ATI software update problem, please help

[klewi]

Hi everyone. Thanks for taking the time to read my message. I know it’s kind of long but if anyone can help me it would be appreciated. I’m new here and in researching my problem I stumbled onto this site. Looks good and has a lot of information that I can make use of. But enough of that and onto my problem.

Some quick background (or not so quick as it turns out) – I purchased a new computer about a year and a half ago now, Dell Pentium 1.8. I have been very pleased and started getting into video and slideshow projects. Because of my new hobby I needed to upgrade a few things so about ten months ago I installed a second drive and an ATI All-In-Wonder 7500 video card.

Well as you guessed the adventure started after the ATI install when I updated the driver and software as per their installation instructions. I survived the process and managed to get the majority of things working. I found out, as many of you already know, the sequence of installation appears to be critical. I did however have one problem pop up when running the MMC pc check. It always said that my WDM driver was not installed. I could however capture and do anything I wanted so I left it alone.

My projects have become larger and more elaborate and I was sorely lacking in RAM so this past week I installed more. Feeling invincible I decided to update my ATI software. I know, I can hear you now, if it aint broke don’t fix it. Well that’s hind site now so on to my problem.

I downloaded ATI’s new Catalyst 4.5 and MMC 9.0 as well as Microsoft’s DirectX and Encoder 9.0. I tried the install once and I can’t really tell you what I did but my system crashed hard leaving me with no video driver and a blank screen. You gotta love XP’s roll back feature because I was able to eventually boot in safe mode and get my system back. In doing this however my old version of MMC won’t work now so I’m faced with having to figure out this install.

I slowly and carefully, step by step, did it again. I was able to remove my old driver and successfully install Catalyst 4.5 and get a good working driver for my card. However I can’t for the life of me get MMC running. I go through the motions and everything appears to go well but on the reboot I get a message "The ATI Multimedia Center does not appear to be installed. You may need to re-install the Multimedia Center:"

Now here may be my problem. I can’t really be sure what I did the first go around but in my subsequent tries I could not un-install the old version of MMC and DVD. When I try the uninstall starts and then just quits. I think the DVD un-install may give an error message first? The cat-uninstaller.exe from ATI won’t do it either. So like a dummy I tried to install the new 9.0 anyway. I know, I know, but I didn’t say I was smart.

So now I sit with the Catalyst 4.5 installed and a working video card, two versions of MMC in my “ad and remove programs” as well as a DVD add-in but not a copy that works and I can’t un-install either MMC, DVD or DAO to try again. So I’m up for suggestions. Of course as many of you are well aware, sending any email to ATI is a joke. Or at least their response is. I talked to one of our IT guys at work today and he suggested that I should make sure I’m logged in as administrator on XP which I never ever have been before. It sounds funny that I would be able to un-install anything else including ATI’s Catalyst drivers as my current user but MMC and the rest won’t, but hey it’s worth a shot. I did by the way disable my Norton through the whole thing or at least on one go around anyway.

If you’ve read this far I certainly appreciate your patience and would welcome any help you can give me.

[RottenFoxBreath]

well,for one,you kinda went about it a bit wrong.
you should have uninstalled the sontrol panel,then the video driver.
i would have reinstalled windows,for the new DX 9.
id recommend a reinstall.
that way you would be sure to have everything clean and new.
reinstall windows.
reinstall motherboard drivers
reinstall DX9.
reinstall CAT 4.5
install whatever else you need.
ATi's uninstaller is shite.
use the add remove programmes instead.

[thecoalman]

Yep, reinstall windows. The root of your problem may be that you installed the new ATI card over a previous card even after uninstalling the old card. I had trouble with a new card after installing over a previous card, no trouble now after reinstalling windows. It's a pretty simple procedure. I do it at least once a year or if my comp starts acting up. You have two drives so it makes it that much easier, you can just transfer all your personal files to it. I'd make CD copies of any really important files. One important note, make sure you have a firewall running before going online after reinstalling and get all the critical windows updates first.

There's a good clean install guide here www.blackviper.com

[mastersmurfie]

Yep, reinstall windows.

this "may" not be necessary...try this first:

http://www.pcphotovideo.com/ati.htm

it's an older guide, but it works for XP and most ATI cards...

remove all instances of anything ATI from your system...like this claims, it's a guideline for re-installing ATI cards...worked for me on my AIW 128 w/XP, and worked for a family member with his AIW too...

You might be screwed with the DirectX 9--as far as I know, you cannot go back to a previous version without formatting and reinstalling Windows...but maybe this'll help...

just a thought

mastersmurfie

[lordsmurf]

DirectX9 is fine. Anyway, good luck. Reformat is easiest. Playing around with removing and re-installing will eventually work. Just give it time. Took me days to get ATI MMC 8.9 to take on my system (for me, reformat was NOT an option).

[presto]

This is what I discovered last time I tried to upgrade ATI and ran into the same type of problems you are having.

Uninstall all the ATI stuff and then search your hard drive for an ATI folder that is still there. You have to restart the computer in safe mode and then delete that folder. Then install the new ATI stuff.

Worked like a dream in my case.

[presto]

This is what I discovered last time I tried to upgrade ATI and ran into the same type of problems you are having.

Uninstall all the ATI stuff and then search your hard drive for an ATI folder that is still there. You have to restart the computer in safe mode and then delete that folder. Then install the new ATI stuff.

Worked like a dream in my case.

[donhov]

Amother possible solution is to go to the ATI site and download their un-installer. Run that and then do a registry search for anything ATI and delete same. Then reboot in safe mode and look through your directories for anything ATI and again delete all. Re-start and reinstall. It worked for me, hopefully it will work for you. Have found out that anything left of old drivers gives you fits. Personally I went to the Omega drivers and it makes updates a little easier and they keep current with the Catalyst drivers as part of their drivers. Do a search for Omegacorner.com and download the apropriate drivers.

Good luck

[Zetti]

I also had similar problems like yours, and I might say I have spent say weeks in front of the computer trying to make ATI sw to work;

Many, countless problems running MMC, LSmurf and lots of people kindly helped me, as hard as it is to believe I got contact with ATI support - just to find after some weeks that I was going into a heart attack and won't have my problems solved...

Solution ? Yes....

Instaled catalyst 4.x and kept it - using the entire 25MB package. As hard as it is to believe, I had no problems with the driver, I have always uninstaled and reinstaled it "problemless";

Regarding a capture sw, I looked at this site and realized that there are countless aplications that would work with Catalyst WDM just fine : Power DVD, WinDVR, WinDVD Recorder, Sage TV, Beyond TV, Nero Vision, etc, etc, etc;

Now I am OK, I use Cyberlink's Power DVD, WinDVR and Nero Vision with no problems so far, and haven't upgraded Catalyst cause new versions seems directed to gamers only;

MMC ? I have tried versions 6.x; 7.x, 9.x; 1245.x; will never install this crap into my computer again;
Too limited buggy aplication with no AC3 audio, which, unlike MPEG2 audio, is the standard for NTSC;
PCM ? Tooks too much room;
the file player, for example, never worked;


So, whenever you figure out how to uninstall this shit from your computer, quit it definitely and use something more professional- last time ATI wrote me they said I was "creating" problems just to kill time annoying them, yes, believe me..

Good luck !

Zetti

[thecoalman]

Quote from another forum "welcome to ATI driver hell..."

If your going to go the manual uninstall route you might want to head over to www.rage3d.com. I saw a recent post there that went into quite a bit of detail on how to manually unistall.

[Zetti]

Quote from another forum "welcome to ATI driver hell..."

If your going to go the manual uninstall route you might want to head over to www.rage3d.com. I saw a recent post there that went into quite a bit of detail on how to manually unistall.

I checked that once, it seems that someone has to make PhD in Computer programing just to be able to simply uninstall ATI sw... :P :P

Unbelievable, definitely..... :P

There are lots of good sw all around nowadays, BTW, my ATI card came with Ulead Video Studio, if yours too, just use it;

Zetti

[klewi]

“Welcome to ATI driver he!!” ha ha ha, I like that one. Thanks everyone for your responses and please keep them coming. I knew this would be a helpful site.

I suppose ATI is good if it comes pre-installed on a system but as an aftermarket add-in…. not sure I’d do it again. I mean I’m not at the level of most of you guys but I’m considered better than your average pickle so I can’t imagine a novice user in this situation.

Anyway I have a couple follow up questions from your posts. Obviously a re-install of windows would work but that’s a pretty drastic fix and I’d prefer to steer way clear from that. I have all my discs but it’s a Dell and I can see the issues with that. Not to mention this computer gets used ‘very’ well by the family so there is a ton of software installed.

As for the person that said to get the uninstaller from ATI, been there done that, it didn’t work. That’s what that cat-uninstaller.exe I mentioned was.

As for the “Rage3D” website having manual un-install instructions, well I’ve seen that posted there and reposted elsewhere. I’ve bookmarked the link and printed the instructions.

Let me restate that the Catalyst or card driver is not the problem. I can install and un-install that at will. It’s the MMC and it’s components that are giving me fits. I can’t un-install to be able to re-install so I have a half baked program on there that won’t run.

So I’m leaning the way of the manual un-install as some of you have suggested. As far as that goes how much tweaking will I ‘have’ to do with my registry? What I would like to do is delete the ATI program and install folders. Then run a program I’ve used ‘Regscrub’ that finds dead links and problems in your registry and deletes them (pretty good actually). Hopefully that will keep me from having to manually tweak my registry. Will that be enough though? Another question, will I be ok with the files left behind in other folders that are not labeled ATI? Hard to know what/where those files are.

Now onto the next question of MMC software, someone suggested not installing it. I was wondering about that. Since the Catalyst card driver install really isn’t the issue, can I use different software and drivers with my card for TV viewing and video capture? And if so what would you recommend (free is good)? Would I still need to install the ATI WDM drivers? Switching to a different software I’m assuming may make my remote control obsolete but that isn’t a big deal as I haven’t used it yet anyway. Besides I’d make that trade in a heartbeat to have this problem behind me.

Thanks again and keep those cards and letters coming

[Zetti]

Now onto the next question of MMC software, someone suggested not installing it. I was wondering about that. Since the Catalyst card driver install really isn’t the issue, can I use different software and drivers with my card for TV viewing and video capture? And if so what would you recommend (free is good)? Would I still need to install the ATI WDM drivers? Switching to a different software I’m assuming may make my remote control obsolete but that isn’t a big deal as I haven’t used it yet anyway. Besides I’d make that trade in a heartbeat to have this problem behind me.

I've been personally managing a secret comitee to enter safely in Canada, knock down the face of the ATI idiot that wrote this crap, and leave the Country secretely as well....... :P
You live there, right ? So, you're the guy :P

- Keep the hardware and Catalyst, although they're ATI's, both are good, as hard as it is to believe :P
- Yes, you HAVE to instal Catalyst (ATI WDM driver).
- DON'T INSTALL AGAIN MMC - there are plenty of sw all around, I suggest WinDVR, Nero Vision and Ulead Video Studio. None are free though
Nero and WinDVR have AC3 capabilities;
- Keep in mind that 99% of the capture sw's require WDM drivers - Catalyst is WDM, so it's OK;
- As far as I remember, you can use the Remote without MMC, there's a separate driver for that (it ain't Catalyst);

[klewi]

Well Zetti I'm not sure I understood your Canada slander but I'm sure it was your typical "Blame It On Canada" slur Let me assure you though I'm not a friend of ATI at this point But let me say this I'm really a dual citizen of both countries so 'I' can freely pass the borders so you better watch out

Thanks for the info. Your right I had the WDM driver thing wrong in my last post. It's packed in with Catalyst 4.5. It's really the MMC I'm having the canipshin with. As well your right the remote driver is seperate and although I didn't mention that end of it I wasn't able to un-install the previous remote driver but the update did install over the old one. It appears to run ok but it wasn't a big concern so I left it out of my post. FYI though, I read somewhere on ATI's site that it is configured for MMC and something else but you can create your own file (with some software) for it to work with other programs.

Anyway your suggestions for substitute software are noted. I have Ulead, 6 I think, and it's ok but not great. I love Nero so an upgrade there may be the ticket. That's if I want to pony up the dough. The wife gets a little excited with my computer purchases and since I just added more memory, a router and home network it might land me on the couch for a few nights.

For now however the issue is getting rid of the MMC installs. I guess I'm working my nerve up to do the manual un-install. It will definitely be a weekend project so I'll watch this thread for more ideas first.

Thanks!