Dell upgrade will not remove ati files HELP

[Pghpooh]

HI
Quick post before I go to bed.
Bought a dell laptop and part of the purchase was the win 7 upgrade
I waited 3 months to do the upgrade.
I started with the upgrade assistance disk.
Went to !@# from there.
The upgrade program tried to remove the AI Catalyst software.
Something went wrong.
I can still see that software in the programs/features window and when I use the remove feature there I get a error message.
Got Dell on the line and 4 hours later and 3 so called tech agents they could not fix the problem.
Their advice it to recover back to day one on the laptop and if that does not work do a clean install.
Is there a way to just remove all the ATI files???
This is the third time Dell support has !@# this laptop.
2:45am and time for bed
Will log on later.
Upgrade assistant still sees working ati files.

 

[lurk3r]

Welcome to the world of ATi drivers, there is a utility out there I always used to use called drivercleaner pro, not sure if it still exists, but if you hold your mouth just rite as you run this program, clear your recycle bin at a safemode and pray to whatever god you believe in you may be able to get rid of them.

A better answer is probably to just do a complete install of windows 7, not sure if that's an option.

I'll check when I get home to see if I still have a copy laying around. (the version I had was freeware for the piracy nazi's)

 

[CurseTheSky]

Try this:

- Download Driver Sweeper from Guru3D (Google it) and install it
- Download CCleaner (Google it) and install it
- Use Add / Remove programs to "remove" the ATI drivers
- Restart in safe mode (yes, this is absolutely necessary)
- Run Driver Sweeper and have it clean up anything it finds (hopefully a bunch of ATI stuff)
- Run CCleaner and have it do a general clean up - note that depending on what options you have checked, it may delete your browsing history, temporary files, recycle bin, browser form auto-complete / saved passwords, etc.
- Still in CCleaner, click the tab on the left to clean the registry; run the registry cleaner at least twice - note that whenever you make changes to the registry like this, there is a chance you'll completely screw up your Windows install; do this at your own risk, and allow the program to backup your registry if you want
- Restart in normal mode and see if the problem is fixed

 

[2dt Drifter]

^^^^^^^^^^^ How many of us have done this through the years.. LOL

 

[faxon]

I did a few days ago but I run ccleaner whenever I do anything with drivers since it's just good practice

 

[MrK6]

So, although I love Dell laptops hardware-wise, the software leaves much to be desired. CursetheSky posted an excellent troubleshooting protocol, let use know if it worked.

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
Finally cleared the fog. Sun was out most of the day and the wife and I went for a nice walk to relax. I had to get away from this !@# laptop for a while! LOL
Last night the Dell tech downloaded the Driver Sweep software and ran it. Dell tech just loaded the software and ran it normally. (didn't boot to safe mode)
I'll download the cc cleaner.
Earlier today I downloaded the video driver from Dell and reinstalled it. I have to back up a bunch of files and there are 2 other users on this laptop and I need to get them to log on so I can back up thier files too.
Once the backups are done I will follow CurseTheSky's advice.

The really scary thing for me is I have a Dell Desktop with Vista 64 bit on it that needs to be updated to Win 7. (Dell sent me the upgrade for that one too) And, the desktop has a ATI video card in it!!! No wonder I have a headache and nightmares at night. LOLOLOLOLOL
Thanks

 

[CurseTheSky]

The ATI graphics card in the desktop should be less troublesome. Find out what it is (either open up the case and physically inspect the card, or download something like TechPowerUp's GPU-Z) and check ATI's site (not Dell's) for the latest drivers. I highly suggest doing a fresh install of Vista BEFORE you upgrade to 7, o you'll be doing a clean upgrade and won't be dragging old drivers or other potential problems along with it.

Laptops can be a bit more tricky, since some mobile graphics chipsets do not work well with the latest Nvidia or ATI drivers. My old laptop, for example, had a Geforce 9650M GT. With the drivers from Asus, it works fine. With the latest drivers directly from Nvidia, it artifacts. I also had an even older laptop with an ATI X200 graphics chipset that wasn't even listed under ATI's supported hardware for their drivers. IIRC I got them to work anyway, but there were a few odd quirks.

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
I followed the steps posted by CurseTheSky and sadly nothing worked… No matter what I did I could not get rid of the ATI junk…
I did a system recovery and went back to day one on the laptop. After it booted I used the Dell Assistance Upgrade disk and it cleaned everything out. Then I did the win7 upgrade. I already downloaded the drivers I needed for the printer and installed them and so far all is well. Since the laptop is less then 4 months old I didn’t have much in the way of software on it. I was holding back on adding anything until I knew the laptop was stable and since I knew I was going to update to win7.

I am going to let the laptop simmer for a while and then do the upgrade on the desktop. I don’t have anything working on the desktop so all I need is win7 drivers for my networked printer. And, I will download the video drivers from Dell and whoever made the video card for the desktop. That way I am covered if there is a problem.
Thanks for all your help!
Pghpooh