SmartGART Tab is Missing in Original Control Panel

"Mark" wrote in message
...

Hi,

I just upgraded from Cat v4.6 to v4.9 using the smaller of the two and
original Control Panel FULL installation package for my AIW 9800 Pro
(NTSC) GFX card. To prepare for this, I used ATI's un-installer and
removed everything ATI.

Afterwards, the computer (using a ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard so
SmartGART drivers are not needed as it is Intel based) rebooted and I
began installing the Full, but smaller, v4.9 Cat driver package and then
rebooted.

After the reboot the ATI software falsely said that there were no
Display drivers installed. But that's only because after the reboot XP
Pro hadn't finished updating the various AIW stuff. Think ATI would have
caught that silly little timing bug. Anyway, a reboot after all
detection was finished fixed the problem as by then the driver
installation was completed.

I then finished up by installing the new v9.02 MMC software (silly of
ATI to miss label the previous version v9.1 when it should have been
v9.01) and rebooted. Sheeet, another version of MMC which is unstable
and can crash the entire system due to low-level hardware bleeding.

Anyway, after the dust settled I went into the Settings/Advanced and
noticed that the SmartGART tab is now missing in the Control Panel. Not
a real biggie because under Options/Details it shows that my AIW 9800
Pro is still set for 8x AGP.

Am I correct in thinking that it is not worth an additional 65.4MB of
downloading (42.3MB for ATI's new colorful Control Center and 23.1MB for
.NET) just to have a SmartGART tab which is probalby already set
correctly?

--

Mark


I would say so.

Almost ALL the feedback about the new
Control Center has been negative.

Mark expounded in
:


Hi,

I just upgraded from Cat v4.6 to v4.9 using the smaller of the two and
original Control Panel FULL installation package for my AIW 9800 Pro
(NTSC) GFX card. To prepare for this, I used ATI's un-installer and
removed everything ATI.

Afterwards, the computer (using a ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard so
SmartGART drivers are not needed as it is Intel based) rebooted and I
began installing the Full, but smaller, v4.9 Cat driver package and then
rebooted.

After the reboot the ATI software falsely said that there were no
Display drivers installed. But that's only because after the reboot XP
Pro hadn't finished updating the various AIW stuff. Think ATI would have
caught that silly little timing bug. Anyway, a reboot after all
detection was finished fixed the problem as by then the driver
installation was completed.

I then finished up by installing the new v9.02 MMC software (silly of
ATI to miss label the previous version v9.1 when it should have been
v9.01) and rebooted. Sheeet, another version of MMC which is unstable
and can crash the entire system due to low-level hardware bleeding.

Anyway, after the dust settled I went into the Settings/Advanced and
noticed that the SmartGART tab is now missing in the Control Panel. Not
a real biggie because under Options/Details it shows that my AIW 9800
Pro is still set for 8x AGP.

Am I correct in thinking that it is not worth an additional 65.4MB of
downloading (42.3MB for ATI's new colorful Control Center and 23.1MB for
.NET) just to have a SmartGART tab which is probalby already set
correctly?


I'm currently using Catalyst 4.7. I used to have a SMARTGART tab, but at
some point recently after installing some new ATI software/drivers, that
tab disappeared. I don't know why, but FWIW, I found that I have a
SMARTGART shortcut in "C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control
Panel". If I double-click on that, I get a SMARTGART window. I don't know
if that shortcut was installed with the current software or is a left-over
from the old ATI control panel, but you might see if you have a similar
shortcut.

James

Mark expounded in
:


You wrote in 1 thusly:

Mark expounded in
:

I just upgraded from Cat v4.6 to v4.9 using the smaller of the two
and original Control Panel FULL installation package for my AIW 9800
Pro (NTSC) GFX card. To prepare for this, I used ATI's un-installer
and removed everything ATI.

Afterwards, the computer (using a ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard so
SmartGART drivers are not needed as it is Intel based) rebooted and I
began installing the Full, but smaller, v4.9 Cat driver package and
then rebooted.

After the reboot the ATI software falsely said that there were no
Display drivers installed. But that's only because after the reboot
XP Pro hadn't finished updating the various AIW stuff. Think ATI
would have caught that silly little timing bug. Anyway, a reboot
after all detection was finished fixed the problem as by then the
driver installation was completed.

I then finished up by installing the new v9.02 MMC software (silly of
ATI to miss label the previous version v9.1 when it should have been
v9.01) and rebooted. Sheeet, another version of MMC which is unstable
and can crash the entire system due to low-level hardware bleeding.

Anyway, after the dust settled I went into the Settings/Advanced and
noticed that the SmartGART tab is now missing in the Control Panel.
Not a real biggie because under Options/Details it shows that my AIW
9800 Pro is still set for 8x AGP.

Am I correct in thinking that it is not worth an additional 65.4MB of
downloading (42.3MB for ATI's new colorful Control Center and 23.1MB
for .NET) just to have a SmartGART tab which is probably already set
correctly?

I'm currently using Catalyst 4.7. I used to have a SMARTGART tab, but
at some point recently after installing some new ATI software/drivers,
that tab disappeared.

I don't know whether SmartGART is the only tab or for that matter,
function, that has turned up missing with the new v4.9 Cat drivers (Old
Control Panel [OCP] version). I would not have expected any tab to be
removed, let alone that one and because of that, didn't list them out
prior to the v4.9 Cat install to compare.

Perhaps we can compare versions? Currently, the v4.9 OCP version has the
following tabs:

Color, Options, Rotation, Overlay, 3D, VPU Recover, General, Adapter,
Monitor, Troubleshoot, Color Management and Displays.

Because 'Fast Writes' is located on the same panel as the SmartGART
information, I am unable to determine whether Fast Writes is enabled or
disabled. I can only hope that the previous setting was adopted and Fast
Writes is set to disable.

That's wishful thinking and Fast Writes is probably enabled. I had to
reinstall the monitor INF and ICM files and change other settings back
to what they were after the new Cat install.

I jumped from v4.6 to v4.9. I saw the SmartGART tab in v4.6. Since you
are using v4.7 and it is missing, then they must of removed it in v4.7.

I don't know why, but FWIW, I found that I have a SMARTGART shortcut
in "C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel". If I
double-click on that, I get a SMARTGART window.

I have the same shortcut located in the same directory. However....

I don't know if that shortcut was installed with the current software
or is a left-over from the old ATI control panel, but you might see if
you have a similar shortcut.

Nope, its unlikely a leftover. The shortcut also gets installed with the
Cat v4.9 OCP version, because I used ATI's un-installer to remove
everything ATI before installing v4.9 and I have it, too.

However, the shortcut does nothing when double-clicked. I've checked the
shortcuts path and it appears to be correct and set to:

"C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ATI Control Panel\atiprbxx.exe" /g

Since it appears on both of our hard drives, appears that the shortcut
is set correctly, but works with your version and not mine - I've come
to the conclusion that ATI screwed up (some might say, again) with the
Full Cat OCP v4.9 package in a rush to get the driver out. In addition,
ATI removed the SmartGART tab 3 minor versions ago.

The next step will be to see what happens to atiprbxx.exe (and
associated software). Will atiprbxx.exe be fixed so SmartGART tab
appears or will the shortcut be completely removed from the Cat package.


Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.

Interesting. That shortcut path is the same as mine. I don't know why it
doesn't work for you. I assume you have an atiprbxx.exe in that directory.
Maybe something has changed in atiprbxx.exe between 4.7 and 4.9. Or it may
even be because I'm running Win98 and you're running WinXP.

FWIW, my control panel tabs are slightly different. I don't have "VPU
Recover" or "Troubleshoot" tabs. I assume they were added after this
version. And I have two tabs you didn't mention, "OpenGL" and
"Performance" (I assume the "3D" you mentioned was short for "Direct3D").
Provided you have an OpenGL tab, your list of tabs seems close enough to
mine.


As for determining whether or not "Fast Writes" are enabled, there are
other programs that will tell you. For example:

WCPUID - http://www.h-oda.com/
Run it and click on the "chipset info" button and there is a "Fast Write"
entry on the right side (at least, in the version I have).

"PCI List" - http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/legacy.shtm
Run it, select the appropriate device from the dropdown list (probably
"AGP VGA Controller") and see what it says.

I'm assuming both of those work under WinXP. Haven't tried them myself.

James