WINDOWS 7 - HOW TO FIX YOUR PROBLEMS

[Mave.ts]

tl;dr at the bottom.

It's definitely ATI Catalyst that screws things up, I can guarantee you that. Let me start off with a story:
Here I was, playing Plants vs. Zombies last week. We cool, I'm enjoying it, oh boy did I have fun. I went to bed, got back up, and thought to myself "Hey, an update. GOTY? Oh wow!". Within minutes, the game updated, and I started playing again. Oh some new achievements, cool. Let's see if I can scroll down.. yeah, I can. Good stuff.

Now, I was able to do that because I did not have ATI Catalyst installed. Or the ATI drivers. So, I read about the problems here, and I was going to try it out for myself. I downloaded both 10.7 and 10.5, but 10.7 wouldn't even install. Okay, 10.5 it is. Installed it, rebooted my computer, and started up Plants vs. Zombies. It was choppy. In the Zen Garden, hovering over more than 2 plants, would freeze the entire game. Zombatar would freeze the game, Achievements would freeze the game.

I fired up Left 4 Dead 2 yesterday, to check the new mutation. Guess what? My FPS wouldn't go above 20. 20! I was too scared to even check out TF2, so I quickly decided to uninstall it. And I did. But, before it was even done uninstalling - guess what? My second ever BSOD since I built this baby from the ground on up. A BSOD because I was uninstalling the driver and program that were messing up with my games and overall computer experience (MSN couldn't live for longer than 30 seconds because of this). How stupid is that?

So, after booting up again after the BSOD, I checked my hardware manager, and reinstalled the best driver Windows 7 could find for me. It worked. I had awesome framerates, Plants vs. Zombies would work, Left 4 Dead 2 at my normal 120 FPS, MSN doing what it needed to do.. brilliant.

tl;dr: Windows 7 users need to uninstall ATI Catalyst Manager from their computers, restart their computers, go check Hardware Manager, right click your graphics card, and update drivers to the best Windows 7 can find. It will work.

[BusDriverUk]

dont think so some how, basicly telling people to uninstall their gfx drivers is just a sign that you know ♥♥♥♥ all about computers.

Im sorry but im not letting Windows update control over my GFX Drivers, or even letting it install the default ♥♥♥♥ty drivers..

sod that


/end

[NoOnions]

Dear BusDriverUK,

I'm afraid I disagree - I've had no end of issues since replacing my nV 8800GTS with an ATi 5870. When it works it is a superb GFx card, but when it plays up...

I get exactly the same issue as Mave.ts. Go into my Zen Garden, and it will freeze about a second after I move my cursor. If I alt-tab out and back in it works, then freezes again. It plays fine on my nV powered laptop.

I've had numerous BSoD with Windows 7 since adding my ATi card. None with my old card. I've swapped the memory, rebuilt Windows 7 on two different HDDs, tried 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 and 10.7 drivers (with the profiles loaded as well) I even RMA'd my 5870 - despite photos and videos of the green pixel issue Aria said the card was fine. I also have a top quality PSU, so that's not the issue.

I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64bit. I've been using computers since my ZX-81 and my day job is IT support, so in my case I do know about computers.

I'm pretty anti NVidia at the moment (Bumpgate has killed one of my laptops) and I've not been impressed with their current range (too hot and expensive), so this is not an anti-ATI rant.

However, just because you do not have a problem please do not assume that others don't.

Regards,

NoOnions

[DrakeAtroch]

I can't run PvZ:GOTY at all, and I'm running Nvidia, so it's not simply a ATI issue.

My Configuration:

Operating System: MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 @ 3.20GHz
RAM: 12.0GB Triple-Channel DDR3 @ 533MHz (8-8-8-20)
Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. Rampage II Extreme (LGA1366)
Graphics: GeForce GTX 295 SLI Enabled - Driver: 258.96
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster @ 1920x1200
Audio: Creative X-Fi Audio Processor (WDM)

[Mave.ts]

dont think so some how, basicly telling people to uninstall their gfx drivers is just a sign that you know ♥♥♥♥ all about computers.

Im sorry but im not letting Windows update control over my GFX Drivers, or even letting it install the default ♥♥♥♥ty drivers..

sod that


/end

Right, so growing up with computers means I know whatever about computers huh? I think I know quite a bit more about them than you do, so don't come and keep on crying.

Like I said, the Windows "default" drivers (pretty sure it's an outdated version greatly tested by Microsoft when released) apparantly works better than the drivers ATI has provided us with.

[daynauthX]

had the same freezing problem with avz but it went away when i unchecked 3d acceleration in the game.
i'm running windows 7 with an ati 5850 (love the card btw).

[NoOnions]

Great suggestion daynauthX - I unticked 3D Acceleration and PvZ does not crash. Thanks chum! It's a real shame that my 5870 is not powerful enough to run PvZ...:confused:

[Mave.ts]

It's not that your 5870 can't run it - it's the ATI drivers with the 3D Acceleration in PvZ that's causing problems.

[walker1973]

This Problem is known take a look at this post about the bugs from the GOTY Update...

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1396084&page=7

[Mave.ts]

Which is also my thread, but capitalized titles get more attention ;).

[WhiteTigerShiro]

You know... between Stubbz the Zombie and now this game, I'm noticing that ATI cards seem to be having a lot of issues lately. I'm glad I decided to try an nVidia card with my latest build.

[NoOnions]

It's not that your 5870 can't run it - it's the ATI drivers with the 3D Acceleration in PvZ that's causing problems.

Sorry, my good old English sarcasm obviously didn't come across too clearly in my post! :D

The fog really looks crap in 'software' mode!

[Mave.ts]

Sorry, my good old English sarcasm obviously didn't come across too clearly in my post! :D

The fog really looks crap in 'software' mode!

Well, it is the internet after all. Sorry. :<

[Jazz Ad]

5770 and Catalyst here, no issue at all.

[NoOnions]

5770 and Catalyst here, no issue at all.

Hi Jazz Ad - which drivers? 10.7 here.

[Luckz]

You know... between Stubbz the Zombie and now this game, I'm noticing that ATI cards seem to be having a lot of issues lately. I'm glad I decided to try an nVidia card with my latest build.

According to Xfire, I have 120 games installed on my computer. Besides this one, they all work. Not like PvZ did not when you disable 3d accel, but yeah.
I don't think the fact that a game whose developers can't even make it run in anything else but one standard resolution (!) has issues with ATI/AMD drivers reflects badly on ATI/AMD.

[highblaze]

ok im fairly new too pc gaming. and this thread has confused me like hell.. i cant even play the demo because at the last 90% of loading when the steam shift+tab pops up it freezes. ive tryed uninstalling etc etc but still having issues. i do use an ati system all my requirments are above whats needed, can anyone shine some light on my situation? Thanks

[Oggy1985]

I have 5870 with Catalyst center and game works fine, just my saved games are gone after "sync" with cloud, and i am sure that has nothing to do with ATI CC (and i did run first my PC where i had played the game, and after that PC with new install).

Though, reinstalling ATI drivers might still work, since last (or the drivers before those) had a faulty installation program and reported that everything was installed correctly although it wasn't. There is/was an article about that on Toms Hardware as well - so reinstalling might actually work for some of you.

[bdo7]

Wait, wait... I don't have any ATI drivers on my system. This is a new build, fresh OS, never had an ATI driver installed on it at any point in the past. I have an Nvidia GTX 460 with the latest drivers (258.96) and am having the same issues:

When in full-screen mode, unless I turn "3D Acceleration" OFF, I get flickering horizontal black lines all over my screen. If I turn acceleration off, OR if I play in a window, then it's fine. Unfortunately, if I turn 3D acceleration off, the fog effects look really bad (as someone else has mentioned).

Is there a fix for this I'm missing?

[Oggy1985]

When in full-screen mode, unless I turn "3D Acceleration" OFF, I get flickering horizontal black lines all over my screen. If I turn acceleration off, OR if I play in a window, then it's fine.

When i had flickering black horizontal lines appearing (it was only happening in TF2) it was a faulty RAM on my GPU :( Hope you will be better luck here, and reinstalling drivers or something will help.

[WhiteTigerShiro]

According to Xfire, I have 120 games installed on my computer. Besides this one, they all work. Not like PvZ did not when you disable 3d accel, but yeah.
I don't think the fact that a game whose developers can't even make it run in anything else but one standard resolution (!) has issues with ATI/AMD drivers reflects badly on ATI/AMD.Whether it's the card, the drivers for the card, or the developers, I'm just noticing it a lot. Just recently I was looking at the Burn Zombie Burn forums, and they have ATI problems, too.

Maybe ATI is just strongly opposed to zombie games. o.O

[Oggy1985]

Ok, either someone is messing with my head, aliens are doing experiments or someone's doing his job, but my saves are back!

Yeah, oh yeah! :D They are all back! Don't ask me how, but they are here! :Dx10

Remember my story, i lost everything after starting PvsZ on my 2nd PC where it just created my game and obviously overwritten my progress or something. I tried all of the solutions, listened for your precious advices, but sadly non of them worked.

But guess they fixed the cloud or something. I know i didn't change anything! After all those trying i just gave up. Today i started PvsZ just to admire one more time how all my progress is gone, but, BUT... EVERYTHING IS BACK!!! WOOO HOOO! :D

Hope you have crazy luck like i, or at least like crazy Dave :p

Problem fixed for me... how? By miracle i guess :p

[Luckz]

Whether it's the card, the drivers for the card, or the developers, I'm just noticing it a lot. Just recently I was looking at the Burn Zombie Burn forums, and they have ATI problems, too.

Maybe ATI is just strongly opposed to zombie games. o.O

Nation Red and Killing Floor work fine, and they're better than all other zombie games combined ;P
I also have two fun indie zombies games on my 360, and that uses a ATI chip too.

[Jazz Ad]

10.7 here. I'm on W7 64 bits.

[McMasterGold]

HD 5770. Catalyst 10.6. 3D Acceleration ON.

Everything working fine.

[Crasp]

HD 5850, tried Catalyst 10.7 and 10.5 with no success, on a 10.4 (I think) OpenGL preview driver for Quake II and still nothing.

Won't even launch, getting the "Fatal Error: Unable to extract game executable" message.

[P-K]

Right, so growing up with computers means I know whatever about computers huh? I think I know quite a bit more about them than you do, so don't come and keep on crying.

Like I said, the Windows "default" drivers (pretty sure it's an outdated version greatly tested by Microsoft when released) apparantly works better than the drivers ATI has provided us with.

Then you would clearly know that the driver provided by microsoft is from ATI :rolleyes: you sir fail....

Quite simple either install 10.5A hotfix and wait till next week when 10.8 get released and see if the issues are fixed then

[timpkmn89]

Then you would clearly know that the driver provided by microsoft is from ATI :rolleyes: you sir fail....

Which is funny, because he did acknowledge that...

[timekills]

First - the title is misleading. Should be Win 7 AND ATI card.
Second - Have a 7950 (Nvidia) and also having problems. While it appears that the catalyst drivers for ATI may cause systemic problems, obviously this is not a WINDOWS 7 FIX ALL. Anyone care to explain why I can't get past adding a user. Forget about even getting the old save files - just want to be able to play the dang game.

[Luckz]

Try starting Steam as admin. If that helps, give your user write access to the Steam folder (and all subfolders).

[Decurio]

I've noticed badly programmed games has issues with ATi! *roll eyes*
Anyways, seems to be fixed when disabling 3D Acceleration, not like it should need it anyways, this is stinking of 2D Flash-game (Read: what PopCap is making typically).