ATI newb please help

[Minotaar]

Hi,

I've always used nvidia, since the days of the Riva 128, and ATI has been a complete void to me. Just got my first ATI the other day, in a dell box. Happened to be how that deal rolled.

Its a Pentium D 2.8ghz, running with a ATI X300. 160 gig Sata disk.

The problem Im having is that after I installed the ATI drivers, the machine cannot boot on soft reboots - it requires a hard power cycle. It also bitches to me about CLI.EXE not starting on boot. I dont know why, so I was wondering if you guys could help me: Video drivers for me have always just "worked".

A) Does Catalyst ever flash the firmware when you install new drivers? Is it possible that whatever it did is causing this power cycle issue?

B) Arent the Catalyst drivers "unified" in the sense that I just download the one driver for XP, and it knows the driver to install?

==================================

Just made a discovery as I write htis:

So when the machine doesnt come up after soft reboot, it leaves a cursor on the upper left corner of the screen, blinking. This is right after the bios screen, before any OS stuff. While I've been writing this (a good 5-10 minutes) it suddenly started the OS out of that random blink. Any idea what's going on?

 

[Fleabus]

Hi
I've been using ATI cards a while now and by following the drill below, I've never had an issue.

Changing ATI Drivers
To get the latest Catalyst (CCC & driver) package, go here:
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27 Windows XP Drivers and Software >Radeon >Catalyst 5.xx Windows XP - Driver Download. Get the package, release notes and uninstaller mentioned below.
Read Notes. You need XP SP2 and .Net Framework. If you don’t have the .NET stuff, follow the link and install it before going any further.
After having .NET v1.1 installed …

1. Start >Control Panel >Add or Remove Programs >ATI Catalyst Control Center >Remove.
2. Do not Restart when prompted.
3. ATI Display Driver >Remove.
4. Restart when prompted.
5. Upon return to Desktop in Windows Standard display, cancel offer to install drivers.
6. Start >Run >browse to where you downloaded the new ATI Catalyst driver package and run it.
If the above doesn’t work out, download this util: ATI Catalyst uninstaller
https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&folderID=27 Utilities >Various >CATALYST – ATI Maintenace Utilities > cat-uninstaller.exe This will clean your system of any ATI software along with any remnants that could be causing problems.
Use it instead of steps 1, 2 and 3 above; then continue with steps 4, 5 and 6.

Happy trailz,

 

[Gorankar]

Ati drivers do just work, generaly anyway.. Try uninstalling the drivers, use driver cleaner and then re-install the drivers..

It also would not hurt to give your Dell a, rubber gloves required, deep cavity, bloatware-ectomy.. Uninstall any "value added apps" that you have no desire to make use of.. Dells ship with a lot of crapware that many people never use installed..

 

[D4hPr0]

Make sure .NET is installed on the pc. Dont download the 2.0 version either since Im not sure that ATI fixed the bug with that version.


NM just noticed Fleabus mentioned it already.

 

[Minotaar]

Thanks for all the help. I just figured out what it was. I was completely mistaken in blaming it on ATI drivers at all. It was because I put the ATI drivers on the machine using a USB thumb drive from my laptop, and being a new box, it has a Boot off USB option which is on by default. whats MORE annoying, it polls the USB drive for like 10 minutes before booting, EVEN IF USB IS LAST TO BE BOOTED FROM. ARRRGH!!!

Anyway, yeah, dont let it happen to you. Boot off usb is a nice feature, but the bios shouldnt scan for USB until everything else has failed.