The Donk said:
I have tried every single catalyst release above 3.4 on my Hercules
9700 but cannot get ant of them to run with any stability. The PC
(running Win2k) always locks up at some point... even on the desktop.
I have removed the old drivers every time (using control panel) and
have disabled all other programs but to no avail!!!! The card runs
3.4 perfectly even when its overclocked but anything above that will
not work.... even when running at default clock speeds. Anyone any
ideas please?
Donk, you're quite right to uninstall before upgrading your drivers, but
unfortunately ATi's uninstall routines leave something to be desired. They
still leave lots of ATi stuff on your system - sometimes even registry
entries to start ATi apps. Something like this may well be what's
preventing later Cat drivers from running.
It's always best to clear your system out between drivers; you'll find a
thread at Rage3D forums,
http://www.rage3d.com/board/, telling you exactly
what you need to do. However, if you're uncormfortable about editing your
registry (and most people should be), you need a good registry editor. I've
always used RegCleaner - part of the jv16 Power Tools suite, from
http://www.macecraft.com/, but unfortunately it's no longer free. You can
download a trial version, but that's not going to be much good to you on an
ongoing basis. I'm sure, if you do a google, you should be able to find
copies of jv16 Power Tools v1.3, which was the last freeware version, or
there are other registry cleaners around - how good, I don't know.
Anyway, uninstall all the old stuff, reboot (enjoy the nauseating display!)
and run your registry editor. If this is the jv16 registry tool, it will
list all your registry entries by manufacturer so you can remove the ATi
ones. Additionally, there's also a Starting Programs section where you can
remove any entries still starting ATi apps. You may even think it's worth
buying jv16 Power Tools; it's certainly a very useful app.
Then reboot, open Windows Explorer and click View > Folder Options > View
and select Show all files (this will enable you to see the ATi system files
you'll need to delete). Delete the big ATI folder on your C: drive and
delete any ATI folders in Program Files. Now open the WINDOWS (or WINNT)
folder and do a search on ati*.*; subfolders too. Delete everything that
isn't there for another reason; i.e. screensavers, internet files etc.
Close Windows Explorer (you might want to set View back to Do not show
hidden or system files - makes life easier) and open your Recyle Bin. Empty
it and reboot. Your machine is clean, and ready for new drivers.
There may, of course, be some other reason your system won't run Cat drivers
above 3.4 but, regardless, this is always a useful thing to do when changing
ATi drivers.
HTH patrickp
