I swear I have no idea what you guys are doing wrong.

I have used ati cats from way back in they day, from cats 3.x and I never EVER had a problem with the installation, and never did I ever have to revert to older drivers (unless I was doing driver benches). What people cannot get right, I cannot comprehend. This was the case with 9500/9800/x800/x1800/x1900 cards.

And I update with almost every driver revision.