Driver Failure, All CCC Reinstalls Leave Me Limited to 1024x768

dude_56013

Well, my other forum I frequent (~2000 posts; not a noob; run my own legit computer business) has been no help with this.

I recently rebuilt my PC (same parts; new PSU...all I did was disassemble to spray paint the inside of my case...then threw it all back together). I've never had any driver problems until now.

When I got it back together and fired it up, I tried booting into my main-use OS partition Vista (triple boot machine with XP and W7 also) and it showed the Windows loading screen and then as soon as the Vista logo SHOULD have popped up BAM. Cut to black screen and screen went to stand-by and immediately knew it was a driver problem..but I had no clue WHY! (and, I did test with another PSU to see if for some reason that was the problem, but nope). Anyways, I could boot into XP (with an older version of CCC since I don't use it often) just fine, and also W7 (with now CCC installed as of yet). So I knew it was a driver thing. Well, I had no choice but to go into Vista in safe mode, use driver sweeper and kill all the ATI drivers. That let me back into Vista, but with a slew of problems.

I ended up getting uninstall errors (I suppose because I deleted drivers and not the whole program since I couldn't in safe mode), but eventually manually got everything deleted, as far as I could tell. However, upon reinstalling CCC, it kept throwing errors and finally I went registry digging and found that I had some mis-pointed drive assignments (fixed those; I was thinking at this point that when I reconnected everything, I plugged my SATA cables in differently than they were, but I still don't know why that would affect just the Vista partition). Anyways, once I fixed those, I was able to install CCC without any errors.

However, it's now limiting me to 1024x768. I've tried the new 9.7 and I also tried the 9.5. Same thing. I have no idea what the heck is wrong. Reinstalling this partition is not an option. I'll run it with no ATI CCC/Drivers at all if I have to, because at least I can get 1280x1024 out of that.

Please shed some light on this. Sorry for the book, but I figured I'd be specific. I'm not computer illeterate at all, so fire away with suggestions. Thanks a bunch. Don't make me regret buying an ATI card. I've never believed the "there drivers are crap compared to nvidia" rumor until yesterday after working on this problem for SIX HOURS.

Thanks again,

Zac

Lavans · **Memory**: 4GB DDR3 1500Hz 6-6-6-16

If you never had an issue until after physically disassembling your entire computer, then I'm inclined to believe that the cause was user error instead of "bad drivers". With that said, it's impossible for us to be able to determine what the issue is because we don't know how you went about disassembling and reassembling the computer. It's possible you missed a power plug somewhere or somehow damaged a component while handling them. If not, then consider removing your three ( lol ) Windows installations and reinstall just one copy.

PimpBot · 07-30-2009, 18:06 | posts: 2 | Location: Tarzana, CA, USA | User is Offline

I hate when a rebuild comes together and theres one nagging problem like that. I'm just gonna try to rattle off ideas and hope something sticks. Without getting my hands inside the computer tho, I am flying blind, so I apologize in advance if some suggestions are newbish.

You disassembled the case, so maybe its a problem with the video card itself? Did you remove and reseat the card? Perhaps the card was damaged when you placed it outside the case. It does seem unlikely since XP boots up fine with no problems.

Have you tried to uninstall CCC using Driver Sweeper or possibly the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility? Driver Sweeper removes remnants of the ATI drivers after you do a normal uninstall. The cleanup utility is for when you have uninstalled a program but it remains on the Add/Remove Programs list. The cleanup utility removes the entries in the list so you can reinstall CCC and hopefully overwrite any corrupt files, or conversely, you would be able to properly uninstall after a reinstall.

I'm assuming that Vista has restore points (I run XP and W7), have you tried a restore point from before the problems?

I'll try to think up any other possible problems... after all, if it can go wrong... then I've probably done it! I do hope you can get your rig running properly again. Good luck.

dude_56013 · 07-30-2009, 22:27 | posts: 9 | Location: MN | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lavans

If you never had an issue until after physically disassembling your entire computer, then I'm inclined to believe that the cause was user error instead of "bad drivers". With that said, it's impossible for us to be able to determine what the issue is because we don't know how you went about disassembling and reassembling the computer. It's possible you missed a power plug somewhere or somehow damaged a component while handling them. If not, then consider removing your three ( lol ) Windows installations and reinstall just one copy.

I highly doubt that anything was reinstalled/rebuilt improperly or is broken or faulty. I run my own computer business and have built over 30 or 40. I've NEVER had this problem, which is why I'm turning to a forum.

I've already tried a separate power supply because that was the only component that was changed. Like I said, all I did was paint the case. Everything else is exactly the same except for the PSU. The card is OBVIOUSLY not faulty if it boots into Windows XP and W7 just fine. It's obviously a driver issue since as soon as I deleted them, it booted into Vista just fine.

Also, like I have mentioned already, reinstalling in not an option at this point.

I feel that the problem is that there is still some things being left after uninstalling and using driver sweeper. There used to be a full ATI uninstall utility but I couldn't find it anywhere.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PimpBot

I hate when a rebuild comes together and theres one nagging problem like that. I'm just gonna try to rattle off ideas and hope something sticks. Without getting my hands inside the computer tho, I am flying blind, so I apologize in advance if some suggestions are newbish

You disassembled the case, so maybe its a problem with the video card itself? Did you remove and reseat the card? Perhaps the card was damaged when you placed it outside the case. It does seem unlikely since XP boots up fine with no problems.

Yup. It's definitely not the video card if it's working perfect in my other 2 OSs on the same HDD.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PimpBot

Have you tried to uninstall CCC using Driver Sweeper or possibly the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility? Driver Sweeper removes remnants of the ATI drivers after you do a normal uninstall. The cleanup utility is for when you have uninstalled a program but it remains on the Add/Remove Programs list. The cleanup utility removes the entries in the list so you can reinstall CCC and hopefully overwrite any corrupt files, or conversely, you would be able to properly uninstall after a reinstall.

I've used Driver Sweeper for everything. It's all that would allow me to even uninstall and then reinstall in the first place. I'll try the windows utility but I doubt it will help...but worth a shot.

[quote=PimpBot;3223830]I'm assuming that Vista has restore points (I run XP and W7), have you tried a restore point from before the problems?

I never have that crap turned on. Takes up space I might as well be using.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PimpBot

I'll try to think up any other possible problems... after all, if it can go wrong... then I've probably done it! I do hope you can get your rig running properly again. Good luck.

Thanks mate.

Cheers.

Lavans · **Memory**: 4GB DDR3 1500Hz 6-6-6-16

Quote:

Originally Posted by dude_56013

I highly doubt that anything was reinstalled/rebuilt improperly or is broken or faulty. I run my own computer business and have built over 30 or 40. I've NEVER had this problem, which is why I'm turning to a forum.

You must be making it pretty big if you own your own computer business at the age of 18. Also, I find it fairly odd that your computer started magically falling apart on it's own for no apparent reason and no warning, despite the only thing that's been done to it is with your own prying hands while gutting the machine

dude_56013 · 07-30-2009, 22:58 | posts: 9 | Location: MN | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lavans

You must be making it pretty big if you own your own computer business at the age of 18. Also, I find it fairly odd that your computer started magically falling apart on it's own for no apparent reason and no warning, despite the only thing that's been done to it is with your own prying hands while gutting the machine

What's with the attitude dude? Jeez.

I DO have my own computer business thank you very much. It's a small town (~3,000 people)...it's not like I'm freakin' Best Buy (bahahaha...pathetic). If you don't have any advice to help remedy my problem, then you don't need to post...I can find sarcasm and attitude in the real world...I don't need any of it on the internet where I'm trying to get a legitimate problem fixed.

Lavans · **Memory**: 4GB DDR3 1500Hz 6-6-6-16

Quote:

Originally Posted by dude_56013

What's with the attitude dude? Jeez.

I DO have my own computer business thank you very much. It's a small town (~3,000 people)...it's not like I'm freakin' Best Buy (bahahaha...pathetic). If you don't have any advice to help remedy my problem, then you don't need to post...I can find sarcasm and attitude in the real world...I don't need any of it on the internet where I'm trying to get a legitimate problem fixed.

I am giving you advice - look for a power socket that you may have missed or get some replacement parts, because the probability of you having damaged your parts or forgot to plug something in is quite high in comparison to your issue being software related. Sorry if it's not an answer you like, but it's the answer I'm giving you because the only thing that happened between your system working, then not working, was you taking your entire machine apart.

dude_56013 · 07-30-2009, 23:07 | posts: 9 | Location: MN | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lavans

I am giving you advice - look for a power socket that you may have missed or get some replacement parts, because the probability of you having damaged your parts or forgot to plug something in is quite high in comparison to your issue being software related. Sorry if it's not an answer you like, but it's the answer I'm giving you because the only thing that happened between your system working, then not working, was you taking your entire machine apart.

I have checked and rechecked my machine. If the problem is hardware related, why would I be able to boot into XP (with CCC/Drivers installed) and W7 with no problems, but not Vista? ...and then magically when I delete the drivers in Vista, it boots fine? Surely sounds like a software problem to me. Like I said, the only thing different was the power supply and possibly a switch of SATA cables which probably caused the misassigned drives in the registry (I don't know why...) which was part of the problem (since when I fixed some that were pointed at the wrong drive, I was able to at least install CCC).

Lavans · **Memory**: 4GB DDR3 1500Hz 6-6-6-16

Quote:

Originally Posted by dude_56013

I have checked and rechecked my machine. If the problem is hardware related, why would I be able to boot into XP (with CCC/Drivers installed) and W7 with no problems, but not Vista? ...and then magically when I delete the drivers in Vista, it boots fine? Surely sounds like a software problem to me. Like I said, the only thing different was the power supply and possibly a switch of SATA cables which probably caused the misassigned drives in the registry (I don't know why...) which was part of the problem (since when I fixed some that were pointed at the wrong drive, I was able to at least install CCC).

Ok, let me ask you this then. If you sincerely believe it's software related, then why haven't you taken the time to nuke your current hard drive or put in a test hard drive with a fresh install of Windows when uninstalling your drivers obviously didn't help?

dude_56013 · 07-30-2009, 23:13 | posts: 9 | Location: MN | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lavans

Ok, let me say this then. If you sincerely believe it's software related, then why haven't you taken the time to nuke your current hard drive or put in a test hard drive with a fresh install of Windows when uninstalling your drivers obviously didn't help?

Because it boots up fine on XP and W7. I don't see why a different hard drive with a fresh install of Windows is going to help fix or diagnose anything as far as that's concerned since CCC clearly works on XP that's on the same HDD. But, just for you, I'll go install CCC on W7, even though I'm fairly sure it'll work just fine.

Lavans · **Memory**: 4GB DDR3 1500Hz 6-6-6-16

Quote:

Originally Posted by dude_56013

Because it boots up fine on XP and W7. I don't see why a different hard drive with a fresh install of Windows is going to help fix or diagnose anything as far as that's concerned since CCC clearly works on XP that's on the same HDD. But, just for you, I'll go install CCC on W7, even though I'm fairly sure it'll work just fine.

If it works "just fine" on XP and W7 and not on Vista, then doesn't that indicate that maybe you should take the hour to reinstall Windows? If you believe that it's a software issue, then why potentially waste another 6+ hours on the problem on top of finding a magical light shedding forum post when you can most probably resolve the issue by slapping in the Vista disk?

dude_56013 · 07-30-2009, 23:24 | posts: 9 | Location: MN | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lavans

If it works "just fine" on XP and W7 and not on Vista, then doesn't that indicate that maybe you should take the hour to reinstall Windows? If you believe that it's a software issue, then why potentially waste another 6+ hours on the problem on top of finding a magical light shedding forum post when you can most probably resolve the issue by slapping in the Vista disk?

Because while it may take just 1 hour to reinstall Vista, it'll take me 12 hours straight (I'm not exaggerating) to reinstall all of my other programs. That's why. If it was an install with virtually nothing on it, I wouldn't be here looking for help...it would already be reinstalled by now.

BTW, CCC working fine in W7.

Lavans · **Memory**: 4GB DDR3 1500Hz 6-6-6-16

Quote:

Originally Posted by dude_56013

Because while it may take just 1 hour to reinstall Vista, it'll take me 12 hours straight (I'm not exaggerating) to reinstall all of my other programs. That's why. If it was an install with virtually nothing on it, I wouldn't be here looking for help...it would already be reinstalled by now.

While I find it rubbish that you have 12 hours worth of installs on your computer, no one can help you with organizing your programs/files. I was thinking that a computer pro wouldn't have any issues with reinstalling their OS, but I guess I was wrong. I apologize for my incompetence

dude_56013 · 07-30-2009, 23:42 | posts: 9 | Location: MN | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lavans

While I find it rubbish that you have 12 hours worth of installs on your computer, no one can help you with organizing your programs/files. I was thinking that a computer pro wouldn't have any issues with reinstalling their OS, but I guess I was wrong

Wow. The attitude is such an appealing first impression of this forum.

Let's see,
*CS4 Suite - ~1.5 hours
*Office '07 Suite - ~30 minutes plus some more to get all the defaults back in order
*Open Office - ~20-30 minutes
*Cakewalk, Sony Acid Pro, and about 5 other home recording utilities/softwares - ~2 hours
*Nero 9, Alcohol 120%, MagicISO, PowerISO, WinRAR, and a few other image/burning softwares - ~1 - 1.5 hours
*Printer software - ~20 min
*AV/Adware Utils - ~30 min
*TaxCut and Quicken - ~45 min
*iTunes and importing - ~15 min

That's almost 8 hours right there. Then I've got about 10 games I play to reinstall as well..we'll just call that 4 hours or more. Plus all the restarts in between. Then Windows updates. So, yes, it would take a while. My Vista partition is about 125GB.

Lavans · **Memory**: 4GB DDR3 1500Hz 6-6-6-16

Quote:

Originally Posted by dude_56013

Wow. The attitude is such an appealing first impression of this forum.

I'm sorry, it really sets me off when someone makes a thread, all but demands respect, recites their issue, shoots down nearly all logical solutions to their issue, thus putting themselves in a position where their issue will never be resolved and then blames the manufacturer of their part for their problems.

kitch9

I'm convinced Driver Sweeper deletes files that the OS needs and permanently borks it. I've had to reinstall my OS twice when I used it for ATI drivers, and since I stopped using it and just started to let the ATI install manager do its job I haven't had one issue in months and months. I do not even unistall first anymore as it is all done in one click thanks to ATI's manager.

The crazy thing is you are not protecting yourself from ANYTHING using driver sweeper. The files will still be there on your HDD, just flagged as ok to overwrite to the OS so shown as free space. There is just as much chance as a mutant driver being created that costs you 0.4 FPS in Doom3 as some of the more paranoid guys here will have you believe.

dude_56013 · 07-30-2009, 23:50 | posts: 9 | Location: MN | User is Offline

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lavans

I'm sorry, it really sets me off when someone makes a thread, all but demands respect, recites their issue, and shoots down nearly all logical solutions to their issue, thus putting themselves in a position where their issue will never be resolved.

It seems to me that what I've been doing is ruling out possibilities of what could be causing the problem, but if you see it that way, then so be it.

BTW, if your "logical" solution to every problem is to throw the OS install disk in, then that's not very "logical". Just because you don't know the answer to my problem doesn't mean everyone else doesn't, as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kitch9

I'm convinced Driver Sweeper deletes files that the OS needs and permanently borks it. I've had to reinstall my OS twice when I used it for ATI drivers, and since I stopped using it and just started to let the ATI install manager do its job I haven't had one issue in months and months. I do not even unistall first anymore as it is all done in one click thanks to ATI's manager.

The crazy thing is you are not protecting yourself from ANYTHING using driver sweeper. The files will still be there on your HDD, just flagged as ok to overwrite to the OS so shown as free space. There is just as much chance as a mutant driver being created that costs you 0.4 FPS in Doom3 as some of the more paranoid guys here will have you believe.

I know, but I was kind of forced to use Driver Sweeper since you cannot uninstall in safe mode. I'm not sure. I'm running out of ideas. I have a feeling it's something to do with the registry, but I have virtually no education with that, so...that's about the extent of that.

chanw4 · 07-30-2009, 23:57 | posts: 661 | Location: Hong Kong | User is Offline

First of all, able to boot into Windows does not mean the hardware is fine. It just mean its not damaged to the point of unusable.

Second, people who build computer day and night will still make mistake. Saying you done that for 30 odd computer and nothing ever happened and using that as a reason for it CAN'T be cause by mishandling the hardware while dissembling and reassembling is really stupid.

If the only things happened in between a working computer and a non-working computer is the dissembling of the computer, then it is highly likely that you made a mistake in between. Not saying it must be but just a suggestion saying it is likely the case.

And most important, why do you think it must be a 'DRIVER FAILURE'?

Lavans · **Memory**: 4GB DDR3 1500Hz 6-6-6-16

Well, dude_56013, while I sympathize with you, I highly doubt you're going to get this issue resolved without using a Vista CD ( this is of course assuming that it's software related ). If you do, by some chance, get the issue resolved, you would have spent more time figuring out the problem and fixing it than you would have with reinstalling Vista...heck, you're at least already half way there with 6 hours spent on it. Next time, just install your programs on a different partition. Most of the time when you run a program on a different partition with a fresh OS install, it'll just reinstall the necessary values into the registry. There's only a few programs that ask you to punch in a serial key, and even less that asks you to do a full reinstall of the program.

dude_56013 · *Last edited by dude_56013; 07-31-2009 at 01:07.*

Quote:

Originally Posted by chanw4

And most important, why do you think it must be a 'DRIVER FAILURE'?

Because it's simply what I thought it was at first, since when I deleted them, it booted right into Vista. I know am assuming it's a Windows conflict since when I changed some registry entries to point to the right paths (off of a thread on ATIs forums..where I've gotten no replies to my own), I was able to install CCC. Obviously something happened between Windows and CCC when the rebuild happened...like I said, the SATA cables probably got switched..that's the only thing I can think of that would have made the registry go wacko with the certain entries pointing to the wrong drive. So I'm stuck. And still dilly dallying with answers. I'd rather do this and find a potential solution than jump right to reinstalling...at least I could learn something this way. It's rather boring spending a day reinstalling stuff...I'd rather fix something then start over.

I think I have a registry backup from the last time I ran CCleaner. I'm going to try and import that and see what happens.

EDIT:

PROBLEM IS SOLVED. I'm not sure what it was, but after a few more bouts of uninstalling and looking through the registry and messing with reloading the repository in the system files (IDK which of these solved it), it's now fixed and working.