Lately i found myself with a broken catalyst installation (no driver update possible). Systems where the error could occur: Vista 32bit (will also affect 64bit) Catalyst 8.x + some bad Microsoft Update It must have been the installation of Visual Studio 2008 SP1 with latest NET Framework 3.5 which left my catalyst installation broken. My guess is one of the redistributable packages updated a system DLL which is not compatible with catalyst setup engine and crashes it at some point. I first encountered the problem when i wanted to update the driver and ccc to the latest version and the unistall setup always crashed before reaching the uninstall options window. It will not be enough to clean all driver, CCC and ATI files in safe mode. Because also the install setup of the new driver will still crash right before the option where you can choose what you want to install. So just dont try it. And god beware dont delete the ATI files inside the windows SXS folder or will never be abale to install some catalyst again with your actual vista installation! And there lies the problem one side by side dll in the WINDWOS/WINSXS folder got updated by some Microsoft update package and is used by catalyst setup routine but not compatible anymore. You will have to manually downgrade it to the second latest version found in the same SXS folder and all will work again. For me it was the mfc80u.dll (u can find the information which file it is for u when u take a look inside the event viewer after catalyst setup crashed, there will be a new error entry under windows logs with the dll name) search for it in the winsxs folder. There will be one folder for each version of the file (x86_microsoft.vc80.mfc_xxxxxxxxxx_version.HERE_xxxx) .. catalyst will use the latest version so just copy the second latest version in the latest version folder and u are set again Of course u will need to take ownership of the folders first and give u the right to write. (by default only trusted installers can write there ... thx MS) Hope this will help someone. At ATI forums the only help i found was 1) brute force run setup with command line switches or 2) reinstall windows (wow what a big help) If you think ATI or MS will help you u will find yourself alone quite fast. Good luck berni2k
Thank You for your post Thank Yyou for your post I really don't know how to fix that problem. Your help was really good and everthing works just fine. Really Thanks. Mike FF
thx for your reply good to know it helped someone was it also the mfc80u.dll and do you remember what program u last installed or what you last did that updated/changed the dll? after this fix i already updated the display driver twice without problems .. heh
I tried to uninstall Catalyst 8.12 today and when I ran the uninstaller it said "Error Initializing" and I couldn't do anything. I tried installing over it, but nothing seemed to work, until I got so pissed off with the damn thing that I ran the (heavy-duty) ATI Uninstaller from ATI, followed by an onslaught of DC Pro, Driver Sweeper, CCleaner and manual cleaning. I then managed to remove all the crap, after which I installed Cat 9.1, then uninstalled that normally and again ran the above procedure, and only after that was my PC ready for a "fresh" install. What a pain in the you-know-what.
A bit late (well, about 2 months late...), moved to the ATI Driver section where it might help more people.
unbelievable ... there is an offical fix now http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=107672&enterthread=y http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961894 anyone who still had the problem can confirm the offical patch fixed it? UDATE: at least we know now that catalyst 8.x was developed with VS2005 *g*
I've been getting the same problem except my entire PC keeps crashing during the installation of the catalyst control center.Any help would be appreciated :/
