New ATI Catalyst 7.5 doesn't work!

Installed latest ATI catalyst drivers (7.5) - SL will not load, although Half Life Lost Coast and other 3D apps are fine. Rolled back to 7.4 and all is well again. Any thoughts?

Windows XP Professional SP2
ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512Mb
AMD64 X2 4600+
3Gb RAM
etc...

I've just updated my drivers to Catalyst 7.5 without any problems.... My hardware is a little less up-to-date!
XP Pro SP2
ATI Radeon 9600XT
AMD 64 3700+
1 Gb RAM

Okay, more information...

All graphics settings are high. I rolled back to 7.4, reinstalled SL 1.16, updated to 7.5 driver - still crashes!

However, I've discovered that the crash/refusal to load only happens in full-screen mode. Running in a window is fine (although the crash logger runs on exit).

I like full-screen mode, so I'm back to 7.4 - until someone explains the problem!

" although Half Life Lost Coast and other 3D apps are fine"

Those are directx games, trouble is SL is opengl, shouldnt have to much issues with winxp ati tho, on Vista on other hand ati's opengl need to catch up.

I have the same problem with version 7.5 of the drivers.

SL (both the regular version and the Windlight preview) do not work anymore after I upgraded. After the first crash SL will disable Vertex shaders and then it will work. But as soon as I enable the shaders again, I get a crash. This is with a Radeon 9600pro in Windows XP.

When I reinstall 7.4, all is well.

ATI's opengl drivers were fine up to and including Catalyst 7.4.

I'm glad to hear that the problem isn't just with me. It would be really nice to get a comment from Linden about this issue. We are advised to update graphics drivers and I imagine that many more people will experience problems with Catalyst 7.5.

The First Look viewer crashes right after login when running on Vista using the 7.5 ATI drivers. I don't have this problem with the normal viewer.

Savovrus

I have a new ASUS 3.6 gig processor with 1gig ram and an ATI RAdeon 9600 graphics card. Every time I go into SL it totally freezes up after about 5 minutes and I have to turn my comp off by holding the power button in, which ultimately is going to narf my hd.
I have a dualcore processor but even disabling one of those makes no difference.

I have the latest drivers for my gfx card, which I guess is Catalyst 7.5.
I tried disabling the graphics accelerator but SL wont let me in if I do that.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong as my comp more than meets the required specs.

Thanks for the post Alyssia,

I agree, the problems appears related or similar for the ATi X1950 and/or 2900XT.

Does anyone know the proper course of finding out whether Linden is aware of this, and if Linden is not, how we might submit ATi Graphics based queries with them?

No doubt they log our sent "client crash" data : )

Oh yeah, just one more thing...

Are many of you ATi Gals and Guys able to enable Avatar Vertex Program? I could do this in Windows XP but not Vista 32-Bit Ultimate with my previous X1950XTX, however, with my 2900XT I can't enable in either windows.

Thanks for sharing our pain guys, feedback/thoughts welcome ; )

DMC Zsigmond

You're lucky... I can't enable SL at all on my computer. Well, I can, if I run Windows XP instead of Vista... In fact, I've kept my Windows XP installation to dual boot, just to run SL..

As many others reported, it seems to be a ATI driver problem. With ATI driver v7.4, I could at least start SL and have it running for 2-3 minutes before I either got dumped to a blue screen or the computer locked up so hard I had to reset it.
With the new v7.5, the computer locks up before I even is fully logged in. When the "login bar" is blue to approx. 70-80% the lockup hits.

I'm not very technically minded, but from reading all posts around, I guess most blame ATI for not providing a "healthy" OpenGL system in their drivers, but then some blame Linden Labs for not writing good enough code.

I don't know.... I do know it's getting increasingly annoying!

Suz

same problem here

Issures VWR-1047 and VWR-1050 in the Jira address this; go vote! (Those two will probably get combined.)

A Blue Screen of Death in XP can only be 'acheived' by a programme either not giving up memory required by the OS or overwritting reserved memory already in use.

That can mean SL's client code itself, which is doubtful otherwise all XP users would suffer and other OS's, or its another programme(s). My guess, based on this being mainly related to ATI and its drivers.. thats a fair bet.

Memory leaks are a known factor and have largely been addressed in the new viewer we are all waiting for (or not waiting for lol), the people responsible for resolving those issues should receive not only our thanks, but a huge lump of dosh (money) from LL for doing their job for them... thank god for opensourcing.

to add another bug. my SL crash when i quit it with ATI 7.5 drivers

when quiting if i haven't logged in i have a runtime error with memory allocation

when logging out it crash and give me the crash log

Same for me, in Windows XP. Something about "Memory cannot be read".
In Vista I still cannot even login, it's a bluescreen or complete lockup.

It seems that the 7.5 drivers seem to have an different effects with Second Life. On one of my computers, there are no issues, on my other computer I get the "Cannot be read from memory" error, and on my last computer, Second Life does not even start up properly, i see the window for SL and the button for it in the task bar, but it never loads. Both of these issues were solved with rolling back to 7.4. I suggest those having similar issues roll back before trying anything adverse.

As a member of TeamATi in Second Life, I have reported this problem to as many groups as I can think of, my boss in TeamATi, the normal customer support team, and the beta team. My personal testing of the cards I have at my disposal , I have tested a 9600 Pro, 9600XT, 9800XT, X800XL, X800XT AIW, and X850XTPE. My 9600 Pro, 9600XT, and 9800XT have no issues with the 7.5 drivers. All of my X8xx cards have issues with it. This information has been included with my report of the situation. Those of you that are experiencing issues like this should also include the card that you are using.

My Radeon6900XT has ugly "buffer overrun" issues whatever drivers I use.

Used 2 years old Original Drivers, newest Catalyst (7.5) and the Omega drivers too.

Same problems.

Under what operating system and which card?

My data:

Internet Connection*: Cable
* Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
* Computer Processor: 3GHz Pentium 4
* Computer Memory: 2GB
* Video/Graphics Card**:
ATI Radeon 9600XT 256Mb

---------------------------------------------------------------------

From: PC Minimum System Requirements:

* Internet Connection*: Cable or DSL
* Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
o OR Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4)
NOTE: Second Life does NOT currently support Windows Vista
* Computer Processor: 800MHz Pentium III or Athlon, or better
* Computer Memory: 256MB or better
* Video/Graphics Card**:
o nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better
o OR ATI Radeon 8500, 9250, or better"

I'm having that problem, it's driving me nuts. I have an x800xt.

I've been posting back and forth with ATI support about getting my X1950 Pro to work with my Vista 64-bit, so far no luck at all. The best I've come up with is driver v7.3, then I can log in and stay in-world for almost 5 minutes if I don't move or try to use IM or chat. Grr..

So far, the "best" the support at ATI has come up with is copies in below, and just for the fun of it, how many of you think that all of this has *not* already been tried??


Solution:
Dear Alexandra,

Based on our experience, lockups and hangs issues are usually due to improper system configuration, driver issues, faulty hardware, or a known issue between a given application, driver and hardware in use.



There are several things you can check:

Please keep in mind that you may have already done some of the following suggestions and you DO NOT need to try each one.





1. Please check with your motherboard or PC manufacturer to ensure that you have the latest Chipset driver.



2. Please check with your motherboard or PC manufacturer to ensure that you have the latest BIOS flash.



3. Ensure that you have installed any patches or updates for the game or application. You will find these on the developer's website.



4. Ensure that the latest DirectX version is correctly installed and functioning. For Microsoft's instructions visit: www.microsoft.com/directx. To access the DirectX Diagnostic Utility do the following:


* Click Start > Choose Run > type "dxdiag" (without quotes) > Press OK



* Ensure all three (3) DirectX features are enabled:
1. From the Display tab, under DirectX Features, ensure that each feature (DirectDraw Acceleration, Direct3D Acceleration, and AGP Acceleration) are enabled.
2. Ensure that under Notes it states, "No Problem(s) Detected".

* Verify that all DirectX files are installed:

1. From the DirectX Files tab.

2. Ensure that under Notes it states, "No Problem(s) Detected".



* Try to force a different refresh rate:
1. From the More Help tab, click Override.
2. Enter an override value that is compatible with both your video card and your monitor.
3. Click OK, and then Exit.



5. Ensure your power supply has the required wattage output for the video card.



6. For AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) cards ensure:

* Ensure that Fastwrite is disabled in BIOS, and in the SMARTGART section of ATI's Catalyst Control Center
* Try adjusting the AGP speed from (8X to 4X) (4X to 2X) or vise versa.
* Increase the AGP Aperture in the BIOS. We recommend a 128MB minimum.
* Disable any Shadowing settings in the BIOS.
* Disable any Cache Video BIOS settings in the BIOS.



7. Ensure that hardware acceleration set to full under the Troubleshoot tab in Display Properties, under advanced



8. Try turning off write combining in the display properties under advanced then the ATI Troubleshoot tab

9. Ensure that you have adequate Power

* 300 watts for 9700, 9800, X300, X600 and X700.
* 350 watts for X800, X850, X1300, and X1600.
* RADEON X1800/ X1900/ X1950 require special power supply:

1. 450 Watt capacity with 30A on a +/- 12 volt rail (connection) for single graphics configuration.

2. 550 Watt capacity with 38A on a +/- 12 volt rail (connection) for dual graphics configuration for Crossfire (for a list of certified power supplies click here).

10. Ensure that your computer case has good air circulation.



11. Check the system memory (RAM) for errors. A link from Microsoft will help you test your memory: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp



12. If you have multiple memory sticks in your computer, swap the memory sticks or try one at a time



13. Empty the Windows temporary folder, follow these steps:

· Click Start, click Run, type %temp% in the Open box, and then click OK.

· On the Edit menu, click Select All.

· On the File menu, click Delete.

· Click Yes when you receive the following message: Are you sure you want to send these items to the Recycle Bin?



14. Restart your computer by using a clean boot procedure:



Note: You may experience a temporary loss of some services functionality when you follow these steps. Restoring the settings restores the functionality, but may result in the return of the original error message or behavior.



· Click Start, and then click Run.

· Type "Msconfig" (without Quotes)

· Click OK On the General tab.

· Click Selective Startup.

· Under Startup tab, click to clear "Load Startup Items"

· On the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.

· Click OK, and then click Restart. Test the computer

15. Disable a file or service using the System Configuration Utility

· Click Start, and then click Run.

· Type "Msconfig" (without Quotes), Click OK.

· Click Selective Startup and clear the Load System Services check box.

· Click OK.

· Restart your computer, and see if the problem persists.


16. Adjust graphics hardware acceleration:

· Click Start, point to Settings.

· Click Control Panel.

· Double-click Display.

· On the Settings tab, click Advanced.

· Click the Troubleshoot tab.

· Move the Hardware Acceleration slider two notches to the left of Full (the Disable all cursor and advanced drawing accelerations setting).

· Click OK, and then click OK again.

· Test the computer



17. Try the video card in another computer or another video card in your Computer.

· If your video card works in another Computer, then the video card is good and you should check your computer for the cause of the issue.

· If another video card exhibits the same behavior then the video card is good and you should check your computer for the cause of the issue.

· If your video card exhibits the same behavior in another computer then the card is defective.

· If the other video card works fine in your computer, then your video card is defective



If the card is proven to be defective then the issue that you are facing can only be resolved by a repairing your video card. Please apply for an RMA for your video card so that you can get a replacement for it (NOTE: Valid for North American clients only).
-------------------

Right... Everything above was tested, none worked.
If I put in a Nvidia Quadro NVS 285 board, it works fine, but as soon as I go back to graphics based on ATI, I get bluescreens and system lockups. This is becoming really annoying, and ATI doesn't seem to care!

Have you attempted to run it on XP?

Yes, in Windows XP it works flawlessly. (Except for the "standard" client crashes every now and then...)

Dear Mr Linden

It's clear that there is a problem using SL with the latest ATI drivers. We, your loyal and trusting customers, are asking for a solution but we are not sure exactly where the problem lies and who caused it.

SL uses OpenGL. OpenGL drivers are installed with the ATI suite. For me, SL crashes instantly with ATI 7.5 drivers in full-screen mode, but not with 7.4 drivers. But I cannot reproduce the problem with other OpenGL applications. To the contrary, using the excellent OpenGL benchmarking program GLExcess with all 12 benchmarks I get 18121 xsMarks with 7.5 compared with 17924 xsMarks using 7.4. Google Earth uses OpenGL and it works perfectly in full-screen mode with Catalyst 7.5.

So come on Mr Linden, please tell us why SL doesn't work with new ATI drivers. After all, it's surely in your interest to find out - think of all those potential customers you are losing because they have powerful new graphics cards with the latest drivers and they install this amazing virtual world that everyone is talking about only to find it crashes.

Alyssia
XP Pro SP2
1680x1050 32bpp (all settings high)
X1950 Pro 512
AMD64 X2 4600+
3GB RAM

I also experience problems, under wondows XP, but only with Vertex Shaders. Sadly that is, what makes Second Life look SO good (well okay, let me rephrase: It doesn't really look good without them)....

If I turn Vertex Shaders off, things are okay. If I turn them on, I get a memory access violation :/