AMD Radeon 7770 & Vista - Customer Support

Sent: 12/09/12 12:21:59 Subject: CCC.exe Exception - The substitution str

 When I install the AMD Radeon driver I see the following exception in the windows event viewer:  CCC Host Ap error: CCC.exe 3.5.0.0 4f8350ef atiumd64.dll 9.14.10.920 4fd61ea8 c0000005 000000000044d542
The substitution string for insert index (%1) could not be found
This thread describes the exact same issue by someone else
http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/19600-help-with-amdati-driver-fail/

Please provide a link to a suitable driver for Vista 64bit or link to a fix. If you need any further information please email me at

Sent: Friday, December 14, 2012 11:22 AM Subject: AMD Service Notice:{ticketno:[8200522953]} Dear Barry,
Your service request : SR #{ticketno:[8200522953]} has been reviewed and updated. Response and Service Request History:
I apologize for the lengthy wait between your e-mail and our reply. The initial agent responsible for handling your Service Request neglected to do so, so this has been escalated to me to ensure that it is resolved quickly. We apologize again for the inconvenience.
This is an issue that has been reported by many Vista users over a myriad of programs, not just the Catalyst Control Center, and has been determined to be the NOD32 module which is part of the Norton Antivirus Software. If you go to IMON/Setup in Norton, under the HTTP tab just disable HTTP Checking and you should be good to go. If this does not resolve the issue, I recommend running Windows Update and installing any outstanding updates, and lastly try contacting Microsoft support, as this is a known issue with Vista, not with the AMD software, and any suggestions that I offer will be best-guess-based, since this is not caused by anything AMD-related, it's just presenting itself during the CCC.exe launching and receiving web data.

The current Vista drivers are available at http://www.amd.com/drivers, for future reference. If you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reply to this e-mail directly and I will try to provide any additional information that you may require.
Thank you for contacting AMD! In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact.
Best regards, AMD Global Customer Care


 Re: AMD Service Notice:{ticketno:[8200522953]} Show Details
Thanks for the response, but I don't use Norton.
 Actually, I did a clean install of Vista with all Windows updates and it works great until I install the AMD driver.
 I write software myself and couldn't imagine telling my customer "this is a known issue with Vista, not with the AMD software".

I don't expect answers to these but you may want to pass them on-

1. Even if it is a windows problem shouldn't the AMD driver exception handling log a meaningful error to the event viewer? 
2. if the Vista driver was tested on Vista, how did this Vista issue not surface then? 
3. Does your company take a proactive approach when "many Vista users" complain about the same issue?  
1. Pointing me to a microsoft bug report filed by AMD would at least show me that your company is actively trying to support its customers. 

I realize Microsoft products sometimes have issues and may implement non-standard solutions but as a driver provider, AMD needs to code for those situations and/or be proactive about solving the issues or you risk losing customers, like you just did.


Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 9:36 AM
Subject: AMD Service Notice:{ticketno:[8200522953]}

Your service request : SR #{ticketno:[8200522953]} has been reviewed and updated.
Response and Service Request History:
It was an issue that came up with Vista in general, not just with AMD software. I know as I still run Vista and have had it appear more than a few times. I was lucky enough in that I was able to get rid of Norton (which came with the laptop) and my issue was resolved, but I do know that it does happen to Vista users, regardless of the AMD software. It occurs with everything from printers to nVidia/AMD/Intel graphics (I have the Intel Integrated graphics with an Intel CPU, I bought it years ago), so it wasn't an AMD error, it was a Vista error that Intel wouldn't help me with. I just had to fix it myself, which wasn't too fun.
I haven't found a bug report from AMD as this wasn't limited to AMD installations, it was found across a myriad of installation types and device types (USB printers, nVidia or AMD graphics cards, Microsoft Wireless Mouse/Keyboard, etc), as I did a lot of research when I couldn't install my Intel drivers for my laptop, back in 2008. Intel just passed me off to Microsoft, who tried to offer some workarounds, but it was definitely a frustrating ordeal for me. Currently, I haven't found anyone who designed a specific workaround for this, with the developers saying that this was a bug with Vista that needed to be remedied through Microsoft, since there weren't any workarounds that could be easily coded into the installation software.
When the crash occured, did it occur during the extraction process (Clicking Install, before language selection), or during the installation process (after selecting language)? There might be something that I can have you try as a workaround, but I need to find out if we got past the extraction stage or not. I'll get into the lab to see if I can reproduce a workaround through our Vista machine, and when you let me know which point in the installation caused the crash, I might be able to get a workaround set up to get things installed anyways. It wouldn't be a driver-based fix, just a workaround based on some things that I tried during my attempts on my laptop, if you're willing to try some slightly more unorthodox methods to get things working properly.
In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact.
Best regards,
AMD Global Customer Care

Sent:	12/20/12 16:11:50
Subject:	Re: AMD Service Notice:{ticketno:[8200522953]}

Thanks for offering to help.  The install of the AMD driver is without error.  After I restart Vista, the error pops up.

Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:58 PM
Subject: AMD Service Notice:{ticketno:[8200522953]}

Your service request : SR #{ticketno:[8200522953]} has been reviewed and updated.

Response and Service Request History:

At least the install finishes, so that's a start. What I'd like to get you to do is to try to wipe off all of the current AMD software and to try a clean version from our newest Beta suite, to determine if there's anything that can be easily rectified by our software, or if we have some workarounds that I can suggest from the lab and my experience before, I just want to check just in case one of the shared GAC tokens might be part of the cause of this issue.

This can happen when there are drivers and public keys that are conflicting with one another due to previous driver software being present on the system and being used by Windows with the new software at the same time. The best solution is to do a clean wipe of the drivers and keys, and start with a clean slate for Catalyst. To start, go tohttp://support.amd.com and click on "AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta Driver under the Top Support Articles header. The Catalyst Software Suite is what we'll be downloading here (not the Application Profiles or the Suite with .Net 4 support). I recommend saving this file, instead of just running it, as you will need to use it twice in this process.

Before beginning the uninstall/reinstallation process, please run Windows Update to ensure that there are no outstanding recommended/required updates, especially updates for the .Net or C++ frameworks, or Service Pack updates. This will ensure that our software will run properly. Once you have downloaded the Catalyst suite, after running the installer and selecting your language of choice, there will be an option to Install or Uninstall. Click Uninstall and then select "Express" uninstall. After the drivers and software are removed by the Catalyst Suite, you will be given the option to restart. Click cancel as we will attempt to remove any remnants of software that were missed by the uninstaller. First,make a System Restore Point in Windows, then you will need to restart the computer in Safe Mode. This can be done either by pressing F8 repeatedly when the system restarts, or you can force Windows into Safe Mode by pressing the Start button, and typing in msconfig and pressing Enter. Once this utility launches, click on the Boot tab and select Safe Boot (Minimal). Now, you can restart the computer. Once it loads under safe mode, you will need to go to the following locations to delete any possible remnants that the Uninstaller missed (you can also delete any folders named ati technologies if you see them as well):

C:/AMD; C:/ATI; C:/ProgramData/AMD; C:/ProgramData/ATI; C:/Program Files (x86)/AMD; C:/Program Files (x86)/ATI; C:/Program Files/AMD; C:/Program Files/ATI; C:/Users/[your user name]/AppData/Local/AMD; C:/Users/[your user name]/AppData/Local/ATI; C:/Users/[your user name]/AppData/Roaming/AMD; C:/Users/[your user name]/AppData/Roaming/ATI

Next, go to C:\Windows\assembly and sort by "Public Key Token". Locate the following Public Key Token "90ba9c70f846762e". Usually there are only two entries. However, there can be as many as 450. Make sure to be careful here we are only deleting/uninstalling entries tagged with the "90ba9c70f846762e" token. (if deletion will not work right-click and uninstall). You can select multiple entries by clicking on the first token with 90ba9c70f846762e (usually starting with ACE), scrolling down to the last entry with 90ba9c70f846762e as the token, holding the SHIFT button and clicking on the last entry. This will select all of the tokens with the value 90ba9c70f846762e, provided that you sorted them by Token at the beginning. You have to be in safe mode for this to work, and make sure that you only select the ones with the above matching token. Once they are deleted/uninstalled, restart the computer in normal mode.There may not be any of these keys here, it will depend on the version of uninstaller that you are using. If there are none with that specific token, or once you have uninstalled any existing keys with that token, then you can move to the last step.

Now you will need to restart again. If you used msconfig to start the Safe Boot, you will need to open it again, and go back to the Boot tab to unselect the Safe Boot option. Once Windows loads in normal mode, run the Catalyst Suite installer that you downloaded previously and select Install and then Express. Once this runs, restart one last time, and you should have things back to running properly again.

Let me know how it goes, and I'll see what other workarounds might be in place for this to work properly again. Thank you for your patience.

In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact.

Best regards,

AMD Global Customer Care

Sent:	12/21/12 10:23:01
Subject:	Re: AMD Service Notice:{ticketno:[8200522953]}

Alright, it is fixed.  Here were the steps in case someone else with Vista has the same issue:

Steps for your users:

1. Run windows update on Vista Ultimate 64bit
2. Install Service Pack 1 using windows update service
3. It says successful, but this is not true.
   1. Go to control panel and look for "Installed Updates" to find "Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330)".  It is not there
4. Download the 64bit SP1 directly from Microsoft
   1. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21299
6. Start > msconfig (as administrator).
7. Under Services tab, check the Hide all Microsoft services box.
8. Under Services tab, Disable all.
9. Under Startup tab, Disable all.
10. Reboot.
11. Run the downloaded SP1 executable which will restart the computer 3 times
13. msconfig as administrator again, restore the Services and Startups you wish to run, or under the General tab select Normal startup.

Steps for AMD

1. Add a validation step to the driver to check that SP1 is installed.  If not, it should fail the install with a message stating that SP1 is a minimum requirement for this software.

Thanks for your help,

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