Tired of being an ATI beta tester

[Husky]

ATI : English:

ATI :
ATI : ATI Customer Care online services have been upgraded, and emails to
ATI : (e-mail address removed) are no longer monitored.
ATI :
ATI : To contact us please visit
ATI : http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894. Once you
ATI : register and sign in to our support website click "Request Support" to
ATI : contact us using our online ticketing system.

I've used this email for more than 7 years, and now they've made themselves
even more inaccessible.

For clarification this gripes about Catalyst 5.4. They've all given me pains. I
seldom attempt to install an upgrade when I don't have a day or two to waste.

This is my 2nd attempt to install catalyst 5.4. I went back to 3.4 that came
with the 9800 after they told me I was installing it wrong..
P4 3.2 ghz, video and audio on the TV buffered, causing EVERYTHING to screw up.
I have the ATI on a signal splitter with the normal TV. Echoing after the
normal TV signal is not the way it should operate. 7 years of successes should
have told them that.

I wish the software were half as good as the hardware, but we have 2 different
code writers here.

Went and re-installed 5.4 today. same crap echo, not even worth trying to
capture till they get this fixed.

Grabbing 5.5 this moment. Be real mad if it's as bas as 5.4.

I can only imagine how bad this works on a P3 with the minimum memory.
It's gotten to the point that I don't believe ATI even bothers to try their
updates out before writing to a MASS CD.

 

[Jup2005]

Keep using the software provided with your cards !
I bought a radeon 4-5 years ago. I have had no problems so far, except when i try to update mmc,
catalyst. I remember, NVidia was often releasing new drivers on their internet web site, ATI wasn't
that often. Now ATI releases new drivers for x and r cards, mostly according the demanding issues in
games i suppose, because people want to buy new games. On one point, and i'll tell which, customers
are wrong maybe: these people sometimes believe upgrading software will bring better overall
results. This it is not my point of view.

Intel p3 1000 coppermine
radeon 7500 aiw
640 sdram
winxpmce for games and web browsing
win2k for everythink else

 

[Paul Murphy]

I've used this email for more than 7 years, and now they've made
themselves
even more inaccessible.

Well you must have had a fairly reliable run with things recently then
because that email address has been inoperative like that for quite some
time now (more than a couple of years).

For clarification this gripes about Catalyst 5.4. They've all given me
pains. I
seldom attempt to install an upgrade when I don't have a day or two to
waste.

This is my 2nd attempt to install catalyst 5.4. I went back to 3.4 that
came
with the 9800 after they told me I was installing it wrong..
P4 3.2 ghz, video and audio on the TV buffered, causing EVERYTHING to
screw up.
I have the ATI on a signal splitter with the normal TV. Echoing after the
normal TV signal is not the way it should operate. 7 years of successes
should
have told them that.

There is a very significant difference between Catalyst 3.4 and 5.4 driver
packages (with WDMs) when used with several "newer" All In Wonder versions
(including your 9800). Older Catalyst driver versions such as 3.4 used to
rely on an audio cable connected between the AIW and the machines sound
card for audio transmission between the TV Tuner part of the card and the
sound card whereas newer versions of the Catalyst software/WDM drivers
provide audio transmission via the PCI bus. What does this mean for you? -
quite simply that the cable you were using to carry the audio signal between
the AIW and your sound card or motherboard sound chip should now be removed.
If you leave this cable connected that that would likely explain an echo as
the sound would be transmitted both ways. This is a significant change which
ATI introduced in response to customer feedback (presumably people were
finding it to difficult to connect the required cables) but in only applies
to certain higher end AIWs such as yours and better - eg my 8500Dv and AIW
Radeon 7200 32 MB versions both still require the audio cable to be fitted
as audio transfer via the PCI bus isn't enabled on these cards.

I wish the software were half as good as the hardware, but we have 2
different
code writers here.

Its not a software problem causing this, merely that the sound is being
transmitted between the AIW and soundcard twice as outlined above.

Went and re-installed 5.4 today. same crap echo, not even worth trying to
capture till they get this fixed.

Grabbing 5.5 this moment. Be real mad if it's as bas as 5.4.

Prepare to be real mad then because that change is something present in all
newer cat packages these days when used with cards such as yours.

I can only imagine how bad this works on a P3 with the minimum memory.
It's gotten to the point that I don't believe ATI even bothers to try
their
updates out before writing to a MASS CD.

You use the word update(s) - you did fully uninstall the old version (using
add/remove programs) and reboot before considering installing the new
version didn't you? Any attempt to upgrade/update a Catalyst (or MMC
version) by simply running the newer version while the older version is
already present/installed will likely result in failure as all traces of
older software needs to be removed (and the machine rebooted ensuring no
other background applications are running -eg antivirus, norton utilities
etc) before attempting to install new versions. This is a very common
mistake which many people make and it causes screw ups.

Personally I've been using ATIs Catalyst drivers since version 3 and MMC
versions since about 7.2 and as long as I've correctly followed the
installation procedures recommended on ATIs website (including the need to
have a "clean" machine before installation of drivers/mmc as above) and I've
never had these sorts of issues. Certainly I've found the software to be
pretty reliable overall (although some versions along the way have had some
bugs in them).

Paul