mryuse

Hi!

I'm new to this forum. First of all I want to thank Randomness, alex55 and everybody that has contributed to the issue of the IGP 3xxM video cards from ATI. With that said, I have an issue too. But strangely enough it has developed lately. I bought this laptop in 2004 from a friend. I had to buy a new hd for it, since the previous one crashed and burned. I formatted and clean-installed Windows XP 5.1 (Build: 2600). My friend told me to go to the Compaq website and download the driver for the video, which I did. Since I've had it, I was able to play a couple of games that run with DX9.0c and they are: Battlefield 1942, NBA Live 2006 and MVP Baseball 2005 and GTA: San Andreas.

The first one I played was BF1942 and of course I have to lower the video settings. My laptop heated up, but it didn't shut down. All was good. Then I decided to play San Andreas, and I also played with low video settings. My pc ran low fps at times and sometimes it shut down for no reason what so ever. After that, I got my battery pack for the laptop and the shut down stopped for some time. I finished the game and erased it. Afterwards I installed MVP Baseball 2005, and I had more issues with this game even though I was able to play it with no other probs. The issues where BSOD at times (when I tried to play one baseball game after the other) and shut downs for no reason. I ended the season learning how to cope with them. Uninstalled it and moved on to NBA Live 2006 and this one also had it's share of issues. Shut downs and low fps for the most part, but no BSODs. I had EXCELLENT DVD, AVI and mpg playback. I used MPC, VLC, Crystal Player, WMP9 and 10, PowerDVD always for them.

After some time I wanted to play some games in my laptop and I installed MVP Baseball 2005 again. Since I was aware of the issues I had last time, I still was able to play this time, BUT the low fps where for longer periods now. And I also encountered the same problem with GTA: SA again (I liked the game! :P). But I still had the great DVD, AVI and MPG playback. I wanted to get new drivers, because I thought that'll help solve the low fps issue as well as other issue I found along the way.

Apparently that backfired, because I wasn't able to play MVP Baseball 2005 at times claimming that I needed DX9.0 and hardware acceleration on the card. This was of course, AFTER I installed all the drivers I saw posted in forums. I got fed up with that and formated my laptop. I fresh-installed Windows XP 5.1 (Build: 2600) + SP2. I went to the Compaq website and downloaded the driver for the card and the bus driver. I installed everything that I had before and I played a movie to go to sleep (yes, strange I know, but I cannot go to sleep if I don't play a movie I've seen a couple of times). Within 5 mins of the time that I played the movie, the pc froze. I had to shut it down and turn it on again and played the movie again. I woke up to go to work and the pc was frozen yet again.

When I came back from work I installed one of the drivers I downloaded from the french website posted on prev posts and played the movie and it ran perfectly. What I didn't notice was that the movie playback was really choppy. Played the movie with MPC with the K-Lite codecs and went to sleep. It crashed and rebooted. I've been reading the topic since yesterday and I really don't know what to do. I updated the BIOS, and some other updates you guys posted available from the Compaq/HP site. I'm scared wether to download the 5.13 drivers from the french site. I'm really really desperate and don't know what to do. I'm contemplating the option of purchasing a new laptop. PLEASE, PLEASE help! I love my laptop, but if nothing works, I'll get a new one!

System config:

Machine name: GREENLANTERN
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2
System Manufacturer: Compaq
System Model: Presario
BIOS: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0 (Updated as per your advice)
Processor: Mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.5GHz
Memory: 448MB RAM
Card name: ATI MOBILITY IGP 320M
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: RADEON IGP 320M AGP (0x4336)
Memory: 64mb

Randomness

cru ---

From data collected from the previous (very early) posts, WoW is buggy to run on any catalyst driver older than version 5.10 ; I am unsure as to what new ramifications this may have with the recent expansion pack.

You can use any modded version of Catalyst 5.10 upto and including 6.5 ; Do not use anything newer, or very freqeuncy BSODs, or system crashes will result. make sure that the modded drivers are installed on a clean system Specifically, make sure all traces of any ATi driverset has been removed. I would normally suggest DriverCleaner, but apparently that is no longer a free-tool. Version 1.5 still has the filters necessary, and is included in my recent post for catalyst 6.4 ;

mryuse ---

You probelms sounds like it is stemming from one of two places (or a combination of both)

1) corrupted driver files / installation
2) system overheating
(and it also sounds like your motherboard's AC-Adapter connector is loose, and needs to be repaired.)

First, remove all traces of the current ATi softwar ein your system, whether it be with DriverCleaner (the free version, if it exists somewhere still), or even the ATI Catalyst uninstaller tool which you can find at ati.amd.com

If your system can still autodetect "Radeon IGP 320M" and install drivers afterwards, it means the drivers are still present on your system.
Sometimes you will need to run (drivercleaner), reboot, run the program again. And in some instances, run the program in safe-mode.

When you finally get the Hardware wizard asking you where to find drivers for you "VGA compatible" or "SVGA compatible" display adapter, then you can continue installing a fresh copy of HP OEM display drivers.

Specifically, i recommend the drivers in SP27665
You can download them here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...tem=hb-21505-1

Or goto: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/
and navigate to SP27665

These drivers are known to work with the IGP 320M ; They are based on Catalyst 4.4 ; Most newer games will encounter bugs with older Catalyst drivers, unfortunately.

If you feel adventerous, You can use any Catalyst version from 4.0 to 4.10 (inclusive) with the Radeon IGP 3xxM series chipset without comprimising DVD playback. Anything newer than version 4.10 will have poor DVD playback unless you use a DVD program (such as MPC) that uses VMR 7.

Catalyst 5.13 from stationdrivers.com was originally recommend because it was easy to install for less experienced or lazy users that didn't really want to get messy with driver modifications. However Catalyst 5.13 was usually only directed to those interested for gaming support only (most commonly WoW). DVD playback is only possible (so far as i know it) using Video-Mixing-Rendering (VMR) using the DirectX 7 or DirectX 9 APIs. The Radeon IGP 320M hardware is more compatible with version 7 and 8.1 of DirectX.

if your system is suffering from overheating, you may notice BSODs, and lockups outside of graphics intensive applications (ie// Word, Outlook) ; If this is the case, it is likely that there is a build up of dirt in the heatsink fins inside your notebook. Usually a can of compressed air is enough to get most dust out, by blowing at the vents on the side / bottom of your notebook.

Good luck, take care, and have fun.

- Randomness.

mryuse

Thanks for your advice, Randomness!

I've already solved the AC Adapter and the overheating issue. I purchased a long time ago a APC TravelPower AC Adapter. I also bought a LapCool2 Notebook cooler. So far it has worked great.

I'm going to try the first suggestion you gave me. I've downloaded the drivers from the HP/Compaq website. Next it'll be the Driver Cleaner.

Thanks again for ALL your help!

mryuse

Randomness:

I tried the technique you explained about the removal of drivers and installation of new drivers. The first part went thru fine, it eliminated all drivers from ATI. Then I wanted to installed the sp27665 downloaded from HP/Compaq and it wouldn't let me.

It said that the *.INF file was not found and that I needed to first setup the VGA Controller with a compatible one. What can I do?

Randomness

Hell again, mryuse:

What is the exact model of your system? There should be a service label on the bottom of your notebook.

Normally, the INF device codes in SP27665 accomidate quite a few of the Radeon IGP 3xxM chipset variations. This certainly presents a unique problem.

At the moment, i don't have sufficient time to fully go through the problem, but i should be able to post more information by tonight or tomorrow.

Any additional system information you can provide would help.
System model, series, BIOS version in particular.

good luck, and take care.

mryuse

I was able to install drivers sp24492 from HP/Compaq! Do you think I should try to install the other set of drivers you adviced me to install?

System Config:

Machine name: GREENLANTERN
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519)
Language: English (Regional Setting: Spanish)
System Manufacturer: Compaq
System Model: Presario 900US
BIOS: PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
Processor: Mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.5GHz
Memory: 448MB RAM (512mb RAM, 64 mb graphic memory shared.)
Card name: ATI MOBILITY IGP 320M
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: RADEON IGP 320M AGP (0x4336)

Randomness

Hello mryuse,

The SP24492 is based on a catalyst driver that is still in the 3rd Catalyst version generation. However if everything you need is working, than i would suggest it unnecessary do do anything more.

But if you'd like to get the SP27665 package to update your system to Catalyst 4.4, below are instructions on how to do so. Again, use caution, and you do these modifications at your own risk.

Lets begin...

First, be sure you are running the latest BIOS, and KBC/Battery Controller firmware on your system.

Specifically, the newest BIOS version for your system is F.0B. You can get a copy from here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...os=228&lang=en

The newest Battery Controller / KBC firmware is version 13.27
which can be downloaded from here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/g...reg_R1002_CAEN

Now....Since you ran the SP27665.exe Installer package, the entire driver, Control panel (CPanel) should have all unpacked to the following directory:
c:\swsetup\sp27665
Open this directory, and you will find 3 directories, and additional setup files. (directories called "BIN", "CPanel", and "Driver")

Open the "Driver" directory (ie// open c:\swsetup\sp27665\driver"), and then open the directory "2KXP_INF"
(ie// open c:\swsetup\sp27665\driver\2kXP_INF)
You should find a file called CX_16016.inf
Double click the file, and it should open up in the notepad program.

You will see code regarding the driver install information. Pay close attention to the LABELS; they are headers in square brakets. In this INF, you should find, in the following order:

[Version]
...code....
[DestinationDirs]
...code....
[ControlFlags]
...more code...
[Manufacturer]
...and more code...
[ATI.Mfg]
...this is where the Device ID codes are...

Add the following line under the [ATI.Mfg] label:
"RADEON IGP 320M" = BR_14024_ati2mtag_U1, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4336&SUBSYS_00B00E11
(*it should all be one continuous line)

Save the changes with notepad (file--Save) then exit.
Now, click Start-->run --> c:\swsetup\sp27665\setup.exe

Follow the instructions. When the driver is being installed, you will get an unsigned driver warning. Click "Continue Anyway"

When it finishes, you'll be asked to restart your computer.
Double check everything works after the restart ; See if a normal DVD plays. Also check on the DirectX acceleration status.
Start --> Run --> dxdiag
It may prompt you for WHQL checking, with a Yes or No answer. Click No.
(don't worry if it doesn't ask you this question)
Click on the "Display" tab
Check to make sure DirectDraw, Direct3D, and AGP texture Accleration are all "Enabled" ; I would also advise running the DirectDraw and Direct3D tests.
* you may notice a "WHQL" warning in the "Notes" area near the bottom of this dxdiag screen. don't worry about it.

If you check the very early posts in this thread you may find more information on "manual" installation of drivers, which may be useful if the install package still gives you trouble.
The key to a "manual" installation is to no exactly where the INF file for your chip is. In this case its: c:\swsetup\sp27665\driver\2KXP_INF\CX_16016.inf

Basically....your IGP320M chipset has a slightly different subsystem configuration for external monitors / BIOS / Athlon & Duron Core variations. What you just did is added your chipset's hardware ID to the INF of the newer 27665 package so that it *should* install normally. The Catalyst driver is only concerned with the Radeon core, not the extra random that its also responsible for.
Note... because the INF files are "certified", any manual alterations to them leads to a driver being declared "unsigned" or "not WHQL certified"
But don't be too concerned about this. Its not important.

Good luck, take care, and have fun.
- Randomness

highlyflamable

Hi
I've joined the ranks of infuriated 340m users who need help. I'm mostly playing halflife 2 and wow. I have the 5.13b drivers installed and the only time I can get a playable frame rate (about 15fps) is when the graphics are set to lowest and the resolution is 800x600 in windowed mode. The UMA is set to 128 Mb, I have 1Gb RAM so this isn't the problem, I've read the entire thread and was wondering what other wow players have had success with. Can I do any better than this or will I have to buy a new computer to see a framerate of over 30 in 1024x768? As far as I know my drivers are fully up to date. Help!?

Randomness

Hello:

When it comes to WoW and HL2, i have heard people have better success running these games sometimes run better in Windows Vista. However this is strickly determined by your BIOS compatibility, and processing power.

In theory the 5.13b Catalyst driver your using should provide satisfactory preformance. I would suggest trying to set all the options in the "OpenGL" and "DirectX" tab in the ATi Control panel (or ATI CCC, depending on how you installed it) to "Optimum Performance"

Also make sur eyou do the standard system tweaking to make your system run faster. Ie// minimize startup programs, defrag your harddisk, make sure your page file isn't fragmented (see: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sys...ageDefrag.mspx)
Also make sure your computer harddisk is running at its fastest transfer mode (your case would be UDMA 5 most likely);

Basically what i'm getting at is that you need a fined tuned system in order to push these games to running around 30 FPS .

As i have said, however, there are some cases were running these games on Windows Vista ( i would suggest a dual-boot system if you decide using vista) that allow these newer games to run better on this chipset.

Hope the information is remotely helpful....or better.

Take care, and good luck.

- Randomness

feldmaresciallo

Hello everybody, i am new to this forum, the first thing i want to say is a big thanks to Randomness.
I was trying for several days to fix my brother's notebook, a compaq Evo N1015v.
It has xp + sp2 installed and 512 Mb ram.
It couldn't run any game, till i finally googled the right way and found this great thread.
I am actually using the drivers from this package : http://www.nomgle.com/Catalyst6_4_incCCC_IGP3xxM.zip

After the install procedure i checked the dxdiag to make sure that both direct draw and direct 3d were correctly working.
Then i installed pro evolution soccer 6 ( the main reason behind all this hard job ).
I can't say how happy i was to finally see it run smoothly on this notebook.
The only problem is that no matter how i setup the game's settings or the catalyst control center, i can't get the image to stay correctly on screen.
I mean, the game starts but for some reason it appears like it is scrolled down toward the bottom of the screen for 1/4 of its size.
This strange thing happens also in windowed mode.
Here's an example of it:



Is there someone who can suggest a possible workaruond?
Maybe those drivers posted from Randomness :

http://www.filefactory.com/file/4390c0/
--> Mildly refined Catalyst 6.4 modded INF
--> Contains ATi Control Panel from Catalyst 5.11 (works fine in XP with this driver)
--> Contrains driverCleaner Pro 1.5, for cleaning out left-behind or corrupted driver files
--> Contains the ATi GART driver, for the AGP bus

are a bit different? But the download is not alive anymore.
So today i took these ones:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/a7e220/
When i go home tonight i'll try and see if i can fix this problem.
Anyway thanks again Randomness, i think you rule.

feldmaresciallo

Hi there. I solved it.
It was the 32 bit z-buffer depth.
Unchecked.

6StringSamurai

Hi, I'm brand new to this forum and like others I have a problem with my 340M, ha ha ha.

I've read through this thread and others but I wanted to ask before I did anything because I've never messed around with drivers like this before.

I can't get my laptop to output in widescreen resolutions like 1280 by 768, which I need for my external monitor. HP has been no help whatsoever. I'm not really interested in pushing the limits of my laptop for gaming or anything like that, I just want it to play nicely with my widescreen monitor.

So, what version of the Omega drivers should I use to get 1280 by 768? Is there a guide that explains how to install it? I've seen some people give quick run downs but nothing comprehensive.

Thanks for you help! I feel kind of lost with this kind of thing.

magotes

@6StringSamurai: Hmm, if everything aside the resolution works fine with your current drivers, I'd say you shouldn't fiddle around with it much. Perhaps you need an utility like PowerStrip or the sort (I think it used to come with Omega's, at least the last time I checked - a long time ago - but you can probably get it by itself).

If I recall correctly, somewhere in the starting section of this thread someone (Randomness?) said something about running into trouble with using external devices that run at a higher resolution than the notebook's display, perhaps someone knows more about it than me.

@Randomness: I guess you're right about the performance hit when running Vista, my notebook feels a lot more sluggish than with XP. Still, if you manage to pull off that BIOS tweaking, it'll be some feat! Maybe that'll get Aero to run on an IGP? Hah, that would be something!

6StringSamurai

I'll read through the thread again looking for that post, thanks.

I still want to try something, this laptop has a broken screen so really if I can't hook it up to my monitor it's not useful to me at all. I found that PowerStrip software, I'll definitely check that out, thanks!

Any advice at all is welcome.

Randomness

Hello:

I have partially figured out a solution for those looking to run their external displays (in particular, widescreen displays) on the IGP 3xxM chipset.

Unfortunately it is still very very messy at the moment, and i haven't been able to stream-line it into a simple registry edit. It would seem that i'll need to spend time on re-designing a custom driver INF to include widescreen resolutions for external displays. But hopefully i can figure out a simple registry addition template instead.

But for now, the easiest way is to use PowerStrip. You can fetch a copy from here:
http://www.entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm

When it installs, restart your computer when prompted. Following the restart, right click on the power strip icon in the system tray. Click on "Display profiles" Followed by "Configure" in the pop-up menu.

Click advanced timing options

Click on "Custom reolutions"

If your using a monitor, select the E-EDID radio, and select the desired supported monitor resolution you want to use.

If your using a display device that doesn't support DDC or E-EDID, than choose the "User-Defined" option

I strongly suggest you start off with a 60Hz (vertical) refresh rate (~56Hz Horizontal)

Click "Add new resolution"

You will get a message about the resolution being accepted by the driver, and whether you want to apply it . You may need to restart your computer in some cases.

If you encounter an issue where your new resolution (although technically appropriate for your external display), makes the image to big for it:

Display properties --> Settings tab -->Advanced --> Click on "Displays" (you need to have ATI Control panel installed) ; Click on the
"Monitor" word-button above the monitor image.

Make sure that the "use DDC Information" is checked. If it is checked, and the problem still occures, uncheck it.

Then make sure the "Maximum Resolution" is set (your externals displays maximum resolution capability). NOTE: this resoltuion has to be equal to or gretter than your custom resolution that you applied through the use of powerstrip. And make sure the refresh rate is 60Hz ; some lcd panels well handle up to 75Hz ; but in some cases, there may be noticed pixel-drift / fuzzyness.

This has been tested with a 1440x900 16:10 Widescreen LCD monitor using its "Analog" VGA connector.

This was also done using the original OEM notebook display drivers. since Powerstrip is independent from installed display drivers, it should work. However you may encoutner initial external display activation issues if the driver isn't OEM (ie// modded). In this case, invoke the external diusplay by using the Function key for your notebook, and the appropriate F key that toggles the external / LCD display.

In the HP Compaq Presario 2100 series this is Fn + F5.

Hope this is helpful for now. Good luck, and take care.

- Randomness

And for the sake of all that is digital....any information you use from any of my posts is used strickly at your own risk.

tactik

UPDATE.

Just thought I should leave a message for anyone who wanted to do anything similar.

I wanted to get an external LCD monitor with a higher resolution than my laptop. The issue was that the display settings on the laptop wouldn't let me choose more than 1400x1050 (SXGA+) for an external display, even though the slider showed that it could go more - it always snapped back to 1400x1050 after Apply.

Randomness kindly fielded some of my questions and suggested Powerstrip and a driver update.

I have the orignal drivers that were installed on the laptop (Cat 4.4).

Well, the long and short is that it works perfectly and flawlessly... (touch wod). I am running a 20" Samsung 1680x1050 display from the VGA output and it works like a charm.

Thanks for your help Randomness, and I'm not thinking so terribly of this little GFX card (320) now.

6StringSamurai

I just want to say thank you so much especially you, Randomness.

Your advice worked perfectly. This broken laptop now has a second life.
You are awesome!

Scorchio

I hope someone can help with my IGP320 problems.

I had previously installed modern Catalyst drivers, using the mod tool, on my creaking laptop, with much improved graphics and performance on Dawn of War.

I think a recent "fix" with Norton SystemWorks may have reverted to the oem driver and now I can't install any drivers, even from the original drivers cd.

Trying Catalyst 6.xx or 7.xx (everything from 6.08 to 7.2) and the mod tool gives "This display driver is not compatible with the display adapter(s) installed in your system".

Manual installs result in "Cannot install. The system cannot find the file specified". This occurs with Omega drivers and the GART driver dowloaded via the link in post 339.

Being a complete PC numpty, I've no idea what file it's looking for!

Any ideas?

__________________
[COLOR=red]Scorchio[/COLOR]
Lost and confused

rasunin

Hi. im new here. i have been looking for an driver update for Radeon IGP 320M. i am glad to say that i have finally found the right place, HERE!

firstly, after doing some reading from this thread alone, i would like to give a huge thanks to Randomness, for his countless contributions and helps he has given to us for the past 3-4 years. if you guys look at his first post and his most recent post, you could tell how long he has been helping us, although it isnt a 365 Days round the clock Customer Service. but he has certainly solve and helped A LOT of people.

also, a big thanks to those who have help Randomness in any way, to make all this possible, if there is. (i only read the 1st 3 pages and the last 3 pages...so far)

ok, straight to the point:

i chanced upon Catalyst 7.2, the latest version for now, earlier today.

i was wondering if its compatible with Radeon IGP 320M. my laptop is Fujitsu. device ID: 4336. but it seems as though most people here are HP or some other brand users.

if i want to update my graphic card, i could simply use Catalyst 4.10, which is known to be the safest route to take, am i right?

but i really want to know if, in your own knowledge, that whether, Catalyst 7.2 is safe to install. just based on your knowledge, without trying or experimenting with it, is it okay or not okay?

if no, i will just use Catalyst 4.10

if yes, which i doubt so, well...i dont wanna try and then my system crashes again becos, i just reformat my laptop and had reinstalled every single software that i had keep track of. so that is why i am asking. dont wanna go through the tedious process of "Recovering" again. you know how long it will take to get all those installers and then installing and updating tons of softwares......time consuming.

thanks. hope to receive reply ASAP.

Randomness

Hello

Rasunin:

Technically, NO, Catalyst 7.2 isn't compatible with the Radeon IGP 3xxM chipsets. If you do download a copy from ATi, make sure you do so from an older graphics card selection (ie the Radeon 7500, or 8500) ; This Catalyst package will have a "pre-r300" in its filename. And in this case, the last "pre-r300" catalyst package available is based on Catalyst 6.11

BE CAREFUL. Using any Catalyst version 6.6 or newer that isn't "pre-r300" (ie// before the 3rd generation Radeon core) will generally suffer BSODs and generally make your system unstable / unpleasant.

No "pre-r300" Catalyst 7.x packages exist, and when comparing Catalyst 6.11 "pre-r300" with Catalyst 6.4 or 6.5, there are too few changes to the driverset, and hence i usually don't recommend the effort in playing with these newer drivers.
And ....sadly....the 6.11 "pre-r300" drivers do not provide DVD playback through Overlay rendering....

Scorchio:

I will need more information about your system specifications. Specifically, Make and Model number. And any details regarding the error messages / missing filenames you encounter.

Good luck, and take care.

- Randomness

akb1274

Hello all,

I have the Radeon 320M chipset, using an HP Pavilion ze4800 (actually 4805). I'm using the drivers supplied by HP on the driver recovery disk... I run dxdiag tool and uder the display tab, I do not have direct3d acceleration or AGP texture acceleration enabled and it appears they cannot be enabled. I am using directx 9.0c, winxp SP2. Any suggestions for how to enable this? I would realy like to enable the "tab effect" addon for use with the Firefox 2.0 browser. Thanks much and thanks again Randomness... your posts have saved this little notebook many times over.

-AKB1274

akb1274

Hello all,

I seem to have answered my previous inquiry by updating and cleaning my system to use only the drivers supplied by Randomness. My question now is, when I use the dxdiag tool and try testing direct3d, my screen goes black as it appears to try testing and then says "test was cancelled because you pressed a key" but this is not the case as I am not touching the keyboard... any thoughts on how to test my direct3d? Thanks again.

Randomness

Hello akb1274:

The "test was cancelled because you pressed a key" issue generally results in 1 of 2 things.
NOTE: The "...cancelled by pressing a key" issue also stems into another problem where full-screen applications have a erratic habit of minimizing themselves to the taskbar and staying there.

The 2 known causes for this bizzar, and seldom documented issue are:
1) Keyboard overlay driver (driver for extra buttons that use an onscreen display)
2) Antivirus program running in background.

Given that you are using a HP Pavilion ze4800, it is most likely your problem stems from the HP Notebook Onetouch keyboard overlay driver. The problem is related to the driver's features of displaying onscreen feedback of the button you pressed, such as "E-Mail" or "Launching Internet", or a volume bar when adjusting the volume with the hardware buttons.

HP hasn't updated the driver to correct this. And concidering how old the notebooks in this technology series are....it is highly unlikely.

WORKAROUND:

If you still fancy the onscreen overlay, before launching the dxdiag test, or any 3D program that it may cause problems with, click Start--> Run --> tskill onetouch
To resume the onetouch driver (and use of the extra buttons) run the command "onetouch" after your down playing with 3D applications.

OR.... for a more permenant solution, goto control panel--> keyboard --> "Onscreen Display" tab --> Uncheck all the "Show...." options (there should be only 2 options, uncheck both of them.)
After which, restart your computer. Your DXDIAG testing of Direct3D should now work.

With regrds to Antivirus issues : I have not encountered this problem with common antivirus programs of today, especially when fully updated.

Good luck, and take care.

Ninpo

[quote=Randomness;1038074]

BE CAREFUL. Using any Catalyst version 6.6 or newer that isn't "pre-r300" (ie// before the 3rd generation Radeon core) will generally suffer BSODs and generally make your system unstable / unpleasant.

No "pre-r300" Catalyst 7.x packages exist, and when comparing Catalyst 6.11 "pre-r300" with Catalyst 6.4 or 6.5, there are too few changes to the driverset, and hence i usually don't recommend the effort in playing with these newer drivers.
And ....sadly....the 6.11 "pre-r300" drivers do not provide DVD playback through Overlay rendering....

Hello,
I just happened by this thread during a google search to improve my laptops video drivers. Yes it's a Radeon IGP 320M and its driver date is 5/15/2004. After reading the last few posts I am not sure if I need to modify the ini file for catalyst 6.11 or not. Also on ATITech.com they obviously don't identify "pre-r300" as there was no r300 when the legacy came out; so are all 6.11 and earlier pre-r300 or is that a special file? Also 6.4 is dated 4/2006 while 6.11 is 11/06 so when you say don't play with newer drivers you mean the 6.11 right and you do recomend 6.4? The plural drivers makes it look like you mean 6.4 or 6.5 but 6.11 is the newer.
Sorry if it sounds like newbie nitpicking but I really don't want to explain to my wife why I ruined the laptop and need yet another trip to the computer repair store.

Stephen

Ninpo

sorry hit enter twice and can't find a delete in the edit screen

warped4life

Interesting discovery I made recently. I am using a Sony PCG FRV-27 with 345M in it. Until yesterday I was using patched Catalyst 5.13 drivers and it ran DVDs and most of my games fine however, there was a serious problem whenever I played any game using a Half-Life engine. It would slow down to a crawl especially when smoke had to be rendered. I turned off the settings but the games continued to run quite slowly. I reverted back to the original drivers and this problem disappeared however, now the laptop crashes whenever I play Gunz. This problem is not new to me, and I was quite pleased when I found that the 5.13 drivers ran Gunz while the stock drivers crashed. I am experimenting with 4.10 as we speak.

Randomness

Hello Ninpo:

ATi dropped support for the the older Radeon graphics GPUs (the R100, R200, R250 cores etc....) when they release Catalyst 6.6; Bascially, anything older than a Radeon 9550 do are not compatible with anything newer than 6.6 ;

However, there was a slight out-cry for this sudden lack of support for older chips. A 'Special' version of Catalyst 6.11 was made available through the ATi website when you picked a Radeon model older than the 9550 ; (ie// The Radeon VE, 7000, 7500, 8500...etc); The download package has a "pre-r300" in its filename reflecting its compatibility with older Radeon cores.

After checking the internal driver version of Catalyst 6.11, which revealed that there weren't any significant changes made to it since the Catalyst 6.5. And i have found that although 6.5 and 6.11. and i have found that the newer 6.5 and 6.11 drivers to be slightly....(depends on system make/model/BIOS)...unstable at times.

I usually recommend Catalyst 6.4 because i have not encountered much system instability with it, and because it is the driver version our good friends at microsoft pciked to used for the built in Vista drivers for the Radeon IGP 3xxM chips.

The Radeon IGP 3xxM chips are based on a hybrid second generation (R200) core. Which places it somewhere between the preformance of a Radeon 7500 and 8500, depending on the clock speed used.

Keep in mind that using any Catalyst driver newer than Catalyst 4.10 will result in DVD video playback issues (in Windows XP). And in some cases, other video playback may also be affected. This issue is related to when the video is rendered using Overlay Mixing Rendering. A work-around would be to use a DirectX 7 or 8.1 based VMR (Video-mixing-Rendering) method for Video Playback. DVD software decoders such as Sonic CinePlayer and older versions of PowerDVD are capable of this type of rendering.

When a VMR-capable DVD decoder is installed, Windows Media Player can be set to use "High Quality" instead of "Use Overlays" (however i am unsure about support in WMP11);

Using VMR instead of Overlay uses slightly more CPU power rather than using the GPU to render the video. But it isn't too bad of a comprimize considering the preformance gains found in most 3D applications.

warped4life:

I have had access to a Sony notebook using a Radeon IGP 345M, and curiously enough, doesn't seem to suffer from DVD playback issues with newer (Catalyst 4.11+) drivers. But i have noticed that the system can get bogged down very erratically depending on which Catalyst version Used. The Radeon IGP 345M uses a Device ID of 0x4337, and curiously enough is found in a few HP notebooks labeled as an IGP 350M (but with a different Subsystem code).

These laptops seem to be able to run an HP OEM catalyst 5.6, and if memory serves, runs Catalyst 5.9 with the best preformance scourse in 3DMark. I would suggest experimenting with Catalyst 5.9, as it may be a suitable comprimize to running both games.

I have found that the ATi GART driver can also prove to be an important element to preformance. I would suggest trying to find the driver through ATi's archives, or reference back in this thread.

And if memory serves....Sony laptops....like many other manufactures, have a habit of coming with a lot of extra start-up programs that can consume memory. These chipsets have a bottleneck when it comes to memory, so the more memory you system has, the more stable the chip will run under heavy load. The ATi GART driver is an important part to the chipset's memory managment. If you have at least 768 MB, try setting the UMA memory sharing to 128MB in the BIOS (if the option exists in the BIOS) and try freeing up memory that could be eaten by unneeded start-up programs. I suggest using msconfig or autoruns (www.sysinternals.com) to get the job eaisily.

Hope my ranting is slightly useful. Tajke care, and good luck.

- Randomness

warped4life

Randomness,

Thanks for the advice. I installed Catalyst 5.9 but I am still having some video issues with half-life engine games. I have found that the slow downs have something to do with DirectX because in software render modes it runs more smoothly.

I am having a little trouble installing ATI Gart, I found a version ATI catalyst motherboard/IGP Gart 6.7 driver. But I can't seem to get it to work properly.

sweetsourpork

i have an hp ze5375us with the 340/345m
i downloaded the 7.3 and ran the modtool
of course, my dvd's won't play now and videos look like shit
can i unfuck my laptop?
thx

sweetsourpork

never mind it works now