Hi all. Been reading various threads throughout the forum, but haven't found an answer to my particular problem. I have Windows 2000, a Radeon 9700 Pro and recently downloaded the new catalyst 5.10. First I uninstalled all the drivers using both the ATI uninstall utlity and "Driver Cleaner Pro." I then updated my Direct X and downloaded installed MS Net 1.1 (just to be safe). Finally, I deleted my recycle bin, so that any ATI files wouldn't be lurking about. When I install the driver files, it comes to a crashing halt a the "Preparing The Install Shield Wizard" screen. After about 20 seconds or so of nothing going on, an error message pops up saying, "Setup failed to launch installation engine: server execution failed." I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers (even tried 5.09) several times, but keep getting same the error message. Would really appreciate any and all help you can throw my way. Thanks in advace

Do NOT load the complete Catalyst driver set on your 9700 Pro

Go to www.ati.com download section and go to the "low speed" area. Download JUST the driver and control panel. Download these somewhere you can remember.

Then restart into Safe Mode (press F8 during restart BEFORE you see XP logo).

Once in Safe Mode, uninstall an ATI software in control panel - add/remove. Next use your driver cleaner. Then delete any random leftovers.

Here is where it can get dicey. Try restarting back into Normal Mode. XP will see new hardware and may or may not completely load an old driver for it. Hopefully, and you can force this if necessary, we want it to just have basic VGA driver.

Then install the driver portion you downloaded (it will restart when done)
Then install the control panel part (also will restart)

And hopefully it will work.

The problem here is that the other portions of Catalyst are for All-in-wonder and other cards with video options. These driver portions can cause such crashes, at least in my experience it has.

Then let us know what happened each step of the way.

good luck

Thanks!

Followed your instructions to the letter. While in safe mode, I received an a "Inf Error: Video Driver Not Found" message, while the the driver files where installing. I then installed the control panel files and they worked just fine. Rebooted the computer, control panel said couldn't find drivers. The Windows automatic (forget the correct term) driver installer(?) popped on. Usually I ignored it, but this time I went through the steps and it flashed a message saying it installed the Radeon drivers. Weird. Rebooted again and this time the displlay screen looks great. Perfect. Not sure know what happened, but appreciate your help very much. Thanks!

Well, that probably wasn't the best response from your PC, but if it worked....

Now that Windows loaded some drivers, you "could" attempt to reload the driver portion again and see if it will "update" the one Windows auto-loaded.

Or else, upon reboot, does the Control Panel say it can't find drivers every time? Or just that once?

cheers

Installing New Drivers

Now each time I boot up the computer, I get a windows box asking me if I want to install new drivers. Also, the online computer game I'm playing keeps telling me I'm using old drivers. Sigh. I guess the new drivers didn't load. Argh!!! Going to try to load them again. Thanks for your response, it's very much appreciated.

Also, when you run the ATI driver installer, it extracts everything to a folder, and if the ATI setup program won't update the driver, you can always just tell Win2000 to look in this folder for the driver and hope it can load it without the setup program.

And I'm sure it's obvious, but be sure to select Win2000 when downloading the driver in the first place. If that's what you have.
Also, which Service Pack you are running may effect the driver loading.

good luck