omega driver install issue

Taylor85

Hi,

I just got a radeon x1650 pro agp video card. Because I was experiencing some weird crashes, I searched the internet and found out that the newest catalyst drivers don't support agp cards very well. But I also read about the omega drivers and decided to install them (the ones based on catalyst 7.10).
But I'm quite sure something has gone wrong during the installation. Here's what happened:
1.) I uninstalled everything by ATI, excluding de avivo codecs,
2.) I unpacked and ran the install file of the omega drivers,
3.) After the install was complete, it asked me to reboot, which I did,
4.) After windows has booted, it tells me 'new hardware' is found and gives me this window in which you choose wether or not to look up drivers at windows update.
5.) Confused, I click cancel.
6.) In the start menu, I find an option to '(Re) install omega drivers', I click it.
7.) The setup starts, but then tells me something like: 'INF error: video driver not found', and goes on about trying to install default video drivers first. (My windows is dutch, so I may be inaccurate in translating)
8.) I uninstalled everything omega,
9.) I installed the 7.10 drivers by ATI,
10.) Ran the omega setup again,
11.) It did precisely as before, only now on reboot I didn't get that very low resolution. But I think the drivers haven't installed properly because in device manager, it says 'Radeon X1650 series' instead of something like 'Radeon X1650 series (Omega)'. I think it is still using the 7.10 drivers.
11a.) I run the '(Re) install omega drivers' thing again, same error as before.
12.) In device manager, I double click my adapter and choose to update its drivers,
13.) I tell the wizard that comes up that I want to choose the drivers myself,
14.) I click Have disk and navigate to the location of my Omega install, where in the folder 2KXP_INF, I find a file CX2K_RAD_OMEGA.inf. I select it.
15.) I then get a window in which the Radeon X1650 pro (omega 3.8.421) is displayed,
16.) I select it and click next,
17.) The wizard tells me "this device cannot be installed", and "the selected driver doesn't support windows xp" (only then in dutch, so the english version might be a bit different than my translations).
18) I am confused.
EDIT: I forgot to tell you, when in control panel, I click the icon which gives you a wizard to add a new device (I don't know what it's called in english) and I tell the wizard I want to install a new device despite the fact no new hardware was found, I get this list of device types, and when I choose graphics adapters, I get a list of all graphics drivers windows apparently knows... there are very few of them! Only three manufacturers, two of which are Ati, and one Intel! It's like windows 'forgot' about all the other drivers like the default VGA adapters, 3dfx and nvidia adapters and so on. For example I know for sure windows xp should have a (very crappy) 3dfx voodoo3 driver (I used that card a long time ago). Something's wrong here, maybe the ATI uninstall uninstalled a bit too much?


Can anyone help me?

My system specs:
Pentium 4 2.0 GHz, Asus P4S333 mainboard, 1260 MB RAM,
Graphics card: Club3D Radeon x1650 pro AGP
Windows: XP

Dyre Straits

Greetings and welcome to DriverHeaven!

First of all, it would be a good idea to uninstall everything again and then run CCleaner -- both the Cleaner and the Registry options -- to clean up the system.

CCleaner - Home

Once you do that, try installing the Omegadrivers again. When you reboot, if you get the New Hardware found prompt again, ignore it. Omegadrivers do not include the WDM drivers for the video capture. You need to go to Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and download the appropriate version. Example: For CAT 7.10, go to the additional downloads and grab it there.

As for when you go to Device Manager to find various drivers that XP provides, in order to see ALL of them, you have to Deselect the "Show Compatible...." option.

Good luck!

Taylor85

Thank you for your reply!

Well, I actually didn't mean that window. It's the icon (in classic view) which takes you directly to a wizard that first starts scanning for new hardware. When after this you choose your options correctly, you are able to install any device windows knows about, even if it's not connected.
When going to the window you are talking about, by clicking update driver in the properties window of my graphics card and choosing to select the driver myself, I have the same problem: with the Show compatible thing selected, it only shows one driver, when I deselect it, I see three manufacturers all of which are ATI (weirdly enough no Intel this time).

But I will try uninstalling everything, and using ccleaner as you said.

Taylor85

It didn't work. I uninstalled everything by ATI, everything related to omega, rebooted, used ccleaner to clean both files and registry (it did find a lot of registry mistakes though).
Then I ran the omega setup file again. Another weird thing that I noticed: during the driver install, I never get the warning from windows telling me about digital signatures and stuff, where you have to click 'continue anyway'. Even though the setup tells me that I should click 'continue anyway' when it comes up. Also, no files are ever overwritten (also not when the catalyst drivers are installed). It's like my windows just doesn't want to use the driver. It still tells me 'New hardware found' after booting, and it gives me the start of the wizard, twice. (so I have to click cancel twice)
In device manager, it has two devices called 'videocotroller' and 'videocotroller (vga compatible)' in the question mark category. I tried to install one by pointing it to the omega driver inf file, but it told me the driver wasn't compatible with windows xp. This action did move the device to the category 'video adapters' though (but it still has a yellow exclamation mark). When choosing update driver, but not clicking 'have disk' so as to get to the list of drivers known by windows, it still has only three manufacturers (all of which ati) in the list of installable drivers (most of these are old RAGE drivers by the way).
When I right-click on my desktop and choose properties, then go to settings, it says 'standard monitor on' where it should say 'standard monitor on radeon x1650 pro' or something. (again, this is a translation so it may be a bit different on an english windows. The point is that it obviously has no clue what kind of video adapter I have)

Dyre Straits

Try again..but this time go into Safemode after getting things cleaned up.

Taylor85

That didn't work either. Uninstalled everything, rebooted, ccleaned, rebooted in safe mode, installed, rebooted, didn't work. Rebooted in safe mode, ran (Re) install Omega drivers, same error as before. Shall I try an older version of Omega next?

Dyre Straits

Yes, I would. Good luck!

Taylor85

It worked! I installed the previous version. At first, it seemed to go wrong again: the setup didn't seem to actually install the driver, and the (re)install button produced the inf-error again, but when I manually pointed it to the inf file in the omega dir, and selected Radeon X1650 Series(Omega 3.8.413) (I couldn't find a driver for the pro version), it didn't complain about not being compatible with xp, but actually did something! I could finally click 'continue anyway' and stuff. Also, scrolling and dragging windows goes smoothly, too. I still have to test if 3d games will run as well, but I'm glad I finally got somewhere!

Dyre Straits

Keep us posted on further developments.

Glad you got something working after all.

Cheers!