Since replacing the ATI software for the AIW 9700 pro in my desktop with the latest Display driver (Version 8.552) /Catalyst Control Centre software (Dated October 2008), certain aspects of the video display in Windows Vista are malfunctioning.

Specifically, I get blocking, randon, vertical and diagonal on the task bar, sidebar and certain pop-ups, but the main screen is OK. Also, video files stored on the desktop's disk only run with broken vertical lines and other interference - streamed video off the web is OK.

These problems go away if I uninstal the software and run the Windows native drivers in Vista.

Also, at system start-up, i'm getting bands of vertical dashes down the motherboard splash screen (Asus A8v Deluxe)which appears during POST and the Display settings no longer supports 16 bit colour displays (Vertical dashed lines again).

Looking at the windows system information the following conflicts are recorded:-

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF VIA CPU to AGP Controller

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF RADEON 9700 PRO

IRQ 21 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller

IRQ 21 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller

IRQ 21 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller

IRQ 21 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller

IRQ 21 VIA USB Enhanced Host Controller

Memory Address 0xE8000000-0xFAFFFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller

Memory Address 0xE8000000-0xFAFFFFFF RADEON 9700 PRO

I/O Port 0x0000E000-0x0000EFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller

I/O Port 0x0000E000-0x0000EFFF RADEON 9700 PRO

IRQ 16 RADEON 9700 PRO

IRQ 16 VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF RADEON 9700 PRO

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB VIA CPU to AGP Controller

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB RADEON 9700 PRO

Are these producing the unwanted video effects ?

I've tried changing the IRQs and memory locations for both sets of devices, but even with administartor privileges on my account, the change options are greyed-out.

I've updated the Via Chipset drivers to no effect.

Any ideas ?

Nick

Are you sure the latest cat's are compatible with your card?

Apart from that, if its causing screen corruption at start up id bet your gfx card is on its way out :( - its how my 9700pro died

Havent updated my drivers for ages, but my 9700 & 9800 both did this and it was my PSU that was underpowered, plus I cleaned the card

I was beginning to suspect the hardware, but thought it was possibly a consequential effect from a dying hard disk or power supply.

Thanks for your confirmation.

I also thought that the VDU was on the way out. I haven't, for some time, been getting all the colours at start-up. Giving the VDU an encouraging tap, gets at least two and, later, all three when its warmed-up.

The MB is 6 years old and the 9700 is older. I can't complain. I have streched the life of this system by replacing the original Athlon CPU with one of the early dual cores which fitted the 939 socket, upgrading the HD disk to a SATA 1 and replacing XP 32 with Vista 64. No previous system has had that level of change.

I do think that the quality of these components has diminshed recently - I remember the Samsung monitor I bought in 1990 with my first 386 16 Mhz board, lasted until 2001 ! The current Mitsubishi Diamond scan started playing up after 5 years.

Nick

I think I may have found a work around to whatever hardware problem is causing this.

Turning-off the "Force BIOS" option (default) for the add-on VDU ROM, has cured the random rectangles and dashed lines in Vista. But, I still can't select 16 bit graphics by altering the display settings without getting a series of vertical lines and the icons on the slash screen at start-up still bear vertical lines.

And, the VDU is now operating with all three colours ?

At least Vista works with the latest Radeion Display driver. Just as well, because, if you uninstall the Radeon driver, the performance benchmark for Vista goes down from 4.1 to 1 !

But there's no change inthe list of shared/conflicting devices:-

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF VIA CPU to AGP Controller

I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF RADEON 9700 PRO

IRQ 21 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller

IRQ 21 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller

IRQ 21 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller

IRQ 21 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller

IRQ 21 VIA USB Enhanced Host Controller

Memory Address 0xE8000000-0xFAFFFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller

Memory Address 0xE8000000-0xFAFFFFFF RADEON 9700 PRO

I/O Port 0x0000E000-0x0000EFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller

I/O Port 0x0000E000-0x0000EFFF RADEON 9700 PRO

IRQ 16 RADEON 9700 PRO

IRQ 16 VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF VIA CPU to AGP Controller

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF RADEON 9700 PRO

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB VIA CPU to AGP Controller

I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB RADEON 9700 PRO

Nick

Worth giving the board a good cleaning over with electrical circuit cleaner.

It's not unheard of to get a bit of conductive dust.

I'd check the PSU too as I've seen a connector on a Radeon physically melt due to a dying PSUI.

HDD spins up when the card has gone into gaming 3d mode and the whole system hung and reboots.

The PSU wasn't giving enough juice to spin the HDD and deliver the full juice to the GFX card.

The latest drivers definately don't support a 9700PRO. When I get home tomorrow I will see if I can post the details of the last drivers to support it - had to do the same with my old 9800PRO...