ATI 9600 in Gateway M505X notebook

(It's a Centrino 1.4 setup with 768M)

Built-in Vista WDDM drivers work ... OK... no issues at all, just that I prefer ATI drivers

So...

Upgraded to Cat 7.1 and/or Cat 7.2 and same thing happens:

1. Reboot after install

2. Blue VISTA logo shows while booting up

3. LCD on laptop is then completely blank

Attaching VGA monitor to VGA port on laptop permits VGA monitor to work - I can log in and all anything I want, but I can't extend my desktop to the LCD monitor on the Gateway, and I can't reboot and have (just) the LCD monitor work (without the VGA monitor attached).

It's as if the LCD monitor is totally dead when ATI's Cat 7.1/7.2 drivers are installed.

Going into Device Mgr. and reverting to the previous drivers (MS WDDM drivers) causes everything to work normally again.

Any ideas?

Silly suggestion I know but couldn't you just leave it as it was when it worked.

If it ain't broke don't fix it and all that?

Silly suggestion I know but couldn't you just leave it as it was when it worked.

If it ain't broke don't fix it and all that?

Of course I'm currently using the Microsoft WDDM drivers.

But I'd much prefer the better speed and features of the ATI driver.... hence the question.