HD 4850 won't take new Catalyst drivers

[Zach1928]

Hey all, I've got an older 4850 that's perpetually stuck with CCC 11.2 drivers. I had issues when I originally put it in where it wouldn't install drivers at all which required a boot into safe mode alongside driver sweeper and some deleting of mucked up files in a system folder. But now when I go to do the automatic update through CCC, it says everything installs correctly but it doesn't actually install the latest drivers. And I've uninstalled CCC and reinstalled to no avail. I'm thinking something is broken deep down but I wouldn't know where to begin to look. Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[keebsuk]

Zach, have you tried driver sweeper in Safe mode? The reason I ask is that the drivers need to be COMPLETELY removed for a new install to work correctly.

Andy

 

[Zach1928]

Yeah I did, I had originally put the 4850 in place of a 4350 which caused the original issues because I didn't remove the old drivers. I remember having to run driver sweeper and then go into a ati system folder and delete a certain file that had made like 30+ copies of itself which was screwing everything up and that corrected the initial issue. And I believe I tried using driver sweeper with my current issue in safe mode to see if it would allow me to install the newest drivers.

 

[Solarstarshines]

Amd doesn't support anything before 5 series cards anymore if i were you uninstall the latest and go back to the one you had working

 

[Zach1928]

Seriously? That's a bummer that I'm stuck with 11.2... I mean I keep getting prompts for 13.2 through CCC, but I guess it makes sense since those cards are so old..

 

[OvenMaster]

According to AMD the latest version of the Catalyst suite for the HD 4xxx series is 13.1 released in January 2013.

32-bit
AMD Catalyst

64-bit
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/legacy/Pages/legacy-radeonaiw-vista64.aspx

 

[Solarstarshines]

According to AMD the latest version of the Catalyst suite for the HD 4xxx series is 13.1 released in January 2013.

32-bit
AMD Catalyst

64-bit
AMD Catalyst

So this driver has Legacy support ? hmmm
AMD contradicts itself at times they said they were no longer support any series before 5 series oh well i guess they can always come up with something later

 

[dsperber]

I would say that the AMD driver page for the HD4xxx card (Win7 x64) is INCORRECT.

It shows that 13.1 is the current driver, but the English description is still what it was for the past 7 months or so ever since 12.6 Legacy WHQL drivers became the LAST drivers usable for thd HD4xxx cards and below.

I have an HD4850 on my machine, and have 12.6 drivers currently installed. I just tried to do an install of the 13.1 driver package (which I have for my other other machine, which has an HD5770 in it, which DOES use newest drivers) and the custom install which showed me what was available for installation (i.e. what was not already currently installed on my system) were two sub-features I always un-check and don't install.

But (a) AMD Display Driver 8.970.100.3000 is already installed, and is apparently THE MOST CURRENT VERSION USABLE because no newer version from 13.1 is in a check-box, and (b) Catalyst Control Center 2012.0704.122.388 is already installed, and again is apparently THE MOST CURRENT VERSION USABLE because no newer version from 13.1 is in a check box.

I believe this AMD driver page is where you click to get that latest 12.6 Legacy WHQL driver for the HD4850.


But you DO need to first remove your existing v11 Catalyst drivers and CCC completely, before installing this new 12.6.

In my own experience, the removal of ATI drivers using ATI's install manager is never (or not reliably 100%) completely successful. I previously used Driver Sweeper to remove everything before installing a new driver release, but the product has been re-branded as Driver Fusion by the software vendor and it's no longer free if you want the "premium features". There is a stripped down free version which could be adequate, but I bought the "premium" version to get everything and also support the software vendor.

I don't believe the original Driver Sweeper (free) is being maintained any longer, so it's probably a bit out of date although it could probably still work just fine. But I myself am now using Driver Fusion which is the currently active product from the software vendor Treexy.

 

[Zach1928]

Well here's my current situation- I kept getting bluescreens when trying to run WEI which would result in a reboot with a screwed up picture so I uninstalled the CCC driver suite, booted into safe mode and ran driver sweeper and then rebooted and installed CCC which is apparently the 13.1 version. But I think something is still funky with this machine so I may just call it a day and reinstall windows if it keeps acting up. On a side note, would a windows 7 Pro disk work for a repair install of windows 7 Ult? or even upgrading to windows 8 make any corrections to screwed up files since most things would be re-written in the process?

 

[dsperber]

Well here's my current situation- I kept getting bluescreens when trying to run WEI which would result in a reboot with a screwed up picture so I uninstalled the CCC driver suite, booted into safe mode and ran driver sweeper and then rebooted and installed CCC which is apparently the 13.1 version.

I don't understand.

The 12.6 Legacy WHQL driver download package (from summer 2012) contains a 12.6 version of CCC. You couldn't be getting a 13.1 version of CCC unless you were trying to use a 13.1 version of the driver package, which would not install any display driver because the included 13.1 driver is not compatible with or usable with your HD4850 hardware. There's not much value with ending up with CCC installed (and I'm surprised 13.1 in that 13.1 package would install) if you have no matching display driver to go with it.

The proper package to use is the 12.6 Legacy WHQL driver from last summer which was announced by AMD at the time to be the very last driver compatible with and usable for the HD4xxx hardware and below. Newer ongoing driver/CCC packages were strictly for HD5xxx and above.

So you should be able to remove your old 11.1 stuff, and install 12.6 stuff, but that's all you should expect. The current AMD page that shows 13.1 usable with an HD4850 is simply a mistake in my opinion. And as I posted previously, I went ahead and tried it anyway on my HD4850 machine and it failed to present either the 13.1 display driver or 13.1 CCC as available "new" versions which could be upgraded to from that 13.1 package, on top of my currently installed 12.6 environment.

Before going to a full Windows reinstall, I'd try one more time to use Driver Sweeper to get rid of whatever ATI you currently now have present, and then run that 12.6 Legacy WHQL installer, and see if it works. You should have success, and get the 12.6 driver and 12.6 CCC. Or not.

 

[Zach1928]

What I mean is that after I removed the old drivers , I went to the and site and searched the latest drivers for the 4850 and it came back saying 13.1 was the latest which is what I have installed now

 

[dsperber]

What I mean is that after I removed the old drivers , I went to the and mite and searched the latest drivers for the 4850 and it came back saying 13.1 was the latest which is what I have installed now

I will repeat what I said several times above:

That page is INCORRECT! The information at the top which says that 13.1 is the proper driver for the HD4850 IS WRONG!! If you download that 13.1 driver and try to install it on your HD4850 machine you will just continue to get nowhere. Don't waste any more of your time trying that.


Instead, as I posted above previously you need to go to the correct AMD driver page for the HD4850 which has a "last updated" date of 7/24/12. Down in the middle of that page are links for "Catalyst 12.6 Hotfix" driver packages for your OS environment.

If you download the proper driver from this page you'll get the correct 12.6 driver package, which absolutely IS the latest (and last) driver package usable on the HD4850. It WILL install properly.

Trust me.

 

[Mark Phelps]

I have an AMD 4290 -- and the latest drivers for it are 13.1.

If the page you're downloading from says "AMD Catalyst Driver for AMD Radeon HD 4000 ...", those are the same drivers I downloaded and they work for my HD 4xxx series chipset just fine.

 

[Zach1928]

Yeah as a matter of fact I just found this article from last year http://m.techspot.com/news/48321-amd-drops-windows-8-support-for-radeon-hd-4000-and-older.html

Its only just now march which marks the end of Q1 so it would make sense that 13.1 is now coming around for "legacy" cards

 

[dsperber]

Well, egg on face. I stand corrected.

Turns out there are TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF 13.1, one for the HD4xxx and below, and a second for HD5xxx and above. The one that I tried last night and which failed to install on my HD4850 was the other one, which I'd been using with my HD5770. It failed, because it was the wrong version of 13.1

So when I downloaded THIS proper second "legacy" version of 13.1 on the HD4xxx page, now sure enough it DID install.

So, I'm embarrassed that I was insisting on incorrect facts, but at least I am now updated on my HD4850 machine to 13.1, both for the driver (which is 8.97.100.7 dated 11/16/2012 instead of the 8.97.100.3 as 12.6 showed) and for CCC (which is also dated 11/16).

I had thought ATI was going to stop updating these "legacy" drivers, but maybe they were simply pulling it from the ongoing regular updates and were going to update it occasionally. I guess this 13.1 constitutes the first "occasional" update.

Anyway,

 

[Zach1928]

Haha it's all good, at least we're all in good shape now with drivers. If that article I found is correct, they're really screwing W8 with 4xxx and below and only doing quarterly updates for windows 7

 

[Zach1928]

Well, egg on face. I stand corrected.

Turns out there are TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF 13.1, one for the HD4xxx and below, and a second for HD5xxx and above. The one that I tried last night and which failed to install on my HD4850 was the other one, which I'd been using with my HD5770. It failed, because it was the wrong version of 13.1

So when I downloaded THIS proper second "legacy" version of 13.1 on the HD4xxx page, now sure enough it DID install.

So, I'm embarrassed that I was insisting on incorrect facts, but at least I am now updated on my HD4850 machine to 13.1, both for the driver (which is 8.97.100.7 dated 11/16/2012 instead of the 8.97.100.3 as 12.6 showed) and for CCC (which is also dated 11/16).

I had thought ATI was going to stop updating these "legacy" drivers, but maybe they were simply pulling it from the ongoing regular updates and were going to update it occasionally. I guess this 13.1 constitutes the first "occasional" update.

Anyway,

Something is just killing this machine with these ati drivers because it keeps crashing and now I'm just tempted to take the card out all together and run the integrated nvidia chipset because I have no idea what's wrong. One guy I came across said he was getting BCCode 116 like myself and it turned out to be that his card was faulty and not taking in the right voltages properly. My question is, should I just uninstall the amd drivers and then pop the card out and just plug the monitor into the back of the mobo and boot normally?

 

[dsperber]

My question is, should I just uninstall the amd drivers and then pop the card out and just plug the monitor into the back of the mobo and boot normally?

Why not try it, if you think it will solve your problem and if the onboard graphics are acceptable?

Also, as I mentioned previously, you could try a different but somewhat stronger low-end ATI card, like the fanless HD6450 I mentioned above for $40 at Newegg. If you don't like it send it back for a refund (or for the $40, just keep it for some other machine or to give to someone).

But it costs you nothing to uninstall/remove your current HD5450 and give the onboard graphics a try, and see for yourself what comes of it.

 

[Zach1928]

That's a good point. I have a 4350 collecting dust and as far as acceptible goes, my parents use the machine for basic tasks. So far it hasn't crashed yet so I'm going to leave it alone unless it acts up again.