Catalyst: Panel, Centre and AI

[exAndrzej]

Hi All,

As a fully paid up member of these forums, I try and read as many of the threads as possible and - when I have the time/ability/knowledge - I will try and post back to the 'HEXUS Massive' because I think that manufacturer supported forums are an excellent idea - and can be a great resource

Reading last nigh, I realised that there seems to be a misconception about the driver package options from ATI

As they say in all good cop shows - the name has been changed to protect the innocent

...gonna uninstall... ...go back to vanilla catalyst drivers... ...won't get the catalyst AI option...

This comment and the reply is worth a minute of any ATI user's time (tick tock)

Try this...

User 1 has Catalyst Control Centre and has AI in default mode

User 2 has the same up to date driver – but with Control Panel

Will User 2 be running:-

1) Cat AI ON – set to maximum

2) Cat AI ON – set to default

3) No Cat AI


I will post back a little later on today...

[exAndrzej]

The actual answer to that multiple choice is '2'

ATI don't make 2 completely separate drivers

The driver stays the same

Catalyst AI stays the same

What customers are choosing is the type of interface they prefer

Catalyst Control Centre will be getting faster and more responsive over the next 3 releases and - at some stage - Control Panel will no longer be an option

Any questions - please post !

[mike_w]

Catalyst Control Centre will be getting faster and more responsive over the next 3 releases and - at some stage - Control Panel will no longer be an option

Any questions - please post !

Will having the drivers completely by themselves still be option? I personally don't bother with either the Control Panel or Catalyst Control Centre.

[SHISH]

The only question I have is:-
Will we ever get a fully functioning MMS for my newly bought 9800Pro AIW or should I stick with a working no probs 8500DV?
By fully functioning I mean no stuttering sound (why the heck they put sound across the bus is beyond me) and no unshutdownable freezes which do their best to wreck the file system.

[suryad]

I personally stick with Omegas becasue I refuse to install bloatware like the CCC in my machine...I cant believe people reporting over 60 mb of memory usage trying to run that software! Give me just the drivers and a very simple lightweight CP anyday...Omega does that for me...

[exAndrzej]

The fish are in the water !

[ed^chigliak]

Any plans to add a check for updates button and live update. trickery. One click is all I want to

a) Clean off the old drivers & UI software

b) Clean the windows registry

c) Install the new driver & UI software

d) Reinstate my desktop resolution

e) Put my desktop icons back where I had them before

f) Reinstate my monitor driver and the refresh rates

I'm lazy and stupid. Help me stay this way. Plain old ordinary Jeans and T shirt software(TM) that works. I can live without software skins and bloat so a Lite choice would be nice.

I tried the CCC for the first time with the CAT5.5s and with large windows fonts the display was corrupt. The .NET framework created a new windows user account and on shutdown I was bugged with having another user logged on. I reinstalled the control panel and now it's OK again. Better luck next time maybe.

[exAndrzej]

...all I want...

Checking now

[SHISH]

Well, I`ve got one part of it sussed.
MFC71dll seems to be at the root of the freezing problem or is the file library which keeps getting blamed in error report.
Stopping real time virus scanning of .dll files (Norton and Windoze spyware beta) seems to stop it freezing mostly but still can`t get the schedule record to work and not freeze up.
Beginning to wish I`d not bothered with the 9800Pro AIW cos the 8500DV runs everything fine and is available from Retek for less than £30 delivered.
Looking around quite a few forums, the 9800AIW Pro is a major pain for everybody.

[SHISH]

OK, solved the AIW stutter/sound lag etc problem.
Just delete the NSP drivers out of the WDM package of 2 types of 2 WDM drivers (analog and digital) and force install the analog version NP ones to make the card use analog via the line in to the soundcard.
Andrzej ???
Those digi drivers (looking around loads of forums) have been causing a lot of people problems and badly need sorting out for whatever reason they frequently don`t work.
Maybe pass my solution on to ATI to offer people with the problem a fix until they can sort the digi sound WDM drivers so they work for everybody ??

[exAndrzej]

Checking on the SHISH posting...

...as far as the 'installing drivers with no 'overlay/interface' - I am told it can be done (and will be possible in the future) - but that means that the end user has no access to any of the features/options at all - so it is nt a 'wise' option

[SHISH]

Checking on the SHISH posting...

...as far as the 'installing drivers with no 'overlay/interface' - I am told it can be done (and will be possible in the future) - but that means that the end user has no access to any of the features/options at all - so it is nt a 'wise' option

All I want is a fully working AIW with MMC which doesn`t "freeze" during use and force a hard reset and with sound that actually doesn`t stutter or lag.
I paid a lot of money specifically for the AIW cards (2 of them) and all I`ve got so far from the people at ATI is "we`re aware of the problem" and that goes back to when they introduced the NSP drivers.
I am a gamer but not primarily so when I buy an AIW card, I also buy it for the advertised features such as the MMC. When I then end up with a card which costs ten times as much as my AIW 8500DV and those features don`t work except on the 8500, I wonder why it`s taking so long for ATI to sort it out. Considering the amount of posts on this subject around various forums and people desperately asking WTH is wrong with their new 9xxxx and x8xxx cards I think this goes back to a common complaint that used to be voiced that ATI`s drivers aren`t very good.
I`ve fixed mine until ATI gets around to fixing the problem properly.
If anybody else (recommended or not) wants to fix theirs by substituting the NP (non digital) WDM (not sure what so called features you lose cos mine works OK) then that`s how to do it and as "stuttering, lagging, and freezes" are not something I particularly want in any card, I will use my own fix if ATI can`t do it themselves or offer any help other than the stock " We are aware of the problem" answer and "digital sound" is not one of my prerequisites when I want to watch tv or video.

[SHISH]

Well, once again ATI knacks things up.

Just tried the new Cat 5.7 and it looks like they`ve poofed the WDM drivers so you can`t use the fix of forcing the SP drivers instead of the NSP. Tried with earlier package of 5.5 etc and the WDM have been changed there also it seems.

WTH ATI....way to go to alienate people who just want a working 9800 AIW on their maybe older system that hates the laggy, stuttery, freezing stupid NSP WDM drivers.

Why not just fix it properly? Surely enough people have complained by now or do you just want to spoil a potemtially good series of cards and force us to go to NV.

If NV did a decent all in one card I`d buy one tomorrow cos I`ve been fed up with ATI since the dual rage fiasco but was lulled into coming back by the promise of responsive driver developement.
Not all of us are simply out for ultimate gaming performance on which the drivers are quite good.
I pay the extra for an AIW and would like to be able to use it with at least up to date and working drivers and the AIW has now a pretty awful record.

[exAndrzej]

Hi Shish,

Can you let me know exactly how you achieve the results you are getting - i.e. a 4-point guide to creating a specific issue - and I will flag it internally to see if we can get a solution

That solution may well already exist - but I just want to be certain that the team in Toronto can reproduce exactly what you are seeing

As far as driver quality goes, AppLabs have completed a massive, in-depth, independent test of Catalyst and ForceWare to see how they compare to each other

I think that the release went out last month but - just in case you missed it - have a look at this...

CLICK HERE

[SHISH]

Thanks for the quick reply Andrzej.
On the last, 5.6 release, the only way I could get MMC to run was by force installing the WDM SP drivers instead of the NSP. Otherwise, as it has been for sometime, using the NSP WDM and the MMC (most versions auto install on the 9800 as NSP) the common problem of using audio via the pci bus (digital ?) caused lags and stuttering plus freezes in both audio and video and something was preventing the scheduler from recording properly as well in both scheduled recordings and via the on demand button.
Basically, I force installed the SP section of the WDM drivers instead and audio then went via the external connector to the sound card and all was OK.
This time, after going to 5.7 plus MMC, it will not accept deleting the NSP section of the drivers when installing the WDM as previously and if you go back and update the SP drivers, as previously worked, via Control panel/System/Hardware etc., the TV is not recognised although showing as installed in the system. The capture drivers are shown as not installed when you do the PC check.
I have tried several different methods to install but there has been a sea change in the WDM which also seems to have been backdated to previous WDM drivers and it seems impossible now to use the previous method. I have killed all the AV software and scriptblocking whilst installing, as suggested, and tried earlier MMC and WDM back to when NSP first came in and it still does the same, adding on some versions, the instant freeze which cannot be killed even on shutdown.
The actual video drivers, as opposed to the capture drivers, are certainly improving each release so no quarrel there but this problem which seems to be caused by the NSP drivers of WDM is continuing for several releases despite reports and complaints from all over the net. I don`t really want digital audio anyway and putting anything across a pci bus in a hard working computer ( lowest pci lag in most bios`s is 32Ms) is not a good idea.
Unfortunately, after cleaning everything out with both ATI`s uninstaller and Drive Cleaner, I can no longer go back to what I had as the 5.6 seems to have been altered retrospectively as well.
All this makes it a bit pointless to buy a newer AIW at a fairly high price considering my old 8500Dv works without problems in the same rig.
Tried these drivers and the 9800 card on several rigs inc. Asus A7M-266D dual AMD, plus an Abit NF7 and an MSI K8N-Neo2 NForce 3.

[exAndrzej]

I have pushed your response through to Toronto...

...and I will try and get you a reply as soon as possible