ATI Catalyst Drivers

[mDust]

My good ol' HD 2900 XT is still chuggin' along and still keeps up with most games with graphics settings at or near max. With the last few driver releases though, it's been having some issues with 3D mode. It started out as an occasional lock-up when starting a game (entering 3D mode). A couple releases later, it happened more frequently with more games. Now, with 10.6 (last month release), it's every game...every time. Running any game .exe in any way, shape or form causes a black screen that requires a hard-reboot to fix. At first I thought maybe the card had finally gone bad after one too many coolant spills, but the monitor isn't losing the signal and it works perfectly fine in 2D mode.

I've tried the following:
-uninstalling the driver, running Driver Sweeper, reinstalling 10.6...didn't work.
-double checked to make sure no anti-virus/firewalls were interfering as others' have had happen...didn't work.
-removed all traces of ATI drivers and let Windows install a cruddy little generic...worked!* WTF?!? c'mon ATI, you're going to let Microsoft show you up with your friggin' hardware? (*worked for older games. Newer, more graphically intensive games informed me that the card with that driver wasn't going to cut it...but it didn't freeze up.)

I'm still trying:
-rolling back to 1-2 year old drivers...so far, none have worked properly. I'm not holding my breath.
-thinking about installing Vista 32bit on a spare disk to try the 32bit drivers.

Anyone have an old ATI card with similar issues? I'm sort of wondering if they're killing them on purpose... The issue has been getting worse with each driver release, as if they're trying to gently herd me towards a newer card.

[msmrx57]

I'm sort of wondering if they're killing them on purpose... The issue has been getting worse with each driver release, as if they're trying to gently herd me towards a newer card.

Wouldn't surprise me.

[SXRguyinMA]

I've got a pair of 3870x2's and all the recent catalyst software has worked fine for me. I do have a Diamond Stealth s120 AGP in a backup rig that I had to search through ati's site and download the correct drivers for as catalyst wouldn't work for it

[mDust]

I completely forgot about this thread...

I do have a Diamond Stealth s120 AGP in a backup rig that I had to search through ati's site and download the correct drivers for as catalyst wouldn't work for it

I looked at their legacy drivers and they don't have any for the 2900 XT. Maybe I missed another non-Catalyst section of drivers?

I did reinstall Vista 32-bit and couldn't get the 32-bit catalyst drivers to work there either. My only XP disk is either scratched to the point of data loss or there is some hard/soft-ware configuration that's eluding me as the installation BSODs after the first reboot. I might get some polishing compound on that disk and see if that helps...it depends on the level of laziness I feel is appropriate for tonight.
I'm starting to think it might be the card after-all...if for no other reason than I 'need' a 5870. Anyone ever have a card go bad where it worked perfectly until you tried to play a game?