New ATI Drivers Might Suck...?

[RattBAhlz]

Hey all,

I was having a problem running HL2 recently. It was that problem where you're playing the game for a while, then it suddenly freezes with the sound looping. Well, I tried everything to correct it; updated drivers, memtest, I even put another fan on my video and sound cards. Nothing worked, so I tried something different. I rolled back my video card driver. Thankfully, the problem went away.

Here's the thing... I only updated those drivers because the game told me to. I'm using an ATI Radeon X300. If you are, and when you try to start a game you see a message like this:

do not update your drivers. My game has continued to work despite this warning, and when I do update per their recommendation, my game won't run properly.

Just thought I'd spread the word...

-Dave

 

[Lemonking]

now I think install just didnt work right install it again and it should work

 

[Chris D]

I agree with Lemonking. Make sure all currently installed ATi software (and drivers) are uninstalled before you install the new driver.

Also, although Valve appears to be recommending the driver, this is only because it's the latest ATI driver and it's purely notifying you that there is a new one available. If this driver does **** up Half-Life 2, that's ATI's bad...

 

[Lahire149]

Actually the new drivers are great because they make up for a lack of VRAM, therefore increase performance.

 

[RattBAhlz]

At least they work for some people. I guess my computer just doesn't like them or something... Maybe I'll try again.

-Dave

 

[NJspeed]

Reboot your computer in safe mode.

Go to add/remove programs and uninstall EVERY program by ATI.

THEN go to Device Manager and uninstall any remaining ATI drivers.

THEN run the Catalyst remover which you already downloaded, which will erase any traces of ATI software.

Reboot your computer and install the new drivers which you already had downloaded.

Since this is clearly a driver problem, this should cure it..


OH YEAH - I had one problem similar to this.. it was because my Radeon X800XL is by some other company - not ATI - Thus the drivers are slightly different. When I first got my new PC a few weeks ago, I downloaded the drivers off ATIs website and completely uninstalled the 5.1s and ran the catalyst remover tool, and installed the whole thing perfectly. The drivers worked, but not perfectly - I knew something was wrong because I was getting errors and FarCry just had white walls everywhere. So then I had to go to my manufacturers website and download their version of the Catalyst 5.8. I compared the two files side by side, they were both for Catalyst 5.8 but the file names were slightly different, and the size of the files were different. This kind of told me I needed to download the Catalysts from my manufacturers website, as they are probably optimized for my particular brand of Radeon - I'm at work so I can't remember the exact manufacturer I have - but it was one of the smaller ones.

So if you've got a Sapphire Radeon or one of the other NUMEROUS brands of Radeons, you need to go to the brands website and download THEIR latest version of the Catalyst drivers, not just automatically download the ones from the ATI website for the ATI model. ATI sells Radeons to numerous different companies that tweak them and what not, and then resell them. So I don't know if this is your case, but I have a feeling it might be. Just because it's a Radeon doesn't mean to use the drivers from ATI.com - you need to know the manufacturer of your particular Radeon and then go to their website.

I hope this helps.

EDIT : Okay, my Radeon is by Connect3D - So it's not an ATI Radeon X800XL, it's a Connect3D Radeon X800XL. So when I need new drivers, I have to go to www.connect3d.com. What's the difference between mine and an ATI? Probably next to nothing. These other companies just tweak the software, and drivers and make some different optimizations and what not, and then sell it under their own brand. However, owning one of these other brands of Radeons means using their version of the drivers - which are optimized and corrected for their particular Radeon - even though they are mostly the same.

Theres over 15-20 different brands of Radeons.

 

[Lahire149]

what NJ said