Need some help here (issues with ATI software, maybe MS patch related?)

Hey. I'm not really sure what to make of this problem, maybe you people can give me some advice. A little while ago there was a power surge, and when I restarted my computer I got an ATI error message saying that I didn't have permission to change settings and that I should contact my administrator. It looks like my videocard software can't run. I can't access the control panel for it or restart the runtime. I thought about it for a while and it occurred to me that it might have been the first time since I installed that infamous Microsoft patch (the one that causes some permission problems or something, I remember seeing a thread about it here but I can't find it now) that the computer was restarted.

Do you guys have any idea what the problem might be? Is this the kind of problem you would expect if the videocard itself got damaged? Could it be related to the patch, and if so, how would I go about correcting the problem? It would be nice if Microsoft could have, you know, fixed it themselves.

Thanks in advance.

Hmmm,

1. Try your card in another machine
2. Uninstall and reinstall it on your machine

;)

We used to have a problem with matrox video cards and w2k...and a registry permissions issue...
They had a fix on thier site...which set the reg keys...


I have found some updates will knock out video\modem and\or soundcard drivers...and they need to be reinstalled or require an update from the vendor.

Also ATI may have something on the site...I have contacted thier support before and received a beta driver...to resolve and NT4 issue (many moons ago)

Personally...I fine ATI drivers ...unstable.

But then again...we stopped using ATIs a while back...They may be better now.

MLF

Yes, ATI software still plays up, and the driver/management software does not always install cleanly. I had a problem recently and had to get missing .dll files.................here is a link:

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dl....shtml?mscoree

I think the problem originated from updating .NET, but installing the latest ATI software did not totally fix it without getting the .dll

The powersurge throws me a bit, it could be a coincidence, but following the problems I encountered with the software, I would at least start by verifying that the card was still physically OK.


:)

If it is not installing youself. So it as may be possible to unzip them to some folder and use windows hadware manager to install/update drivers from that folder?

It is also recomended to update you motherboard chipset first and then try to update drivers to other devices.
In some cases need bios to be updated it is also causes hardware issues.

Thanks for your replies guys.

.NET might have been part of it. I've been reading about Catalyst and it looks like it makes heavy use of .NET stuff. It might have disagreed with the 2.0 beta or something.

I got my computer a couple of months ago and I'm pretty sure I updated the BIOS software and related things at the time, but I'll take a look.

I uninstalled the software and rebooted, and XP popped up with the hardware wizard (x3). I used my driver CD to install the drivers themselves, but I skipped the software. I then used a download from the ATI website to install some kind of Catalyst alternative that adds a silly thing to the taskbar. I'm not getting error messages this way, and Windows says that the card is functioning normally and all that, so I'm hoping it was just a silly bug in the control panel software. I'm still worried about the card being damaged though, so I might take your advice and do some different testing.

I've been playing FEAR and people with similar specs seem to be getting better performance, so my first thought was this videocard thing. Maybe I should try some of those tweak guides.

Hi Sadako

Thanks for the feedback, it sounds like you had something similar to the .NET/Catalyst problem that I mentioned in my previous post?

You might like to check the Windows update site, as I think that there has been a patch for .NET isn the past couple of weeks.

If you still have problems I would uninstall Catalyst and get the drivers only pack from the ATI site

;)

At first I was getting weird pincushion distortion, rapidly scrolling screen and random screen resizing. This seems to have been rectified by the latest .NET patch. It only happened on boot up and the workaround I discovered was to go into Windows display manager change the refresh rate, apply it withoput reboot, then change it back. This works for that session.

Yes, I would try your card in another machine, without installing catalyst, if only for your own peace of mind.

:)