Problems with AMD/ATI Radeon HD 6500M/5600/5700 Series GPU driver/software

[IainB]

This is posted on the offchance that it could be helpful/useful to someone and possibly save them time and from experiencing the same frustration that I have had over the last few months.
The post is focussed on:
(a) the software driver for the AMD/ATI Radeon HD 6500M/5600/5700 Series GP/DU (Graphics Processing/Display Unit).
(b) the software which enables you to tweak the display settings.
(c) getting and installing the latest versions of both.
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[IainB]

Just a note to say that when I installed the file for ATI Tray Tools (file: attsetup-[Guru3D.com].exe), it installed with no problems. Because I have Windows 7 Firewall Control, I guess I didn't notice that the install file had OpenCandy - which didn't install.
I just discovered today that the file has OpenCandy in it. This is because MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) just today announced that the file was infected, during a regular scan. I downloaded the file again from Guru3D.com to check, and MSE immediately quarantined it. It didn't quarantine the file the first time I downloaded it (though it was the same version of ATI Tray Tools).

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[Carol Haynes]

Just to note - I have found 12.4 anything but stable (and there are lots of reports of problems). Loads of BSODs and freezes and other issue.

Personally I have found the whole Catalyst 12 series to be problematic and followed the advice from a tech support conversation with AMD to go back to 11.12 - I have had no issues with 11.12 and I don't intend to upgrade again until all the glitches are ironed out in the 12 series drivers.

PS Using Radeon HD 6870

[IainB]

^That's interesting. This probably similarly affects thousands of users.
It's a good job that I found the solution I did, because I still can't install the v12.x Catalyst drivers etc., nor can I install the older drivers - at least, not using using the Catalyst install software, I can't.

However, I do have the latest drivers installed simply because I located them (they are in .msi files) in the Catalyst install package. I used 7-zip as a file explorer and to extract the files.

[4wd]

Just to note - I have found 12.4 anything but stable (and there are lots of reports of problems). Loads of BSODs and freezes and other issue.

Definitely a YMMV type problem since I'm running 12.4 and have had no BSODs, freezes or anything attributable to them on a HD6850.

[Stoic Joker]

This is a bit of a tangent, but it may be related so I'll toss it in.

I've got about 50 Dell T1500s running in the field in various offices. They're spec'ed virtually identical (by me) straight business machines with a (from Dell) ATi 2270 Radeon video card. 48 of them ran perfectly. 2 of them BSOD'ed often...and one of those BSOD'ed constantly.

What I found was that there was a video codec (don't recall which one) that the CCC just didn't like that would cause the machine to crash with a kernel-power event. This codec was/is popular with web video sites (like youtube), and oddly enough the machine crash pattern match the user video watching pattern perfectly.

Frequent BSOD = curious user with free time...
Constant BSOD = Doctor who spent all free time on youtube...
Never BSOD = Users with OpenDNS filtered connection that blocked access to youtube (and etc).

Uninstalling the CCC helped a bit (maybe 30%), but the problem continued until Dell finally came out with a driver update about 6 mo. ago.

[Carol Haynes]

It is interesting that the AMD tech support seemed to recognise the issue. They didn't offer a solution other than rolling back to a previous driver and waiting for a new release to replace 12.4. They even suggest using 11.12 as more stable than the 12 series!

I have seen lots of posts about problems with 12.4 in particular.

There was no recognisable pattern to the BSODs I saw. There was a range of Bugcheck codes and they happenned playing games, surfing the net, collecting emails or even when the computer was sitting idle. The were all traced to Catalyst driver components.

I have had no BSODS since I rolled back.