Display driver issues (ATI Radeon x600)

Hi there. I'm having some issues with my ATI Radeon x600 256 MB Hypermemory display drivers on my windows XP SP2 on a dell dimension E510. I installed a driver update from ATI, but the update said something along the lines of "there were no compatible drivers found ". I contacted ATI support, which told me to uninstall the ati stuff in add/remove programs, run the ATI uninstall utility, then I followed the directions:

"Go to registry and remove any ATI entries left under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software

Check for any ATI entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall and look at each GUIDs display name for ATI entries remove the GUID if found.

Check for any ATI entries under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products look at each GUID and the InstallProperties key, look at the Display Name for any ATI entry, if found remove the whole GUID. "

The problem here, though, was that at the last thing, the windows/currentversion, and had an entry labeled ATI Display Driver which, when clicked on, said something along the lines of "There was an error with the key and it could not be deleted (or opened). "

So I rebooted. . . Then tried re-installing. . .
But the same error occurs.
When I try to enable the device and get the drivers to activate (at any point from the beginning) in devices/hardware under my computer, it told me that "the installation of your new device failed" because "access to the device is denied ".

Please help. . .

 

It might be the same "old" problem that comes up using updated ATI drivers. They give error messages and won't install.

If the ATI graphics were supplied by Dell, get the drivers from the Dell website.

When I have had those errors I went back to installing the original drivers supplied with the card and unless I found problems running those drivers I did not update them (I don't update any drivers if there are no problems with them).

Wrong driver selection suggested here:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r18515591-XP-Pro-Issue-with-ATI-Radeon-x300-Graphics-Card-Drivers
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3481532&postid=42375706

Matt

 

First, I'd like to thank you for responding. . .
Though, I've already tried re-installing the drivers from dell, using the package from my computer model and the right card type. But then I get a problem with the dell's installation, saying:

"SEVERE
Setup was unable to complete the installation
Try to set up your display adapter with a standard VGA driver before running setup "

View at

Please help. . .
And again, your efforts are greatly appreciated. . .

 

Try this:
At startup, just before you would see the Windows loading screen, tap the F8 key rapidly. This will take you to the startup menu. Select VGA Mode. When you get to the desktop, try running the installation program then.

If you have the original disks for the computer/graphics, go to Device Manager, highlight or right-click on the Display Adapter and select Uninstall. When you reboot, the New Hardware wizard will run, direct it to search for drivers on the drivers disk that came with the computer.

I have only battled with ATI drivers in Win XP once and the last method was how I got them running (getting the "Try to set up your display adapter with a standard VGA driver before running setup" message).

Matt

 

I gave your first suggestion a try. . . Though, I got the same error message as before. I'd give the second a try, but I'm such an absolutely wonderful admin that I don't have a rescue disk, installation disk, or the drivers from dell. . . I don't even know if I ever got them, because a certain grandfather of mine decided he wanted to set up our computer. . .
And thanks. . . A good suggestion. . . Any way I can get my paws on a new windows install disk?

 

I have searched for an hour or so. The problem is quite common. I could only find answers like "use a driver cleaner" (see the sticky at the start of this forum),or "reinstall Windows ", either way, you would want to have your system completely backed up.

As I said, I had to use the original drivers that came with the card.

If anything happens to your installation of Windows, you will have no means of reinstalling if you don't have a Windows disk. You had trouble editing the registry and that would be a bad sign for me.

Search at the Dell website for terms like Windows installation disk. You should become familiar with searching there because many questions about Dells can only be answered by them. [Navigating at the Dell website use to require that you use Internet Explorer, I think they have made it more friendly for other browsers now].

ATI have a specific program for uninstalling the Catalyst software, maybe you used it originally. You can find it by searching for Uninstaller in the driver downloads at the ATI website.

Matt

 

Thanks for helping me search, Matt. I did use the ATI uninstall tool from the ATI web site to uninstall the software.
(usually I sneak around the IE block with IE tab in firefox)
And yeah. . . It's bad. I probably should get one of those disks. . .
I suppose I'll give the driver cleaner pro thing a shot, but I really don't trust it a lot. . .
And PeteC, that's the page I got the drivers from dell from, thanks though.

So I guess I'm off to the dell site again to go look for a rescue disk, then off to try uninstalling the drivers more. . .

Oh. And an interesting development.
Whenever I try to run the ATI uninstall utility now from install/remove programs, the window freezes. . . Not a good sign.