About Smartgart

[MaryL]

I reinstalled Catalyst drivers 4.2 for my ATI 9000 Pro video card
recently. The drivers work ok, and the Control panel is there with all
the tabs, except for Smartgart. I know you don't have to have it and
sometimes it causes trouble, and I am not going out of my way to get it,
but I had Smartgart before when using the same version of Catalyst
drivers and Via 4 in 1 drivers Version 4.55. I thought Smartgart was
installed with Control panel when you installed Catalyst drivers from
ATI site, which is what I did. So what happened to Smartgart that it
didn't get installed when it was there before? Just curious - I know
there is a Smartgart uninstaller. Is there also a Smartgart installer?

MaryL

 

[First of One]

Is this WinXP? If so, go to Start -> Run and type "services.msc". See if the
service called ATiSMART is in the list.

If it's Win98, type "msconfig".

 

[MaryL]

Is this WinXP? If so, go to Start -> Run and type "services.msc". See if the
service called ATiSMART is in the list.

If it's Win98, type "msconfig".

I should have mentioned it was win 98SE. Its definitely not in msconfig
so I know its not installed.
I just wanted to know the possible reason it wasn't installed, and if
you can install smartgart separately from ATI site?

MaryL

 

[patrickp]

I should have mentioned it was win 98SE. Its definitely not in msconfig
so I know its not installed.
I just wanted to know the possible reason it wasn't installed, and if
you can install smartgart separately from ATI site?

MaryL

W98SE shouldn't make any difference, MaryL, I've got a W98SE box
running ATM; I've had various Catalyst drivers running on it, and
Smartgart has always installed and run.

Do you have the appropriate chipset drivers (specifically the AGP one)
for your mobo installed? And DX9?

As to whether you need Smartgart - perhaps you don't, although it does
have its uses, but its absence suggests something isn't right.Patrick

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

 

[Danny Greaves]

I reinstalled Catalyst drivers 4.2 for my ATI 9000 Pro video card
recently. The drivers work ok, and the Control panel is there with all
the tabs, except for Smartgart. I know you don't have to have it and
sometimes it causes trouble, and I am not going out of my way to get it,
but I had Smartgart before when using the same version of Catalyst
drivers and Via 4 in 1 drivers Version 4.55. I thought Smartgart was
installed with Control panel when you installed Catalyst drivers from
ATI site, which is what I did. So what happened to Smartgart that it
didn't get installed when it was there before? Just curious - I know
there is a Smartgart uninstaller. Is there also a Smartgart installer?

MaryL

--
Atismart should be in msconfig/startup. But either way if there was a problem with the install, or more likely the
uninstalling part that happens on my win98se also.




--end

 

[MaryL]

W98SE shouldn't make any difference, MaryL, I've got a W98SE box
running ATM; I've had various Catalyst drivers running on it, and
Smartgart has always installed and run.

Do you have the appropriate chipset drivers (specifically the AGP one)
for your mobo installed? And DX9?

I installed Via 4 in 1 drivers version 4.55, but also tried ver. 4.35
but none of them installed
Smartgart. I am already using DX 9c. I said I was reinstalled catalyst
4.2 drivers, but it was 4.3, but I've used both before and both worked
fine on my computer.

As to whether you need Smartgart - perhaps you don't, although it does
have its uses, but its absence suggests something isn't right.

Well, it took me a while to get things set up properly, so I really
don't want to upset things by uninstalling and reinstalling anything. I
was just curious why it wasn't installed this time, and if it can be
downloaded separately from ATI site. I didn't see it when I was on that
site.

MaryL

 

[MaryL]

problem with the install, or more likely the

uninstalling part that happens on my win98se also.

Its not installed and there is no Atismart in msconfig. My system works
ok without Smartgart, so for now at least, I won't be doing any
uninstalling or installing as it took me long enough to get the Enhanced
drivers to install. I kept trying to install them and only the "regular"
drivers would install, not Direct 3D, Open GL and all the other tabs in
Display/Advanced.. I was just curious as to why Smartgart did not
install but everything else did. And I also wanted to know if Smartgart
could be downloaded separately if I wanted to get it. I don't see it on
the ATI site. I find uninstalling and installing Catalyst drivers andf 4
in 1 drivers in Win 98SE doesn't always work out, even if I try to get
every old driver out beforehand. I have Win 2K on a partition and don't
seem to have these problems when installing video drivers and 4 in 1
drivers.

MaryL

 

[patrickp]

I installed Via 4 in 1 drivers version 4.55, but also tried ver. 4.35
but none of them installed
Smartgart. I am already using DX 9c. I said I was reinstalled catalyst
4.2 drivers, but it was 4.3, but I've used both before and both worked
fine on my computer.


Well, it took me a while to get things set up properly, so I really
don't want to upset things by uninstalling and reinstalling anything. I
was just curious why it wasn't installed this time, and if it can be
downloaded separately from ATI site. I didn't see it when I was on that
site.

MaryL

AIR Smartgart comes as part of Control Panel, MaryL. Is it possible
you downloaded and installed just the display driver rather than the
display/capture/Control Panel set? That would mean you'd be missing
quite a few tabs in Display Properties > Settings > Advanced, and one
of them would be Smartgart. I know you said you had Control Panel,
but you would still get several tabs there without it.

Do you have any of the other ATI tabs (they usually have an ATI logo)
showing?
<snip>

Patrick

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

 

[First of One]

If you use a system information utility (like free Everest Home Edition),
does it show AGP to be enabled? If so, leave the PC alone. If not, then keep
digging...

 

[MaryL]

If you use a system information utility (like free Everest Home Edition),
does it show AGP to be enabled? If so, leave the PC alone. If not, then keep
digging...

I only have Sandra installed for System information, which I use once in
a while.

MaryL

 

[Danny Greaves]

I only have Sandra installed for System information, which I use once in
a while.

MaryL

I don't know much about it. (or the command line) But I think smartguart is in the windows/system folder "ati2s9ag.exe".

My win98 display propertiess/advanced/options/details also shows the cards and the current agp setting. But IDK if your
drivers show that or not. I use the ATI recommended software for a radion aiw /win98.

tv-capture-wdm-6-14-10-6240
wme-8-03-98-3-050117a-021000e ATI CATALYST 5.2, 02/07/05
mmc-8-9-0-0

hope thats some help
Dan

 

[MaryL]

Patrick, I remember you from a couple of years ago when I had big
problems installing my video card drivers and took me a long time to fix
things up and you were very helpful. I printed out and kept some of your
instructions.

AIR Smartgart comes as part of Control Panel, MaryL. Is it possible
you downloaded and installed just the display driver rather than the
display/capture/Control Panel set? That would mean you'd be missing
quite a few tabs in Display Properties > Settings > Advanced, and one
of them would be Smartgart. I know you said you had Control Panel,
but you would still get several tabs there without it.

Maybe its a good thing that I posted my message about Smartgart not
being available when I installed Control panel and since you mentioned
tabs in Control Panel, I checked out what tabs were in Display/Advanced
(this is the Control Panel, right? and the features in Control panel
such as Direct 3D, Color, Open GL, etc., aren't they all the Enhanced
drivers?
Anyway, I looked closely at the tabs, which I just presumed were the
usual Control Panel tabs I had before, I had my latest video drivers
problem, and I noticed that I have some duplicate tabs which I didn't
notice before. For example, I have two Overlay tabs and two Open GL
tabs, so it looks like the Enhanced drivers (or control panel, whichever
it is), has installed two sets of tabs. How would that happen? I'm sure
I've never seen that before.
Before my resent problems, somehow I ended up in 16 colors and only had
standard VGA driver installed (don't ask how that happened). So I
uninstalled and installed Catalyst drivers 4.3 and reinstalled 4 in 1
drivers vers. 4.55 which seem to work fine before. I tried vers. 4.35 by
the way in the past, and it doesn't work as well as 4.55. I had to
uninstlal and install a few times and finally got Performance, General,
Adapter, which are the "regular" video drivers, but I couldnt get
Control panel (enhanced drivers) to install. I looked at all your past
notes and did everything you say especially about uninstalling ATI
drivers.

Do you have any of the other ATI tabs (they usually have an ATI logo)
showing?

All the tabs (other than the general tabs such as General, Performance,
Monitor, etc.) have small ATI logos showing, but there are two sets of
those in two separate rows, which as I said, I have never seen
before.Very strange.
So maybe you were right when you said that with Smartgart not being
installed (whether I was asking about Smartgart at the start), there
seemed to be something wrong.
I dread the prospect of uninstalling and installing the video drivers
and 4 in 1 drivers again, as its such a headache and can lead to a worse
mess in my personal experience, even when I have done everything I
should. I've often though my video card and motherboard never did get
along
very well BTW, should 4 in 1 drivers be installed before video card
drivers? some seem to say different things about that.
My computer seems to be working ok in win 98SE which is what I am
talking about. I have a separate partition on my hard drive for Win 2K
and the video drivers in there including Smartgart are there as they
should be. Most of what I do is in win 98 though as I am used to it and
its less complicated than win 2k.

MaryL

 

[MaryL]

I don't know much about it. (or the command line) But I think

smartguart is in the windows/system folder "ati2s9ag.exe".

I don't have that file, so Smartgart is not installed.

My win98 display propertiess/advanced/options/details also shows the

cards and the current agp setting. But IDK if your

drivers show that or not. I use the ATI recommended software for a

radion aiw /win98.

I don't have an aiw Radeon. I just have a regular Radeon 9000 Pro.

tv-capture-wdm-6-14-10-6240
wme-8-03-98-3-050117a-021000e ATI CATALYST 5.2, 02/07/05
mmc-8-9-0-0

I have only used Catalyst 4.2 and 4.3 as they are recommended for my
video card. Probably ATI 5.2 might be for AIW? I don't use a capture
card as I know nothing about it and don't have any video connected to my
TV. and I don't know if I have mmc installed.
Thanks anyway.

Mary

 

[MaryL]

My win98 display propertiess/advanced/options/details also shows the

cards and the current agp setting. But IDK if your

drivers show that or not. I use the ATI recommended software for a radion aiw /win98.

tv-capture-wdm-6-14-10-6240
wme-8-03-98-3-050117a-021000e ATI CATALYST 5.2, 02/07/05
mmc-8-9-0-0

I notice when I just checked ATI site that Catalyst 5.2 came out 2/9/05
so is a lot newer than the Catalyst 4.2 , 4.3 drivers and says its for
Win 98 and WinME (says older video drivers for win 98 are all under
winME now). I wonder if I should have tried 5.2 drivers. It also said on
the same page as 5.2 drivers, something about "different varations are
available for Radeon AIW. I just have Radeon, not AIW.

Mary

 

[Shawk]

All the tabs (other than the general tabs such as General, Performance,
Monitor, etc.) have small ATI logos showing, but there are two sets of
those in two separate rows, which as I said, I have never seen
before.Very strange.
So maybe you were right when you said that with Smartgart not being
installed (whether I was asking about Smartgart at the start), there
seemed to be something wrong.
I dread the prospect of uninstalling and installing the video drivers
and 4 in 1 drivers again, as its such a headache and can lead to a worse
mess in my personal experience, even when I have done everything I
should. I've often though my video card and motherboard never did get
along
very well BTW, should 4 in 1 drivers be installed before video card
drivers? some seem to say different things about that.
My computer seems to be working ok in win 98SE which is what I am
talking about. I have a separate partition on my hard drive for Win 2K
and the video drivers in there including Smartgart are there as they
should be. Most of what I do is in win 98 though as I am used to it and
its less complicated than win 2k.

MaryL

Mary,

Been a while since I had a VIA board but IIRC my install routine was:

1. Install 4in1 (they're up to 4.56 now BTW). Reboot.
2. Install DirectX 9. Reboot. (Download the redistributable from MS)
3. Re-install the 4in1 (but just the AGP driver - sometimes DX9 or MS
buggered it up - maybe loaded it's own version of the gart driver). Reboot.
4. Install the graphics drivers. Reboot.

If you decide to try installing again then I'd uninstall the ATI drivers and
control panel and the 4in1's first.

Have you run 'dxdiag' ? If not run that now and post the results. 'Start',
'Run', type 'dxdiag'

Have you looked at http://forums.viaarena.com ? Lots of smartgart/via
related posts in there.

HTH. Shaun

 

[Mary]

Been a while since I had a VIA board but IIRC my install routine was:

1. Install 4in1 (they're up to 4.56 now BTW). Reboot.
2. Install DirectX 9. Reboot. (Download the redistributable from MS)
3. Re-install the 4in1 (but just the AGP driver - sometimes DX9 or MS
buggered it up - maybe loaded it's own version of the gart driver). Reboot.
4. Install the graphics drivers. Reboot.

I've uninstalled then installed various 4 in 1 drivers and version 4.55
seemed to work the best, or I thought it did anyway. I've tried various
versions at various times. I already have DirectX9c.
I never thought about just reinstalling the 4 in 1 AGP driver though. I
thought you had to install the whole 4 in 1 driver package, including
gart and miniport, etc. for Win 98?

If you decide to try installing again then I'd uninstall the ATI drivers and
control panel and the 4in1's first.

Yes, I sure know about uninstalling everything.

Have you run 'dxdiag' ? If not run that now and post the results. 'Start',
'Run', type 'dxdiag'

I just use the shortcut for DirectX on my desktop.
Everything is ok in DirectX. Direct draw, Direct3D and AGP texturing -
all are enabled.
All tests are normal, sound, display, etc.

Have you looked at http://forums.viaarena.com ? Lots of smartgart/via
related posts in there.

I would have to check . I wanted to see first if anyone here would know
why I have two sets of tabs in control panel in Display/Advanced.
Newsgroup interaction is a lot easier than rooting through lots of
messages in forums unless you have to of course.

MaryL

 

[Shawk]

cards and the current agp setting. But IDK if your

I notice when I just checked ATI site that Catalyst 5.2 came out 2/9/05
so is a lot newer than the Catalyst 4.2 , 4.3 drivers and says its for
Win 98 and WinME (says older video drivers for win 98 are all under
winME now). I wonder if I should have tried 5.2 drivers. It also said on
the same page as 5.2 drivers, something about "different varations are
available for Radeon AIW. I just have Radeon, not AIW.

Mary

You wont lose anything by trying the 5.2's. You're right you do not have
the AIW so you dont need that version.

 

[Shawk]

I've uninstalled then installed various 4 in 1 drivers and version 4.55
seemed to work the best, or I thought it did anyway. I've tried various
versions at various times. I already have DirectX9c.
I never thought about just reinstalling the 4 in 1 AGP driver though. I
thought you had to install the whole 4 in 1 driver package, including
gart and miniport, etc. for Win 98?

You do. I didn't suggest just the agp. Sorry if I wasn't clearer.

Install the whole 4in 1 package. THEN DX9. THEN the agp part only of the
4in1 package. THEN the ATI drivers (you might try the 5.2's). If I didn't
follow this I always had graphics problems with my old VIA motherboard.

 

[Mary]

You wont lose anything by trying the 5.2's. You're right you do not have
the AIW so you dont need that version.

But didn't it say on the 5.2 page that the drivers can be used for
Radeon 9000 series. It seemed more suited to Radeon 900 Pro than AIW,
because it mentions that for AIW drivers, all the information you need
is not on version 5.2. Thats what I took out of it.

Mary

 

[Mary]

You do. I didn't suggest just the agp. Sorry if I wasn't clearer.

Install the whole 4in 1 package. THEN DX9. THEN the agp part only of the
4in1 package. THEN the ATI drivers (you might try the 5.2's). If I didn't
follow this I always had graphics problems with my old VIA

motherboard.

But if you re-read what you said above which was "Re-install the 4in1
(but just the AGP driver - sometimes DX9 or MS buggered it up". That
would appear to me like you mean just install the AGP driver from the 4
in 1 package. If I am mistaken as to what you meant, what did the part
you said about "but just the AGP driver" refer to?

Mary