Problem description:
I have an ATI HD 4870X2. Just today I decided to upgrade to the new ATI Catalyst hotfix 8.12 because it is supposed to give a slight performance boost on dual core cpus. Currently I had the regular 8.12 catalyst drivers installed and everything was working great.
I uninstalled the drivers using the ATI uninstall program and on top of that used driver cleaner. I installed the new hotfix, but received an error during installation "installation package failed". I deleted everything and tried again, and got the same error.
I then deleted everything and reinstalled my original 8.12 catalyst drivers. They installation completed successfully, but upon restart I received this message
"Graphics
No ATI graphics driver installed, or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appriopriate for your ATI hardware"
Somehow the version that had worked fine was now screwed. So I tried to fix the problem. I went to uninstall and from here on out I couldn't even uninstall the damn drivers properly. I would always get "Uninstall package failure" and then have to do manually uninstall everything by deleting folders, using driver cleaner, and using windows installer cleaner.
Checking Dxdiag under the graphics tab, no information can be retrieved. Name, manufacturer, chiptype, DAC type, Total memory are all N/A. It cannot detect a Main Driver and lists the version as "O". Basically no information whatsoever can be called up.
If I attempt to launch a game such as Dawn of War II I get the message:
"Graphics Setup:
Failed to find a supported hardware rendering deice. Ensure that your system meets the minimum requirments for Dawn of Wr II. Verify that DirectX is properly installed and that you have the latest drivers on your system"
The last two things would indicate to me the display driver just never installed. However if I restart the catalyst installer package and go through the motions of installing it again, it tells you what options you already installed. It has checks next to both the catalyst control center and the ATI display drivers and claims both versions are already installed and up to date.
Attempted fixes:
1. I uninstalled completely and used driver cleaner, and then reinstalled to no avail.
2. I downloaded a new program called driver sweeper and tried the same process with that and still got the same problem.
3. I read that Microsoft Net Framework was required, which I did not have. Even though the drivers isntalled perfectly fine the first time without them. So I downloaded and installed Microsoft .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 and then did a fresh install of the drivers. It still didn't work.
4. I read some more on google and downloaded a program called Windows Install Cleaner Program, and used it to manually delete every ATI file and tried again. Did not work
5. I tried rolling back to the 8.11 and the 8.10 catalyst drivers and still received the same error.
6. I tried installing just the display driver without the catalyst suite. It claimed it installed successfully, but upon reboot there was 0 indication that a display driver was installed (ie. dragging open windows was sluggish, etc...). After doing that I went and installed the Catalyst Display Driver separately, and as soon as it finished installing, before even rebooting, it gave me the usual error:
"Graphics
No ATI graphics driver installed, or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appriopriate for your ATI hardware"
It should be noted that during all of the above attempts that the Uninstall Manager for ATI failed to do a proper uninstall. Every single time I got a "Uninstall Package Failure". I don't know what this indicates, but it can't be good.
Recent changes:
When I first installed the drivers it was right after I reformatted. Since then I have installed many programs. The only ones I can think of that maybe could cause problems with a display driver are ultramon and windows blinds.
Also I now use two monitors. Maybe I should disable one while installing?
Something else I caught while doing all this. The first time I installed the drivers I installed them to a custom folder of my choice. All these other times I've installed them to the default folder. After noticing this I made sure to manually delete the custom folder that I originally installed them in.
Operating system:
Windows Vista x32 Service Pack 1
System specs:
ATI HD 4870X2
Asus P5w DH Deluxe Motherboard
Pentium Duo Core 2.4 GHZ Processor
4 Gigs of ram
The fact that I can't even get previous drivers to work seems like a really bad sign. I'm guessing something is really messed up in the registry.
I know reformatting would probably work, but I really really really don't want to have to have to reinstall all my programs again. Would a windows repair accomplish the same goal and allow me to keep everything installed?
EDIT: I found a sort of fix, but I still need advice.
Thanks to the advice of the poster below me I tried a system restore to last night, and it did bring back my display driver, however it did not bring back the catalyst control center with it. Furthermore, in dxdiag it says the display driver version is 7.15.0010.0163. I have no idea what that means and if it corresponds to Catalyst 8.12 or not, which is what I had installed. Also oddly, the install file for the driver is program files/ATI, when I know for a fact last night it used to be in the custom folder I installed it too.
So I'm not sure what I should do now. I don't want to go without the catalyst control center forever, but I'm kind of scared to touch anything again. Maybe I'll call ATI and ask them.
I have an ATI HD 4870X2. Just today I decided to upgrade to the new ATI Catalyst hotfix 8.12 because it is supposed to give a slight performance boost on dual core cpus. Currently I had the regular 8.12 catalyst drivers installed and everything was working great.
I uninstalled the drivers using the ATI uninstall program and on top of that used driver cleaner. I installed the new hotfix, but received an error during installation "installation package failed". I deleted everything and tried again, and got the same error.
I then deleted everything and reinstalled my original 8.12 catalyst drivers. They installation completed successfully, but upon restart I received this message
"Graphics
No ATI graphics driver installed, or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appriopriate for your ATI hardware"
Somehow the version that had worked fine was now screwed. So I tried to fix the problem. I went to uninstall and from here on out I couldn't even uninstall the damn drivers properly. I would always get "Uninstall package failure" and then have to do manually uninstall everything by deleting folders, using driver cleaner, and using windows installer cleaner.
Checking Dxdiag under the graphics tab, no information can be retrieved. Name, manufacturer, chiptype, DAC type, Total memory are all N/A. It cannot detect a Main Driver and lists the version as "O". Basically no information whatsoever can be called up.
If I attempt to launch a game such as Dawn of War II I get the message:
"Graphics Setup:
Failed to find a supported hardware rendering deice. Ensure that your system meets the minimum requirments for Dawn of Wr II. Verify that DirectX is properly installed and that you have the latest drivers on your system"
The last two things would indicate to me the display driver just never installed. However if I restart the catalyst installer package and go through the motions of installing it again, it tells you what options you already installed. It has checks next to both the catalyst control center and the ATI display drivers and claims both versions are already installed and up to date.
Attempted fixes:
1. I uninstalled completely and used driver cleaner, and then reinstalled to no avail.
2. I downloaded a new program called driver sweeper and tried the same process with that and still got the same problem.
3. I read that Microsoft Net Framework was required, which I did not have. Even though the drivers isntalled perfectly fine the first time without them. So I downloaded and installed Microsoft .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 and then did a fresh install of the drivers. It still didn't work.
4. I read some more on google and downloaded a program called Windows Install Cleaner Program, and used it to manually delete every ATI file and tried again. Did not work
5. I tried rolling back to the 8.11 and the 8.10 catalyst drivers and still received the same error.
6. I tried installing just the display driver without the catalyst suite. It claimed it installed successfully, but upon reboot there was 0 indication that a display driver was installed (ie. dragging open windows was sluggish, etc...). After doing that I went and installed the Catalyst Display Driver separately, and as soon as it finished installing, before even rebooting, it gave me the usual error:
"Graphics
No ATI graphics driver installed, or the ATI driver is not functioning properly. Please install the ATI driver appriopriate for your ATI hardware"
It should be noted that during all of the above attempts that the Uninstall Manager for ATI failed to do a proper uninstall. Every single time I got a "Uninstall Package Failure". I don't know what this indicates, but it can't be good.
Recent changes:
When I first installed the drivers it was right after I reformatted. Since then I have installed many programs. The only ones I can think of that maybe could cause problems with a display driver are ultramon and windows blinds.
Also I now use two monitors. Maybe I should disable one while installing?
Something else I caught while doing all this. The first time I installed the drivers I installed them to a custom folder of my choice. All these other times I've installed them to the default folder. After noticing this I made sure to manually delete the custom folder that I originally installed them in.
Operating system:
Windows Vista x32 Service Pack 1
System specs:
ATI HD 4870X2
Asus P5w DH Deluxe Motherboard
Pentium Duo Core 2.4 GHZ Processor
4 Gigs of ram
The fact that I can't even get previous drivers to work seems like a really bad sign. I'm guessing something is really messed up in the registry.
I know reformatting would probably work, but I really really really don't want to have to have to reinstall all my programs again. Would a windows repair accomplish the same goal and allow me to keep everything installed?
EDIT: I found a sort of fix, but I still need advice.
Thanks to the advice of the poster below me I tried a system restore to last night, and it did bring back my display driver, however it did not bring back the catalyst control center with it. Furthermore, in dxdiag it says the display driver version is 7.15.0010.0163. I have no idea what that means and if it corresponds to Catalyst 8.12 or not, which is what I had installed. Also oddly, the install file for the driver is program files/ATI, when I know for a fact last night it used to be in the custom folder I installed it too.
So I'm not sure what I should do now. I don't want to go without the catalyst control center forever, but I'm kind of scared to touch anything again. Maybe I'll call ATI and ask them.