metspitzer said:
I have looked for a "force detection" setting and can't find one.
I have a Dell 9300 with an ATI Mobility Radeon X300 video card.
My Nivida in my main machine has a separate program to set it up, but
I don't find one for my laptop.
Thanks
The ATI desktop drivers consist of two parts. There is the driver proper
(no interface). There is the Catalyst Control Center, a bloated
piece of software that relies on the Microsoft .NET libraries
as well. On some machines, when you start CCC to make changes to
video, the RAM reported in use goes up by 50MB. That is one reason
why someone might not want desktop CCC installed. Of course,
modern machines now have a lot more RAM, so this is becoming
less of an issue.
If you look on the ati.amd.com site, and look for downloads
for desktop cards, you might find a couple different download
options. There might be a combined CCC+driver package (that is
what I typically use on my ATI desktop card). There may also
be a separate driver file and a separate CCC file, for people who
want more modularity in their installs. (If you just use the
driver, then your only control panel would be the functions
in the Windows "Display" control panel.)
Other ingredients to the ATI software, might be some version of
the Microsoft .NET library, as well as some minimal version of
DirectX. (My video card installation CD, installed
a .NET library, as well as the minimum version of DirectX. You
can also get the latest DirectX from Microsoft, but at least
for me, they've stopped at DirectX9c or so.)
Now, a question I don't know the answer to, is what happens if you
mix version "X" driver with version "Y" of CCC. Or why, for
that matter, that a customized driver couldn't hide all the
hardware details, from a generic CCC control panel package.
I'd try the Dell site, and see if they offer something more
appropriate for the job. This link is for Inspiron 9300.
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...mID=INSPIRON 9300&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=
I downloaded the R106547 "MobilityRadeon X300" package, but it
doesn't look like the same kind of package as one with CCC in it.
The file sizes look to be a bit different. (Of course, the fact
that I'm comparing packages prepared a couple years apart, isn't
helping matters. A lot can change in that time.)
This is an article with some background on CCC.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2188&p=2
The "force" button is in the lower right of this picture. If I
connect a TV set to my desktop card, that "force" button comes
in handy.
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/ati/catcc/dispmnadv.png
There is some old info on a "Mobility Catalyst" here. It would appear
the automated detection of the laptop would probably reject a Dell,
as Dell provides their own driver package. Read the entire thread,
before running off and clicking any links. One person set
a "Restore Point" and had to revert back, to recover from trying
this stuff. I expect the Notebookreview forums are chock full
of interesting stuff on the subject. One reason for a driver
installer to reboot the computer part way through the install,
is if .NET or DirectX was being added to the OS. That might
cause a total of two reboots to be necessary.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=107078
Dell isn't in the list here. Dell probably gets a support
price break, by not being included in the ATI sponsored
software package.
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/mobility-xp
http://ati.supportcenteronline.com/...sp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=23433
"Each display driver supplied with a notebook has been customized for:
* the built-in flat panel display
* any other graphics or video options installed in that specific computer."
This link is on the "game.amd.com" page. The description says it is a
"Validation utility to determine if Catalyst Mobility is compatible with
your system and download the driver." So it would notice you have a Dell.
[ Note - you cannot use this link directly. Only by clicking the link on the page... ]
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/gamesite/atimcatw.exe
The thing is, desktop video card designs have a lot in common.
The reference PCB design may be used by many manufacturers.
Some might add a variable speed fan control, or hardware monitor
function, but otherwise the functions might be the same across
all manufacturers. That means a driver downloaded from ATI, is
likely to work with virtually all of them (maybe an Asus card
might have a slight issue with it). Much of the interesting
enumeration info (graphics memory quantity, clock values,
working pipes), is available for the driver to read.
Laptops, on the other hand, have a connection from the GPU to
the panel. The format of the data is peculiar to the panel used,
so in a sense, the design is more customized. And it could be,
that the panel doesn't "enumerate" or announce its characteristics
to the world. The driver package might even provide some kind of
info intended for BIOS level functions. I'm not up on all the details,
except to suggest there is some incentive to stick with the laptop
manufacturer's driver. Experimenting with the Mobility
Catalyst, might give you more control functions, or it might
make an awful mess. Anyway, reading the notebookreview thread above,
even if it is a bit old, will give some suggestions as to the
consequences of using an ATI version driver for a laptop.
I'm just surprised, as a hardware guy, that the driver cannot be
the "customized" part, the part you get from Dell. And then a
mobility version of Catalyst, should be able to run on top of it,
relying on the driver to do the right things with respect to
the LCD panel being used. Why the support issues have to be
decided by having "Dell" stamped on the laptop, doesn't make
sense.
Good luck,
Paul
