SmartGart

Hi,

I believe it is better to disabe Fast Writes for optimal performance
with ATI cards. The thing is, I can find and disable Write Combining
in Display Properties.

But there is no option in my BIOS to disable Fast Writes!
Then I heard that it could also be done throught the SmartGart thing.
Well, I went into C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel
and tried to open the shortcut lying over there.
And SmartGart doesn't open! The busy cursor just comes for about a
second and then goes away. Nothing happens at all!

Am I doing something wrong? How do I access SmartGart?

The reason why I want to disable FW is I have been having some
stability problems of late.


***
....the Phoenix shall rise...

You may need to install or reinstall the control panel application again.
If you downloaded the driver, the control panel and driven may be separate
downloads.


"Phoenix AG" wrote in message
s.com...
Hi,

I believe it is better to disabe Fast Writes for optimal performance
with ATI cards. The thing is, I can find and disable Write Combining
in Display Properties.

But there is no option in my BIOS to disable Fast Writes!
Then I heard that it could also be done throught the SmartGart thing.
Well, I went into C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel
and tried to open the shortcut lying over there.
And SmartGart doesn't open! The busy cursor just comes for about a
second and then goes away. Nothing happens at all!

Am I doing something wrong? How do I access SmartGart?

The reason why I want to disable FW is I have been having some
stability problems of late.


***
...the Phoenix shall rise...

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 05:38:45 GMT, "Jim" wrote:

You may need to install or reinstall the control panel application again.
If you downloaded the driver, the control panel and driven may be separate
downloads.


I have downloaded the 25MB Cat 3.9 Drivers, which include the CP.
I had them installed earlier, and it didn't work then :-(
Then I uninstalled them and installed 3.7 Driver and CP. It didn't
work then :-(
Then I uninstalled 3.7 Driver and CP (cos it wasnt working for me) and
installed Cat 3.9 Drivers and CP and Multimedia. It's still not
working :-(

Btw, I have an XP system with SP1.

Any way to access it?


***
....the Phoenix shall rise...

"Phoenix AG" wrote in message
s.com...
On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 05:38:45 GMT, "Jim" wrote:

You may need to install or reinstall the control panel application again.
If you downloaded the driver, the control panel and driven may be
separate
downloads.


I have downloaded the 25MB Cat 3.9 Drivers, which include the CP.
I had them installed earlier, and it didn't work then :-(
Then I uninstalled them and installed 3.7 Driver and CP. It didn't
work then :-(
Then I uninstalled 3.7 Driver and CP (cos it wasnt working for me) and
installed Cat 3.9 Drivers and CP and Multimedia. It's still not
working :-(

Btw, I have an XP system with SP1.

Any way to access it?


***
...the Phoenix shall rise...

Had the same problem, Had it in 3,8 but no SmartGart tab in 3.9.
Uninstalled 3.9 and CP then ran driver cleaner to insure that ther were no
remnants in the registry, then reloaded 3.9 and this time I have the
SmartGart tab.
My theory is that something in the registry was telling the install routine
that smartgart was already installed and not to install again, ( maybe!)
Give it a try and keep us posted.
--
Regards, Rene Lamontagne

-
Rene Lamontagne stood up at show-n-tell, in
D0Iyb.540739$9l5.115663@pd7tw2no, and said:

"Phoenix AG" wrote in message
s.com...
On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 05:38:45 GMT, "Jim"
wrote:

You may need to install or reinstall the control panel application
again. If you downloaded the driver, the control panel and driven
may be separate downloads.


I have downloaded the 25MB Cat 3.9 Drivers, which include the CP.
I had them installed earlier, and it didn't work then :-(
Then I uninstalled them and installed 3.7 Driver and CP. It didn't
work then :-(
Then I uninstalled 3.7 Driver and CP (cos it wasnt working for me)
and installed Cat 3.9 Drivers and CP and Multimedia. It's still not
working :-(

Btw, I have an XP system with SP1.

Any way to access it?


***
...the Phoenix shall rise...

Had the same problem, Had it in 3,8 but no SmartGart tab in 3.9.
Uninstalled 3.9 and CP then ran driver cleaner to insure that ther
were no remnants in the registry, then reloaded 3.9 and this time I
have the SmartGart tab.
My theory is that something in the registry was telling the install
routine that smartgart was already installed and not to install
again, ( maybe!) Give it a try and keep us posted.

My experience with the SmartGart tab was similar. Sometimes, Driver Cleaner
wouldn't even help! Seems like hit, or miss.


--
Strontium

"It's no surprise, to me. I am my own worst enemy. `Cause every
now, and then, I kick the livin' **** `outta me." - Lit

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 14:13:55 GMT, "Rene Lamontagne"
wrote:

Had the same problem, Had it in 3,8 but no SmartGart tab in 3.9.
Uninstalled 3.9 and CP then ran driver cleaner to insure that ther were no
remnants in the registry, then reloaded 3.9 and this time I have the
SmartGart tab.
My theory is that something in the registry was telling the install routine
that smartgart was already installed and not to install again, ( maybe!)
Give it a try and keep us posted.

Thanks for the reply. The way I understand it from your post,
SmartGart is supposed to have its own separate TAB in the display
properties??!?!?

See, its like this. I had an nVidia mx 400 card before this. I
uninstalled the nVidia drivers, removed its traces manually as best as
I could, then I installed ATI Cat 3.9. I didn't have the SmartGart tab
anywhere in the properties (didn't even know it was supposed to be
there).

After I got some problems, I uninstalled 3.9 and loaded 3.7 with CP.
Didn't get the SG tab then too...3.7 were problematic for me and gave
me lower scores as well...
So I immediately uninstalled them, and reloaded the 3.9 drivers,
complete with CP and Multimedia drivers. I have the 25mb download.

I have never seen the SmartGart tab and have only heard about it being
accessed through the C:\Program Files folder.

I am a first time ATI user and the first time I installed the 3.9
drivers, even then the tab wasn't there.

What do you suggest? This is all very strange.


***
....the Phoenix shall rise...

There are utilities to uninstall all of the files for both of your cards,
this is an important step. First run the one for the old card then the
one for the new card, install the latest AGP driver for the motherboard
then try to install cat 3.9 again.

You can find the uninstall utilities at Rage3D and ATI.




"Phoenix AG" wrote in message
s.com...
On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 14:13:55 GMT, "Rene Lamontagne"
wrote:

Had the same problem, Had it in 3,8 but no SmartGart tab in 3.9.
Uninstalled 3.9 and CP then ran driver cleaner to insure that ther were
no
remnants in the registry, then reloaded 3.9 and this time I have the
SmartGart tab.
My theory is that something in the registry was telling the install
routine
that smartgart was already installed and not to install again, ( maybe!)
Give it a try and keep us posted.

Thanks for the reply. The way I understand it from your post,
SmartGart is supposed to have its own separate TAB in the display
properties??!?!?

See, its like this. I had an nVidia mx 400 card before this. I
uninstalled the nVidia drivers, removed its traces manually as best as
I could, then I installed ATI Cat 3.9. I didn't have the SmartGart tab
anywhere in the properties (didn't even know it was supposed to be
there).

After I got some problems, I uninstalled 3.9 and loaded 3.7 with CP.
Didn't get the SG tab then too...3.7 were problematic for me and gave
me lower scores as well...
So I immediately uninstalled them, and reloaded the 3.9 drivers,
complete with CP and Multimedia drivers. I have the 25mb download.

I have never seen the SmartGart tab and have only heard about it being
accessed through the C:\Program Files folder.

I am a first time ATI user and the first time I installed the 3.9
drivers, even then the tab wasn't there.

What do you suggest? This is all very strange.


***
...the Phoenix shall rise...

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 17:31:43 GMT, "Jim" wrote:

There are utilities to uninstall all of the files for both of your cards,
this is an important step. First run the one for the old card then the
one for the new card, install the latest AGP driver for the motherboard
then try to install cat 3.9 again.

You can find the uninstall utilities at Rage3D and ATI.



Ok...you think this will help?
And btw, is SmartGart supposed to come up as a tab or something?
Or is it supposed to come up as a separate program?
I'll try to remove all traces of the drivers then install them
again...then see..

But I am not that optimistic. As before installing the Cat 3.9s for
the first time, there were absolutely NO (obviously) traces of them on
my system.

Lemme try out this stuff...I'll let you know if I have any luck.


***
....the Phoenix shall rise...

I have Cat 3.9 installed. I do not have any short cut to smartgart from the
start menu. There is a Tab in the ATI control panel that can be reached
via the tray icon or the advanced tab from the Windows display properties
box.

From the tray icon
Right click tray icon
Select "Settings"
Select "ATI Display Settings"
The Windows display properties box opens and them the ATI display
properties box opens.
The SmartGart tab is on this window.


From the Desktop
Right click any open place on the desktop
Select "Properties"
Select "Settings"
Select "Advanced"
The ATI diplay properties box opens, SmartGart tab is in this
window.

The display drivers add so much crap to the system that it is difficult to
uninstall it all without a utility or step by step instructions.

Let us know how it turns out.


Jim

"Phoenix AG" wrote in message
s.com...
On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 17:31:43 GMT, "Jim" wrote:

There are utilities to uninstall all of the files for both of your cards,
this is an important step. First run the one for the old card then the
one for the new card, install the latest AGP driver for the motherboard
then try to install cat 3.9 again.

You can find the uninstall utilities at Rage3D and ATI.



Ok...you think this will help?
And btw, is SmartGart supposed to come up as a tab or something?
Or is it supposed to come up as a separate program?
I'll try to remove all traces of the drivers then install them
again...then see..

But I am not that optimistic. As before installing the Cat 3.9s for
the first time, there were absolutely NO (obviously) traces of them on
my system.

Lemme try out this stuff...I'll let you know if I have any luck.


***
...the Phoenix shall rise...

"Phoenix AG" wrote in message
s.com...
On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 17:31:43 GMT, "Jim" wrote:

There are utilities to uninstall all of the files for both of your cards,
this is an important step. First run the one for the old card then the
one for the new card, install the latest AGP driver for the motherboard
then try to install cat 3.9 again.

You can find the uninstall utilities at Rage3D and ATI.



Ok...you think this will help?
And btw, is SmartGart supposed to come up as a tab or something?
Or is it supposed to come up as a separate program?
I'll try to remove all traces of the drivers then install them
again...then see..

But I am not that optimistic. As before installing the Cat 3.9s for
the first time, there were absolutely NO (obviously) traces of them on
my system.

Lemme try out this stuff...I'll let you know if I have any luck.


***
...the Phoenix shall rise..

Right click desktop for display properties, then click settings tab, then
click advanced button.
This should bring up all your ATI tabs including Smartgart, click Smartgart
and you should be there, Also the Options tab will give you your Catalyst
version and other driver info.

--
Regards, Rene Lamontagne