New
#1
Can't use my Radeon 4830 win my HDTV
We just got a new HDTV for Christmas, and the picture is beautiful with both TV and the PC. But my Radeon 4830 won't talk to it. Here's the deal:
- Win7-64 SP1, all important updates applied, plenty of memory, CPU, and disk space.
- Connection from the 4830 to the TV is via VGA cable.
-With the ATI driver disabled, i.e. using Windows generic driver, I can get a bunch of resolutions up to 1600x1200, very sharp and clear.
-With the ATI driver enabled, the screen goes blank between the "Starting Windows" screen and the logon screen. The TV displays a "No Signal!" message.
I've spent the last two days on Google trying to find a fix for it, and the best explanation seems to be here. Apparently I need to get into Device Manager and manually change the monitor to digital flat panel non-pnp. But there is no entry for the monitor in the Device Manager unless you are running on the ATI driver, rather than the Windows driver. And I get no picture when I'm using the ATI driver.
The link I gave above says you need to uninstall and then reinstall the ATI driver, but I can't even get the uninstall to take. After I go into Device Manager and tell it to uninstall and delete the ATI driver, it does so, but then Windows cheerfully reinstalls it the next time I restart. It doesn't give me any option; it just says driver installed.
I tried reinstalling the newest Catalyst driver today, and it didn't help. I then tried deleting that and installing the Windows version of the ATI driver that has been an optional update on Windows Update since last June. That didn't help either. Then I tried booting from a backup image that I took before all this started, and that didn't help either. The only difference was that when Windows stubbornly reinstalled the ATI driver after I deleted it in Device Manager, I got an ATI popup saying it wasn't the right driver. So it's an older driver from God knows where. But it was right enough to give me a black screen after the "Starting Windows" screen.
All versions of the ATI drivers work fine with my OLD monitor, so I know they aren't corrupt. I tried plugging my old monitor back in and then setting the resolution to a nice safe 800x600, but even that won't work with the new TV (although that resolution works if I use the generic driver), so I guess the problem really is that the monitor is not being recognized correctly.
But with the new TV, every time I boot Windows with an ATI driver installed, I get no picture, so I have to restart in Safe Mode and disable the driver. Then it works fine. That tells me that the problem is the driver and not the cable or something, and the generic driver is great for text and office apps, but I can't play games or watch movies with it.
One thing I thought I might try after getting some advice from the experts here -- I can't find anything in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore dated today, but there were a couple of folders that had ati in the name. If I delete the inf files in all of those, would that prevent Windows from reinstalling an ATI driver, or would it set my PC on fire?
Or can anyone give me some other suggestion, or point me to a website that tells how to fix this?
Thanks for any help.
PS - forgot to mention that if I hit F8 during the bootup and choose "Enable low resolution 640x480" from the repair menu, that doesn't work either. If the ATI driver is enabled, the screen still goes black. However, starting in Safe Mode does work.
Last edited by brocks; 21 Dec 2011 at 20:51. Reason: addl info