Catalyst 14.12 ("Omega") on Vista

[11ryanc]

 

It seems that the SetThreadErrorMode is triggered by these new Catalyst drivers.

Previously, I have not had a single error from this game. Smeezekitty, would it be possible to stub this call

in a wrapper to fix these errors? They get annoying at times.

 

Its weird, i installed 15.4 with the patch  (i downloaded gta 5 and catalyst 14.9 isnt optimized for this game)

 

as you can see at the right, i can play inkball without problems, the only error i got its the user32.dll running the crew and CCC, but its fine,if i disable CCC for startup the message error never appears again.

I tried this patch to make install 15.7,but doesnt works, appareantly,the driver installs fine,but shows two pop ups errors,and aero cannot be enable again and ccc dont startup to check the version of the drivers,so its usseless right now.

For me its ok,i dont play games wich requieres 15.7 to ran fine (i only play Counter GO, GTA 5, Hardline and sometimes CoD Black Ops 2)

i hope we can find the new fix, for those people want be ussing vista until be impossible install the newest drivers.

 

I myself never experience any such issue with InkBall either, nor any game/application for that matter. Only regression is the error at login, which can be worked around by disabling the CCC at startup. Getting less framedrops here than I did in 7 playing Gutterball Golden Pin, so I'm pretty satisfied. The fact that 15.7 fails for you is concerning though. We're in the wind with drivers now, so unofficial workarounds are vital to the survival of this OS. Still, don't have to driver hop every Tuesday anyway. 14.12 is very stable for me, and I have no reason to replace it yet. Just want to know that I, "could". I heard rumors about Nvidia too, though people are modding their drivers all the time anyway.

Yes, hopefully a fix shall suffice eventually. I have no intentions of leaving my preferred software, especially not to head back to 7 in chains.

[-BFA- Alex]

SmeezeKitty, the DLL download from Mediafire no longer works. Can you fix it?

[11ryanc]

SmeezeKitty, the DLL download from Mediafire no longer works. Can you fix it?

I just did a check of the url, it is still up. Perhaps you have security software blacklisting Mediafire, maybe even ISP cap? Beware of ads on page though. I use uBlock and Noscript.

[smeezekitty]

Bad news. I have tested 15.7 and the drivers themselves do not work on Vista.

 

I am afraid that 14.12 might be the last workable release on Vista -- unless someone knows how to hack drivers.

[11ryanc]

Ah that's too bad. Well it's great we at least have what we have. 13.12 was beyond words just a nightmare. Any GPU's needing higher than 14.12 to work? Personally headed Nvidia's way in a few months here, other reasons.

[WinClient5270]

That's disheartening, and a little strange. I always thought that the drivers themselves would work since 7 and Vista have the same driver model (unless they're locked up tight to keep from being modified, like intel HD). However NVIDIA still supports Vista and inf modding is common among NVIDIA users from what I've seen, so I guess I will avoid buying a radeon GPU if I want to use Vista.

Bad news. I have tested 15.7 and the drivers themselves do not work on Vista.

 

I am afraid that 14.12 might be the last workable release on Vista -- unless someone knows how to hack drivers.

[smeezekitty]

Beta 15.4 seems to work. I will release the mod files for it later.

 

I wonder if Beta 14.6 would work? I also wonder what they broke in 14.7

 

I don't have a Freesync monitor so I can't test that feature

[smeezekitty]

here are the 32 bit patch files for Cat 15.4. It seems to be a bit less stable than 14.12 (I have had a few crashes and quirks that I didn't have with 14.12) but it may support Freesync (I don't have a FS monitor so I don't know)

[WinClient5270]

I suppose the best solution for Vista users now is to look to NVIDIA. They have much better legacy support than AMD, not to mention I've found their drivers to be much more stable. 

[yousuckstoo]

I suppose the best solution for Vista users now is to look to NVIDIA. They have much better legacy support than AMD, not to mention I've found their drivers to be much more stable. 

Not really , if you play games,the right way is update to windows 8.1/10,some games start putting windows 7 as minimum os supported (AC Rogue doesnt lauch and Advanced Warfare inicially works on vista,but after a patch, they decline vista support)

For working/editing, new drivers isnt increase a lot the performance,against update your OS (without mention dx12 are coming next year).

Windows 8 1 works a way better , 10 in couple months too 

Catalyst 15,4 Drivers are fine for the most recent games  (im playing gta 5 really smooth with those drivers, the crew and bf4 /hardline same)

Im only waiting for a decent windows vista theme for windows 10  and the first redistributable patch, to upgrade , solid colors looks terrible in my opinion.

[11ryanc]

 

I suppose the best solution for Vista users now is to look to NVIDIA. They have much better legacy support than AMD, not to mention I've found their drivers to be much more stable. 

Not really , if you play games,the right way is update to windows 8.1/10,some games start putting windows 7 as minimum os supported (AC Rogue doesnt lauch and Advanced Warfare inicially works on vista,but after a patch, they decline vista support)

For working/editing, new drivers isnt increase a lot the performance,against update your OS (without mention dx12 are coming next year).

Windows 8 1 works a way better , 10 in couple months too 

Catalyst 15,4 Drivers are fine for the most recent games  (im playing gta 5 really smooth with those drivers, the crew and bf4 /hardline same)

Im only waiting for a decent windows vista theme for windows 10  and the first redistributable patch, to upgrade , solid colors looks terrible in my opinion.

 

If you're that keen on only having Vista's UI, you could easily make 7 a near clone to Vista. As obviously easy as that is to do, those of us that remain with this OS must retain some reason, you would assume. I find it's searching options far more intuitive, especially in the light of 7's weird search related glitches and watered down UI. DWM performance is noticeably degraded in 7, but is fixed in 8.1 by quite a lot. Vista better handles non composition/Aero applications though, useful in my case since I do spend much of my time in Fireworks 8 (not fan of modern adobe suite). I also get much better performance with DX 9 games, which is what I primarily play. It is aggravating to see the mild compatibility restrictions though, especially considering neither 7 or Vista are mainstream anymore, and both share DirectX 11. Theming on Vista is much better than in more recent versions of Windows. Shellstyle panes, orbs, etc are all apart of theme. Easier to work with, in my opinion better options to choose from.

As far as Windows 10 is concerned, visual styling is the least of it's concern. The privacy issues and telementary are a massive set back. The way it update sis also very invasive. I hear the Enterprise edition will be free of such regression, however. UI is still the same, of course. Not sure about the pricing and licensing either. Interface of 10 is vastly different than Vista, 7, even 8. Lot of Metro splashed in, almost content UI. You can theme around most of it, but you'll still hit many "Metro" bumps. 8 alone already takes some 3rd party software to bring fourth sanity to it's GUI. This is a pretty decent Vista VS for 10 though, if you're interested: http://sagorpirbd.deviantart.com/art/Vista-Themes-Final-for-Windows-10-521781687Also some of the work 2008WV and I have done to make 7 more like Vista: http://2008windowsvista.deviantart.com/art/Windows-Vista7-Updates-559623294

Back on the topic of AMD/Nvidia. Yes, Nvidia is better for Vista by a country mile. I still battle some of the Explorer related glitches using the drivers. Heck, it's better for even 7 if your sole purpose isn't just to game. It's a bang for buck kind of product to game on more recent OSes, and that's really it. We have folks still using Windows 2000 on these forums, and AMD is already a headache just for Vista. Let alone 2 years prior to EOL..

Of course, use whatever serves your purpose. We all have different opinions. Why MSFN is such a great community

Edited September 20, 2015 by 11ryanc

[AnX]

After switching to a GeForce GTX 960, all of my headaches with the Radeon drivers are over. However, with nVidia, the latest 355.xx drivers have a bug with a file called nvwgf2umx.dll on certain games and applications. So I would reccomend sticking to 353.62 until the problem is fixed. Me and 2008WindowsVista have already reported the issue.

[WinClient5270]

Out of curiosity, did you test these drivers on Vista 32 bit or Vista 64 bit? I'm wondering if the drivers may work on 64 bit, but not 32 bit. I would test them but I don't have a system with a radeon GPU anymore.

Not to mention .net 4.6 was recently released for Vista which should help with compatibility as well.

Bad news. I have tested 15.7 and the drivers themselves do not work on Vista.

 

I am afraid that 14.12 might be the last workable release on Vista -- unless someone knows how to hack drivers.

[AmdfixWindowsVista]

Normaly i don't comment on forums , but huge thanks and respect to smeezekitty !

Good work and shame on ATI/AMD , that they develop new drivers only for Windows 7 and latest versions of Windows.

So for anybody who wish to know how huge this is, well ATI officialy provide following driver

 

Catalyst Software Suite

  13.12 18.12.2013

which is in my experice works out of the box, but have some performance issues and in my opionion not well optimized for latest games.

Currently i am running on  Catalyst 14.12 and driver version 14.501.1003-141120a-177997C , driver date 20.11.2014. 

Just in case when somebody ask , why bother with Vista 32bit, well i have Win7 on other partition, but my primary system is Vista and i dont't wish to move data for new Win7 because of the golden rule "never touch a running machine",

I would like add some explanation how to install Omega 14.12 drivers package.

1. First delete all Ati drivers, use Display Driver Uninstaller (boot into safe mode first!)

2. Install the Package Ati control center and other packages

3. Apply and copy files according to the instruction from the patch (see first post on this thread)

4. Edit the inf file in the directory where it was extracted

5. Sometimes for new card additional line should be edit (just look at inf file for example)

6. reboot

If all works fine than you done!

 

About new 2015 version of Ati control center , i think probably some additional work should be done to make it bug free , but this is up to

smeezekitty !

Edited October 11, 2015 by AmdfixWindowsVista

[WinClient5270]

Well unfortunately, 15.7+ on Vista seems to be a no-go. I modified the INF files and sent them to a friend of mine with a radeon GPU, and he tried them out. They installed at first but upon rebooting, they would not function. I guess AMD went deeper than a simple INF restriction this time around. Unless someone can find said restriction and fix it to work with Vista, it seems that 15.4 is the last release for Vista.