BACKGROUND
I just upgraded to a HD 7850 with the intention of overclocking it a bit. However, I could not get the Overdrive function to work in the AMD Vision Engine Control Center (formerly known as Catalyst Control Center) after upgrading the drivers to version 12.4. I read a few comments from people having the same or similar issue and thought I'd post my solution.
NOTE: Skip down to the "The Real Solution" section for the quick answer.
MY PROBLEMS
After upgrading the Catalyst drivers package from version 11.x to the most recent 12.4:
1. Clicking on the Performance tab in VECC resulted in the standard warning with an Accept button. Pressing the Accept button would take me to a page with a couple of enable buttons for CPU and GPU Overdrive. However, the two links at the bottom to Configure the Overdrive settings were not active. There was no "CPU Overdrive" or "Graphics Overdrive" tab options on the left (which is where those links are supposed to take you).
2. Exiting the VECC and then selecting the Overdrive tab would always bring up the warning page and Accept button.
3. Selecting the "Information" tab and then "Software" the Catalyst Version in the table was incorrect. I was able to confirm the Driver was correct and 3D performance was as expected.
SOLUTION #1:
Disable Windows UAC (User Access Control) by setting the slider to the bottom and reboot.
This fixed the Overdrive problem. The proper screens would appear in VECC to overclock the CPU and GPU.
Disadvantage: UAC should not have to be disabled! It's a major security risk and I do not recommend it except for temporary purposes!
SOLUTION #2:
Third party overclock utilities. They worked for me, even with UAC enabled.
Disadvantage: I don't want to mess around with extra apps in my startup. It's another piece of software that could break on the next release of Catalyst drivers and will most likely need some updating in the future. Plus I want to overclock my CPU (AMD Phenom) and the Overdrive in VECC does both. If I used 3rd party GPU utilities, I'd have to install the separate AMD Overdrive (confusing? yes) to overclock my CPU.
THE REAL SOLUTION:
1. Uninstall your current drivers and clean the registry with Driver Cleaner according to this thread.
WARNING! For AMD CPU systems, be sure to choose "Custom" and NOT "Express" in the un-installer or it will remove all your storage and USB drivers as well!
NOTE: If you installed over previous drivers, those drivers will be automatically loaded during the AMD uninstall. You can identify this if your desktop resolution does not change to VGA (640x480) during the uninstall process. This shouldn't be a problem, Driver Cleaner will find and remove it. However, if you want to sure, open up Device Manager, select Properties on the Display Adapter (should be identified as AMD Radeon xxxx), click the Driver tab, choose Uninstall, check the box that says to delete the driver, then OK. Repeat that until the Standard VGA driver gets installed, then continue with the procedure in the post above.
2. You should now be at the normal (non-safemode) desktop, but in low VGA resolution. Now install the AMD driver pack of your choice. I used version 12.4. Since I have a SSD and want to conserve space, I always choose Custom installation, then only install the AMD Display Driver, AMD Media Foundation Decoders, and AMD VISION Engine Control Center.
3. Reboot when prompted.
4. Done! Open VECC, Overdrive tab, and click Accept. You should now have a "Graphics OverDrive" sub-tab to overclock with.
FINAL COMMENT
If you installed Catalyst version 12.4, you might notice if you go to the Information, Software tab of VECC that there's an entry called "Catalyst Version" that is probably incorrect. In my case, I had previously tried version 12.3 at one point and that's the number that stuck.
DON"T PANIC! Everything is OK. It appears that in going from 12.3 to 12.4, and AMD forgot to update that property in the registry.
It's named "Catalyst Version" and located here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000
During testing, I completely deleted that key after uninstalling the AMD drivers. Then when I installed version 12.4, it rebuilt the key but without the "Catalyst Version" property. Now there is no Catalyst Version entry in my version table of VECC. If they add it later it'll reappear automatically.
I just upgraded to a HD 7850 with the intention of overclocking it a bit. However, I could not get the Overdrive function to work in the AMD Vision Engine Control Center (formerly known as Catalyst Control Center) after upgrading the drivers to version 12.4. I read a few comments from people having the same or similar issue and thought I'd post my solution.
NOTE: Skip down to the "The Real Solution" section for the quick answer.
MY PROBLEMS
After upgrading the Catalyst drivers package from version 11.x to the most recent 12.4:
1. Clicking on the Performance tab in VECC resulted in the standard warning with an Accept button. Pressing the Accept button would take me to a page with a couple of enable buttons for CPU and GPU Overdrive. However, the two links at the bottom to Configure the Overdrive settings were not active. There was no "CPU Overdrive" or "Graphics Overdrive" tab options on the left (which is where those links are supposed to take you).
2. Exiting the VECC and then selecting the Overdrive tab would always bring up the warning page and Accept button.
3. Selecting the "Information" tab and then "Software" the Catalyst Version in the table was incorrect. I was able to confirm the Driver was correct and 3D performance was as expected.
SOLUTION #1:
Disable Windows UAC (User Access Control) by setting the slider to the bottom and reboot.
This fixed the Overdrive problem. The proper screens would appear in VECC to overclock the CPU and GPU.
Disadvantage: UAC should not have to be disabled! It's a major security risk and I do not recommend it except for temporary purposes!
SOLUTION #2:
Third party overclock utilities. They worked for me, even with UAC enabled.
Disadvantage: I don't want to mess around with extra apps in my startup. It's another piece of software that could break on the next release of Catalyst drivers and will most likely need some updating in the future. Plus I want to overclock my CPU (AMD Phenom) and the Overdrive in VECC does both. If I used 3rd party GPU utilities, I'd have to install the separate AMD Overdrive (confusing? yes) to overclock my CPU.
THE REAL SOLUTION:
1. Uninstall your current drivers and clean the registry with Driver Cleaner according to this thread.
WARNING! For AMD CPU systems, be sure to choose "Custom" and NOT "Express" in the un-installer or it will remove all your storage and USB drivers as well!
NOTE: If you installed over previous drivers, those drivers will be automatically loaded during the AMD uninstall. You can identify this if your desktop resolution does not change to VGA (640x480) during the uninstall process. This shouldn't be a problem, Driver Cleaner will find and remove it. However, if you want to sure, open up Device Manager, select Properties on the Display Adapter (should be identified as AMD Radeon xxxx), click the Driver tab, choose Uninstall, check the box that says to delete the driver, then OK. Repeat that until the Standard VGA driver gets installed, then continue with the procedure in the post above.
2. You should now be at the normal (non-safemode) desktop, but in low VGA resolution. Now install the AMD driver pack of your choice. I used version 12.4. Since I have a SSD and want to conserve space, I always choose Custom installation, then only install the AMD Display Driver, AMD Media Foundation Decoders, and AMD VISION Engine Control Center.
3. Reboot when prompted.
4. Done! Open VECC, Overdrive tab, and click Accept. You should now have a "Graphics OverDrive" sub-tab to overclock with.
FINAL COMMENT
If you installed Catalyst version 12.4, you might notice if you go to the Information, Software tab of VECC that there's an entry called "Catalyst Version" that is probably incorrect. In my case, I had previously tried version 12.3 at one point and that's the number that stuck.
DON"T PANIC! Everything is OK. It appears that in going from 12.3 to 12.4, and AMD forgot to update that property in the registry.
It's named "Catalyst Version" and located here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000
During testing, I completely deleted that key after uninstalling the AMD drivers. Then when I installed version 12.4, it rebuilt the key but without the "Catalyst Version" property. Now there is no Catalyst Version entry in my version table of VECC. If they add it later it'll reappear automatically.
