Bizarre ATi drivers and OTF (Opentype Font) problem
I've resolved this problem for now, but it's an odd one and hopefully somebody else will attempt to recreate this situation with their machine, but I thought I'd add my info.
I've just done a new install of XP with SP3 slipstreamed. All went well, aside from the much-discussed HD Audio problem which I resolved with the two also-discussed hotfixes. I decided to download the latest stable ATi Catalysts, patching them with the DH Mobility Modder (because my Radeon is a Mobility Radeon X1400, which isn't directly supported by ATi, only by Acer). The original Acer drivers for the chipset are now quite old, and using the DH Mobility Modder has yielded successful results in the past without any adverse problems.
The latest version of the drivers available from ATi are currently v7.12, full release name 7-12_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_55811. The Acer drivers for my device (Aspire 5672WLMi) are 8.241.3WHQL-060504a1-033170C-Acer, available from the Acer FTP site as VGA_ATI_v8.241.3WHQL_XP.ZIP (with an internal driver date and version of 05/04/2006, 8.241.3.0).
However, as soon as the 7.12 Catalysts are installed on my machine, any and all OpenType fonts simply stop working. Considering the bulk of Fonts that Adobe CS3 (and other apps) use on my system are OTFs, this is a real problem.
Attempting to doubleclick to view them in Font Viewer displays the error message "The requested file
<path>\<filename>.otf was not a valid font file."... and they don't work. Ironically, the Microsoft OpenType Font Properties Extension can parse and interpret all the metadata in OTF files, and worked perfectly (and continues to do so) even when I was having these other problems.Trying to drag-and-drop any OTF to %windir%\fonts results in the error message "Unable to install the <fontname> (OpenType) font. The font file may be damaged. Check with your font vendor about obtaining a new file." Using the Windows 3.1 File -> Install Font dialog is useless, as it can't even see any OTFs even if you point the dialog to a directory containing them.
This thread - http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=599739 - is basically an almost-exact replica of my problem, however it is from quite a while back and is seemingly unrelated except for the end problem. I also tried installing the most recent version of ATM Light to see if it could read a sample OTF typeface file (which it could), however it couldn't make Windows accept or parse the font for use in applications. Comparing the file association, DDE and registry settings of the XP and 2000 machines resulted in no discernable differences (and they were all correct), and - even more oddly - TTF files continued to function normally throughout all the times when I couldn't get these OTF files to work.
I tried everything I could think of; trying to use the Windows 2000 atmlib.dll and atmfd.dll files (which are version 5.0.2.225, as opposed to XP's 5.1.2.226) with WFP disabled, attempting a full SFC /scannow, applying the various fixes Adobe offer for people who have uninstalled ATM 4 and subsequently found that Type1 fonts stopped working... I was seriously contemplating reinstalling Windows from scratch. However, three Windows Updates had (for some reason) flagged themselves as requiring installation, and when I rebooted I just installed them anyway - one of them seemed to uninstall my graphics card drivers, and when I tried loading my test OTF file, it displayed immediately (and correctly) in Font Viewer. So, I reinstalled 7.12, and the OTF stopped working again. Installing the (very old) Acer-supplied Catalysts result in OTFs still working, but they're really old drivers.
When I had this laptop running XP before, it was running SP2 and was using a slightly older version of the Catalysts from the ATi site - but they were also modded with the DH Mobility Modder, and never caused this bizarre OTF problem. Is there some kind of problem with the latest Catalysts and the Adobe/Windows OpenType DLLs? I had real trouble comprehending why graphics card drivers would cause a seemingly unrelated (and quite major) issue with OpenType fonts, and it was only due to a stroke of luck combined with a fair dollop of patience which helped me figure out what was wrong. I could find precious little info on the web relating to my problem, just generic "how to install/use OpenType fonts" articles, so it looks like it's a really bizarre conflict of some kind which really needs to be investigated further by people who better understand the various subsystems involved in font rendering... What's worrying me is that if this problem works its way through to the final version of XPSP3, it could potentially cause no end of issues for many people.
If anybody else has experienced this problem, I'd be very interested to hear it! It's the only problem I've experienced with SP3 other than the HD Audio issue which I couldn't resolve immediately. I'm hoping that all this info will help get any underlying issue resolved faster, which (hopefully) will benefit everyone.
Cheers!
Christopher
Answers
- Success the newest drivers 8.1 solves the problem!
All Replies
Christopher,
I have an ATI Radeon 7000 series graphics card with version 6.14.10.xxxx drivers. I got the ATI card to use dual monitors but the adapter does not support 32 bit color with both monitors at 1280 x 1024 resolution.
In order to get 32 bit color on both monitors I connect one to the built in adapter (Intel motherboard) and the other to the ATI and everything worked fine until I got Propellerhead Software's "Reason 4.0" (music creation software).
At first, the software would not run but, through trial and error, I found that dropping the color to 16 bit on one monitor solved the problem.
This problem was reported to Propellerhead Software and they've done their darndest for a workaround. I can now go back to 32 bit color on both monitors but some of the fonts with Reason 4.0 are distorted.
I agree it has something to do with the driver version but I needed to upgrade mine for other software to work.
When I got my Radeon 7000 a couple of years ago I specifically asked for the cheapest they had (I don't use it for gaming or other graphic intensive applications) because all I wanted was dual monitors. I guess I got what I paid for and I truly doubt ATI/AMD has any intentions of addressing the problem since the 7000 series is no longer supported... :-(
Anyway, thanks for your input. I was starting to think I was the only one experiences this quirkiness.
J.T.
- I recently reinstalled xp SP3 (german language version) from the scratch and added the catalyst drivers 7.12 from amd/ati. My graphiccard is a Radeon 9800pro. I experienced exactly the same issues. perhaps this adds another information on the way to a solution
- Success the newest drivers 8.1 solves the problem!
Is your 9800 Pro a Mobile (laptop/notebook) Radeon, or an AGP card?
I'll have to try the latest Catalysts with my Mobile Radeon and see what happens - when I get a chance I'll do so and report back with my findings.
- Got the same problem on win 2003 with sp1 and 7.12 Omega Drivers. Will downgrade to 7.10. Hope it fixes the issue. Thanks for pointing out where the problem came from. I installed the drivers some time ago and never would've thought that was the problem. Hope we get a real fix soon.
Hi
I had the same problem that I couldn't install OTF fonts. I have a Colorgraphic GT8 PCI card that uses the Radeon Mobility 9600 chipset, and was using the drivers that came with the card, which are pretty old now. I also am on XP Pro Sp2. I forced a driver update to use the 8.1 drivers, and it's all come good!
Thanks for pointing out the ATI driver problem, I've been going round the houses trying to work this one out.
Simon
- My 9800 pro is an AGP-card.
Hope you succed in doing so! - Thanks to everyone. Had this exact same problem with the 8.2 drivers and went all the way back to 7.10 and all is working fine.
Glad I'm migrating to a Mac. - I have GF8500 and after i installed 175.16 Nvidia drivers i had the same problem. So i reached this thread and started to think drivers were the problem. I installed old drivers 163.71 and fonts started to work again. I hope this helps and thank you.
I've used ATI cards for years and they can never get any of their software nor drivers correct. I use an AIW Radeon 9800 Pro AGP. I went through all sorts of BS with the MMC and drivers until I finally found a combo of new drivers that worked with an older MMC version that did NOT have TV-On-Demand on all the time (a big problem). What I ended up doing is using the Omega drivers, and I haven't had a single issue with them. Their latest version works fine with the MMC v9.06 what I wanted to use. (The latest ATI Omega drivers are based on Catalyst 7.12).
They have them for ATI and nVidia cards, and their drivers are very highly regarded. They are based on ATI (or nVidia) but have some tweaks for stability and performance, and they don't need .NET to be installed. They also have the full-featured CCC plus more options.
http://www.omegadrivers.net/omega_drivers.phpI have Adobe installed and I didn't have any font issues.
GeForce 8800 GTS and 175.70 (beta) drivers (XP+SP3) had exactly same problem, but 175.16 WHQL-drivers works fine for me. Thnx for this thread, problem solved pretty easily.
- same problem here on Acer travelmate 7720g with ati mobility radeon hd 2600
i installed drivers 8.45 and nothing worked anymore, OTF and old postcript typos (pfb pfm etc)
i get back with original 8.10 drivers and all is back
thanks to you - I am glad I found this thread... I was having the same problems on an HP xw8600 workstation with nVidia FX570. I had updated my drivers a few weeks ago to correct an issue with flickering when switching between running apps. I didn't even connect the possibility of it being a video driver issue!
But, I was getting the "The requested file XXX was not a valid font file" and it was driving me nuts! I could open the same font on any other PC and they displayed fine. I even installed AMP Font Viewer on the workstation and it displayed them fine too. But I could not use the fonts in InDesign or any other application.
So, I downloaded an older version of the Quadro driver from the HP site (SP39560) which was v169.56. It seems to have fixed my problems!
Thanks! hmmm.....guys i've read through the post, so it seems like the solution is to roll back to an older driver. but i just bought my laptop recently and it comes with a nVidia 9200m GS. It's a really new model, the nvidia sites doesnt provide the drivers, and there's no old drivers to roll back!
tried nvidia open drivers, fonts still dont work.
tried nvidia Omega Drivers_v2.169.21, it wont detect my graphics card
so far the only way i got the fonts working again is to completely remove the graphics drivers....
any ideas how to solve this one?thanks in advance
Specs:
Samsung r460 laptop
WinXP Pro SP3 with hotfixes uptil september 2008
nVidia 9200m GS (Drivers : 20080811192035703_NVIDIA_Graphics_Driver6.14.11.7580)
w0_0w@ wrote: hmmm.....guys i've read through the post, so it seems like the solution is to roll back to an older driver. but i just bought my laptop recently and it comes with a nVidia 9200m GS. It's a really new model, the nvidia sites doesnt provide the drivers, and there's no old drivers to roll back!
tried nvidia open drivers, fonts still dont work.
tried nvidia Omega Drivers_v2.169.21, it wont detect my graphics card
so far the only way i got the fonts working again is to completely remove the graphics drivers....
any ideas how to solve this one?thanks in advance
What happens if you use the Native Windows XP drivers instead of nVidia?
Did you look really well at the nVidia website? I'm not familiar with it, but at the ATI website they have their older drivers rather "hidden" and it takes some time to find them. If the older drivers are not at the site for sure, you can probably find them at other websites.
Clint, thanks for the reply.
First of all, doesnt seem like theres a native driver for my graphics card, as i said this is a very new laptop and very new graphics card. XP wont recognize it.
Yep i looked really closely for 9200M GS. They dont have it.
I read somewhere that nvidia does NOT provide drivers for these newer graphics adapter for download, they are only provided at the manufacturer's website. in my case, samsung only has 1 version of the graphics drivers and there's no older drivers available....
I did some more search on google and i'm starting to think that it has something to do with SP3 also.
I even tried to uninstall the graphics drivers, install the fonts i need, then reinstall the graphics drivers again....
but the fonts would NO WORK AND NO SHOWUP IN PROGRAMS ONCE THE GRAPHIC DRIVERS ARE RUNNING!
O and not only OTF fonts, PFM PFB fonts wont install too...w0_0w@ wrote: Yep i looked really closely for 9200M GS. They dont have it.
I read somewhere that nvidia does NOT provide drivers for these newer graphics adapter for download, they are only provided at the manufacturer's website. in my case, samsung only has 1 version of the graphics drivers and there's no older drivers available....
Yes that could be if the "card" is totally integrated and it's not sold alone, only sold to laptop manufacturers as a chip. Maybe this place has something earlier or different http://www.opendrivers.com/driver/284953/nvidia-geforce-9600m-gt-9300m-g-9300m-gs-9200m-ge-forceware-driver-176.37-windows-xp-x32-free-download.html scroll past the ad. It doesn't mention the version there like you have in the 6.14.xx format. I don't understand why Omega drivers won't work for it. I'd ask them about it. Hmm, the "6.14.xx" format look like some of the Native MS drivers format.
Yes, it could be that it just isn't compatible with SP3. I'd also try and contact Samsung about it and see what they say about SP3 compatibility. Of course if it came with SP3 on it, then it's Samsung's obligation to make it work with SP3.
- I'd also maybe try drivers from other manufacturers. I see that some HP laptops use that chip, so maybe they have some different versions. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-63365-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us%E2%8C%A9=en&os=2093&product=3767338
Samsung will not provide any technical support for any operating systems other then Vista because that's what it came with....and btw, samsung does NOT BACKUP THEIR PRODUCTS! very bad customer service.
the open driver was exactly the one i tried. it works fine with my card but doesnt resolve the font issue....
the HP driver u gave me is for Vista, and they do not provide XP drivers! argh
tonight when i have time i might reinstall XP but not upgrade to SP3.
I'll post results once i'm done~
- I found the same problem while updating my nvidia driver to 176.04 (quadro fx1500)
I don't have SP3 so SP3 isn't the problem.
Maybe there are some display driver settings which will resolve it, but the easiest is to use an different (older) driver... PROBLEM IS FINALLY SOLVED. Upgraded to Vista and type 1 fonts worked again flawlessly.
Missing XP....
I'm going crazy. Just got a new laptop and now I can't install my OTF files. Anyone?
- Resolved the same issue (Opening OTF fonts result in “The requested file XXX was not a valid font file" error) by using Omega drivers.
Machine: Dell Precision M6400 with a NVidia Quadra FX 2700M video card
The latest Dell drivers did not help, Omega didn't have drivers for the 2700M so I ended up using them for the 2000 instead. Worked like a charm!
Thanks for this thread!
Jesse - Hello jcmcain
Which is the exact file that you downloaded from Omega drivers? Do you have any url?
I'm also interested as I have the same problem with my new M6400 and the drivers of Quadro FX 2700M...
Friendly Nikos - Ok I found the driver that solves the "otf" problem thanks to the quick and helpful response of the Greek DELL support.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/ForceWare-174.93-XP-(32-bit)-download-1901.html - Dell Precision M6400 laptops ship with an incompatible display adapter driver for Quadro FX2700M. This driver does not display .otf (Open type fonts). This marketing department laptop for our hospital has the Adobe Premium suite loaded on it, and none of the Open Type fonts would work. TT was no problem. After reading this post, I replaced the display adapter with one found here:
http://laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/xp/179.44
That fixed the problem.
Other 3rd party driver's that Dell has found for me:
Dell support case number: 636554090
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b61a73 shows this driver might work: http://download.laptopvideo2go.com/nvidia/175series/17808.exe
http://www.objectsonline.com/product_info.php?products_id=4990
** http://laptopvideo2go.com/drivers multiple versions of driver are available called Forceware. Just click on the one for Windows XP and 32 bit
Hello -
Same problem here with an older Dell laptop D600 and Display driver ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 -
I'm using the latest Dell-proposed driver - AMD (who bought ATI) doesn't even carry a driver for this graphic card anymore :(
XP with SP3Any help appreciated - Thanks
