2008-01-14

ATi Catalyst Display Driver Issue: "CRT invalid display type" on Windows XP

ati2mtag: CRT invalid display type errors in Windows Event Viewer
Catalyst Display Driver 7.7 and higher

When a digital panel is connected to a Radeon graphics card between Radeon models 9500 and HD2900 (including X300 through X1950) you will see many errors in the Windows event log listed as "CRT invalid display type"; with the source being "ati2mtag".

AMD/ATi has known about this issue since the end of August 2007 and has supposedly been investigating it. I don't know that they have discovered a fix yet as I just downloaded the newest drivers from last December and have these errors popping up in my own event viewer (hence my own Google chase.)

I figured I would try to save others some trouble. Click the link above to get updated information if/when it arrives. At the time of this posting, the article has been viewed 18227 times and only modified once, the day after the original post. I guess they haven't figured it out yet. :)

Their solution is to install Catalyst version 7.6; and they say it won't cause issues to the system or performance (though from my Googling, it sounds like many have had system hangs/random reboots/screen blankouts because of it.) Your mileage may vary. I haven't seen any reboots myself.
Please comment on your experiences with this issue and any better solutions (if any) you've found.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a pain... BIG time. I have been just fine as up until about a day or so ago. nothing had changed. Just all of a sudden... i started getting a few hang up. Nothing much, just annoying. Then just as soon, i was moving a window when the whole system locked up. It never recovered. I had to hard reboot. Watching a movie, same thing. Then i just now had it happen, only this time, it recovered, but not the driver. My scrolling and window animations are VERY sluggish. it's annoying the piss out of me...

That One Guy said...

fleshth:
Are you getting the same error in your event logs when this behavior happens?

My system started slowing down on me big time last night doing various non-movie, non-gaming things; but using applications that had other smaller animations in them.

My event log is filled with instances of these messages; especially when the slow-downs happen. I agree with the frustration.

Have you tried going back to Catalyst version 7.6 to see if that helps?

Anonymous said...

Happens the same to me, i'm gonna try 7.6 drivers then

That One Guy said...

I downloaded the 8.3 Catalyst Drivers and the issue STILL remains.

Frustration doesn't quite describe it...

Anonymous said...

after the fact (buying new card) I'm able to see error code in event viewer --I got the 4 beep error codes - monitor issue, no video at all! Bought new vid card (to test/eliminate) and prob went away! Going to RMA card but hearing driver solutions has me wondering/wanting to try old card
(800XL) again w/installed newer drivers 8.4 -first time EVER having vid card failure.

That One Guy said...

Interestingly, as of today (18 May 2008) AMD/ATi has removed the question I linked to in their knowledge-base from their site.

Maybe they've adopted the "Ignore the problem and it will go away." philosophy. :(

I sure hope not, because they've proven that wrong.

Has anyone EVER seen this problem go away with any version of the Catalyst Drivers?

Anonymous said...

I have the very same problem and it sucks! My computer freezes at random and I have to hard reset. When I check the Log Viewer after reboot, I have this error message :( I have no other problems than this freezing at random times problem. I remember when I had the original drivers for my graphics card (it says ATI Radeon X300/X550/X1050 in Display Settings, I don't know which one I have) it wouldn't freeze at all. I've begun having this problem just as soon as I reformatted and did a fresh XP installation on my PC. The weirdest thing is people having this problem say they encounter the problem when they play games, run heavily-animated programs etc. I, on the othar hand, face this problem quite randomly. i.e. when listening to music on WMP, when surfing on the internet etc. all light duties. I hope we get a solution soon or else I'm never gonna buy an ATI graphics card again!

Anonymous said...

Just to let everyone know, I just started having this problem using Catalyst 6.2 drivers on a fresh install of Windows 2000 Professional SP4 ... Tried using Omega drivers and still having the same issue

That One Guy said...

I installed the 8.12 Catalyst Drivers this morning... I'll watch and see if I still get the error.

@PZN: Thanks for the extra info.

That One Guy said...

It's now been two days... my kids have played many games and done video applications on the machine.

I have yet to see the error with the Catalyst 8.12 drivers.

Let us know if you have the same luck.