Update disaster

[sos_85]

Decided to update my display drivers today, i have an ATI Radeon X800 Pro. I downloaded the updates and installed them, and when the computer restarted it was on 640x320 (or whatever the lowest is) and on 4 colour!! i tried to change the settings, but it wouldn't change. when i uninstall all the drivers etc, it works fine using the built in VGA adapter, re-install them, it goes bad again. What is wrong with my computer? It does show a primary and secondary display adapter when my graphics card is working, could it be something to do with dual monitors (which i don't have but my card supports)? any help is much appreciated.

[pam123]

Decided to update my display drivers today, i have an ATI Radeon X800 Pro. I downloaded the updates and installed them, and when the computer restarted it was on 640x320 (or whatever the lowest is) and on 4 colour!! i tried to change the settings, but it wouldn't change. when i uninstall all the drivers etc, it works fine using the built in VGA adapter, re-install them, it goes bad again. What is wrong with my computer? It does show a primary and secondary display adapter when my graphics card is working, could it be something to do with dual monitors (which i don't have but my card supports)? any help is much appreciated.

All Radeon cards with dual connectors show dual monitors, that's not a problem.
It sounds like you just dumped the new drivers on your system without uninstalling the old ones or, for that matter, uninstalling the older control panel, or catalyst control center if that's what you use.
If you did that then go back to ATI's driver site and download the whold package (your choice of which one) uninstall the previous ATi drivers and control panel or catalyst control center and then install the new one.
If you have the ATI MMC and don't wish to update it let it alone .

Follow the instructions for uninstalling and installing on this page (scroll down till you see them) : http://www2.ati.com/drivers/Catalyst_54_release_notes.html#169925



Troubleshooting for catalyst installs is here if you need it : http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33738545

[sos_85]

did everything you said, i uninstalled all the ATI stuff and downloaded: drivers, catalyst control centre, hydravision, MMC, re-booted my computer, and got the same thing. I tried to open Hydravision, and it said that no ATI drivers were detected. I don't understand.

[pam123]

did everything you said, i uninstalled all the ATI stuff and downloaded: drivers, catalyst control centre, hydravision, MMC, re-booted my computer, and got the same thing. I tried to open Hydravision, and it said that no ATI drivers were detected. I don't understand.

Tell me, step by step, exactly what you did and what showed on screen.
Going by your post you never installed anything once it was downloaded and I can't tell from it what went wrong where.

[sos_85]

ok, sorry for vagueness.

1. I used the ati uninstaller to uninstall all ati material. Restarted my computer.

2. After having uninstalled everything, colours and resolution are back to normal, but my graphics card is not the display adapter, there is no display adapter section in device manager. Add Hardware wizard detects to pieces of hardware, i press cancel, because it can't find the drivers for them. I download and install the latest Catalyst drivers for windows XP and Radeon.

3.After setup i restart my computer and when it gets to windows colour and resolution are awful, pop up saying catalyst cannot work properly until optimal graphics processor settings are detected, Please wait. I leave it for 10 minutes, nothing happens. Sometimes Hydravision pops up and says it cannot start because there are no ATI display drivers running or present. I try to change the resolution and colour in display properties screen goes black then re-appears and settings are the same.

I did do a windows update before all this and i downloaded 2 optional updates:

1.ATI Technologies, Inc - Video - ATI WDM Specialized MVD Codec

2.ATI Technologies, Inc - Video - ATI WDM Rage Theater Video NSP

Could these be the problem? They re-install after i install the drivers.

Hope this helps. Can't see what i'm doing wrong though. I did a virus scan, no problems.