GX640 Catalyst 10.4

I've been reading through the forums and I see that lots of guys have managed to install Catalyst 10.4. I tried 10.3 and 10.4 but they don't install. The setup program runs and the Catalyst Control Panel installs but not the drivers? How did you other guys manage to install them? Do I need to mod any INF files or something?

 

No, they installed without any trouble for me, and I haven't heard about installation troubles from anyone else. You might want to uninstall the old drivers, though, that could help.

Is it the Mobility Catalyst drivers you're installing? The other ones are for desktops
This is the link, just to make sure.

 

are you sure you're using the mobility drivers? It's easy to accidentally install the desktop drivers.

 

Hi, thanks for the replies guys. I did uninstall the previous drivers and I'm pretty sure I downloaded the network version. I'm gonna give it another go.

 

"Network version"?

 

t e n c h a r

 

Hey guys, I finally got my gx640 (yay!) and I just uninstalled the old drivers and installed the driver from this link above and when windows restarted all I got was a black screen. I was forced to shut down the computer and do a recovery back to system defaults.

Does anyone know why this happened? The system recovery isn't even a quarter done and has been running for over 4 minutes now.

 

duh...I meant notebook...and yeah it looks like I downloaded the desktop version before because I just installed 10.4. Thanks again guys.

 

Congrats on getting yours.

It sounds to me like you had a PowerPlay-related issue. I recommend that for every new driver you set it to Maximum Performance for both on battery and plugged in, disable it entirely, and then restart your computer.

 

Alright, well I have disabled powerplay on the current CCC. So do now uninstall the current drivers and CCC and then install the new ones? I hope I don't get the black screen again.

 

just to be on safe side, why dont u ppl use driver sweeper. And its always better to download directly frm amd, that way, you cant mess up even if you want to.

 

I never got a black screen, but I did get the common problem of the bus running at x1 instead of x16 speed before disabling powerplay. I also noticed another strange thing with this laptop. When a UAC prompt comes up, the screen goes completely black before the prompt instead of just dimming like all the other Vista/7 installations I've seen. Anyone else notice this?

 

Actually strangely enough i get full black UACs on my 4850 sometimes.

 

You said you got things working in another thread, which is good news. Do you think your trouble was just yet more evidence to add to the pile against PowerPlay?

 

Yeah, it's obvious ATI needs to work on the Powerplay feature or just leave it out of the Catalyst suite.

 

Btw, the full black UAC prompts seem to happen only the first time I do something requiring UAC intervention after logging on to the pc. After the first time, the UAC prompts dim the screen like normal.

 

Personally, I disabled the UAC screen dimming; I think it's a little overboard.

Mind you, quite a lot of computer users won't read anything until it's shoved in their face, and even then a lot of people probably just end up pressing "Yes" every time without reading anything...

 

I always read it saved me from catching a few things some times too, i class it as a good feature.

I also find my 4850's 2d performance to be pretty dismal at times haha.

 

10.4 fixes performance for 2D etc , have you tried it yet ?

UAC is always disabled on my PCs , it's one of those useless windows feature which gets on my nerves .. It's even worst in vista

 

Im on 10.4, performance seems to degrade, and window opening/closing is choppy, but its possible its running off the CPU since aero is disabled, mind you i forgot to optimise next task mauhaha!.

As for UAC, its not that bad dead, its annoying yes, but sometimes when hack attempts/fake software/firewall smack cwap death rawr (Hate it) uac catches it out flat and you can just laugh as you click no to it.

 

Try this Game Booster | Fast Game Accelerator | Free Accelerator it disable all the unecessary processes/services when gaming.

Yeah it sound decent but I only use it for gaming , I don't even have an antivirus installed

I will get into 10.4 on Wednesday or thursday

 

Dear God, what waters have you been sailing?

 

Good question :laugh:

 

I've tried Gamebooster, it basically disables a bunch of system processes to free up ram and cpu load. I don't really see it as necessary though, especially with a beast like the gx640. As far as UAC, I would not disable it. It's like an airbag for your system. But don't forget a good AV product, that's your seatbelt.

 

UAC: Your airbag. AV: Your seatbelt.

Copyright that before Microsoft turns it into their motto:

" Software Airbag UAC and MS Defender Seatbelt "

nice analogy.

 

No thanks , I can live without. More than 2yrs and still haven't came across a good reason to enable them crap.

 

Lol im telling you, UAC is worth having, it basically puts some things in box's like IE for example, i run apserlutely 0 firewall protection, my security center is completely down, UAC can catch operations out flat, its a function that actually works.

 

For the record; I've had UAC in my computer for 3 years now... I got used to it.
Takes less than 2 seconds to see "spot-on" to what UAC is making reference to and to press Accept or Cancel...

 

This post I agree with.

 

hey guys, i was wondering about the 10.4 drivers, right after i installed them i restarted my computer but got nothing but a black screen, no bios, no starting windows. So now i'm a tad bit stuck as i can't uninstall the drivers because i can't see anything. any help would be appreciated

 

You arent the first person, did you properly uninstall and "clean" the previous drivers?
Are you sure you installed the mobile version of drivers.

It could be the powerplay issue, and for that I guess we have the new vBIOS.

 

yah i uninstalled the previous msi ati drivers and ccc, and yes again to the mobile version of the drivers. I'm just looking for a way to get back to the original drivers as its kind of difficult to get anywhere when i can't see anything

 

just try to power up your pc and then repeatedly press f3, that should take you to MSI repair. just try it.

 

still have a black screen, tried what you said and windows didn't start so i'm guessing i am in msi repair, but i still cant see anything

 

Looks like something is really bad. Just try to unplug the lappy, remove the battery, then repeatedly press power button. then put back the battery and try again.

Does the MSI logo show up at the very start? If no, then I fear its RMA time.

 

Yea if your not seeing the bios, or anything I fear its got to be more then just a driver issue. Maybe hook it up to an external monitor to see if it's even posting?

 

yah nothing, haven't had it more than a day...i ordered it from xotic with upgrades so i'll see if i can talk to them, thanks for the help though.

 

nothing on my desktop monitor, i thought it was the catalyst drivers because of all the issues and since i had just installed them, but it seems like the screen itself is disconnected

 

Yea def start the RMA process now. Get it out and back as quick as possible.

 

thanks guys ill repost once i figure out what was wrong

 

dont rma, use 30 day xotic return policy.

 

ah will they replace my order? or will they refund me

 

depends on what you want. They will want to replace it though. Nobody likes to give back $$$

 

Well the question is will they demand to repair it before offering to replace it.
I'd assume the chain goes Repair>Replace>Refund. If you can go straight to getting them to replace it go for it. Let us know what they will do for ya, Im actually purchasing one fairly soon and would like to know how they handle it lol.

 

I too believe the same, since the unit was nt "defective" bt rather has developed problem.
Either way let us know, and dont try to fix it yourself, they'll be rather happy to help.

 

k so got most everything settled with xotic and msi today. Msi was tricky to get ahold of, but xotic was VERY helpful. Their tech support went through a couple things before contacting msi for me and handling my RMA which they then emailed me. It's in the mail tom, so i'll find out in a week or so.

 

got my gx640 back today, started up fine and had the 10.4 drivers installed. I called msi since there wasn't a report on what went wrong and they said they replaced the video card and flashed the bios for me. Hopefully everything works from here on out. I was reading some other forums and something small i'm seeing others have is that i had xotic install a thermal compound on my laptop before i got it. According to another thread someone also got a defective machine that the video card wasnt working, coincidence? anyway its good now, exept for the fact i won't be able to install ati drivers again without fear

 

update-

after working for about an hour, it now is deciding to crash after loading up windows, bleh

 

yes yes yooo.. i found d solution 2 fix d blackscreen problem msi rock yeahhh....!!! i played all games gta 4 very high setting dirt 2 ultra high crysis enthusiast setting bad company 2... hardcore gaming msi gx640!!