You do not have permission to change CATALYST Control Center settings

[The PIT]

Yes greyed out is normal but then I've seen a virus disable just about every service listed.
Well first of check for nasties with some decent anti spyware and anti Virus programs. Not freebie ones as they tend to suck but then Norton's sucks and that ain't free.
Then run msconfig and disable all non microsoft services and see if it starts up. You may have another badly behaved program.
Also look at your even viewer and see if there's any errors logged as they may give you a clue.

[gorage28]

Did full crapcleaner, adaware, antivir, s&d, disabled and looked at some logs. One or two hints but I don't think they'll help much:

Failed to merge manifest file: D:\Programme\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\skins\ccc-skins.xml with exception: Could not find file 'D:\Programme\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\skins\ccc-skins.xml'.

Win32 Language: Current culture language is not an inexact supported language either de-DE
Error Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Component.Runtime.Runtime::SetTongues

RT_GraphicsCaste : WMI Support or 0 adapter detected.
Error Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime.RT_GraphicsCaste::Initializ

Anyway, spent too much time on this already, I'll live with it. Pretty sure it's a wmi problem that needs a full windows reinstall to get fixed.

[Craphead]

@ gorage28: not necessarily, maybe it'd already suffice to rebuild the WMI itself. http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairwmi.htm describes how to do that, you will need your windows CD. i came upon that when i had already solved the CCC issue and tired to fix a few other error messages in the windows event log which referred to the WMI also. after rebuilding the WMI all of them were gone.

[gorage28]

Thanks, but I already went through that, didn't help. As I said, WMI doesn't seem to be completely broken but it takes about a minute after booting before it works.

[The PIT]

Looks like I might have this problem at work after removing some spyware from a machine. Haven't had time to look at the machine properly as yet as it may have some more cleaning to do yet but soon as the message popped up I had a little chuckle.

[Craphead]

Originally Posted by gorage28

Thanks, but I already went through that, didn't help. As I said, WMI doesn't seem to be completely broken but it takes about a minute after booting before it works.

yep i already had that, too. this was how things started after tinkering around with this windwos tune-up stuff. it took about one or two minutes after the computer had finished booting then it would let me start the CCC manually. unfortunately i didn't stay like that, after some days it went totally broken for some reason. and it indeed took me a complete windows reinstall to solve it. that fore sure taught me to have automatic restore points enabled.

[gorage28]

Originally Posted by Craphead

yep i already had that, too. this was how things started after tinkering around with this windwos tune-up stuff. it took about one or two minutes after the computer had finished booting then it would let me start the CCC manually. unfortunately i didn't stay like that, after some days it went totally broken for some reason. and it indeed took me a complete windows reinstall to solve it. that fore sure taught me to have automatic restore points enabled.

Think I might take a look at that restore thingy after my next full reinstall. I've never used it, how does it work? What exactly does it restore? Obviously it can't restore my whole computer for HD space reasons but even so isn't there a problem with losing files that have been added/changed by me since the restore point?

[gorage28]

Issue is fixed with 8.1. How silly of me to think something else than Catalysts might be to blame. Thanks for fixing anyway.

[Craphead]

Originally Posted by gorage28

Think I might take a look at that restore thingy after my next full reinstall. I've never used it, how does it work? What exactly does it restore? Obviously it can't restore my whole computer for HD space reasons but even so isn't there a problem with losing files that have been added/changed by me since the restore point?

well i don't know the exact english term for it since i am using a german XP. but anyways, in this function you can create these restore points either manually or automatically. no big deal, only takes a sec. incase anything goes wrong on your pc you go into the restore menu and choose a restore point from a date of which you know that everything worked fine at that time. the computer will then be put into the state it was in at that time, whereas files you created / downloaded will *NOT* be lost. saved my a$$ couple o'times yet.
oh and since you spoke of HD space: it's not like the whole harddrive gets entirely mirrored or somehting. i'm not too smart with how programs work, but to me it seems as if this tool only saves kind of a "description" of the state your computer is in by the time you establish a restore point. though, there are other programs which can actually mirror your computer entirely, but as you said you will need a lot of space for that. but that is indeed very useful in case of an HD-crash (only if the mirror isn't placed on the same HD, of course, which would not make much sense to do).

[gitamadhu]

Hi
I had this thing popping up saying I do not have the permission to change Catalyst control center settings etc and while searching for a way to cope with it I found this forum and went through the steps given. It still wouldn't stop so I unistalled it and now everything looks magnified on my screen and the internet screen sort of wobbles ...
Can anyone give me a clue as to what might have happened and what I should now do?
ATI was already installed on my PC and I have no idea what it's for.
BTW AVG also seems to have been disabled when I unistalled ATI or followed the steps given here and so I'm now re-installing it.
Thanks
Gita

[The PIT]

First of all get a decent anti virus program kaspersky or Nod32. AVG sucks. Okay it sometimes can detect stuff but removing it sucks. So recycle it. Nod32 is pretty cheap and doesn't use all the resources.
Sounds like you've some infection since crappo AVG is installed and the nasty has disabled it. So you need to clean your machine first of all.
As for the screen being to large it that's due to the drivers not being installed properly but you still should be able to get something more readable.
Check under device manager and see what video cards you've got installed.
Try updating manually if they got an error against them. You can do this by right clicking properties and selecting driver tab.
Then clean machine up.
Don't buy Nortons or Mcafee as a alternative virus checker as they sux too.

[nofool]

...not trying to be profound, but just a reminder that you can totally avoid any entanglement with the CCC by using ATI Tray Tools instead. Ray Adam's excellent tool kit can be downloaded free at many different sites, including: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=733

I have avoided the CCC and the MS .NET framework after the demise of the wonderful old ATI Control Panel. ATI Tray Tools is the logical, painless, and superior alternative. Enjoy!

[jotik]

I had this problem up until yesterday, so I'm posting the solution because this is the first site google returns, as a reminder.

The problem stems from the Administrator account in XP Pro, which doesnt show at the welcome screen. When you installed XP Pro, it asked for a password, that didnt seem to go with any account at the welcome screen. Hopefully you remembered that password, because you'll need it.

All you have to do is go to Control panel -> User Accounts -> Change the way users long on or off and uncheck the "Use the welcome screen" box.Then restart your computer. When it boots back up, It will have a different login screen where you can type in the name of the account. Type in 'Administrator' for the username and whatever password you set at the XP install. Then after you log in just reinstall the Catalyst Control Center and everything will be set straight.

[allesok]

I had this problem occasionally and it seems to have to do with the startup sequence and that CCC needs some service (or what it may be) that hasn’t started yet when this occurs. The startup sequence is from one start to another a bit different and randomized, and it is apparently therefore that it sometimes happens, sometimes not.

Another possible cause could be that an antivirus program intervenes if CCC starts after that program.

For a preliminary investigation I installed Startup Delayer (http://www.r2.com.au) and set it to start cli.exe a minute from startup, when the antivirus program is surely started. CCC started without an error message. So at least in my case it will not be the antivirus program.

I have now set Startup delayer to start cli.exe 10 seconds after startup, and will now see if the error again occurs occasionally, or not.

[allesok]

I have started a lot of times since I introduced this delay and never had the message again. Hence this appears to be the solution.

It is interesting that cli.exe when in the Autostart without the Delayer has a parameter "/Delay", It seems that it also then is delayed, but insufficiently long. Apparently the manufacturer knows about this problem but made the delay too short.

[allesok]

This takes me to an idea that the mentioned parameter could possibly be set to a certain time, like, e.g., /Delay=10 for 10 seconds. Then the Startup Delayer wouldn't be needed. But I have found no info about parameters for that file. Maybe someone can find what I didn't...

[allesok]

I have now used Startup Delayer almost 2 months and never again had the problem!