Windows 7: Aero and ATI Catalyst?

SquonkSC · 07 Oct 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by trenzterra

Hi all,

I recently changed my gfx card from a 7900GS to a HD 4870. However, one annoying problem I have been experiencing is with regards to Aero on Windows 7.

I noticed that when running certain programs, such as Firefox in particular, sometimes when I try to click a dropdown box or just access a menu very quickly, before the menu appears, there is a black thing appearing behind it for a split second, before it finally appears (i.e. something similar when you try to resize the services.msc window). This is especially apparent when I am multitasking, perhaps due to lag.

However, I did not get this problem with my 7900 GS before. I tried a reformat already but no use.

Today, I decided to install Windows Vista on another separate hard disk. I noticed that this problem does not occur in Vista.

I am using Catalyst 9.9 on both Vista and Windows 7. However, the problems with Aero only occurs on Windows 7 but not on Vista.

Does anyone have the same problem with ATI cards as well? Is this a driver issue due to the WDDM 1.1 model used in Windows 7 for Aero?

I wouldn't be surprised if this is a catalyst bug.
It wouldn't be the first time this year they introduce new bugs.

Try the 9.6, 9.7 and 9.8 and see if any of those solves it.

Always uninstall the current driver first.

Good luck

Night Hawk · 07 Oct 2009

Generally problems with video drivers will more likely tend to see any browser windows freeze up rather then see any odd pop up appear. The possible leftovers from the previous card however is a good thing to consider since that could easily result in driver clashes if there any leftover registry entries still trying to see them loaded.

This reply is with the FF 3.5.3 beta still not running into any problems on the 64bit RC here. I suspect that 7 is seeing a popup notification if the item you are seeing is near the system tray at all. Have you checked for MS updates on 7 since you swapped cards out?

You could be seeing a prompt for some MS as well as the latest from ATI which you already have on. Depending on the updates setting that could be the notice that updates are now available for download. The popup only lasts seconds there.

trenzterra · 08 Oct 2009

I think maybe you have misread my question. My problem is something like the one here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=494222

I did some further testing, and as it turns out, with older drivers that do not support WDDM 1.1, I do not have this problem.

I rolled back to the Catalyst 8.12 drivers and it ran like a dream, but of course I had to revert back to 9.9 since I wanted to play the latest games.

My question is, what could have changed in WDDM 1.1 to cause such a problem? Also, can I now confirm that the problem lies with the driver and not the hardware itself?

BTW can you guys run dxdiag and tell me what your WDDM version number shows? Thanks!

SquonkSC · 08 Oct 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by trenzterra

I think maybe you have misread my question. My problem is something like the one here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=494222

I did some further testing, and as it turns out, with older drivers that do not support WDDM 1.1, I do not have this problem.

I rolled back to the Catalyst 8.12 drivers and it ran like a dream, but of course I had to revert back to 9.9 since I wanted to play the latest games.

My question is, what could have changed in WDDM 1.1 to cause such a problem? Also, can I now confirm that the problem lies with the driver and not the hardware itself?

BTW can you guys run dxdiag and tell me what your WDDM version number shows? Thanks!

Why 8.12 ??? It's very old.

Try your way down from 9,8, 9.7, 9.6 and so on until you find one that works for you.

stormy13 · 08 Oct 2009

It's too bad that only three of the people posting in that Mozilla link actually said anything about what video card they have; two were ATI and one was Nvidia.

You using any themes other than the Firefox default? Tried Firefox in safe mode (from the Start menu) to see if it happens with no extensions or customizations loaded?

Not that it helps resolve your issue, but I have sued nothing but Firefox and an ATI card since using 7, and have never had the issue you are describing.

trenzterra · 08 Oct 2009

The problem is more apparent for me considering that I have over a thousand bookmarks and I think installing the Flash plug-in seems to aggravate it further.

Well I used the default WDDM drivers that came with Win 7 RTM and it didn't solve the problem too. So I reverted to 8.12 since it was one of the last few drivers that didnt have the new WDDM model.

Yeah I agree this is a very weird problem. I don't know whether its really an ATI problem or not, since I believe WDDM 1.1 requires DX10 cards which my old card does not support?

BTW, it seems that perhaps Firefox's window drawing model is the problem? I have no such problems in every other app. In Windows Explorer, the most I see is a slight flicker in the Address Bar dropdown box whenever new suggestions are shown, but never the black boxes thingy.

Night Hawk · 08 Oct 2009

From everything you have described so far it continues to lead right back to a browser issue more then anything else. An addon clashing with the WDDM 1.1 or Catalyst 9.9 for some reason would something to consider since just about anyone else running FF as well as an ATI card hasn't been running into this.

At the top of thread there I was simply pointing out the only thing noticed with the Aero theme changing to basic was simply tuner card app related here while FF, Opera, Chrome, Safari even along with IE 8 have only run into lags or freeze ups or some other oddity due to some 3rd party option unless a display driver was knocked out somehow while trying something out.

If you could grab a screen capture right when this is seen that would give us something more to work with so we can see what you are running into. Faststone or another freeware would be good for this.

trenzterra · 10 Oct 2009

The problem is that it occurs too quickly that the FPS on video is too slow to record it.

Basically, the effect is something similar to this:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay-gqx18UTM"]YouTube - Windows 7 GUI slowness[/ame]

See around 0:20 of the video.

Night Hawk · 10 Oct 2009

Good Grief! Some XP fan boy apparently made that one up once he found something he could try to pass off as a fault only seen on 7!

Actually the fluttering shown there was seen in XP here! while not in Vista and 7 and that was all on the same hardware.

trenzterra · 11 Oct 2009

Yep, I know, but the effect I'm getting in Firefox is rather similar, although not as severe.

Windows 7: Aero and ATI Catalyst?

Aero and ATI Catalyst? problems?