HP ProBook 4740s ATI CCC keep crashing

Hello everybody,
a month ago I bought HP ProBook 4740s. Everything was OK until now. I haven't been playing (or using any 3D apps) for two weeks. Yesterday I wanted to play a game which runs on OpenGL and I wanted to configure its profile in Catalyst. I double-clicked the icon and it immediately crashed. Since that time it has been crashing even when computer was idle, just few moments after I turned it on. Since Catalyst doesn't work I am not able to use 3D apps reasonably.

Windows 8 64bit.
Radeon HD 7650M and Intel 4000HD switchable graphics.

I am getting "Catalyst Control Center: Host application stopped working" message.

The info is in Czech, but I don't think there's any translation needed.

So I uninstalled all the ATI stuff using the Catalyst Installation Manager, rebooted in Emergency mode, deleted the driver in Device Manager, ran Driver Sweeper and CCleaner to make sure there is nothing left.
Rebooted in normal mode, installed the drivers, everythig was OK. The CCC was running for about two hours and then it started crashing again. I did this reinstall twice. Same thing happened.
I tried deleting the ATI folder in root:/ProgramData, helped till I rebooted.

I updated the BIOS, nothing changed.

I've been searching the Internet a lot, read that CCC is somehow connected to .NET Framework. CCleaner showed some registry files corrupted - missing shared DLLs of .NET 1.0 and 1.1. I wanted to fix them but the installation files do not support 64bit systems. So do these .NET files affect CCC anyhow?

By the way the AMD support sucks, the only thing which offers me under HD 6xxx/7xxxM is this Mobility Radeon Driver
When I run it I get a message which says that this PC has not compatible hardware. So I went to the official HP support and downloaded a package with graphic drivers here. Installed them the way written above.


I spent whole weekend searching the Internet and trying to fix this. I feel pretty desperate about it.
I would be really grateful for any advice. I can provide you any log or info if necessary.

Big thanks for any response,
Jenda

BTW sorry for my English, I am not a native speaker.

 

I had the same problem, and this worked for me.

Rename the folder C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\ATI and then launch CCC.

 

Hi OP, here is a generic driver installation framework for generic drivers from AMD's site. It is aimed at removing manufacturer custom-driver locks that they put up on laptop graphics drivers. For the matter, HP's driver locks are mostly not permanent and can be easily worked around.

HOWEVER, you may not do a simple uninstall of the manufacturer custom driver and install a reference Catalyst 13.1 WHQL. THere is an essential driver portion of HP provided CCC that is not meant to be removed.

The link I've provided is the official AMD WHQL notebook driver for Jan 2013. 64 bit version. If your computer is 32 bit (which I highly doubt), change the "64" after the "win8_" part to "32" to download that.

Lifted the post over for referential purposes. Have you ensured that you installed the drivers the appropriate way>

Post updated 24 Jan 2013 (For referential purposes)




For part 1 please change the DM4-3000/DV6/DV7 HP provided AMD Radeon HD driver with the one you find on your own product's support page. The rest of the information is still relevant.
What you need (This applies to DM4-3XXX with discrete AMD GPUs, DV6-6xxx with AMD Discretes and DV7s with AMD discretes, Intel based processor:

1. (HP Factory Driver)
   For Windows 7:replace link with your own laptop's HP custom driver.
   For windows 8: replace link with your own laptop's HP custom driver.
2. (AMD Reference Driver) Catalyst 13.1 WHQL(January 2013)
   http://www2.ati.com/DriverS/mobile/13-1_mobility_vista_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe
3. Download .Net Framework 4. .Net framework is a required software to run Catalyst Control Center. In Catalyst 12.11 Enduro, AMD upped the requirements for .Net framework to version 4 instead of the previous version 3.5. Get the latest update for .Net framework via Windows update.
4. If you have softwares/files that require backing up, back them up.

Part 1: To install HP Custom drivers by HP (SP5xxxx):

1. Firstly run the Catalyst Uninstall Utility to clean up any residual AMD drivers, corrupted or not (Note: this removes all AMD installed softwares). http://www2.ati.com/drivers/amd_cleanup_util_1.2.1.0.exe
2. If you have installed an Intel HD driver from Intel's website, uninstall it (reason below)
3. Restart
4. Run your HP softpaq installer, install everything in the package, restart.

Part 2: To install Reference drivers by AMD (Better stability and performance):

1. Go to your Control Panel->Uninstall a program
2. Uninstall AMD Catalyst Install Manager
3. While at the uninstall menu, select the first uninstall option that lets you select what to uninstall.
4. Check to uninstall all features EXCEPT AMD Display Driver (Leave the Integrated graphic Intel HD drivers alone) I repeat do not touch it or things will screw up. Restart the laptop.
5. Run the Catalyst software installer, select Install -> Custom -> Make sure you have a checkbox with a black frame around the component, "AMD Display Driver". If this is not present, hit cancel and repeat this step and make sure "AMD Display Driver" shows up. This is to ensure the installation file has detected your graphics hardware. If it does not show AMD display driver, the installer is not detecting your GPU.
6. If step 3 succeeds, make sure all components are selected and hit next to finish the installation.
7. (Only if it fails) Uninstall Catalyst and begin from step 1 again. This may take more than 1 attempt.

Part 3: Removing Internet Explorer's Conflicting Stuffs (Startup BSOD prevention)

1. Locate KB2670838 from your Windows Update under installed updates (answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_update/kb2670838-installation-and-igdpmd64sys-blue-screen/e8f13e0f-7ea0-4d10-b1b5-71c084110473), Uninstall that update
2. Check for update again, that update should appear and right click to hide it
3. IE11/10 will now become IE9
4. run this microsoft fixit script to disable the bugged hardware acceleration go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9783239
5. If this doesn't help and you BSOD, go to uninstall a program, Turn Windows features on/off, disable IE.

Now why you can't touch the Intel HD or update it via Intel's website

It uses a driver modified by HP or AMD for hybrid/switchable graphics support that enables the laptop to run a secondary dedicated graphic card. Installing a Intel HD driver from Intel's website would also mess up how switchable graphics and hyrbid graphics work because Intel HD drivers on Intel's side are only meant for PCs with standalone Intel HD graphics. It has NO switchable support. The only proprietary drivers that will work are supplied by HP's driver support site.

Important Note
I strongly discourage people from using beta drivers. For the follwing reasons:

1. Beta drivers have more potential stability issues. If this is your primary computing machine, are you willing to sacrifice stability at the cost of getting crashes and such?
2. They're not digitally signed and you'll need to do certain things to circumvent this feature called "Driver Signature Enforcement" which makes it mandatory for drivers to have digital signatures. On Win 7 64Bit and upwards to windows 8, this feature is effectively permenant unless you *work it around*

Also, NEVER disable a laptop's Intel HD in any circumstance... Your your display signals are routed through the Intel HD even if you're running the dedicated GPU as the renderer. Disabling an Intel HD causes a black screen that can only be fixed if you re-enabled it via Safe Mode booting.

Other notes: My own issues, Switchable Graphics mode is unable to toggle to Intel HD from the Radeon HD, it causes a BSOD each time I attempt to do that with SP59850 on Windows 8. Its a DM4 though, I haven't heard of issues on DV6/7 just yet. The only way to go back to the Intel HD for me was to use hybrid graphics.

Anyway Windows 8 was already unstable for me since the clean upgrade. For that I've reverted back to Windows 7, no complaints.

ALWAYS back up all important files if there are any.


PLEASE BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANYTHING LIKE THIS THOUGH IT HAS WORKED FOR MANY OTHERS. Errors and OS crashes *can* possibly occur from driver installations.

I hope something works out for you.

 

Alternatively,

2. try to uninstall CCC's "AMD APP SDK" (Common cause of CCC related crashes for many ppl)
3. Update Microsoft .net framework via Windows update, search for optional .Net Framework 4.0 Updates