ATI drivers refuse to install

[schwim]

Hi there

Win 7 64bit
Aspire 5251-1513 laptop
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250


I downloaded Catalyst drivers 11.1(1/26/11)
I removed the display adapter and related drivers in the hardware panel
(reboot into safe-mode)
I ran Driver Sweeper and selected ATI
(reboot)
I ran the Catalyst executable as administrator.
(reboot)
I have no driver.

I have tried this many different ways(both the individual driver and the whole shebang), but the end result is the same. I am now running on the stock Win 7 driver.

I'm not sure what else to try and would love some suggestions on how I might get some drivers installed for this card.

thanks,
json

 

[Cato]

In device manager, under Display Adapters, is it showing your ATI card correctly? If so, when you right click it and select properties, what driver is it showing?

I've used ATI cards for years, and from time to time a new version will be borked up. I haven't downloaded this latest one yet so I don't know if it's got problems.

A possibility is when you select properties, then check "Roll Back Driver" and see if it will take you to the one you were last using. Unless you use the Catalyst Control Center, you could just download the driver itself and try installing that.

When I'm installing new versions I don't remove the display adapter or drivers. I run Driver Sweeper, as you did, then run the new download.

 

[stormy13]

Sounds like Driver Sweeper removed more than it should, which it can and does do from time to time. Hope you can do a system restore or have a backup image from before you ran DS, as usually the only way to fix what you are describing is to re-install Windows to replace the missing files.

 

[schwim]

In device manager, under Display Adapters, is it showing your ATI card correctly?

No longer. Now it's just a standard VGA adapter. Starting up Catalyst now tells me that there's no applicable ATI device installed.

When I'm installing new versions I don't remove the display adapter or drivers. I run Driver Sweeper, as you did, then run the new download.

I tried it this way the first time. Upon reboot, it was still using the old drivers. Removing the display adapter was an attempt to get it to stop using the old drivers.

Rolling it back will not solve my issue(later drivers), so is there any way out of my pickle besides that? I find it surprising that today's technological marvel of an OS has no way to detect the card that on-board and that I'm locked into the driver that shipped with the machine.

Thanks very much for your time.

 

[Bill2]

Did you try the driver on the acer support page. Here is the page.

Acer Support: Drivers & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 5251

If you can install that, then you can update afterwards in device manager.

 

[kncowans]

Hello Schwim

I had similar issues initially with 11.1 on Windows 7 x64.

As a last resort I redownloaded the Drivers from ATI and it worked.

So, try redownloading the Drivers from ATI and see if that helps.

Kevin

 

[schwim]

Hi there everyone and thanks very much for all of your suggestions.

As suggested, I downloaded the driver package from the Acer site, which got me my old driver back as well as a recognized ATI card in the device manager.

Upon starting CCC, I get a Windows error that Catalyst has stopped working. I can't get it to start up to try to update drivers that way.

Device managers "internet update" tells me that Windows has determined that my one year old driver is up to date.

I don't know how I will go about with a local update via the device manager, as I only have the Catalyst executables and don't seem to be able to get the necessary driver files to update through that method.

So to clarify, I'm back to having an ATI card with one year old drivers, a Catalyst app that refuses to run and a device manager that I don't know how to update the drivers through.

[EDIT]I even tried running the updated ATI driver package again, in hopes that it would update Catalyst, allowing it to run. Even after that, I still get the "Catalyst Command Line Interface has stopped working" error.[/EDIT]

Any thoughts concerning where I might go from here?

Thanks to all very much for your time so far.
json

 

[Cato]

I would think if you unistalled CCC through the Control Panel then downloaded the drivers only from AMD, without the Catalyst Control Center, you would be able to then install them.

I personally don't have a need for CCC, so I just get the stand alone drivers when I update them.

 

[schwim]

I would think if you unistalled CCC through the Control Panel then downloaded the drivers only from AMD, without the Catalyst Control Center, you would be able to then install them.

I personally don't have a need for CCC, so I just get the stand alone drivers when I update them.

Hi there cato and thanks for the help.

I am only allowed the option to "repair" the CCC install via "remove software". I can't find any way to actually uninstall the application. I found this same problem on my brother's computer as well. In fact, his CCC install also errored out upon startup.

I tried the standalone version first as well, since I don't like the bloat("play lotro free!!!!"), but when that didn't work, I went with the whole package, in hopes that it would get me an updated driver.

So, I'm out of ideas on getting an up-to-date driver on this computer.

thanks,
json

 

[Bill2]

Can you locate Catalyst install manager in Add/remove programs? Or is that what're you're already talking about, you need to select custom uninstall (not express), that'll show up all catalyst stuff on the computer.

Can you post a snipshot of what exactly shows up in Add/remove features?

 

[Cato]

I would think if you unistalled CCC through the Control Panel then downloaded the drivers only from AMD, without the Catalyst Control Center, you would be able to then install them.

I personally don't have a need for CCC, so I just get the stand alone drivers when I update them.

Hi there cato and thanks for the help.

I am only allowed the option to "repair" the CCC install via "remove software". I can't find any way to actually uninstall the application. I found this same problem on my brother's computer as well. In fact, his CCC install also errored out upon startup.

I tried the standalone version first as well, since I don't like the bloat("play lotro free!!!!"), but when that didn't work, I went with the whole package, in hopes that it would get me an updated driver.

So, I'm out of ideas on getting an up-to-date driver on this computer.

thanks,
json

Are you downloading it from here: http://www.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDHomePage.aspx ?

I've never seen the bloat that you're talking about at anytime. It's either something new on that site, or there is something weird going on here. In fact, I'm going to go download the latest version now just to see.

I'll be checking back.

 

[Cato]

Okay, downloaded the latest driver and installed it. I don't mean to sound condescending here, but only showing you the steps I went through while uninstalling from the Control Panel. If you double click ATI Catalyst Install Manager you will go to the first Capture. Click to Uninstall Manager, then the next screen click on Custom. You will then be given options of what to uninstall, which should be everything that shows up.

When you install your latest driver, click Custom again so you can select what you want to install. Here's where the bloatware comes in that you were talking about. In my case it has an option to install a trial version of Lord of the Rings. I've de-selected it so many times I had forgotten about it. If you don't do the Custom install, it, or I guess in your case the Lottery thing, will be installed.

I used to run Driver Sweeper more than I do these days. AMD has begun cleaning up after themselves more than they did when it was just ATI, so I don't really feel it's necessary anymore.

Try to remember to create a restore point before you start all this. At least you can go back to where you are right now if something doesn't go right.

Hope this will help. If not, just keep asking and someone will surely come through for you.

EDIT: If you notice in the second snip there is an option to Express Uninstall ALL ATI Software. If you uninstalled from the Control Panel this isn't necessary. I usually prefer to use the Control Panel to uninstall anything.

 

[sreedhav]

Dear schwim,
I have read the query you posted and the many educative responses you got! So, i went Googling as to "what is the proper procedural steps to be followed when installing ATI drivers"!

I implore you to kindly read this article : How to Completely Remove ATI Drivers | eHow.com
I knew from your first post that you know what you're doing, except for this one step:
QUOTE "Download and run the ATI Driver Uninstall application to remove any registry keys that the drivers may have left behind in the System Registry. Reboot the computer in Safe Mode and attempt to install the new drivers for the video card." UNQUOTE (courtesy the above link). Kindly look into it and see if it helps!


Hope is as vital as breath! You take away the very last teeny-weeny bit of hope from a person and that's it!


Best wishes,
DR.Sreedhav
PS: A small un-asked for advisePlease use Macrium Reflect (Free)to take backup and restore,before any such major changes! Website : Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download
Macrium Reflect - Blogs and News

 

[Zardoc]

Go to catalyst in add remove select change in top menu and choose custom uninstall.

Mobile cats

ATI Catalyst

If you don't won't windows to install a default driver, right click computer, properties, hardware, deivce installation settings button, choose no, let me choose what to do and click last radio button, Never install driver software form windows update.

Check the lower box Replace generic device icons with enhanced.

 

[sreedhav]

Trying to remove registry keys "safely" is uncharted waters for a non-Geek! In fact using either the free or the trial version of "Revo uninstaller" is better than the add-remove interface as the latter does not do a thorough job of removing the left-overs in the registry of the program!

kindly download the trial version (30 days) (if you have not done already) of the Revo-professional from : Revo Uninstaller Pro - Uninstall Software, Remove Programs easily
You will find the ATI drivers there and click on "uninstall"! The one thing to remember "is place a tick mark"only on the highlighted black items as in this post and i can assure you an extremely safe and efficient way of getting rid of the old ATI driver lock, stock and barrel! I guess you will succeed! Create a system restore point before the surgery as is the norm!
Regards,
Sreedhav.

 

[Zardoc]

Same keys are replaced with new install.

 

[sreedhav]

These snapshots below of Nvidia drivers and Revo Professional uninstalling them is displayed. You will have to reboot to complete the process.
Regards,
Sreedhav

 

[sreedhav]

Same keys are replaced with new install.

Dear Zardoc,
I too belong to the Rad,Mad,Dad squad and thank God,i realize it!
regards,
Sreedhav

 

[Zardoc]

Latest cats don't override keys and still cause issues either by not displaying proper cat version or creating bsod. I stopped using Revo for a few years.

Here is a command line that works well to clean old ati files.

First you must remove latest drivers.

Right click computer, properties, hardware, device installation settings button, choose no, let me choose what to do and click last radio button, Never install driver software form windows update.

Check the lower box Replace generic device icons with enhanced.

Reboot and use gpucleaner command line (link below). You must run as an administrator for it to clean (Read instructions included)

Once finished, install new drivers

 

[stormy13]

Go to catalyst in add remove select change in top menu and choose express uninstall.

If I may please change that to custom uninstall, and only uninstall the video driver. If someone has an AMD chipset as in the case of schwim's Acer,

Acer Support: Acer Aspire 5251 Notebook Series Specifications

it will also uninstall the chipset drivers, which can lead to an unbootable OS. Just to give an idea as too what can be removed, this is everything that an express uninstall would remove on mine,