Catalyst Problems

[OtterPop Junkie]

I have a raly bad problem. Ever since I bought my Radeon 9500pro it has given me no problems. But ever since I tried to use the TV I always get the same error. When I 1st plugged in the TV out and reboot after start up in Windows it brought up an error that says, "Hardware device failed to complete drawing. Save all work and restart windows." and it puts it self into 640x480 and 4 bpp. Fine so I did that un plugged the TV-Out and started it up again, to no avail, I got the same error message. So I uninstalled the Catalyst 3.0a drivers and reinstalled them. Everything was fine until I tried to change the resolution, thats when I got the same error as before. So I tried to reinstall them again, same thing. I have tried this with Catalyst drivers all the way down to 2.0. Nothng works. I then reformatted and reinstalled Windows and everything was fine, until this morning when I woke up and turned on the monitor there was that error again. Can anybody help me. My system specs are:

Windows XP w/ SP1
Directx 9.0 and 8.1, neither worked.
AMD athlon XP 1800+
512mb pc2100 DDR
MSI K7 Master (MS-6341)
300 watt PS

Thanxs for any advice.

[Haysoos]

RMA the card? look on ATI's website for known hardware conflicts, it might be the radeon fighting something else in you system... or it could be a bad card... if you formated and started over and are still getting the problem, im doubting its software...

[OtterPop Junkie]

Well thanxs for the advice but I ofund out that it does it mostly after I install the ATI Control panel. But I will go ahead and get ahold of ATI.

[Haysoos]

the control panel? yeah, i'd suggest maybe not jumping to RMA it, but give ATI a ring and tell them about your problem, see what they have to say about it...

[mOOkie]

I tried the TV out on my 9700Pro and it seemed to work only when it felt like it... so I gave up. Might be shitty drivers...

[Haysoos]

I have had NO problems with i 9700 PRO (knocks on every wooden object within a 20 foot raduis)... my TV worked fine, havent used the DVI yet... I was playing with my TV as a second desktop... then played some cstrike on it, watched movies on it, and then the novelty pretty much died... with a 21" TV the picture wasnt that great...

[JC Denton]

One question about the TV outs for both of ya. Did your Radeons have the composite out or the super video out? Then, if it was super video (aka s-video) did you use ATI's supplied "to composite" converter?

Mine has an S-Video port, and when I used my old "to composite" converter, it would not work, so I plugged in ATI's for shits and giggles, and voila it works now. Like a dream too I might add.

[OtterPop Junkie]

Originally posted by Captain Kirk@Jan 29 2003, 06:53 PM
One question about the TV outs for both of ya. Did your Radeons have the composite out or the super video out? Then, if it was super video (aka s-video) did you use ATI's supplied "to composite" converter?

Mine has an S-Video port, and when I used my old "to composite" converter, it would not work, so I plugged in ATI's for shits and giggles, and voila it works now. Like a dream too I might add.
My also has the S-Video port. I have tried an old one, the that came w/ my Kyro II, the one that came with the Radeon, and a regular S-Video cable I had lying around none of them work I still get the same error, although I think I have the system somewhat stable, I am using the Catalyst 2.4, DX 8.1, only had the problem happen once today but I had to reboot twice to fix it. Set in a E-Form to ATI. Hopefully I have an answer soon.

[JC Denton]

Well if you don't want to mess with the 3.x series, then you need to download the 2.5 series, as a good deal of bugs have been fixed.

[OtterPop Junkie]

Originally posted by Captain Kirk@Jan 29 2003, 11:37 PM
Well if you don't want to mess with the 3.x series, then you need to download the 2.5 series, as a good deal of bugs have been fixed.
I hav tried all the 2.X series but nothing worked. Anyway I have been stable for several hours now because I dont have the ATI control panel installed. This seems like a really weird problem.

[Chief]

Well, until you figure out why the CP I'd recommend Radeonator (http://radeonator.cjb.net/) for changing all your settings. Rage3DTweak (http://www.rage3d.com) is ok too, but don't bother with RivaTuner for an ATI card.

Anyway, I'd imagine you could still manage fine without the CP. Radeonator/R3dtwk have around 5 times the amt of settings.

[OtterPop Junkie]

Well I has been a day without a crash knocks on all wood around. I aslo unplugged my cold cathode just in case that might have something to do with it. Ill have to check out that Radeonator.

[Tobalaz]

Make sure your hydravision software is up to date (optional software, not in with cat), I had nothing but troubles in the past running the stock software when I tried to plug my 8500 into the tv, different cards, same theory..... Good luck

[JC Denton]

Well just for shits and giggles, download the latest ATI Control Panel and ATI Catalysts from the site, and run them. Try ATI's connectors. Try everything ATI's way. This way you can see if its the card, or if its the tweaks you are doing.

[OtterPop Junkie]

Originally posted by Captain Kirk@Feb 1 2003, 12:42 PM
Well just for shits and giggles, download the latest ATI Control Panel and ATI Catalysts from the site, and run them. Try ATI's connectors. Try everything ATI's way. This way you can see if its the card, or if its the tweaks you are doing.
Tried that but no luck. With and without the TV-Out plugged in the system crashes right after startup. But as soon as I uninstal the CP everything is fine. So I guess it is the CP cuasing the problems. Guess I will be getting in touch with ATI.