8500DV - Remote Wonder - atimmc.exe problem

[Bill Anderson]

I had enough older parts on the shelf that I decided to invest in a few
extra things and assemble a nice computer for my nephew. Now I'm having
an awful time trying to get ATI drivers and software installed correctly.

Asus P4T-E Mbo
Pentium 4 2.8 Mhz processor (yes, 2.8)
1 gig RDRAM
AGP ATI 8500DV All-in-Wonder
Cheap Cobra sound card
Cheap USR Modem
USB 2.0 PCI card
Plextor PX-712A IDE DVD-R -RW burner
160 gigabyte WD HDD - partitioned C: and D: OS on C:
That's about it, I think.

I installed WinXP Pro and updated it completely at the MS Windows Update
website. SP2. Media Player 10. Everything. Windows Update tells me
it has no further updates for me. I also installed Cobra sound card
drivers. But that's it. Nothing else installed.

Then I used Ghost to back up everything compressed on one DVD.
(Couldn't believe a full WinXP installation occupies over 7 gigabytes
these days, but apparently so.) This means I can return to a pristine
WinXP installation any time I like -- and I have done this several times
today, whenever my attempts at installing ATI software go too far awry.
I just wipe out my C: partition and Ghost-reinstall the full WinXP
configuration. Takes about 20 minutes to get back to a fresh WinXP
installation that works great and has never seen any ATI software.

Now for the problem.

I can't get the 8500DV's Remote Wonder (not Plus, not II, just plain
Remote Wonder) to play nice with any version of Multimedia Center (MMC).
I can get the Remote Wonder to work with or without MMC. But if the
Remote Wonder is running (and working fine), whenever I try to play the
TV or look at a DVD, I get an error message: "atimmc.exe has encountered
a problem." If I uninstall the Remote Wonder, MMC begins working again.

I've tried all of this and everything's failed:

Installing everything from the original 8500DV installation disk --
early versions of drivers and MMC (ver. 7 something).

Installing with and without Catalyst (just control panel).

Installing Catalyst 4.10 or Catalyst 5.4 or 5.6.

Installing MMC 9.02 (which the Windows list of currently installed
programs insists is MMC 9.03, even though the installation filename says
9-02-0-0). And BTW, I couldn't find MMC 9.02 on the ATI site. I could
find references to it and I could find instructions that I MUST use it
with my 8500DV, but I could NOT find the file when searching for it
directly. The ATI site would always send me to 9.03. Then I Googled
some websites that had links to the the 9-02-0-0.exe file on the ATI
site. Weird. And even weirder, when 9-02-0-0 installs, as I said
earlier, Windows regards it as 9.03.)

I've also tried:

Installing Remote Wonder before MMC.

Installing Remote Wonder after MMC.

Installing Remote Wonder driver 1.1

Installing Remote Wonder driver 2.3

Installing Remote Wonder driver 3.02 (the only one that has worked)

I've Googled all over the alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati newsgroup
looking for something -- anything to help.

And I've run out of ideas. Does anybody know what it takes -- what
needs to be loaded and in what order -- in order to get a Remote Wonder
to play nice with MMC when running nothing but WinXP SP2 on a computer
with an ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV video card?

Help.

 

[J. Clarke]

I had enough older parts on the shelf that I decided to invest in a few
extra things and assemble a nice computer for my nephew. Now I'm having
an awful time trying to get ATI drivers and software installed correctly.

Asus P4T-E Mbo
Pentium 4 2.8 Mhz processor (yes, 2.8)
1 gig RDRAM
AGP ATI 8500DV All-in-Wonder
Cheap Cobra sound card
Cheap USR Modem
USB 2.0 PCI card
Plextor PX-712A IDE DVD-R -RW burner
160 gigabyte WD HDD - partitioned C: and D: OS on C:
That's about it, I think.

I installed WinXP Pro and updated it completely at the MS Windows Update
website. SP2. Media Player 10. Everything. Windows Update tells me
it has no further updates for me. I also installed Cobra sound card
drivers. But that's it. Nothing else installed.

Then I used Ghost to back up everything compressed on one DVD.
(Couldn't believe a full WinXP installation occupies over 7 gigabytes
these days, but apparently so.) This means I can return to a pristine
WinXP installation any time I like -- and I have done this several times
today, whenever my attempts at installing ATI software go too far awry.
I just wipe out my C: partition and Ghost-reinstall the full WinXP
configuration. Takes about 20 minutes to get back to a fresh WinXP
installation that works great and has never seen any ATI software.

Now for the problem.

I can't get the 8500DV's Remote Wonder (not Plus, not II, just plain
Remote Wonder) to play nice with any version of Multimedia Center (MMC).
I can get the Remote Wonder to work with or without MMC. But if the
Remote Wonder is running (and working fine), whenever I try to play the
TV or look at a DVD, I get an error message: "atimmc.exe has encountered
a problem." If I uninstall the Remote Wonder, MMC begins working again.

I've tried all of this and everything's failed:

Installing everything from the original 8500DV installation disk --
early versions of drivers and MMC (ver. 7 something).

Installing with and without Catalyst (just control panel).

Installing Catalyst 4.10 or Catalyst 5.4 or 5.6.

Installing MMC 9.02 (which the Windows list of currently installed
programs insists is MMC 9.03, even though the installation filename says
9-02-0-0). And BTW, I couldn't find MMC 9.02 on the ATI site. I could
find references to it and I could find instructions that I MUST use it
with my 8500DV, but I could NOT find the file when searching for it
directly. The ATI site would always send me to 9.03. Then I Googled
some websites that had links to the the 9-02-0-0.exe file on the ATI
site. Weird. And even weirder, when 9-02-0-0 installs, as I said
earlier, Windows regards it as 9.03.)

I've also tried:

Installing Remote Wonder before MMC.

Installing Remote Wonder after MMC.

Installing Remote Wonder driver 1.1

Installing Remote Wonder driver 2.3

Installing Remote Wonder driver 3.02 (the only one that has worked)

I've Googled all over the alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati newsgroup
looking for something -- anything to help.

And I've run out of ideas. Does anybody know what it takes -- what
needs to be loaded and in what order -- in order to get a Remote Wonder
to play nice with MMC when running nothing but WinXP SP2 on a computer
with an ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV video card?

IIRC the Remote Wonder _comes_ with the 8500DV.

First thing to try--install the drivers from the CD that came with the board
or the update CD if you have one. The Remote Wonder drivers should be on
that CD. Once that's done, then upgrade that installation with the new
drivers. Don't try to install them clean--there seem to be pieces that
come on the CD that aren't included in the downloads.

If that doesn't work then I'd suspect a conflict with another device.

 

[Paul Murphy]

IIRC the Remote Wonder _comes_ with the 8500DV.

First thing to try--install the drivers from the CD that came with the
board
or the update CD if you have one. The Remote Wonder drivers should be on
that CD. Once that's done, then upgrade that installation with the new
drivers. Don't try to install them clean--there seem to be pieces that
come on the CD that aren't included in the downloads.

Nooooo thats not a good idea in my experience - not even with the remote
wonder drivers (and especially not with MMC). I think the problem is simply
that Bill is attempting to use the wrong version Remote wonder drivers with
MMC 9.02.

MMC 9.02 does have a bug where it is incorrectly identified as 9.03 in
places. ATI does have it on their website under the "previous" section - its
quite a way down a long list of versions.

If that doesn't work then I'd suspect a conflict with another device.

The most common issue is that people install the remote wonder drivers while
the receiver is plugged in. The remote wonder software needs to be installed
fully before the receiver is even plugged in. The machine is then shut down,
USB receiver plugged in and machine booted allowing the correct drivers to
be automatically installed.
Paul

 

[T Shadow]

I had enough older parts on the shelf that I decided to invest in a few
extra things and assemble a nice computer for my nephew. Now I'm having
an awful time trying to get ATI drivers and software installed correctly.

Asus P4T-E Mbo
Pentium 4 2.8 Mhz processor (yes, 2.8)
1 gig RDRAM
AGP ATI 8500DV All-in-Wonder
Cheap Cobra sound card
Cheap USR Modem
USB 2.0 PCI card
Plextor PX-712A IDE DVD-R -RW burner
160 gigabyte WD HDD - partitioned C: and D: OS on C:
That's about it, I think.

I installed WinXP Pro and updated it completely at the MS Windows Update
website. SP2. Media Player 10. Everything. Windows Update tells me
it has no further updates for me. I also installed Cobra sound card
drivers. But that's it. Nothing else installed.

Then I used Ghost to back up everything compressed on one DVD.
(Couldn't believe a full WinXP installation occupies over 7 gigabytes
these days, but apparently so.) This means I can return to a pristine
WinXP installation any time I like -- and I have done this several times
today, whenever my attempts at installing ATI software go too far awry.
I just wipe out my C: partition and Ghost-reinstall the full WinXP
configuration. Takes about 20 minutes to get back to a fresh WinXP
installation that works great and has never seen any ATI software.

Now for the problem.

I can't get the 8500DV's Remote Wonder (not Plus, not II, just plain
Remote Wonder) to play nice with any version of Multimedia Center (MMC).
I can get the Remote Wonder to work with or without MMC. But if the
Remote Wonder is running (and working fine), whenever I try to play the
TV or look at a DVD, I get an error message: "atimmc.exe has encountered
a problem." If I uninstall the Remote Wonder, MMC begins working again.

I've tried all of this and everything's failed:

Installing everything from the original 8500DV installation disk --
early versions of drivers and MMC (ver. 7 something).

Installing with and without Catalyst (just control panel).

Installing Catalyst 4.10 or Catalyst 5.4 or 5.6.

Installing MMC 9.02 (which the Windows list of currently installed
programs insists is MMC 9.03, even though the installation filename says
9-02-0-0). And BTW, I couldn't find MMC 9.02 on the ATI site. I could
find references to it and I could find instructions that I MUST use it
with my 8500DV, but I could NOT find the file when searching for it
directly. The ATI site would always send me to 9.03. Then I Googled
some websites that had links to the the 9-02-0-0.exe file on the ATI
site. Weird. And even weirder, when 9-02-0-0 installs, as I said
earlier, Windows regards it as 9.03.)

I've also tried:

Installing Remote Wonder before MMC.

Installing Remote Wonder after MMC.

Installing Remote Wonder driver 1.1

Installing Remote Wonder driver 2.3

Installing Remote Wonder driver 3.02 (the only one that has worked)

I've Googled all over the alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati newsgroup
looking for something -- anything to help.

And I've run out of ideas. Does anybody know what it takes -- what
needs to be loaded and in what order -- in order to get a Remote Wonder
to play nice with MMC when running nothing but WinXP SP2 on a computer
with an ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV video card?

Help.

Can't help but wonder if it's a USB problem. Does the mouse function work in
Windows before you run MMC? If you can find a USB port that's on an IRQ that
isn't being shared install the RW on that one. Might be a good idea to
remove the USB2 card until you have the RW working. Assuming the M/B has on
board USB.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Yep -- but please note that I mentioned above that I have already tried
that one. Didn't work. :-(

Nooooo thats not a good idea in my experience - not even with the remote
wonder drivers (and especially not with MMC). I think the problem is simply
that Bill is attempting to use the wrong version Remote wonder drivers with
MMC 9.02.

I can find only one Remote Wonder driver file offered on the ATI site
now. There are links for Remote Wonder drivers, Remote Wonder Plus
drivers, and Remote Wonder II drivers. But if you look closely you
discover all three links give you the same file:
remote-wonder-3-02_rw_enu.exe.

As it turns out I had saved earlier versions on my hard drive over the
past few years: remote-1-1.exe and remote-wonder-2-3-english.exe. This
came in handy earlier this afternoon, after I sent my original note to
the newsgroup.

MMC 9.02 does have a bug where it is incorrectly identified as 9.03 in
places. ATI does have it on their website under the "previous" section - its
quite a way down a long list of versions.

I could not find MMC 9.02 on the ATI website. Not even quite a way down
a long list of versions. If you can find it, please show me the URL.

The most common issue is that people install the remote wonder drivers while
the receiver is plugged in. The remote wonder software needs to be installed
fully before the receiver is even plugged in. The machine is then shut down,
USB receiver plugged in and machine booted allowing the correct drivers to
be automatically installed.

Yes, I learned about that problem a few weeks ago when I was
re-installing drivers for my 9600XT. Actually you can leave the
receiver plugged in, but you must remember to go to device manager and
uninstall it every time you reboot in the installation process which can
really be a pain. So leaving it unplugged until after installing its
drivers really is the best way to go.

I still don't have things working the way I want, but I did have a
measure of success this afternoon after sending the note.

I found in my collection of legacy drivers on my hard drive some MMC 8
stuff. So I started once again with a fresh load of WinXP and installed
ATI drivers in this order:

1) MMC-8-1-0-0-dao-mdac.exe (Actually this was a mistake. I intended
to install Catalyst 5.6 first, but I just goofed.)
2) Catalyst 5-6_xp-2k_dd_cp_wdm_23864.exe
3) remote-wonder-2-3-english.exe
4) atiCDwiz4-0.exe (plus setup.exe for latest version of DVD installation)
5) mmc-8-8-0-0.exe

Everything except the DVD installed with no errors. The DVD seemed to
install part way and then it objected that it couldn't find a certain
file several directories deep under Documents and Settings -- but I
looked and sure enough the file really was there. So I never really
installed the ATI DVD player. In fact, when MMC installed it told me
there was no DVD player.

But ...

The Remote Wonder is working fine and it brings up the Easylook
Multimedia Center followed by the TV tuner with no problem. And when I
press DVD on the Remote Wonder, it brings up *Windows Media Player*,
which plays DVDs also with no problem.

Now if I'm not mistaken, the native Windows Media Player will not play
DVDs unless some other DVD player software, such as WinDVD or PowerDVD
has been installed. Am I right about that? Not sure.

Anyway, I can run the TV and also play DVDs via Windows Media Player
using the Remote Wonder, which is what I wanted. And I've backed
everything up using Ghost, so I can always return to the place where I
am now.

And I plan to keep plugging away a while longer, just to see if I can
make this thing work as it's supposed to.

Thanks to both of you for your suggestions. If you have any more ideas,
please post 'em. I'll be looking for them.

 

[J. Clarke]

Nooooo thats not a good idea in my experience - not even with the remote
wonder drivers (and especially not with MMC). I think the problem is
simply that Bill is attempting to use the wrong version Remote wonder
drivers with MMC 9.02.

In my experience the downloaded drivers flat out don't work unless they're
installed over the drivers from the CD. I've certainly never had a problem
that was traceable to doing so.

 

[J. Clarke]

Yep -- but please note that I mentioned above that I have already tried
that one. Didn't work. :-(


I can find only one Remote Wonder driver file offered on the ATI site
now. There are links for Remote Wonder drivers, Remote Wonder Plus
drivers, and Remote Wonder II drivers. But if you look closely you
discover all three links give you the same file:
remote-wonder-3-02_rw_enu.exe.

As it turns out I had saved earlier versions on my hard drive over the
past few years: remote-1-1.exe and remote-wonder-2-3-english.exe. This
came in handy earlier this afternoon, after I sent my original note to
the newsgroup.


I could not find MMC 9.02 on the ATI website. Not even quite a way down
a long list of versions. If you can find it, please show me the URL.


Yes, I learned about that problem a few weeks ago when I was
re-installing drivers for my 9600XT. Actually you can leave the
receiver plugged in, but you must remember to go to device manager and
uninstall it every time you reboot in the installation process which can
really be a pain. So leaving it unplugged until after installing its
drivers really is the best way to go.

I still don't have things working the way I want, but I did have a
measure of success this afternoon after sending the note.

I found in my collection of legacy drivers on my hard drive some MMC 8
stuff. So I started once again with a fresh load of WinXP and installed
ATI drivers in this order:

1) MMC-8-1-0-0-dao-mdac.exe (Actually this was a mistake. I intended
to install Catalyst 5.6 first, but I just goofed.)
2) Catalyst 5-6_xp-2k_dd_cp_wdm_23864.exe
3) remote-wonder-2-3-english.exe
4) atiCDwiz4-0.exe (plus setup.exe for latest version of DVD installation)
5) mmc-8-8-0-0.exe

Everything except the DVD installed with no errors. The DVD seemed to
install part way and then it objected that it couldn't find a certain
file several directories deep under Documents and Settings -- but I
looked and sure enough the file really was there. So I never really
installed the ATI DVD player. In fact, when MMC installed it told me
there was no DVD player.

But ...

The Remote Wonder is working fine and it brings up the Easylook
Multimedia Center followed by the TV tuner with no problem. And when I
press DVD on the Remote Wonder, it brings up *Windows Media Player*,
which plays DVDs also with no problem.

Now if I'm not mistaken, the native Windows Media Player will not play
DVDs unless some other DVD player software, such as WinDVD or PowerDVD
has been installed. Am I right about that? Not sure.

It needs a DVD decoder. The ATI decoder works fine.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Bill Anderson wrote:



It needs a DVD decoder. The ATI decoder works fine.

Which means the ATI DVD player installation worked partially. The
decoder was installed, but the player wasn't. Another oddity. Thanks.

 

[patrickp]

On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 23:20:00 -0400, Bill Anderson

<snip>

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27
then scroll down to Catalyst 4.10. That's the XP version; for any
other OS it's probably the same route: from the Drivers and Software
page, click the relevant OS/ALL-IN-WONDER/Previous Drivers and
Software link, then click the link to 'RADEON Previous your OS Drivers
and Software versions prior to CATALYST 5.1 / Multimedia Center 9.03'
and scroll down 'till you find it.

HTH Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

 

[Bill Anderson]

I think the problem is simply
that Bill is attempting to use the wrong version Remote wonder drivers with
MMC 9.02.

You nailed it, Paul, though it took quite a lot of stumbling about
before I ever got it right. It was while I was playing around with
version 8 files that I got things working. Then I discovered I could
install the latest versions of everything (no MMC more recent than 9.02
of course) on top of the ver. 8 files and things continued to work.

Then I discovered that if I installed the latest version of the Remote
Wonder drivers, everything crashed. And I couldn't uninstall the latest
Remote Wonder drivers (3.whatever) and go back to ver. 2.3. If I tried,
the system complained that it couldn't find a certain file.

So, without boring you with all the potholes I encountered along the
way, here's how I installed what I think are the latest and greatest
drivers for my 8500DV.

From a fresh installation of WinXP with SP2:

1) mmc-9-1-0-0-dao-mdac.exe (no reboot)
2) Catalyst 5.6 (reboot)
3) Remote Wonder 2.3 drivers (reboot) Don't even think about more
recent drivers. BTW, the link to this driver file on the ATI website
seemed corrupted to me. Maybe the problem was Mozilla, but when I
clicked on the link, the url that appeared in the Mozilla address bar
ended just in some odd (Java?) code without naming the file I needed.
But the rest of the URL looked OK, so I removed the code from the end of
the URL and typed in the exact name of the Remote Wonder driver file
(remote-wonder-2-3-english.exe). And to my surprise and great relief,
the file downloaded from the ATI site.
4) Plug in the Remote Wonder USB receiver and watch the system tray icon
appear.
5) Run the atiCDwiz with a 9600XT drivers disk in CD drive for
authorization reference. (no reboot) This successfully installs the
latest DVD player software to run under the ATI Easylook Multimedia
Center. This won't install properly unless I've installed Catalyst 5.6
or maybe even 5.4. Or maybe it's the latest dao-mdac stuff that keeps
this from failing. I dunno, and I don't really care anymore. All I
know is that some of the earlier stuff makes the DVD player installation
fail part way through. The decoder gets installed but the player
doesn't. But with Catalyst 5.6 and dao-mdac 9.1 running the DVD player
installs without a problem.
6) MMC 9.02 (reboot)
7) Gemstar TV listings software. (no reboot)

Hooray! It's working great! Thanks to all who weighed in on this one.

BTW: Has anyone in this newsgroup ever commented that installing ATI
drivers can sometimes be a pain? Hm?

 

[Bill Anderson]

On Sat, 18 Jun 2005 23:20:00 -0400, Bill Anderson



<snip>

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27
then scroll down to Catalyst 4.10. That's the XP version; for any
other OS it's probably the same route: from the Drivers and Software
page, click the relevant OS/ALL-IN-WONDER/Previous Drivers and
Software link, then click the link to 'RADEON Previous your OS Drivers
and Software versions prior to CATALYST 5.1 / Multimedia Center 9.03'
and scroll down 'till you find it.

HTH Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

Thanks Patrick. I'm obviously blind or stupid or both, but apparently I
can't see what you see on that page. The phrase "Catalyst 4.10" doesn't
appear in the big frame on the right or in the narrow frame on the left.
Maybe Internet Explorer shows something different from the Mozilla I'm
using? I dunno.

However, don't worry about it because I've achieved what I set out to
do. Apparently the big problem was that I was trying to use the latest
Remote Wonder drivers. Needed to use ver. 2.3. I've explained it all
in my previous post. Thanks again.

 

[patrickp]

Thanks Patrick. I'm obviously blind or stupid or both, but apparently I
can't see what you see on that page. The phrase "Catalyst 4.10" doesn't
appear in the big frame on the right or in the narrow frame on the left.
Maybe Internet Explorer shows something different from the Mozilla I'm
using? I dunno.

However, don't worry about it because I've achieved what I set out to
do. Apparently the big problem was that I was trying to use the latest
Remote Wonder drivers. Needed to use ver. 2.3. I've explained it all
in my previous post. Thanks again.

Sorry about that, Bill, I checked the link and you're right: ATI are
obviously using some kind of code to select pages (which also shows up
in that your visit "times out" after a while) so the pages all show as
the same address.

What you want to do if you still want a copy of MMC 9.02 is first to
go fresh to the page to refresh your session (just click the 'Drivers
& Software' button in the bar at the top), then scroll down on the
left 'till you reach the link for your operating system, a little more
'till you get to 'ALL-IN-WONDER,' then click the 'Previous Drivers and
Software' link just under that. Then click the link for 'RADEON
Previous Windows XP Drivers and Software versions prior to CATALYST
5.1 / Multimedia Center 9.03' on the right hand side of the page.
That gats you to the page I was talking about; if you scroll down to
Catalyst 4.10 you'll find the link for MMC 9.02.

All good clean fun, eh? I guess ATI want to make sure people can't
post links directly to their pages.

Oddly, though, you seem to be able to link directly to the files. So
the MMC version is at http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mmc-9-02-0-0.exe,
the DVD Decoder at http://www2.ati.com/drivers/atiCDwiz4-0.exe and the
appropriate DAO/MDAC package at
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mmc-9-1-0-0-dao-mdac.exe. The release
notes are at http://www2.ati.com/drivers/mmc902_Release_Notes.html.
Those links are for XP; I just checked them and they do work! ;-)

And I'm using Firefox, so it should display similarly to Mozilla.

Glad you got it sorted, though! Patrick



<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

 

[Paul Murphy]

In my experience the downloaded drivers flat out don't work unless they're
installed over the drivers from the CD. I've certainly never had a
problem
that was traceable to doing so.

Well it may be hardware dependant to an extent but I've definitely had big
problems with MMC's TV app just refusing to run at all after installing a
newer version over the top of an older one. I cant remember the error
message given, versions affected or which of my 3 All in wonder equipped
machines (2 x Radeons and an 8500DV) had the issue. I've also seen other
people post here that they have had issues which after uninstalling all ATI
software and installing only the latest version (for the hardware), the
issue has gone away. I learnt my lesson from that and the problem has never
re-occurred. The readme notes for MMC versions generally contain something
like this (cut and pasted from MMC 9.08 readme) "Caution: You must uninstall
any previous version of ATI Multimedia CenterT before installing this
version." The saftest bet is to do as above. I've yet to have any problems
with any of the software not installing on a blank machine without the CD
other than ATIs DVD Decoder (and that only needs the CD for verification and
the software doesn't have to be installed to do this).
Paul

 

[patrickp]

On 26 Jun 2005 21:37:35 -0400, Viky

I have been in contact with ATI to get the latest drivers for the AIW
8500DV.

They suggested to download the following in this order:

1. Catalyst 4.10 Graphics Drivers
2. ATI Multimedia Center 9.02

The release notes for Cat 5.6 include the following:

"Desktop product family support

The Catalyst™ software suite is designed to support the following ATI
desktop products:

* Radeon® X850 series
* Radeon® X800 series
* Radeon® X700 series
* Radeon® X600 series
* Radeon® X300 series
* Radeon® 9X00 series
* Radeon® 8500 series
* Radeon® 7X00 series"

So you should be able to use any Catalyst driver up 5.6 (the current
one) with your 8500 DV. However, many people here have issues around
the 5.x drivers and recommend staying with 4.12 or earlier, so 4.10 or
4.12 might be a good choice.

a. 1 of 3 DAO Component
b. 2 of 3 DVD Decoder (requires original Catalyst CD for verification)
c. 3 of 3 Multimedia Center 9.08

I presume you mean 9.02 - that's what you mention earlier, and ATI
themselves do not recommend using higher than MMC 9.02 on cards older
than Radeon 9000.

3. Remote Wonder 2.5

Never used a Remote Wonder, so I can't comment.

As you can see there are a few difference to your method Bill, and I
am not sure that mine has worked.

Firstly, they say that Catalyst 4.10 is the highest version compatible
with the AIW 8500DV - you have installed Catalyst 5.6.

See above - 4.10 might be a better choice, but 5.6 should work.

This download seems to have worked fine for me.

The problems come with the MMC 9.02 downloads.

My questions to Bill/Anyone that might know are:

1. When installing parts 1 and 3 of MMC 9.02 did an installation
wizard come up? With mine it said it was preparing to install and then
in Task Manager it was still running but seemingly not doing anything.

When installing the DAO/MDAC component, it doesn't give any indication
of finishing. You just sit there like a dummy 'till you've done it a
few times and know better! Part 3, I don't know what the problem is:
what OS are you using? And is your card a 'Built by ATI' one, or an
OEM? Did you try installing an ATI DVD Decoder in between and if so,
which one? I would recommend not installing more than you need:
Lunchpad is well-known for its tendency to crash, and it's just as
easy to start apps by right-clicking on the ATI icon in the system
tray. I also wouldn't recommend installing the CD Player - you
probably already have a better one on your system anyway, nor File
Player, which is a notorious file association hog. Moral here - when
doing an any install, always choose Custom Install if you have the
option, even if it's just to see what you're getting!

2. Part 2 of the MMC 9.02 - I do not have the CD which they require,
could I just install my old DVD decoder from MMC 7? Also, if I cannot
proceed with Part 2 will this affect Part 3?

No, you don't have to install a DVD decoder, although not having the
codecs may affect the formats you can capture to. You can get round
that by installing another DVD player, generally, but not the ATI 7.6
one - won't work with MMC later than 7.7.0.1. Pity, I rather like
that one - nice picture quality. :-(

Thanks

Viky

HTH Patrick

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