New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

low refresh rate on startups?

post #1 of 14
3/19/04 at 7:49pm
Thread Starter 
Folks - Recently received the 8790 and have just installed xp-pro. Problem I'm experiencing and finding quite annoying is everytime I reboot the refresh rate is at 640X480. I have to reset the video to 1440X900 after xp loads on every new start. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on why this is occuring and how I may fix it? Thanks!
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 14
3/19/04 at 8:42pm
I think the simple trial and error fix is to remove the ati control panel and drivers, and then reinstall them. Hopefully the reinstall will correct the problem.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 14
3/19/04 at 9:28pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks Babbabresaur. I tried removing the driver and reinstalling from the included driver cd but it didn't fix the problem. I then went to ATI's website and downloaded their latest driver which they have listed as 6.14.10.6430 created on March 10th. The one that came on the systems drivers cd was 6.14.10.6414 with a creation date of Dec. Anyway, the new driver from ATI wouldn't install, gave a message that couldn't find the components? Very strange and quiet perplexing!
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 14
3/19/04 at 9:37pm

Installation instructions

These are the new set of instructions for the installation of the Catalyst Drivers from ATI.

Steps:-

1] Download the drivers from the ATI website

2] Save those files to some location on your HDD.

3] Start the Installation program for the driver and save the files to some location other than your C drive (just to be clean about the whole thing).

NOTE : you have to stop the installation process after the files are extracted - exit the setup the next stage by clicking the cancel button...

4] Now uninstall the old drivers that you had installed.
Start -> Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs -> ATI Display Driver and the ATI Control Panel

Remove both these items and then restart your system

5] Windows will load with its crappy drivers and you will get a message saying that "new hardware was found" and then the driver installation window will open.

6] Here select "Install from a list or specific location"

7] Select "Dont search I will choose the driver to install"

8] Select "Display Adapters"

9] Click the "have Disk" button

10] You will get a big list - go to the middle of the list where you will see many Radeon XXXX series listed. Select any one of the Radeon 9700 PRO series (but not the Radeon 9700 PRO secondary) and proceed to install the driver.

11] You will get some sort of error message or a warning telling you that the driver is blah blah - ignore and proceed to install the driver.

12] The flying papers between two folder icons means that the steps you have followed are correct.

13] Congratulations!! Now you have installed the drivers. Before you restart please also install the ATI Control panel

14] ATI control panel is easy to install using the setup file that you downloaded without any special steps - just double click it and follow the instructions.

15] Restart the system and set the resolution you want because it may be 640X480 by default.

hope that helps
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 14
3/19/04 at 9:53pm
Thread Starter 
hmmm, thats a pretty strange routine for driver install Gsminardi but I'll give it a shot! Of course it does figure that but just literally by minutes - I had deleted the 24 meg ATI file. Oh well -back to downloading and trying again. I'll let you know how it goes!
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 14
3/19/04 at 10:09pm
call me gsferrari...im just using another screen name to keep that guys post count in control
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 14
3/19/04 at 11:15pm
Thread Starter 
Ahhh ... missed the a.k.a gsferrari!

Anyway, really appreciated the instructions on how to install the catalyst driver, impressively thorough in the steps but unfortunately - no go! Used a usb pen drive for installing the files and followed all the steps. On the restart after installing the 9700pro driver, the ATI control panel came up and stated it had to close because there was a problem. I viewed the display adapter driver it was using and found that it had the newer 6.14.10.6430 driver listed but device manager stated the driver had a problem and was disabled.

I then played with trying to re-install the newer drivers manually from the ati folder that was created on the usb pen drive but this method failed as well. So, I then removed all the drivers and re-installed the older 6.14.10.6414 driver from the systems cd.

Interestingly, on that restart, the video display was at the correct resolution. I thought it was fixed! But nope, on another restart to verify that all was well - it was back to starting at the low resolution. Someday's, I really HATE computers! LOL!

Am I the only lucky person experiencing this fun?
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 14
3/20/04 at 1:12am
Thread Starter 
One thought that came to me is maybe it is listing the wrong type of monitor. Looked at the monitor setting and found that it has no designated monitor but has a listing for "default monitor" And it has five of them listed. Shouldn't it only have one? I removed all of them and restarted and they all came back? Could this be the problem?
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 14
3/20/04 at 1:16am
Thread Starter 
Oh and I just noticed that I titled this thread about low refresh rate - not sure what I was thinking but I meant resolution. I'm not trying to go above 60hz.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 14
3/20/04 at 9:49pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I give up! I've been playing with it and have just decided it's not worth the time sink. I'm suspicious that I installed too many programs after putting on xp without restarting and this may have done something to corrupt the registry or some attribute of the ati video or the default monitor settings? At this point, I'm going to reformat and start again. Everything seems to be working well and the system is blazing fast but the resetting of the video resolution on every shutdown/restart is just too annoying and it's just something that will continue to bug me if I allow it to continue. I'll redo all and see if the problem is then alleviated? If the problem still persist after reformatting and a fresh OS install, then I suspect a problem with the video card?
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 14
3/20/04 at 10:17pm
Swiftbow, it could be that you are trying to use a resolution that is not really compatable with your monitor...1440X900 is kinda a oddball resolution to begin with and maybe Window's just resets it each time you start up or reboot...try a different resolution like 1280x1024 and see if it reset's itself again...Just a thought for you to try...Good Luck
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 14
3/20/04 at 10:48pm
1440x900 is the native resolution on the 8790..
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 14
3/21/04 at 2:04am
Thread Starter 
Okay, I'm back after re-installing the OS. Everything now appears fine? I have it set to the 1440 X 900 and it's staying consistent on several restarts. Looks like it is now fixed! I suspect that I got into too much of hurry when I did the first install of all the software and patch updates and by not restarting when prompted, I messed something up by continuing? Oh well, I learned a valuable lesson learned here!

I did on this re-install of the OS tried something different. I partioned out a 2gig allocation from the 120gig raid0 and put the swap file on it and removed swapping from the primary drive. Not sure it will do much in terms of performance as I'm hearing that XP is pretty good in handling virtual memory but figured - what the heck! Maybe, I'll see a whopping nano-second of additional speed when rendering some video clips! lol

Thanks for all the help/advice!
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 14
3/21/04 at 11:05am
Just to add.. The catalyst suites released by ATI do not support the mobility radeon initially. ATI leaves it upto the OEMs to release them for their products. Sometimes OEMs adjust slight things in the suites but generally I dont think they really do

The only thing that is missing in the .inf and .ini files in unpacked cat suite is the lines that recognize mobility cards. Adding those lines solves it instantly :] You can use this very nifty program to do it for you! www.driverheaven.net/patje (i think)

Sa-Wa-Dee-Khrap!
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home