driver install problem (Dell)

Apologies for the copy and paste from a thread over at a Dell group,
but i'd appreciate any advice on the following :-}

......

I bought the ATI 4670 per the messages earlier in the week, but i'm
hitting a strange problem, and haven't been able to figure out how the
hell to work around it...

The drivers simply refuse to install, either as myself (in the admin
group), as administrator from a safe boot, and any other combination I
can think of from letting the hardware wizard try to do it, right
clicking on the .inf files to install them from safe mode etc.

From safe mode as administrator, i'm seeing a message about policies
in force on the computer stop me installing the display driver (I seem
to have got the other components installed OK)

The previous driver for the stock ATI X600 were removed as far as
possible beforehand, but brought to mind issues where i'd tried to use
newer drivers direct from ATI and it'd fail consistently ever time.

Any clues would be welcome, because it's annoying the crap out of me
now !

......

I've since downloaded the standalone "drivers only" package, it
attempts to install them, appears to copy a load of files, then throw
out a warning, the log says "Driver Install: user must be a member of
the Administrators group"

"Colin Wilson" < o.uk> wrote
in message news:...
> Apologies for the copy and paste from a thread over at a Dell group,
> but i'd appreciate any advice on the following :-}
>
> .....
>
> I bought the ATI 4670 per the messages earlier in the week, but i'm
> hitting a strange problem, and haven't been able to figure out how the
> hell to work around it...
>
> The drivers simply refuse to install, either as myself (in the admin
> group), as administrator from a safe boot, and any other combination I
> can think of from letting the hardware wizard try to do it, right
> clicking on the .inf files to install them from safe mode etc.
>
> From safe mode as administrator, i'm seeing a message about policies
> in force on the computer stop me installing the display driver (I seem
> to have got the other components installed OK)
>
> The previous driver for the stock ATI X600 were removed as far as
> possible beforehand, but brought to mind issues where i'd tried to use
> newer drivers direct from ATI and it'd fail consistently ever time.
>
> Any clues would be welcome, because it's annoying the crap out of me
> now !
>
> .....
>
> I've since downloaded the standalone "drivers only" package, it
> attempts to install them, appears to copy a load of files, then throw
> out a warning, the log says "Driver Install: user must be a member of
> the Administrators group"

What version of Windows? And what type of user accounts? When you say you
removed the previous version of drivers "as far as possible", does this mean
they _weren't_ removed? Either they were, or they weren't.
ATI has a software removal tool. If it's not in your add/remove programs,
then you can google it or use Driver Cleaner, available here:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745
Previous drivers must be uninstalled when changing cards or chance of
problems increases substantially.

> What version of Windows? And what type of user accounts? When you say you
> removed the previous version of drivers "as far as possible", does this mean
> they _weren't_ removed? Either they were, or they weren't.
> ATI has a software removal tool. If it's not in your add/remove programs,
> then you can google it or use Driver Cleaner, available here:
> http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745
> Previous drivers must be uninstalled when changing cards or chance of
> problems increases substantially.

XP, using admin accounts, having already used the ATI software removal
util.

"Colin Wilson" < o.uk> wrote
in message news:...
>> What version of Windows? And what type of user accounts? When you say
>> you
>> removed the previous version of drivers "as far as possible", does this
>> mean
>> they _weren't_ removed? Either they were, or they weren't.
>> ATI has a software removal tool. If it's not in your add/remove
>> programs,
>> then you can google it or use Driver Cleaner, available here:
>> http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745
>> Previous drivers must be uninstalled when changing cards or chance of
>> problems increases substantially.
>
> XP, using admin accounts, having already used the ATI software removal
> util.

Have you been here:
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...eDriverXP.aspx
which mentions the following requirements:
?Administrator privileges
?Microsoft .NET framework
?Microsoft Direct X 9.0 or higher
?Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher

I have never had, and can't find anything specifically related to, your
issue, but see you've been asking around quite a bit. The thread at HTFC
pretty much covered anything I would have suggested. I've been using ATI
since the AIW was new, and never came across that same problem.
Have you used the Group Policy Editor? Maybe a corruption in a setting
somewhere?

> Have you been here:

got that lot - or should have

> I have never had, and can't find anything specifically related to, your
> issue, but see you've been asking around quite a bit. The thread at HTFC
> pretty much covered anything I would have suggested. I've been using ATI
> since the AIW was new, and never came across that same problem.
> Have you used the Group Policy Editor? Maybe a corruption in a setting
> somewhere?

It's a home PC, i've been the only user until recently (the driver
issue was apparent prior to this), and i've never used the policy
editor - i'm not even sure it exists in XP home !

I'm pretty much at the stage where i've got about 100Gb to back up,
and might just wipe the lot and start again - i've done well to be
fair, it'll be the first time it's been wiped from new (almost 4
years, which is a record for most machines)