Allright, as most of you probably know, the new Catalyst drivers for ATI cards have been released. I downloaded them few hours ago, and here's what happened: I automatically figured to remove the old catalysts (3.6) and such with only slight errors with InstallShield, but worked around it. Reboot, all fine, new hardware found, ignored the call. I had the (full)installation package on my desktop, I run it, files extracted, starting to install, oh joy. Then comes this: Critical error! The driver software isn't compatible with any videocard(s) you currently have installed. What the ****. I was shocked, paniced, didn't know what to do. I have 3 month old ati radeon 9200 series card, which according to release notes, help files, website, and the installation eula (or something similar) is supported. Also, one guy on a IRC channel has the same card and had a successful installation. Now, here's what I did, I (thank god) had a restore point, went back to 3.6, didn't know really what to do. Then I realised I should install DirectX9 according to few guys. It is now installed, and guess what I have? The same error as before. Im getting pretty desparate at the moment, i still haven't been able to install any new drivers! It appears that the card went kaputt for no obvious reasons... I am in need of some SERIOUS help people, please try all your effort to gimme any hints. Here's info about the situation: I have uninstalled everything visible from ati including control panel. I have disabled antivirus and firewall and all other programs. I have tried some customized "omegadrivers" from a 3rd party site. I have installed DX9 now. I have Windows XP Pro. I have tried rebooting many times. I am getting crazy. Oh, and I for some VERY odd reason am getting an error while trying to install drivers from the CD that came with package (which includes ati catalyst 3.4 drivers) I have the original drivers that came with the card on a CD installed, tried to install new drivers but it says it cannot find videocard(s) that were supported by ATI... even though I have one installed with ATI drivers all the time... I feel like shooting myself in the toe. It seems that the card suddenly stopped being Connect3D/ATI card and became solid air! The computer finds it, knows it's a Radeon 9200, the CD can install drivers to it, but any newer than the ones on CD (ancient) can't even find a videocard on my computer? Regards, Coby.

I have no idea what is up with those drivers. Last week i d/l the full package. I had the catalyst 3.7 drivers istalled on my machine, and used the ATI uninstall utility from the ATI website to uninstall these drivers. After rebooting, i ignored the found new hardware stuff, and went ahead to in install the the new ones...i rebooted and all my icons on my toolbar had either disappeared or had been mixed up (e.g my nero icon was now pointing to word...etc). I figured small problem. However, turns out i cant set the SAMRTGART setting to 8x agp and cant enable fast write neither. to make things even worse, the desktop refresh rate has gone off to hell...its sooo slow! I know this doeant help you Coby, but atleast you know that you are not the only one having problems with those drivers... My specs: ATHLON 2600+, Gigabyte GA 7VAXP mobo, Tachyon 9700PRO, Win XP PRO SP1, 512MB ddr333,etc

Lol thank god im not alone--- i recently bought a Radeon 9800 now you would think the boys at ATI would be testing these thinhs. I dont know what s wron with yours COBY almost hardware - esp if the originals wont work -- in your posistion id prob back up wipe clean and see what happens probably got some dodgy reg key hidden mesing up the updates. But yeah i cant set my AGP to 8x either ?? any clues to why that is??? or the fast write. And im one moment being able to play Tron and Halo the next its kicking me to desktop and i have to fight with it to let me in again if it ever does :P Il be watching to see if you figure anything out mean time im lookin g to reinstall them all :(

I have been holding off updating my ATI viseo card drivers ,because I'm afraid of the kind of probs you are discribing ! ATI seems to have a problem with their drivers ,they make a excellent graphics card , however their drivers and software leave alot to be disired ! If you are not having any display probs with your ATI card ,dont update. If it aint broke dont fix it .Even the ATI web site states, unneeded driver updates are not recomended ! Good Luck,Nick

Hi guys, Let me add my vote and temporary solution. I bought a AIW 9600 last week, and it installed fine but the TV and DVD stuff didn't work. so I went to uninstall and reinstall. The installer locked up with a fatal error! I've also noted the mysterious migrating icons on my desktop. The short story is, try using scanreg / restore to go back to a registry that booted up correctly, and thank your lucky stars. Then don't touch until you read about a real fix. P.S. if you think ATI's drivers are bad, try nvidia's

Check out this site for help on Catalyst drv install instructions/help. http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=guide&dId=569&dPage=1