Problems with all versions of Catalyst down to 4.6, and the control panel seems to be the bad guy

I, as well as so many else here it seems, had some problems with Catalyst
4.9. But the thing is that for me, switching to 4.8 didn't help. And not 4.7
or 4.6 either. I did a complete removal of all ATI-files each time
(cat-uninstaller.exe).

The problem is this: I can't play regular video files. When I open a
mpeg-file (for example) in WMP (Windows Media Player), the image is upside
down and frozen. The time progress bar moves but nothing happens. After a
few seconds the movie starts to play, but very jerky/slow and after a few
more seconds the program freezes completely. Sometimes I manage to close the
program, but most of the times windows freezes to( nothing works, not even
CTRL-ALT-DEL) and I have to press reset.

If I change the hardware acceleration (under the "Performance" tab in the
control panel) to the third level from left (i.e almost in the middle), and
inactivate "DirectDraw, Direct3D, pointers and advanced drawing" WMP works
as it should. If I change the hardware acceleration to one level higher,
inactivating pointers and advanced drawing, the problem is back. So it seems
that the problem lies in DirectDrawDirect3D. So I installed the latest
DirectX version, but that didn't make any bit of difference.

And now I have, as I said before, tried different versions of Catalyst, down
to 4.6, with the same problem. But one time the problem seemed to be gone,
and that was when I had installed the drivers but not the control panel. WMP
worked like it should then. But the moment I had installed the control
panel, the problem was back.

So now it seems like the ATI Control Panels is the bad guy here. But I need
the control panel, because I want to use the TV-out.

Any suggestions on what I should do/try?
Is there a way to use the TV-out without the control panel? Maybe a separate
program?

My System:
ATI Radeon 7000 AGP (VPU-recovery inactivated, AGP speed 1X, FastWrite off)
AMD K7 600MHz
Asus K7M motherboard
512 MB RAM
Windows 2000 Pro with all service packs
DirectX 9.0c

Regards
/Jimi

Jimi Hullegård wrote:
I, as well as so many else here it seems, had some problems with
Catalyst
4.9. But the thing is that for me, switching to 4.8 didn't help. And
not 4.7 or 4.6 either. I did a complete removal of all ATI-files each
time (cat-uninstaller.exe).

The problem is this: I can't play regular video files. When I open a
mpeg-file (for example) in WMP (Windows Media Player), the image is
upside down and frozen. The time progress bar moves but nothing
happens. After a few seconds the movie starts to play, but very
jerky/slow and after a few more seconds the program freezes
completely. Sometimes I manage to close the program, but most of the
times windows freezes to( nothing works, not even CTRL-ALT-DEL) and I
have to press reset.

SNIP

Is there no one here that has an idea what could be the problem? Or maybe
someone can tell me if there is a way to use the TV-out without the control
panel? Maybe a separate program?

I would really appreciate any help I can get.

Regards
/Jimi