Brief Hands-On Report--ATI Released ATI Diplays 4.5.7 But It Doesn't Fix 17" PowerBook Display Rotation Bug

ATI Displays Update 4.5.7 is available for download via MacUpdate.com. This special preference pane enables advanced graphics options and Versavision rotation on many ATI Radeon graphics cards, including supposedly the Radeon Mobility cards in many PowerBook G4s. According to the release notes,

Changed in this release

• Added support for iMac G5
  
• Added support for 15"(1.67/1.5 GHz) and 17"(1.67 GHz) G4 Powerbook - 2005
  
• Improved reliability for self repair feature.
  
• V-Sync disabled for Mac OS X 10.4.3; enabled for prior OS versions.
  

Despite what the release notes claim, 4.5.7 does NOT fix the Versavision display rotation bug on our 1.67GHz 17" PowerBook G4. This problem has existed at least since 10.4.3 and Displays 4.5.5--maybe earlier.

We downloaded the update, installed it and tried the rotation option and got a freaked out screen. We fixed the problem by booting into safe mode (holding shift key at chime until progress wheel appears--takes a long time) and deleting the ATIDisplays3.plist in the preference folder of our home library folder and rebooting. [Bill Fox]