Bug in Catalyst 4.8 Renders W2K System Unusable

  • Thread starter Thread starter CHANGE USERNAME TO westes
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CHANGE USERNAME TO westes

I'm experiencing a strange bug in Catalyst 4.8 and I need help working
around it.

I was using MS FS2004 in full screen mode and decided to go to windowed
mode, then change the anti alias settings from 4x to 2x. I brought up the
ATI command center, and to my surprise the anti-alias setting was at
"application preference". I never allow that setting. I had definitely
explicitly selected 4x. I deselected application preference, then
manually selected 2x, then selected Apply.

The screen went blank. Now after Windows desktop finishes drawing, the
screen goes blank every time I reboot. This strange sequence with anti
aliasing has put the RADEON 9800 Pro adapter settings into some undefined
state I guess. I am in a Catch 22 now, because I cannot run the ATI
uninstall unless I am able to login to Windows 2000, which I cannot do. I
tried to use Terminal Services to login remotely, but that uses its own
graphics driver, and the ATI uninstaller refuses to work. I tried to use
safe mode, but similarly the ATI uninstaller refuses to work. I tried
installing Catalyst 4.9 but that seems to be inheriting the buggy settings,
and now when I login the monitor goes blank.

I'm sure if I could just run the uininstaller I could reset things and
install from scratch, but I don't see a way to do it at this point.

How can I reset my system and remove the ATI RADEON driver settings from my
registry?
 
I don't remember ... can W2k be rolled back, or booted
into the "last good ... "? As a last resort, I've actually
gone in and manually deleted the offending folder. W2k
would come back with all kinds of "can't finds", but
then I could get in, and reinstall drivers. If you can get
in .. in safe mode, then the driver is the problem. It
can't load if it is not there. Best defense against this
is disk imaging. I sure do like mine. Saves me from
myself.

johns
 
Yes, W2K has an F8 option at boot time that lets you choose from several
different safe modes.
 
Booting to the last good configuration doesn't help in this case. There
was never a blue screen of death, and Windows has no way to know the driver
is displaying incorrectly. I think the issue is internal to the driver
alone.

Your idea about imaging is well taken, and I should get in the habit of
disconnecting my mirror before any memory upgrade.
 
As an update to my post, I finally got into Windows during one boot and
tried to run the uninstaller, and it claims the ATI drivers are not
installed!!
 
CHANGE USERNAME TO westes said:
Your idea about imaging is well taken, and I should get in the habit of
disconnecting my mirror before any memory upgrade.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I meant before any driver upgrade. Trying to do too many things at
once. :)
 
CHANGE USERNAME TO westes said:
I'm experiencing a strange bug in Catalyst 4.8 and I need help working
around it.

I was using MS FS2004 in full screen mode and decided to go to windowed
mode, then change the anti alias settings from 4x to 2x. I brought up
the
ATI command center, and to my surprise the anti-alias setting was at
"application preference". I never allow that setting. I had definitely
explicitly selected 4x. I deselected application preference, then
manually selected 2x, then selected Apply.

The screen went blank. Now after Windows desktop finishes drawing, the
screen goes blank every time I reboot. This strange sequence with anti
aliasing has put the RADEON 9800 Pro adapter settings into some undefined
state I guess. I am in a Catch 22 now, because I cannot run the ATI
uninstall unless I am able to login to Windows 2000, which I cannot do.
I
tried to use Terminal Services to login remotely, but that uses its own
graphics driver, and the ATI uninstaller refuses to work. I tried to use
safe mode, but similarly the ATI uninstaller refuses to work. I tried
installing Catalyst 4.9 but that seems to be inheriting the buggy
settings,
and now when I login the monitor goes blank.

I'm sure if I could just run the uininstaller I could reset things and
install from scratch, but I don't see a way to do it at this point.

How can I reset my system and remove the ATI RADEON driver settings from
my
registry?
Click to expand...

This usually occurs ( blank screen on boot with ATI cards ) when Window puts
the video card in a mode incompatible with your monitor...

It happens alot to people with old monitors and WinXP, and you need to use
the F8 - VGA Compatibility mode... ( Is there such an option in W2K?
scratching head... )

FYI
 
CHANGE USERNAME TO westes said:
As an update to my post, I finally got into Windows during one boot and
tried to run the uninstaller, and it claims the ATI drivers are not
installed!!
Click to expand...

This just keeps getting worse. To review, I invoked a very serious bug in
the ATI Catalyst 4.8 drivers by running FS2004 in 1600x1200 full screen
mode, with 4x FSAA, then:

1) Went to windows mode. My desktop runs at 2048x1536, and it is the
difference between my desktop resolution and the game's full screen
resolution that may somehow relate to the bug I have invoked.

2) Right clicked desktop, and changed FSAA from 4x to 2x. FS2004 was
still running in its window.

3) At that point the screen disappears (goes black, but I do NOT lose the
synch light on the monitor), and I haven't gotten back my ATI driver install
to a stable configuration since. I had been using the RADEON 9800 Pro for
over a year without significant problems.

Now the update:

- I found a trick to get back the screen when it disappears. I can login
remotely using Microsoft Terminal Services, then use the ATI system gadget
to set the desktop from my remote login. Strangely enough, the resolution
I am setting affects only the console session, not the terminal session. I
lower it to 1280x1024 and the screen appears again. So I've exploited a
separate bug to help workaround the first one.

- Once the bug of the disappearing screen happens, then the ATI drivers
start to think they are no longer installed. Attempts to launch the
control panel get:

"No ATI graphics driver is installed, or the ATI driver is not
functioning properly."

I am launching the panel from 1280x1024 resolution, after recovering from
the disappearing screen.

- Even after recovering, when I reboot, I can never get the uinstaller to
work properly. It always comes up with:

"This action is only valid for products that are currently installed"

Twenty seconds after getting this message, the ATI Control Panel icon
disappears from my Windows desktop. Ten seconds later, I get a messge
that I must restart my system for the changes to take effect!! So the
uinstaller is just partially working.

- Even when I can recover resolution and am careful not to reset any of the
3D settings that initially set off the problem, the screen is not drawing as
fast as it used to. I can see the contents of individual child windows
redrawing left to right across the window in sections, with small stutters
between each section.



Is it possible that when I first invoked the bug, that the ATI driver did
something to permanently reprogram the hardware itself into a state from
which the hardware cannot be recovered in software?

Is there any way to hard reset the RADEON 9800 Pro hardware back to its
factory configuration? For example, is there a jumper I can place on it,
or take off, that would reset its internal programming?
 
CHANGE USERNAME TO westes said:
This just keeps getting worse. To review, I invoked a very serious bug
in
the ATI Catalyst 4.8 drivers by running FS2004 in 1600x1200 full screen
mode, with 4x FSAA, then:

1) Went to windows mode. My desktop runs at 2048x1536, and it is the
difference between my desktop resolution and the game's full screen
resolution that may somehow relate to the bug I have invoked.

2) Right clicked desktop, and changed FSAA from 4x to 2x. FS2004 was
still running in its window.

3) At that point the screen disappears (goes black, but I do NOT lose the
synch light on the monitor), and I haven't gotten back my ATI driver
install
to a stable configuration since. I had been using the RADEON 9800 Pro
for
over a year without significant problems.
Click to expand...

You need to use a driver cleaner to clean the registry entries so that the
new driver install doesn't inherit the bad settings, and as I said before
you need to use the F8 safe mode option to force VGA compatibility mode ( I
think it temporarily forces the VESA driver on ) to bypass the bad video
card settings in the registry.
 
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