Help pls : Any ATI drivers = XP wont boot

[subwoffers]

Hi everyone!
I have this strange problem and I really need your help.

I have a fresh install of XP pro all updated with service packs.
I went to install the ATI 7.11 drivers and restarted the computer, xp loads to the little loading screen with the moving bar then goes to a black screen, my screen tells me optimal settings should be 12xxx by 1xxxx and then the pc restarts itself.

I have not had this problem before in the past, this is a ATI x1950 pro in AGP. I have a 560 watt ocz power supply and checked all connections. ( I'm using DVI).

I have tried 7.10 , 7.9 as well as Omega drivers and each time I'm getting the same result. I'm posting right now on "Last setting that worked" option. =(


Thanks, Kent

[CrowdAds]

[3 of 7]

Do you have .net installed? Seems to me to install the ATI complete package you need it..
If you just install the bare driver you should be ok.

[subwoffers]

Thanks, Yes i have installed 2.0 net.
I have also tried JUST the driver and got the same result. =(

[ScuzziOne]

I've got similar problems with my X1950Pro AGP board. To date, I've been unable to get any ATI Catalyst version to work with Vista 32-bit Ultimate and I've only found one version of the Catalyst driver that works with 32-bit XP Pro. As you've stated, most of the drivers simply result in a black screen on boot... just before the login where the video signal suddenly seems to get lost or simply stays blanked out. Well, just in case it works for you, here's what I've figured out:

On my system, the only functional Catalyst driver version is Catalyst 7.4 and, as I stated before, it only works under my Windows XP Pro. The Omega Driver based on Catalyst 7.4 also works under XP Pro and is what I've actually ended up using for the time being. Don't recall exactly what the Omega driver version was off-hand, but you should be able to find out which Omega driver was based on Catalyst 7.4 with a little digging. Anyway, start with Catalyst 7.4 and if it works you can then try out the Omega driver version of Catalyst 7.4.

Anyway, just to give you a heads up: If your system acts like mine, then the Catalyst 7.4 will also lock up at a black screen on the first re-boot after installation. Give it a minute and then smack the reset button. On my system, the second reboot will get a little further but ultimately lock up after the login screen is displayed. Again, give it a minute and smack the reset yet again for a third reboot. On the third reboot after driver installation, my system will actually allow me to log in; however, the graphics seem horribly slow. So, use the start menu to shutdown/reboot again, and on the fourth reboot following installation all is well with my system. From the fourth boot on the system will boot up without problems. I later read that the Catalyst driver attempts to perform some system tests and configuration on initial reboots which tends to cause these initial lockups. Once you get past the tests, you're good to go. Only wish this were true of other Catalyst versions such as the ATI Catalyst drivers for Vista... no amount of reboots seems to make any difference with the other versions of ATI's drivers!!!

In short, try Catalysts 7.4 and give it a few reboot attempts following driver installation to see if it works through whatever testing it is performing. If you're lucky 7.4 just might work for you as well...

[ScuzziOne]

FYI,

I took a minute to look over my system with the X1950Pro AGP and the Omega driver version I'm using is Omega 3.8.360. As I said before, this should be the Omega Driver version which was based on the Catalyst 7.4 driver release... which is the only ATI Catalyst driver version I've been able to get working on my system with Windows XP Pro. Believe I've tried everything from 7.2 to 7.11 and only 7.4 works.

I bought this card last April and just got lucky that I downloaded 7.4 and it worked right off. With this being my first ATI card and it working without problems on the first try, I quickly became an ATI fanboy. This lasted for all of about a month when I decided to buy a copy of Vista Ultimate to put on the system. I couldn't get any of the available Vista drivers to work. They either BSOD'd or ended at a blank screen just before the logo should have appeared before the login.

Went back to my XP Pro install with Catalyst 7.4 and continued to try each new Vista driver release for the next several months. At about Catalyst 7.8 and after much discussion with ATI driver support folks, I finally threw in the towel and decided I was just going to have to stay on Windows XP. To add insult to injury, I also decided to update my Windows XP install from Catalyst 7.4 to the current Catalyst 7.8. That's when I discovered that none of the other Windows XP Catalyst drivers would work either... I just got lucky that the first one I installed was 7.4... which, to date, appears to be the only version I can get working. Have to admit that I've not tried 7.12 or 8.1 yet, but I'm so disgusted with this ATI product that I doubt I ever will.

Fact is that ATI's AGP drivers suck and they shouldn't have bothered releasing an AGP product if they had little to no intention of properly supporting it. Personally won't be buying another ATI product anytime in the future if I can at all avoid it. And now AMD has swallowed the "poison pill..." Really can't imagine what they were thinking! Everything ATI is involved with seems to go to crap. Just look at the Xbox 360 and all the problems they've had with the GPU in it... wouldn't you know that it would be a GPU supplied by ATI!!! Can you say "Red Ring of Death?" Ha! Ha! Ha! Microsoft, you should have stuck with nVidia!!!!

[traveler]

I picked on the 7.11 drivers to run HL2E2 with my AGP ATI card. Works fine. I haven't tried anything newer. But then I run win2000.

Your post though shows what I've found to be true many times ---> Newer or updated does not always mean better.

[Fleabus]

I've been changing ATI software/drivers for many years and don't have issues by following this:
01) Changing ATI Catalyst Suite (CCC Catalyst Control Centre software/drivers):
02) Be patient. This was written for the inexperienced with problems. Read through the instructions first. They involve likely Registry changes and using Windows Explorer.
Printing the instructions first to have them handy might be a good idea.
03) Note: To help insure a problem free install, all remnants of previous CCC/driver installs must be removed and Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0 must be installed first as described in some of these steps:
04) Download the relevant Catalyst/driver package.
Start point for ATI software/drivers (Catalyst Suite):
Drivers & Software
Choose O/S >GPU type >model >GO >Choose Catalyst Software Suite.
05) Check to see if you have .NET Framework v2 installed.
Start >Control Panel >Add or Remove Programs >Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
If not listed, download it here and install it before the Catalylst/driver install:
Download details: .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86)
06) Start >Control Panel >Add or Remove Programs >ATI Uninstall Utility >Change/Remove >Restart when prompted.
As Windows reloads, cancel the Found New Hardware dialog box prompts.
07) Start >Run >[type] regedit >Enter.
Back up Registry: File >Export >type an appropriate name (eg PreATIv8xxRegBU.reg)>Save.
08) Click on the + beside HKEY _LOCAL_MACHINE to expand it.
Click on the + beside Software to expand it.
R-click on any folder referencing ATI or ATI Technologies >Delete and confirm the Delete.
09) Click on the + beside HKEY _CURRENT_USER.
Click on the + beside Software to expand it.
R-click on any folder referencing ATI or ATI Technologies >Delete and confirm the Delete.
Close Registry Editor.
10) Open Windows Explorer.
Go to C:\Program Files and Delete any folders referencing ATI.
Go to C:\Windows\Temp >Edit >Select ALL >File >Delete.
If delete is refused on any files, its ok. Just remove all the ones you can.
Close Windows Explorer.
11) Start >Run >browse to where you downloaded the new Catalyst Software Suite package and run it (Select the exe file >Open OK>).

Happy trailz,

[traveler]

Real good Fleabus.

[ScuzziOne]

While I can't say for certain that this is true for all the versions I tried, the vast majority of the versions installed were installed on fresh installs of the operating system(s) involved with all latest available critical updates installed. For ATI Catalyst drivers, the appropriate .NET framework was also pre-installed. However, the .NET framework is not required for the Omega drivers as the publisher has made modifications to eliminated the dependency on .NET. As I understand it, only the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) is dependent on the .NET framework and thus should not affect "driver only" installs. For many of the versions, I performed both "driver only" installs without the CCC and "full installs" with the CCC. So unless there's ATI crap in the registry by default after a fresh OS install, which I doubt, then there should have been no issue with old registry settings or files/libraries laying around on the system.

I did fresh installs for two reasons. First, I wanted to eliminate the argument that my OS was misconfigured or screwed up in any way so as to cause this problem. Secondly, fairly early on I managed to hose my system drive with a Catalyst driver install to the point that it would even BSOD on booting into Safe Mode. Was unable to recover from this attempted driver install and ended up re-installing my OS. From this, I quickly figured out that I did not want to be trying out ATI's drivers on my normal system drive and began using other removable drives for test installations on fresh OS installs with 30-day temporary licenses. Since I did not want to register/authenticate these test OS installs and since the driver releases are on one month intervals, the temporary OS license would also generally expire between testings.

The whole experience has really been quite a pain and I hate to think how many hours I wasted trying to get ATI's drivers to work. At this point, I've all but given up on trying the new releases and I'm pretty disgusted that I own two of these ATI video cards on two systems, neither of which can be gotten to run under windows Vista Ultimate. One of the reasons I purchased this video card was that it supported HDCP and, thus, should be capable of supporting the High Definition content playback under windows Vista. As boldly displayed on the box... the video card is "Certified For Windows Vista." However, this statement apparently doesn't apply to ATI's device drivers...

So this situation left me with the delima of choosing between "shelving" my Vista Ultimate to run Windows XP Pro with the ATI X1950Pro AGP or "shelving" the X1950Pro to run Windows Vista with my older non-HDCP nVidia 6800GS AGP cards where I won't be able to support the High Definition content playback. And, yes, nVidia's Windows Vista drivers install and work without a hitch for my 6800GS AGP cards in these systems. Since the X1950s are the higher performance option and Windows XP Pro is the more efficient OS for my older AGP boxes, that's the configuration that I'm currently sticking with; however, I'd ultimately like to be able to put Windows Vista on these systems in the future to roll them down to my kids and to maximized the useful life of these boxes. Just hacks me off that apparently I'm going to have to roll back to older non-HDCP hardware to get to Windows Vista. One thing for sure is that I'm certainly not going to be spending any more money on any more AGP cards for these systems. Will make due with what I've got for the rest of the useful lives of these systems.

Hopefully, sometime in the next year or so ATI will release a device driver that works on my system... or some third party driver publisher will fix this problem in ATIs device drivers; however, I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting for it as the chances look slim!

One thing for sure is that I'm only one of many with this problem. A quick search of the internet will uncover many, many hits on people experiencing the same problem. It's become widely known as the "black screen of death..."

Anyway, here's a couple links to one guy who's so hacked-off about it that he's set up a website. This first link lists links to others discussing the problem:

<link deleted>

And here's the link to his main page where he rants about his particular problems:

<link deleted>

Just so we are clear on this, I am in no way associated with this individual or his website. Simply came across it while looking for answers to my own problems and thought it was quite a thorough treatment of the issue as compared to other forum posts and such I've come across.


EDIT: Well, Isn't that cute... I'm too new to post links! Well, if you're interested, google "ATI Technologies Radeon and the Blank Screen in Vista Problems" to find the first link I mentioned (include the quotes and all in your search to limit results to the page I'm talking about). You can then take the "home" link at the bottom of the page to find the main page I mentioned second above.

[traveler]

Hey ScuzzieOne!!! Welcome to the ABX Forums.

Just PM one of the mods with your post text and links and they can put it into your post for you. Too many spammers joining too many forums to post too many spam links has resulted in this type of need across the internet.