[thekochs]

I'm hoping this is the right forum for this post since it is a HTPC. Any help would be VERY apprectiated.


I am having an issue upgrading my ATI Catalyst drivers for my Radeon 9600XT, I currently am running Cat v4.5. I have an Asus P4S800 motherboard with latest 1009 bios, P4 2.8Ghz, 1GB DDR, with the Radeon 9600XT, with XP SP2. I have a Sony VPLHS20 projector hooked DVI-DVI and a LCD with A/D card on the RGB port of the 9600XT. Everything has been working fine.


My Upgrade Attmept:

I have uninstalled both the v4.5 ATI control panel and ATI drivers in the Add/Remove software, rebooted and the 640x480 screen comes up. I launch the Cat v4.9 or Cat XP4.1 latest control-panel/driver upgrade and the install seems to go fine. I then reboot and the BIOS POST scripts show, then XP boot logo comes up fine. The problem is that the screen goes blank/black after that....before the user login screen. Since the analog LCD connected to the RGB port is DPMS it goes blank and stays that way since it must not be getting a signal. ATI's webite has a incident report for this and says to check the AGP settings in my BIOS (their OK) or that their SMARGART utility is hanging the boot process and I should reboot and SMARGART will be bypassed. The only way I can reboot is to push the hard power button and kill the power....CTRL-ALT-DEL doesn't seem to work. When I power up again the same thing happens. The only other point to note is I do not have the DVI projector turned on.....only the analog LCD.


Can anyone help ? I'm really stuck on what to do. ATI online help has been useless......they sent me to the same URL three times now.


Thanks !

 

[.....]

You should download the latest Catalyst 4.10 and see if they work better.

If the problem is still there, try to boot the pc in safemode, disable the ATI Smart service, then reboot in normal mode.


Also, u might want to give Driver Cleaner a try.

 

[DaddyRabbit]

Try to COMPLETELY uninstall 4.5 (make sure XP says you have a "standard" VGA adapter. Then install the full 4.1 + control panel (NOT Control Center).


Does the Windows screen display on the PJ at all?

 

[Thomas J. Coyle]

thekochs,


I had a similar problem when I upgraded from Cat 4.5 to 4.6. Unfortunately, I forgot to unhook the ATI dongle from the Radeon card's DVI connector during the upgrade and the result was a scrambled VGA display upon reboot. All I had to do was shut down, disconnect the dongle from the DVI socket and reboot. The VGA display then came up normally and allowed me to complete the installation of Cat 4.6.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

TCIII

 

[JokJok]

This is the usual problem that occurs when you upgrade ATI drivers with an analog monitor connected to VGA port and a digital monitor connected to DVI port.

You have only to press ALT+F5 to switch primary monitor.


Bye,

Jok

 

[thekochs]

Quote:

Originally posted by ..... If the problem is still there, try to boot the pc in safemode, disable the ATI Smart service, then reboot in normal mode.

Couple dumb questions on this:

1) How do you force "safe mode" boot ? I don't see the selection screen or this like when there is an error.

2) How/Where do you disable ATI Smart Service ?


All, thanks for all the great ideas. I will try them this weekend. Couple questions:

1) I did not try the PJ......it was powered off the whole time. Seems I recall last time I upgraded to 4.5 that I was on the PJ not the RGB-LCD. I do not have a "dongle" on the DVI port......I just have a DVI-D cable to the DVI-D of the PJ......running in computer mode. Do you think the issue still exists with anything plugged into the DVI port ? Even powered off ?

2) I have seen that when the PJ is "powered on" that the Radeon 9600XT card drives the PJ because this is the default port. However, when the PJ is powered down in normal operation my RGB-LCD comes up. The Radeon then maps this as the Primary......with DVI port shown as disabled. I do use a macro to Hot-Key (ALT+F5 and my PowerStrip PJ timing/rez Hot-Key for PJ) to change to PJ. My concern is that if I power-up the PJ as the display, uninstall 4.5 that when I reboot to 640x480 that my PJ (Sony VPLHS20) does not see that rez and since Windows does not boot I can't get to my PowerStrip timing to set PJ timings. Then I'm stuck.


Suggestions on steps ?


Thanks !

 

[JokJok]

Quote:

Originally posted by thekochs Couple dumb questions on this: All, thanks for all the great ideas. I will try them this weekend. Couple questions: 1) I did not try the PJ......it was powered off the whole time. Seems I recall last time I upgraded to 4.5 that I was on the PJ not the RGB-LCD. I do not have a "dongle" on the DVI port......I just have a DVI-D cable to the DVI-D of the PJ......running in computer mode. Do you think the issue still exists with anything plugged into the DVI port ? Even powered off ?

Yes, even if powered off. I'm in the same exact situation with my HS-10.

Bye,

Jok

 

[rgathright]

I had this same problem when upgrading to 4.9. To reach the safe mode click F8 when starting up. I eventually had to get an ATI Dongle and go component instead of DVI.

 

[.....]

Quote:

Originally posted by thekochs Couple dumb questions on this: 1) How do you force "safe mode" boot ? I don't see the selection screen or this like when there is an error. 2) How/Where do you disable ATI Smart Service ?

1. During startup hit F8 just before the "windows loading" screen.

You will then get the option to start in safe mode.


2. Start -> Run - > services.msc

Double-click the ATI Smart service and disable it.

 

[thekochs]

Thanks to all.....I got it to work. For anyone reading this thread here is the steps.



1) Boot machine and go to Control Panel. Toggle Display so you are on the DVI-Default display.....not the RGB.

2) Go to Add/Remove Programs

3) Click On ATI Control Panel & select Uninstall.....follow directions but DO NOT reboot yet.

4) Go back to Add/Remove Programs and select ATI Driver & select Unistall and reboot

5) Computer will come up 640x480.

6) Go to ATI section where you downloaded driver & control panel update. Note, I downloaded each seperately instead of one big file. You can find the individual install files (Driver, ATI, Cat CP) on the ATI Download center.

7) Select ATI driver install via EXE and run. Do NOT Reboot.

8) Select ATI Control Panel (Not Catalyst Control Center) and install via EXE.

9) Reboot should come up fine.

10) Then go back to the Catalyst Control Center install EXE and run the install. Reboot and you should be good to go.