okay, now I understand my problem.

[dan/california]

my HP laptop, Pavilion DV7, apparently can only get video driver updates from HP. I cannot use the standard ATI drivers that come out here every month or so. I just spent the better part of two hours online with HP support trying to find a workaround for this problem and couldn't. Or at least they wouldn't tell me what it was.

So can battlefront or anybody else out there give me a hand. Is there some way to work around whatever hardware or software lockout HP is put in this thing. Or am I never going to be able to run the game without these crashes. The last driver HP bothered to rework for their set up is from the summer of 2009. They were notably silent about when they might do another update on this.

I am fully aware Battlefront didn't cause this problem, but I just bought NATO has would really like to play. Any help or ideas from Battlefront or anyone out else out there would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and check the fine print when you're buying a laptop. Read the fine print really, really carefully.

[Schrullenhaft]

What happens is that some laptop manufacturers either have customizations done on their video chip (not hardware, most of the time) and thus they don't get recognized by the standard Catalyst drivers (for ATI/AMD in this case).

Sometimes you can work around this and other times you are truly stuck with whatever the laptop manufacturer provides for drivers. In your case with HP you managed to get the drivers that had the biggest problems with CMSF, the 9.4 to 9.9 Catalysts (late spring to early fall 2009).

The one workaround that I've seen is the DriverHeaven/HardwareHeaven Mobility Modder. However this software hasn't been updated since early 2009, so it may not work with the latest Catalysts. That may involve quite a bit of time trying to find the Catalyst drivers that may continue to work with this 'modder' package. You'll need to read this website thoroughly to understand what you'll be doing since there's a number of steps involved.

I suggest downloading the ATI/AMD Catalysts 9.10 - 9.12 and maybe some of the 10.4 - 10.10 Catalysts and try them out with this modder program. Again, due to its age, it may not support the newest Catalyst drivers.

[dan/california]

Nothing I have tried so far has advanced the driver version. And I have tried a BUNCH of things. If it is a software problem would a clean windows 7 install fix the problem. or is whatever HP fiddled with at a deeper level than that?

I will check on the Driver heaven idea.

[dan/california]

I sent the driver heaven people an email. I will relay their response. I am fairly certain I am not the only person with this problem. I may see if Costco will just regard the whole mess as a warranty issue. That might actually light a fire under sensitive portions of HPs anatomy. Or least make it not my problem. Thanks for the help.

[Schrullenhaft]

I believe the issue goes deeper than a 'reinstall of Windows 7'. The 'PCI ID' of the video device in the HP laptop will not be recognized by the ATI/AMD Catalyst drivers. The DriverHeaven/HardwareHeaven Modder takes the INFs of an extracted Catalyst driver and adds entries for a number of laptops. It's possible that their modified INFs may be too old AND not cover your particular laptop.

There are, sometimes, specific driver releases for laptops from ATI/AMD. However it is still possible that your particular laptop is not supported by these drivers. Here's the latest 'patch' to Catalyst 10.10 drivers for Windows 7 32-bit. Which specific HP Pavilion DV7 do you have (the actual model number) since HP make so many possible variations on a model ?

[dan/california]

Okay, I think I have figured out a way to jailbreak my driver's and solve the problem. It was somewhat radical. The critical step is a program called ReadyDriverPlus v1.2 that disables an overly paranoid safety in the Windows boot file. This joyous little file will only allow the laptop to run drivers signed by Microsoft, it is my assumption that HP is simply too cheap and/or lazy to either test new drivers and release them, or allow the standard version of catalyst to run. Ready Driver Plus disables this.

The next step is a wonderful little jail broken driver from http://www.hardwareheaven.com/windows-7-vista-radeon-display-drivers/205186-dna-ati-10-10a-1-a.html. This guy seems to be borderline brilliant at working around the computer manufacturers attempt to make us crazy. If anyone else is having this problem please note this is a link to the link, and not the program itself. It all appears to work for me wonderfully, although I've barely had any time to play in the last three days. I am however going to repeat what the programmers themselves said, this is an as is, no warranty, it may break stuff, kind of thing to do to your computer. I would however like to address my appreciation to these gentlemen for helping us deal with the very worst sort of intentional planned obsolescence. I will never buy another product from HP, ever, not so much the printer cartridge. The fact that this bloody hack worked is more or less absolute proof I shouldn't of had to do it.

Battlefront has, as always, provided the best customer support anyone could reasonably ask for. This is appreciated.

[Schrullenhaft]

Nice to know that there is another modified driver out there and thanks for posting the info for other users. Some users (depending on their laptop's age) may need the DNA "Legacy" drivers, which are at 10.2 (which may have had some problems with CMSF though).

One word of note, HP is NOT the only laptop manufacturer that is guilty of limiting the drivers that can be used with their products. Dell has done this in the past as have others. Sometimes there doesn't seem to be any good reason (unless it was some sort of cost savings in the licensing agreement or some idea that it would simplify support), but on occasion there is a legitimate reason because of hardware/firmware differences in the implemented hardware.

[dan/california]

It's just one of those classic little sorry we forgot to mention that, bleep you sort of things. If they had to put on the front of the box in big red letters that there drivers locked down forever they wouldn't do it. But they don't tell you about it, at all. They just do it and hope most of their customers never notice. I guess I just put this down as a painful lesson learned.

I can assure you that I'll bug the heck out of them with the question the next time I buy computer. No standard drivers, no sale.