Video driver help

[JTFazz]

Was trying to uninstall old and install new driver for my video card. I uninstall, restart and when I do, the PC finds the old driver and installs. Doesn't prompt me, just does it.

Is there a way to turn this off? Or what do I need to do?

[RuperT]

Well, I just picked up a 9600XT from CompUSA (thanx Babyheads), so I'm still figuring out the driver situation. I was an NVidia guy before, but I had similar problems with old drivers and such.
I ended up finding a small app that physically deleted the driver files for several different brands of cards (ATI was one of them). It's called Nasty File Remover, and it seemed to do a good job on NVidia, although I haven't tried it with the ATI card.
I'm fairly sure there are other similar apps out there (I think NVidia themselves ended up releasing one). You may want to check and see if ATI has something official (although I'm thinking you're net-savvy enough to have explored this avenue).
Anyway, let me know if you can't find NFR from a trusted source, or would like me to send it to you for whatever other reason.

[SauerKraut]

Was trying to uninstall old and install new driver for my video card. I uninstall, restart and when I do, the PC finds the old driver and installs. Doesn't prompt me, just does it.

Is there a way to turn this off? Or what do I need to do?


yeah, before you uninstall, turn off your computer's whatchamacallit, the um, the automatic restore thingy, crap...what is the word...



arrrrrrrrrrrrgh...

SYSTEM RESTORE!!! that's the ticket. Turn off your automatic system restore. turn off your anti-virus. uninstall your driver (after you have downloaded your new one). i think it makes you reboot...do that in safe mode. then install the new driver. walah.

[JTFazz]

I keep System Restore turned off... gets it anyway... Have not tried rebooting in safe mode yet.

[Stockboy99]

OS = ??
Vid Card = ??

1. Windows is installing base drivers it ships with. In which case ignore and install new drivers on top. Just use the executable or update drivers and manually point to new inf files.

2. It is installing the previous drivers in which case the uninstall did not work.
A. Go to the video card manufacturers website and see if they have a uninstall/driver cleaner available.
B. Obtain 3rd party driver cleaner program. Several are available at www.majorgeek.com
C. Manually clean out driver file by hand. They are usu. located in c:\windows\inf; c:\windows\inf\other; and for ATI cards c:\ati\


Edit: Option 3 Force generic VGA drivers on card. May not be possible to do on later versions of windows. [/b]

[JTFazz]

It is a Dell OEM Version ATI Radeon 128 9700 TX... On reboot, it finds and installs the previous driver version.

Windows XP...

There is no ATI folder, but there is a c:\DRIVERS\VIDEO\ folder... that may be where its finding the old drivers and installing them.

[Stockboy99]

It is a Dell OEM Version ATI Radeon 128 9700 TX... On reboot, it finds and installs the previous driver version.

Windows XP...

There is no ATI folder, but there is a DRIVERS folder in the root drive...

Okay. c:\drivers\ or c:\dell is where you usually fin dell drivers. However it will only automatically install from ".inf" files hiding in one of the system folders.

In anycase is there a problem running the updated driver executable? Recent ATI driver releases have been fairly good at installing without having to remove the drivers beforehand.

Also Windows XP does ship with reference drivers for ATI cards. That means that it usually does install some kind generic microsoft driver.

If you're still intent on removing the old drivers I suggest finding a 3rd party program in the website I linked to above.

[JTFazz]

Stock, before I read your post, I zipped up the contents of that folder and deleted the originals... uninstalled and rebooted. It tried to find the drivers and asked me, I cancelled out and installed the new ones. Seems to work okay for now.

I was trying to play the FarCry demo and the graphics got weirded out on me. That is why I wanted to update them. That part at least worked. The graphics in FarCry look fabulous now.

[JTFazz]

Stockboy, also found a freeware driver deletion tool for nVidia and ATI drivers. If I encounter any problems going forward, I will use that. Thanks and keep thy fingers crossed for me...

[2112]

An excellent resource for ATI products/drivers can be found here (the Rage3D Tweak is excellent and seems to help my old AIW nicely)...

http://www.rage3d.com
http://www.rage3d.com/?node=r3dtweak


Install/uninstall instructions can be found here...

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=15b29fc0bc2920a5664ed918a5162e28& threadid=33738545


A utility can be found here to help you uninstall the ATI drivers...

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/cat-uninstaller.exe
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/smartgart-uninstall.exe


Hope this helps and good luck...

[JTFazz]

Thanks, Lee... I will keep this handy.

[Stockboy99]

Good luck JT. Let us know how its coming. I think Raptor's having the same trouble you are.

[JTFazz]

I'm rocking along just fine... now. Thanks for everyone's help.