshooting slider down one "notch" in order to play DX games without a horrific stutter. Plus my sons (3yrs old) games don't run right, without Bitmap acceleration enabled get black boxes around stuff and crap. When will this issue be fixed? kinda sad to run "Bob The Builder" on a 9700Pro and have it incapable of running correctly, if you know what I mean.

kuma

Not cleaning out the old drivers left behind on the system after uninstalling 3.0a led to non-functionality in 3.1 Normally I would have done this manually but I decided to use DriverClean this time and it missed a few. Removing these and then installing 3.1 worked well.
On the Granite Bay (7205) chipset we have had to up AGP voltage by at least 0.1v to get the 9700 Pro to work without crashing the system. Some have said +0.1, others 0.2v, but +0.1v was stable with 3.0a. I have found that under 3.1 when the card is working hard +0.1v is not enough and +0.2v is necessary to keep the system from crashing. Pretty hard to put the blame on the drivers but an observation for Granite Bay users anyway.
3DMark03 score of 4860 being obtained on system in its everyday operation mode.

__________________
Pentium 4 3.06GHz Hyperthreading
Gigabyte 8INXP Granite Bay MB
1GB PC2700 Dual DDR
Win XP Pro SP1, DX9
Western Digital 120GB 8MB Cache
SATA Raid
MGUltra 133
Gigabyte Maya II R9700 Pro
Audigy 2 Platinum
Sony G420 CRT/ Sharp LL-T1620 LCD
Imation 48/24/48 CDRW
Altec Lansing 641
Thermaltake Xaser II 6000A Antec 480W

portstevo

hmm, I don't see a link for these drivers...any help?

Aretè

Then what is my problem? Is it because i went from nvidia to ati? I have NEVER used tweak drivers, i dont even oc my computer, i dont have the money to be making up for any screwed up hardware. So why is it i have all these problems with device failures (lol im not even exagerating that my comp just froze up and blanked out, came back and gave me device error while writing this thread) So any advice on how to install ATI drivers without having these problems id love to hear, because your method isnt working. I think the file that always crashes is called ati2dvag.dll or somethign like that.