ATI Radeon 9700 Pro showing up as two cards in XP?

[DaveyB]

I just recently noticed that under Display Adapters in Windows XP, it shows the Radeon 9700 Pro that I have as two cards, one called "ATI Radeon 9700 PRO" and one underneath that that says "ATI Radeon 9700 PRO - secondary"! Is this normal? Does this refer to the fact that that card has two outputs, one for DVI and one for regular VGA? Also, I occassionally get the error that "Windows has recovered from a device failure and needs to restart" error, which corresponds to the Radeon. This is all using the new Catalyst 3.4's. Are there any known issues with these? Everything seemed to be fine until I switched to these from the 3.2's. Here's the important info:

Pentium 4 - 3.06 GHz HT
ASUS P4G8X Deluxe w/1003 BIOS
1024 MB of Corsair PC3200 400MHz XMS RAM
Western Digital HD w/8MB cache
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro w/Catalyst 3.4 drivers
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz soundcard w/latest drivers

I think that should be all the info needed. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

[aweicc]

Its notmal,it shows up as 9700 pro and 9700 pro secondary aswell on my xp.

the secondary will be used if u have a second monitor hooked up, either tv display or another computer display

 

[Ghostdog]

I myself haven´t got any problems with Catalyst 3.4, but I´m running Windows 2000. I haven´t heard of an issue like this with the current set of drivers.
How did you go by uninstalling/installing?

<font color=red>I´m starting to feel like a real computer consultant.</font color=red>

 

[aweicc]

installing is just like any other program, run the execute file and it install everything, and when u uninstall thru "remove windows programe" it shows a checker box for u to tick both 9700 pro and 9700 pro secondary.

 

[DaveyB]

<i>How did you go by uninstalling/installing?</i>

Well, I uninstalled the old drivers via Control Panel, then rebooted and installed the new drivers. I think something may have gotten corrupted when I uninstalled the old drivers, becuase I didn't go into the registry and remove all of the old ATI entries. I also noticed that after a while, the "SmartGART" tab in Advanced Display Properties disappeared! So I'm thinking the drivers somehow got corrupted. I just reinstalled the 3.4's again, and everthing seems to be stable so far. Thanks for the reply! I'll follow up if anything else happens!

 

[FallOutBoyTonto]

Don't forget to install the ATI Control Panel too. That's pretty much as important as your display drivers. Keep your display driver and the control panel in the same version (both 3.2 or 3.4).

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[Crashman]

Two controllers is how XP controlls the two outputs independantly. As for stability issues, perhaps a problem with Cat 3.4.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Ghostdog]

installing is just like any other program, run the execute file and it install everything, and when u uninstall thru "remove windows programe" it shows a checker box for u to tick both 9700 pro and 9700 pro secondary.

Well if you´re the kind of person who always goes by the easy and fast way, fine. But don´t cry and start ranting when you get issues. I agree that the way you described is how it should go, but hearing all the moaning about issues with ATI´s drivers, I use a safer method than that one. Includes removing any ATI registry entries with <A HREF="http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/regcleaner.shtml" target="_new">Regcleaner</A> and removing the files that get left behind when you uninstall the driver and control panel.

I also noticed that after a while, the "SmartGART" tab in Advanced Display Properties disappeared!

I´ve gotten that too with previous drivers, the only issue I have ever had with Catalyst. With 3.4 the tab is back though.

<font color=red>I´m starting to feel like a real computer consultant.</font color=red>

 

[KrazeIke]

I think you must have one of the special 9700 Pros with hyperthreading .

 

[rook]

I need one of those! Where can I get it??

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[aweicc]

Oh! thanx for that link to regcleaner, I have being trying to find a program like that for ages! to tell the truth I do have a bit of problem with ati catalyst 3.4. and I think its because i did not clean out 3.2 properly!
thanx again!

 

[Ghostdog]

No problem dude, hope things work out for you.

<font color=red>I´m starting to feel like a real computer consultant.</font color=red>

 

[addiarmadar]

Ive noticed it on the lower cards too, must be something new with the catalyst drivers to be used for a second display.