If you’re using the PDC release of Windows 7 with an ATI display adapter, you might want to check out this preview driver package. I’ve installed it here on a system running a Radeon HD 2600 XT and it appears to be working fine.
I strongly recommend reading the release notes first. In particular, note that the AVIVO converter is disabled (which means you’ll get an error message after setup if you choose that option). Also, there are warnings about instability with “certain display configurations,” with a special note that Desktop Window Manager “will become disabled in high resolution and multi-display extended modes.”
It supports only the following GPUs:
- Radeon™ HD 4000 Series
- Radeon™ HD 3000 Series
- Radeon™ HD 2000 Series
- Mobility Radeon™ HD 4000 Series
- Mobility Radeon™ HD 3000 Series
- Mobility Radeon™ HD 2000 Series
- AMD 780G
- AMD 780V
- AMD 790GX
It runs only on Windows 7 (x86 or x64) and should not be installed on Vista.
If you’re still interested after reading the disclaimers, let me know how it works for you.
(via Aaron Tiensivu)
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
I’m more than a little irked at ATI right now, because of a problem that has persisted through several driver updates on their end. My ATI Radeon 2600 XT throws that infernal “Driver stopped responding” error (which usually leads to a full-blown BSOD), and it appears to be doing this for most anyone who has two monitors plugged in. I’ve gone through just about every suggestion I can run down with no luck. And this on a Dell XPS 420, not a whitebox machine. Ugh.
Serdar, I also have an XPS 420 with the 2600 XT and I getr that error message fairly often with Windows 7 but not with Vista. It’s apparently a known issue with Windows 7 and is documented in the readme.
Serdar,
Interesting comment. I have dual monitors and a Radeon 3600. I get the ‘your display driver has restarted’ every so often. I was also getting frequent BSODs until I replaced my PSU. However I still get the occasional ‘Your display driver has restarted” message.
Serdar, are you getting that issue under Windows Vista?
I’ve been all around the houses with Microsoft, ATI and NVIDIA with this issue and bottom line, I don’t think anyone really knows why some people are getting these problems on some systems because the crash debug data doesn’t contain enough information on the problem. It’s related to a vertical sync problem no doubt, and the latest ATI and NVIDIA drivers do seem to collect more data on the issue, and Windows 7 will pave the way for more crash data collection.
I had two systems that were plagued by that “Driver stopped responding” problem, both of which had dual screens. Want to know what I did to fix the problem? Well, both systems had a mix of different screens fitted (one a 19″ Hyundai and a 22″ Samsung). I moved both 19″ screens to one system and the 22″ screens to the other and the problem disappeared instantly (I later upgraded the 19″ screens to 24″ screens and still had no issue).
Interesting discussion. Thanks for the input, Adrian.
On my main system, I have an ATI Radeon 3650 w/ 512MB. It’s connected to two monitors, one of which is runnnig at 1920 x 1200, the other at 1600 x 1200. I cannot remember the last time I saw that “display driver has stopped responding” message.
Yes, this is Vista, BTW.
Also, Adrian, if the vertical sync issue is part of it, then that might explain why something I just did might have had an effect. I set both monitors to use the “Generic PnP” video driver, as of two days ago, and I haven’t had a single crash/reset yet. Apparently I was using a manufacturer’s driver for the big monitor, and on a whim I decided to dump that and use MS’s own generic driver. It hasn’t resulted in any loss of functionality that I can discern, and the last crash was on 11/18 at 2:48 PM (thank you, custom Event Viewer filters).
(My setup is close to what Ed has : a larger monitor and a smaller one.)
I’ll post back here after a week or so and let you know if the problem has buzzed back out.
Follow-up. Two days have gone by since my last driver crash. Given that I used to get at least 1-2 a day, I’m tempted to say that was the solution.
Aargh. Four days of perfect and then whammo, it happened again!
I’m tempted to change video cards.
Serdar, that’s odd … however, if the frequency of the hangs have increased, that’s overall a good thing.
Also Serdar, if you plan on changing video cards, I should probably tell you that I went through about a dozen ATI cards on that system and each one gave me grief until I changed monitors …. then the cards that gave me grief all behaved just fine.
Didn’t switch to NVIDIA until lately, and they have been rock solid … those twin GTX 280s were a grand investment!
Please Help Me!
I have Win 7 and a ATI RADEON X1650, my PC it’s connected to my LCD TV and when i open both monitors….windows modify my resolutions, i can’t put more then 1024X720 ….on win XP runs great…but i don’t know why i can’t modify the resolution now….somebody knows how cand help me?…sry if ain’t write very well….:)
That’s the problem with beta software. Are you using the most recent beta drivers from ATI?
With Win7 the resolution will max out at the highest reolution your monitor(s) supports. If the lowest resolution monitor supports 720i/p it will max out both displays and 720. If it supports 1080i/p it will max out both at 1080. It only does that in a dual screen (extended or cloned mode). Its windows doing that, not Ati or NVidia.