SmartGart

[Anthony Rondon]

You also may have a problem with a system file in windows, you could try
this to have windows check everything out.

Repair Windows XP
logged on as an administrator:
Use the System File Checker tool to scan all of the protected files on your
computer:
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type sfc /scannow, and then click OK.

 

[Phoenix AG]

Phoenix,

Just a thought here, do you have the Cat 3.8 drivers, CP and Capture drivers
handy? I had a prob with the 3.9's where it would not install any of the
components. I am currently using 3.8's right now and I would recommend using
them to see if all installs on your machine. HTH

Hi,

I will run the system file checker right away. As to the 3.8s, at one
time, I did uninstall the 3.9s and installed 3.7. Even then the
SmartGart didn't come. If that's any help.
Or would you like me specifically to install 3.8 drivers only?

The only reason I ask is cos I suffer from limited bandwidth.

Regards.

P.S. What does HTH mean?


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

 

[Anthony Rondon]

Hi,

I will run the system file checker right away. As to the 3.8s, at one
time, I did uninstall the 3.9s and installed 3.7. Even then the
SmartGart didn't come. If that's any help.
Or would you like me specifically to install 3.8 drivers only?

Just asking because sometimes the installer ATI provides is a little
suspect.

The only reason I ask is cos I suffer from limited bandwidth.

Same here, I use dialup and dread downloading anything over 5 Megs. 8(

Regards.

P.S. What does HTH mean?

HTH=Hope This Helps

 

[Jim]

For windows 98 here is a list of files needed for the SmartGart Utility

The SmartGart shortcut actaully run a program call ATIPBXX.exe. The
following is a list of the modules that are used for this application.
Maybe one of them is missing or corrupt on your system.
I would E-mail the folks at ATI and see if they could/would help.



ATIPRBXX
Process Information
Module Name ATIPRBXX.EXE
File Name C:\PROGRAM FILES\ATI TECHNOLOGIES\ATI CONTROL PANEL\ATIPRBXX.EXE
Process Type 32-bit Windows
Process Priority Normal
Expected Windows Version 4.00
Total Threads 1
Usage Count 3 reference(s)
Process/Global Count 1 / 1 reference(s)
Memory Used 120kB


Module(s) Used By This Process
WBHOOK32.DLL 32-bit, 006 ref(s), 248kB
WBHKRES.DLL 32-bit, 005 ref(s), 36kB
MPR.DLL 32-bit, 018 ref(s), 56kB
ATRPUIXX.ENU 32-bit, 002 ref(s), 132kB
ATIPRBXX.EXE 32-bit, 001 ref(s), 120kB
COMCTL32.DLL 32-bit, 022 ref(s), 544kB
VERSION.DLL 32-bit, 020 ref(s), 24kB
RPCRT4.DLL 32-bit, 017 ref(s), 328kB
USER32.DLL 32-bit, 029 ref(s), 68kB
GDI32.DLL 32-bit, 029 ref(s), 152kB
ADVAPI32.DLL 32-bit, 029 ref(s), 64kB
KERNEL32.DLL 32-bit, 031 ref(s), 460kB
Total Module Memory Used 1543kB


From an earlier post

The fact that your screen did not come up in default low res with no driver
installed sounds like the driver is not being removed correctly.

Its probably mentioned in one of these posts but what OS are you using?
I hope your not going into AA withdrawls yet. My son is addicted to that
game.

 

[Anthony Rondon]

At least you weren't the only one suffering from this problem.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthr...threadid=33674791&highlight=missing+smartgart

 

[Strontium]

Think this might help: open Regedit and edit/search for "Fast Write" (with
the space). Change the "yes" and "1" both to zeros. Close and reboot.

-
Anthony Rondon stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:

 

[Strontium]

Correction: Change "Yes" to "No" and, change the "1" to "0". Also, make
sure it's for the primary display, i.e. 000. When I, initially, did the
'search' for "fast write", it found the second display first not even going
to the primary display's folder.

-
Strontium stood up at show-n-tell, in (e-mail address removed), and
said:

Think this might help: open Regedit and edit/search for "Fast Write"
(with the space). Change the "yes" and "1" both to zeros. Close and
reboot.

<Snip>

 

[Phoenix AG]

At least you weren't the only one suffering from this problem.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthr...threadid=33674791&highlight=missing+smartgart

True, and I know I am not the only one with the problem in AA too....
This is so frustrating...the guys says it very simply....
No amount of uninstalling/reinstalling the drivers helps...

And I am NOT willing to do a format and a clean install of windows..
I had a hard disk crash a month back...I've been installing programs
since then...the last thing I need is to do it again


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

 

[Phoenix AG]

Just asking because sometimes the installer ATI provides is a little
suspect.

Would you like me to download the 3.8s? Or does it not coming up with
the 3.7s as well prove that it won't work with the 3.8?


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

 

[Phoenix AG]

From an earlier post

The fact that your screen did not come up in default low res with no driver
installed sounds like the driver is not being removed correctly.

Exactly. That's whats making me so goddamn furious. The ATI uninstall
utility is SUPPOSED to clean up everything. I already have run all the
various kind of nVidia destroyers there are on the net.
I have also manually tried to delete every registry key, every ATI
file, EVERYTHING!
What more do they want? My soul?

Its probably mentioned in one of these posts but what OS are you using?
I hope your not going into AA withdrawls yet. My son is addicted to that
game.

I am using XP SP 1.
The thing is...I can play AA. There is absolutely no problem with
that. It's very stable. So are all the other games. VERY stable.
But, there is a command in AA, called flush. It flushes the graphics
memory. This speeds up your game a bit, specially if you are
experiencing lag as it cleans up your video mem.
So if I have just been playing a huge map, then go on to another one,
then another, things don't slow down.
As things are now, as soon as I type in flush and press enter, the
system restarts and then windows says its recovered from a "Serious
Error".

I don't know what else to do. I will check if the files you listed are
there on my system. I already saw from the shortcut properties the
file which SmartGart links to. It's there.

And yes, when I had my hard disk crash, I couldn't play AA and I had
some serious withdrawals. It's really addictive and it also calms me a
lot. Takes my mind off girl problems and other serious issues
What's his ingame nick? Maybe I'll say hi to him one of these days.

Thank you all so much for taking all this time to help me. I am really
grateful.


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

 

[Phoenix AG]

Correction: Change "Yes" to "No" and, change the "1" to "0". Also, make
sure it's for the primary display, i.e. 000. When I, initially, did the
'search' for "fast write", it found the second display first not even going
to the primary display's folder.

LOL...after all this trouble...

Thank you so much!!
It found the fast write here...
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI
Technologies\CDS\0000\0\PCI Config

I changed the Fast Write setting to No (0x00000000).
It was set to Yes (0x00000001).

Btw, the second display (0001) had it disabled already.

Thanks again!
Although I cannot access the other settings which SmartGart offers, at
least the fast write thing is off!


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

 

[Strontium]

-
Phoenix AG stood up at show-n-tell, in
(e-mail address removed), and said:

LOL...after all this trouble...

Thank you so much!!
It found the fast write here...
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI
Technologies\CDS\0000\0\PCI Config

I changed the Fast Write setting to No (0x00000000).
It was set to Yes (0x00000001).

Btw, the second display (0001) had it disabled already.

Thanks again!
Although I cannot access the other settings which SmartGart offers, at
least the fast write thing is off!

No prob! I had to troubleshoot a game issue, and coudln't get the SmartGart
tab with the modded 3.7's for my Asus card. Turning off fast write wasn't
my solution, though, lol. Was a combination of game bugs and ATI's OGL
driver!

 

[Phoenix AG]

No prob! I had to troubleshoot a game issue, and coudln't get the SmartGart
tab with the modded 3.7's for my Asus card. Turning off fast write wasn't
my solution, though, lol. Was a combination of game bugs and ATI's OGL
driver!

Well...
I had shut down my computer earlier. I just booted it and just opened
up the reg editor to verify. And....

Fast Write is back on :-(
It's changed itself to Yes.

Now what do I do? :``(


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

 

[Strontium]

-
Phoenix AG stood up at show-n-tell, in
(e-mail address removed), and said:

Well...
I had shut down my computer earlier. I just booted it and just opened
up the reg editor to verify. And....

Fast Write is back on :-(
It's changed itself to Yes.

Now what do I do? :``(

Make sure you are logged in as 'administrator', when you make the reg
change.

 

[Phoenix AG]

Make sure you are logged in as 'administrator', when you make the reg
change.

Yes I am
There is only 1 user on my XP Pro computer and that's me, the
administrator.
Strange as it may sound, I actually do have a vast amount of
experience in the field of computers and I.T. (over 11 years) and I am
also currently pursuing my Bachelor of Sciences in I.T.

I am going to try it again. Let's hope it works this time.


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

 

[Strontium]

-
Phoenix AG stood up, at show-n-tell, and said:

Yes I am
There is only 1 user on my XP Pro computer and that's me, the
administrator.
Strange as it may sound, I actually do have a vast amount of
experience in the field of computers and I.T. (over 11 years) and I am
also currently pursuing my Bachelor of Sciences in I.T.

I am going to try it again. Let's hope it works this time.

Well, I'll be damned... mine reset to Yes, as well. Funny, after changing
it last night and rebooting it kept the 'no' setting. Isn't this just
lovely!

 

[Phoenix AG]

Well, I'll be damned... mine reset to Yes, as well. Funny, after changing
it last night and rebooting it kept the 'no' setting. Isn't this just
lovely!

LOL...well, its still at No right now.
Although, I must admit all I have done is reboot. And I also ran a
game. Checked it after all that. It's still at No.
I think it resets to Yes after a complete shutdown for some time.

And changing it to No hasn't made any difference in the AA game. So it
doesn't really matter. Guess I'll just have to live without the flush
command in the game (it's a major inconvenience, but at least I can
play).


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

 

[Phoenix AG]

UPDATE:

Just cos I had spare time on my hands today, I decided to give it
another shot.

I uninstalled ATI drivers. The res still didn't revert back to 640x480
upon reboot (it doesn't ever, during this long series of events, so I
won't be mentioning it again. It's to be taken for granted).

I found 6 files in Windows\System32 folder starting with ATI. They
were ATI 3.9 files (I checked) and I did my best to try and delete
them. But they would always come back. Windows kept on replacing the
files so I gave up. Btw, I tried uninstalling the hardware, having no
video card installed, multiple reboots, etc. Nothing.

Btw, during this long series of events, I could not install my display
device as a standard VGA too. That's also to be taken for granted

So anyway, just for kicks, I downloaded and installed the Omega
drivers. Installed fine, everything worked. I noticed a Driver cleaner
utility. So I decided to give it a shot (seeing as I hadn't found an
"ATI Destroyer" on the net and the uninstall utility from ATI is a
piece of crap). Btw, the SmartGart didn't show up in the Omegas too.

Oh...and the reason why I started doing all this is....in addition to
crazy shadows in Hitman 2, I started having crazy shadows/lights in
Splinter Cell as well. Like, the whole room is pitch black and I can
see the floor and its white and shiny and reflective like a glass (its
not supposed to be, the lights are OFF).

Well, anyway..

I uninstalled the Omega, then went into safe mode and ran the driver
cleaner. It worked perfectly and also removed the 6 files from the
Windows\System32 folder. I then uninstalled the Omega utilities and
also did a registry search for every ATI entry and removed them ALL.

Then I rebooted back into normal windows again. It still didn't have a
res of 640x480 (meaning there were some remnants of drivers left). I
then tried a few things, uninstalling the video card (it wasn't
installed anyway), trying to install it as a standard VGA
(unsuccessfully), etc....

Finally, I decided to install the 3.9s from ATI again. So I went ahead
with the install. All is back to just the way it freakin was before I
went through this whole ordeal.
I just can't seem to get rid of the ATI files totally. Another way to
notice this is cos after I install my drivers again, my refresh rate
goes back to 75hz.
Normally, on a fresh install, it defaults to 60.

ATI needs to spend a LOT of money into hiring better driver writers.
I am happy with my card overall and it is really good and fast, but it
goes crazy in games with shadows. Which is nuts.


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

 

[Strontium]

Question: when you ran DC, did you run Cab Cleaner, first? I'm using the
3.9's and smartgart installs, every time (I swapped drivers cuz Asus modded
the 3.9's but still had the boot issue so went back to Cat's). And, don't
worry about doing the 'standard VGA' thingy. That's hit or miss. XP has an
issue with that, and these newer cards.


-
Phoenix AG stood up, at show-n-tell, and said:

 

[Vellu]

And, don't

worry about doing the 'standard VGA' thingy. That's hit or miss. XP has an
issue with that, and these newer cards.

Indeed, whenever you uninstall CAT's or Omegas on the next reboot WinXP
detects a VGA compatible device and suggest finding drivers for. This can
and should be ignored...just click cancel. That is, DO NOT EVEN ATTEMPT to
install standard VGA-drivers, it will not be successfull nor do you need
them for anything. Just proceed directly to CAT or Omega -driver install.