ATI Gamma Fix

[Igor]

Today ATI released a new version of drivers 7.12 for Radeon videocards where partially solved an old problem with incorrect gamma settings in slideshows created with PicturesToExe 5.0 and 5.1 and if you use Adobe Gamma Loader (or another color calibration software).

This problem caused by a mistake in ATI drivers. Only on Radeon videocards and only under Windows XP.

Unfortunately ATI didn't enable this fix by default (probably in future versions). But ATI provided us a special parameter which enables unified gamma settings for desktop and fullscreen 3D mode which is used in slideshows. And this problem will be completely solved.

1) Download latest drivers from ATI website (7.12 or newer):

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

(Radeon 9500 or more new video card and Windows XP are required).

2) Please download this utility we've prepared, click the button and restart Windows:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/ATIGammaFix.zip (160 KB)

p.s. I've almost found my own alternate solution which will work with any versions of ATI drivers without special actions from side of a user. But it will work only for new slideshows created with next version of PicturesToExe (probably 5.11 or 5.2). A way suggested by ATI works for all slideshows created with any version of PicturesToExe.

[Lin Evans]

One caveat about downloading ATI drivers. If you have an older ATI Radeon 9800 Pro card which resides in an AGP bus slot you do not download the "latest" ATI drivers because they won't work with your system. The latest drivers are for cards with a PGI bus.

I spoke with ATI yesterday and they recommended "not" using 7.12 for AGP based Radion 9800 Pro cards, so if you have an AGP based Radeon card you may want to call ATI and ask then which specific version to download. I know the site shows two Catalyst downloads (one just the driver and the other a complete package) for the 9800 Pro card and they are both 7.12 but they "won't" work properly if you have an AGP bus per ATI technical support.

It's all very confusing at ATI and they really need to get their information straight on their web site.

Best regards,

Lin

Today ATI released a new version of drivers 7.12 for Radeon videocards where partially solved an old problem with incorrect gamma settings in slideshows created with PicturesToExe 5.0 and 5.1 and if you use Adobe Gamma Loader (or another color calibration software).

This problem caused by a mistake in ATI drivers. Only on Radeon videocards and only under Windows XP.

Unfortunately ATI didn't enable this fix by default (probably in future versions). But ATI provided us a special parameter which enables unified gamma settings for desktop and fullscreen 3D mode which is used in slideshows. And this problem will be completely solved.

1) Download latest drivers from ATI website:

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst...p=xp/radeonx-xp

(Radeon 9500 or more new video card and Windows XP required).

2) Please download this utility we've prepared, click the button and restart Windows:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/ATIGammaFix.zip (160 KB)

p.s. I've almost found my own alternate solution which will work with any versions of ATI drivers without special actions from side of a user. But it will work only for new slideshows created with next version of PicturesToExe (probably 5.11 or 5.2). A way suggested by ATI works for all slideshows created with any version of PicturesToExe.

[Rick Strong]

If there was a quick patch for Radeon 7500 cards, that would be great. Lin said something about ATI having a solution for all ATI cards?

[Ed Overstreet]

Igor, bless you for all the hard work you put in, lobbying with ATI to fix the drivers, and in providing fixes and work-arounds! Best wishes for the holiday season

[Urmas]

Seems, that solution provided by ATI does not solve all problems. I have laptop from Twinhead Durabook series (2 year old) and a new ATI driver says "Hardware not compatible". Although it has Mobility Radeon 9600/9700. Meanwhile future gamma fix provided by Igor in PTE worked fine and restored calibration profile for the show. So, I will probably have to wait until new release of PTE with ATI gamma fix.

[mhwarner]

No luck for me. I have a Dell laptop with ATI Radeon X1400. The driver for that card does not list Dell among the manufacturers and when I ran the little utility to tell me if the driver update was compatible, it said to check with the manufacturer. When I went to Dell's site, the latest driver I found was 7/2006 -- almost 6 months before I bought my computer. Bummer. I will have to wait for Igor's solution.

[Igor]

ATI understands and confirms this bug, but these new drivers with partial solution is all that ATI suggests right now.

Thanks for letting me know about result.

So, I'll continue work on my own solution for all ATI video cards and with any drivers.

[Ed Overstreet]

I have a Dell Inspiron with an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. The driver update on the ATI website will not install on my system, I get an error message instructing me to get the update from Dell instead. Dell doesn't have an update for the driver, and their tech support site just sends me an automated reply telling me to download their latest driver. I don't get a response from a live person because the warranty has long-since expired, and I'm not going to pay to have someone tell me what I already know -- the latest driver for the 9700 on the Dell site is dated 2005. So until (and if) Dell posts a driver update that I can install, I'm still in the lurch too. Will have to wait for Igor's fix in a later PTE version, I guess. (The fix that Igor posted does install even though I can't install the driver update, but the colour calibration problem isn't fixed without the driver update, at least not on my system.)

[daveharris]

My Evesham (MSI) laptop has the same problem, the ATI drivers (dated 2004) are the only ones that will work.

I look forward to Igor's fix so that I can use my Spyder to calibrate my laptop and projector.

Regards,

Dave

I have a Dell Inspiron with an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. The driver update on the ATI website will not install on my system, I get an error message instructing me to get the update from Dell instead. Dell doesn't have an update for the driver, and their tech support site just sends me an automated reply telling me to download their latest driver. I don't get a response from a live person because the warranty has long-since expired, and I'm not going to pay to have someone tell me what I already know -- the latest driver for the 9700 on the Dell site is dated 2005. So until (and if) Dell posts a driver update that I can install, I'm still in the lurch too. Will have to wait for Igor's fix in a later PTE version, I guess. (The fix that Igor posted does install even though I can't install the driver update, but the colour calibration problem isn't fixed without the driver update, at least not on my system.)

[AnKo]

Good news for the ATI videocard users among us!! The people of Omegadrivers reworked the ATI driver 7.12 to work with AGP port and they maneged to fix the 3D gamma problem. At least it did to me with my ASUS ATI 9800 Pro card while working with a monitorprofile made with my Spider2!! And it is just great!

Omegadrivers are tweaked ATI drivers on points of quality and speed. And now they fixed the AGP and 3D gamma problem on the 7.12 ATI drivers (until ATI fixes this problems, they say).

You can find the drivers on this link: http://omegadrivers.net/ati_winxp.php

I hope many of you give this a try and experience the beauty of PTE working on a colormanaged monitor.

Regards,

André

[xahu34]

Hello,

in the meantime a new version "ATI Catalyst™ 8.1 Display Driver for Windows XP" has been released. Is there any experience with Version 8.1 and the ATI Gamma Problem?

Kind regards,

xahu34

Munich

[AnKo]

xahu34,

Did you tried the Omega-drivers? They don't "tweak" every set of original ATI-drivers because most of them solve only gaming problems which is not interesting enough to tweak. And it seems to be a lot of work to rework them.

However, the Omega-drivers I mentioned in this threat (based on the 7.12 ATI-drivers) DO solve the gamma problems mentioned severel times on this forum. I cannot believe nobody is trying this solution, waiting for ATI to do the same thing.

As far as I know nothing has changed by ATI to solve "our" problems.

Regards,

André

[frets3]

Hi, André,

In response to your inquiry, I tried the Omega ATI drivers. They did preserve my gamma settings in full-screen mode, which certainly confirmed your endorsement.

Interestingly, my CPU usage in idle mode increased to over 50 percent after the installation. I concluded that this is because some of the Radeon x600 video card's hardware processing has been replaced by that of the Omega software.

Thank you so much for the Omega link!

David White

[xahu34]

Hello AnKo,

Thank you for your remark. I myself do not need this driver, as I have an Nvidia card. But I am in discussion with people from our photo club on the use of affordable AV-SW, and it would be helpful to know that the ATI gamma problem were solved. A solution by WnSoft or ATI would be better than using a driver from a third party.

Kind regards,

xahu34

Munich

[AnKo]

Hello David & xahu34,

I did some searching on forums to find answers to the problems with the X600. There are more people having the kind of problems you mentioned. But there could be a solution as well. Install the ATI 7.12 drivers first and after that, without uninstalling, install the Omega drivers on top of them. This helps in several cases.

Omega does not rework all drivers/dll's form ATI, they even uses some older ATI drivers for best results. Give it a try, the gammafix is worth it.

I hope your clubmenbers do have positif results with Omega. These are real good drivers!

Maybe Igor can use this knowledge too for incorporating a permenent gammafix in PtE?

Thanks for your reply on this matter.

Regards,

André

[frets3]

Hi, André,

Thanks for researching the Radeon x600 Omega driver peculiarities. I'll re-install them over the ATI 7.12 drivers and see what happens. :>))

Best wishes,

David White

[Ken Cox]

there might be a tweak here

http://www.tweakguides.com/System.html

http://www.tweakguides.com/

ken

[xahu34]

Hello,

Looking at the "ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide" on "tweakguides.com", which refers to version 8.1 of the ATI Catalyst, you can read on page 8 (Catalyst Control Center) a section on color: "...you can manually change the color and brightness/contrast/gamma settings for your Desktop and/or 3D games in this section. The first choice you have to make is whether you want to adjust these settings for your Windows Desktop (Select the 'Desktop' option), or for 3D Applications (Select the 'Full Screen 3D' option)". Perhaps, these individual gamma settings for Desktop and 3D may be helpful!?

Kind regards

xahu34

Munich

[frets3]

Hi, Igor,

Your remedy cured my ATI Radeon x600 full-screen gamma problem. I followed your instructions, installing The new Catalyst 8.1 drivers, then running your ATI Gamma Fix linked at the top of this thread.

I wish that I had done this earlier, but I mistakenly believed that my card was too old to benefit.

Thank you very much for creating this solution!

David White

[AnKo]

Hi all,

The problem is that the ATI + 7.12 drivers do NOT work with the older AGP cards, only PCI. There is a threat about this subject on this forum by Lin Evans. However, the AGP issue is solved within the Omega drivers. One can make his advantage of this.

In my case the Gamma fix by Igor didn't work for reasons of AGP compatibility.

Regards,

André

[Igor]

I'll release soon an updated version of 5.1 with my own fix for all ATI cards.

[mhwarner]

I'll release soon an updated version of 5.1 with my own fix for all ATI cards.

Thank you, Igor! It will be much appreciated!