Catalyst Control and/or OpenGL problems

Hey everybody,

Advanced apologies for the novel that follows, but I wanted to be detailed.

I'm having a pretty frustrating problem with the Catalyst Control software on my G73JH lately. A few days ago, I decided it might be a good idea to see if there were any new graphics card drivers out there, since I've had the laptop for just over a year now.

When the whole Catalyst Control Center/driver v11.5 package was halfway through installing, I got a blue screen and the laptop rebooted. "Okay," I thought, "maybe that wasn't the best idea," and I didn't try installing the new drivers again.

Yesterday I tried to open After Effects CS5, and got a message saying, "sniffer_gpu.exe has stopped working," and another saying, "After Effects error: Crash in progress. Last logged message was: <4900> <AppDirs> <5> Required Dir = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS5\Support Files\Required," and yet another error just saying After Effects had crashed.

A little Googling seemed to show that there was an OpenGL issue involved. However, most of the fixes I saw involved making changes in After Effects, which I can't do. I'm also getting a GPU error in Photoshop, although I can at least still use the program, as it just disables that feature automatically.

Somehow or another I decided/read that I could make some changes in the Catalyst Control software to take care of all this, which is when I noticed that my Catalyst Control Center won't start - when I try to launch it, it says, "Catalyst Control Center: Host application has stopped working," and all I can do is close it.

An awful lot more Googling turned up a mess of potential solutions, from making changes to the UAC to Windows Assembly files to uninstalling/reinstalling CCC with and without the graphics drivers to performing a complicated ritual involving something called Driver Cleaner Pro, several reboots, and a sacrificial pigeon.

I've tried uninstalling CCC and the Catalyst Install Manager and re-installing various other versions, and one of two things happens:

1) I get a newer graphics card driver installed, but in Device Manager it shows up as "Radeon HD 5800 series" instead of "Radeon HD5870," and the resolution only goes up to something around 1200 x 1000.

2) Device Manager shows "Radeon HD5870" and I get my normal 1920 x 1080 resolution with driver version 8.863.0.0 (dated 12/17/2009), but CCC keeps giving me that error.

If I remember right, After Effects will open under result #1, but still won't under result #2.

Anyone have a relatively simple set of steps I can take to fix all this? It's driving me nuts.

 

Platecaptain, Your are on the right track. You do not mention updating the VBIOS. one of the 2 listed here http://pcaudio.ath.cx/
is needed for newer drivers.
Version 11.4 or above fixes the following issue (from release notes)
OpenGL acceleration may not always function with Adobe Photoshop CS5

Also I would recommend a clean driver install. Be sure to use the lastest versions of Drive sweeper and CC cleaner programs!


There is a great guide here for Driver install
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...st-11-2-mobility-released-get-yours-here.html
see OP and this section:
How to Setup (thanks to steviejones133)

 

I would even go so far to not even uninstall the old driver
I just download the new one (like 11.5 (or now 11.5a)) through the official tool and install them ontop of the old ones.
That's it, working like a charm since soon a year and every few months a driver update (I made the vBIOS update ofcourse).

pato

 

Thanks for the responses. If I'm reading them right, it sounds like this is the plan:

Flash the VBIOS, then update the graphics card drivers again, preferably to the 11.5a version.

I'll give that a shot when I get home this afternoon. Any other comments/suggestions are welcome, of course.

 

If you still get an error even after installing the latest drivers. Then uninstall and use driver sweeper in safe mode. My rule of thumb is to use driver sweeper only if i get problems with an installation. Make sure to use the latest version 2.9.something.

 

Okay, more frustrations:

I flashed the vBIOS with the instructions laptopfan88 posted, and that seemed to work fine.

I then tried to install the 11.5a hotfix, and got the same blue screen again. After restarting, I installed all of the 11.5a hotfix components except for the display driver, and this time the installation finished without any errors.

However, the CCC still gives the same "Catalyst Control Center: Host application has stopped working" error and won't start.

Any ideas?

 

I understand the frustration, did you try the detailed driver removal/install process I posted a link to earlier today? You need to use Drive sweeper 2.8.5 or above as Tijo stated.

 

Yeah, I just got back home again, and gave that whole process a shot...

And it worked! CCC actually opens now, and my After Effects problem is gone. Thanks for the responses, everyone. It wasn't pretty, but it looks like everything's working again.

 

Run the installer, and do an Express uninstall. Reboot. Then run the 11.5a Hotfix package and do an express install. If you get the errors again, then run the installer, and ONLY INSTALL THE DRIVER using the Custom install option. Reboot. Rerun the installer and install CCC only. Reboot and install the rest of the stuff as needed.