Radeon X1950 under Windows 7

[thedivinehairband]

Hi all.

Recently began testing Windows 7 on my PC on a spare hard drive and found all was good and fine. All the hardware worked and the RC seemed pretty stable.
2 weeks later I thought I'd take the plunge and stick it in as my main system. Upon doing this I've discovered that the Catalyst 9.3's I downloaded no longer install and I can therefore no longer use CCC and a few rather useful features. Not to mention the use of ATI coded drivers and not Microsofts own attempt.
Even attempting to install the drivers manually and going though the Have Disc option doesn't work. My card doesn't show on the list despite being in the INF file.

I'm a bit annoyed. First it works fine. Next Microsoft seems to have decided that my card is no longer worthy and I should upgrade.

Anyone got any thoughts of a way round? Perhaps having similar issues yourself?

Replies to the usual address.

 

[KainXS]

so your saying that even going through device manager and trying to force the install windows dosen't detect that your card is compatiblle

did you make sure the SUBSYS on the inf file matches your card

thats wierd

 

[newtekie1]

The problem is with ATi. The decided that the first driver to officially support Win7 would be 9.4. They also decided that in 9.4, they would drop support for anything older than the HD2000 series.

So basically, ATi has made it so that anyone wanted to move to Win7 will have to upgrade to a new card to get proper functionality. The only work around I have seen so far is to find some really old specific driver that oddly works, but the driver is so old it is rather poor compared to the modern drivers.

 

[thedivinehairband]

The SUBSYS in the INF matches my card fine.

I was aware that ATI had stopped supporting my card but the driver set was working even just last week and all of a sudden it no longer does. the package itself is even named 9-3_vista32_win7_32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu so it suggests I can use it. Which I did. Pulling support like that is just ridiculous. I planned to upgrade later this year anyway. Ruddy bastards.

 

[scope54]

The problem is with ATi. The decided that the first driver to officially support Win7 would be 9.4. They also decided that in 9.4, they would drop support for anything older than the HD2000 series.

So basically, ATi has made it so that anyone wanted to move to Win7 will have to upgrade to a new card to get proper functionality. The only work around I have seen so far is ot find some really old specific driver that oddly works, but the driver is so old it is rather poor compared to the modern drivers.

no that shouldn't be the case, because Win7 is supposedly backwards compatible with WDDM 1 driver.

Soo, the usual questions, what is happening when it installs? Does Device manager even see the card? Have you tried the 9.2's? Are your motherboard drivers installed/up to date?

EDIT: So i downloaded the 9.3 driver and i noticed that they separated the .infs, So imo try using the installer in the driver folder labeled: CL_76828 or manually instal from device manager using the inf with the same name. In case you don't know where this stuff is C:\ATI\Support\9_3_vista32_win7_32_dd\Packages\Drivers\Display\LH_INF

 

[r9]

The problem is with ATi. The decided that the first driver to officially support Win7 would be 9.4. They also decided that in 9.4, they would drop support for anything older than the HD2000 series.

So basically, ATi has made it so that anyone wanted to move to Win7 will have to upgrade to a new card to get proper functionality. The only work around I have seen so far is to find some really old specific driver that oddly works, but the driver is so old it is rather poor compared to the modern drivers.

X1950pro is good card would play most of the games at med settings. Their decision not to support it is BS. Even not for gaming is powerful enough for W7 visuals.

 

[scope54]

It is still a good card but it think it just bloats the installer and maybe takes up dev's time to keep putting in cards that don't really need fixes and/or optimizations. And i think it also frees them up, they might do a fix for the newer cards that might break something on the older cards.

 

[newtekie1]

X1950pro is good card would play most of the games at med settings. Their decision not to support it is BS. Even not for gaming is powerful enough for W7 visuals.

I agree, it really sucks that they dropped support for a card that was still being produced and sold as the flagship just 2 years ago.

It is still a good card but it think it just bloats the installer and maybe takes up dev's time to keep putting in cards that don't really need fixes and/or optimizations. And i think it also frees them up, they might do a fix for the newer cards that might break something on the older cards.

Bloating the install isn't a problem, you already select your card's model and it takes you to the proper driver. Why not make different installers for older and newer cards to keep the download size small?

And as for new fixes breaking older cards, I can see that, and it wouldn't be an issue if they dropped support for really old cards, Pre-x1000 series, but dropping support for cards that are only 2 years old really is BS.

 

[thedivinehairband]

EDIT: So i downloaded the 9.3 driver and i noticed that they separated the .infs, So imo try using the installer in the driver folder labeled: CL_76828 or manually instal from device manager using the inf with the same name. In case you don't know where this stuff is C:\ATI\Support\9_3_vista32_win7_32_dd\Packages\Drivers\Display\LH_INF

I've been there. Tried the infs and the msi there. Know my way around those. Just tried diving into the Win7 inf in the driver store and swapping out the correspondingly named file for ones in the ATI folder and that just succeeded in buggering the visuals up. Windows failed to recognise the files. ah well it's only a test one.

I don't think they need even to add it back in. They have functioning Vista drivers under 9.3 so just let us use them!

Did give the 9.2s a go also but same error.

Here is the log for those interested. Doesn't seem much use though.

Catalyst® Install Manager
Installation Report
06/13/09 18:51:09

Hardware information
Name ATI Radeon Graphics Processor
Manufacturer ATI Technologies Inc
Device ID 0x7280
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x030000
Revision ID 0x9a
Subsystem ID 0xe190
Subsystem vendor ID 0x174b
Other hardware
Existing packages
Catalyst Control Center
ATI Catalyst Install Manager
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable
Packages for install
ATI Catalyst Install Manager
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 3.0.715.0
Size: 20 Mbytes
ATI Display Driver
Final Status: Fail
Version of Item: 8.591.0.0000
Size: 90 Mbytes

Other detected devices
ATI Radeon Graphics Processor
Manufacturer ATI Technologies Inc
Device ID 0x72a0
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x038000
Revision ID 0x9a
Subsystem ID 0xe191
Subsystem vendor ID 0x174b
Manufacturer ATI Technologies Inc
Device ID 0x1100
Vendor ID 0x1022
Class Code 0x060000
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0x0000
Subsystem vendor ID 0x0000

Error messages
Driver Install: the specified driver package was not installed for matching devices

Bit of a bugger really. Might go back further and give the 9.1s a go.

 

[thedivinehairband]

Well theres a bit of luck. 9.1s work just fine. Strangely.

Panic over.

 

[scope54]

im out of ideas, like the only thing i can think of has to do with the pci express driver, but i dont even think Nvidia has one.

EDIT: well good :F not like there was a lot done for your card anyways in the later releases.