Driver Question??

[GZFant]

What's the best way to delete old drivers and install new ones?? I usually go through device manager and uninstall display drivers from there but I am not sure if that is all I should do. Thank you!

 

[Lord Evermore]

Depends on your exact driver setup and what you're trying to do.

If you're using generic default Microsoft Drivers for something (like a GF2), then you don't want to "delete" them since they come with Windows. But if you've installed manufacturer's drivers, then you might want to so that you don't have any "old" drivers sitting on the drive when Windows is looking for drivers for a device.. What you'd need to do is look at the current driver list for the device (before uninstalling), and delete anything that isn't from Microsoft (you have to write down a list, and probably reboot into Safe Mode so that Windows isn't trying to use those drivers, otherwise you'll get Access Denied errors). Or you could change the display driver to standard VGA, so that the device-specific drivers aren't in use anymore.

Then you'll be able to do a "clean" install of new drivers.

If you're updating Detonator (and probably ATi Catalyst) drivers, then an uninstall routine is provided, which deletes the drivers from your system (instead of doing it manually as I described) and when you reboot, Windows will detect the video card again. I've found that it is unfortunately best to uninstall Detonator drivers before installing new ones; would be nice if it could all be done in one go.

If you're removing a device entirely and switching to something else, you don't really need to remove the drivers unless the card is based on the same chipset. When you uninstall it in Device Manager, the drivers are still on the hard drive so they're "available"; if you put another card in with the same chipset, Windows will use the same drivers, unless you actually delete them from the system. If you put in a different chipset card (and keep in mind that Detonator and Catalyst drivers support an entire range of chipsets with one driver set), then Windows will prompt you for the proper drivers unless it has generic default drivers (after that, you can just install the driver package and it will stop using the generic ones).

 

[GZFant]

I feel really stupid right now because of the specificity of my first post. I want to uninstall GF3 Drivers and put the new Detonator drivers on that Nvidia just released. When I try to delete the old drivers and reboot my system, XP still has the same drivers loaded on and it seems as though the new ones do not change anything. Thanks again

 

[tec699]

Yea.. I have the same question. I went in and uninstalled the old Nvidia drivers, before I installed the new ones. But when I go to install the new ones Nvidia tells me that the old drivers haven't been removed yet! WTF...

This is what I do:

Start >> Control Panel >> Add or remove programs >> Nvidia Windows 2000/XP Display Drivers -- I then delete the drivers.

Then I'll do:

Start >> Search >> All Files and Folders --Then I'll type in anything related to the older driver. I'm trying to purge the driver off my hard drive. Once that's done, I'll restart my computer.

But.. when I go to install the new Nvidia drivers, I'll get a message telling me that the older drivers are still on my hard drive. How can that be? I just uninstalled the drivers. It doesn't make sense.

 

[GZFant]

That is exactly what happens to me! Thanks for clarifying

 

[Insidious]

When I change from an older, to a newer version of Detonators, I use the hardware device manager (select upgrade drivers) and point to the (unzipped) detonator drivers. This method has worked great. (I don't have very good luck with double-clicking the downloaded detonator driver file and letting it self-install).

When I am trying to go from a newer version of Detonators to an older version of Detonators, I use the following procedure to clear everything out:

I found this procedure in the GURU3D forums. It?s great for a total clean-up of old detonator driver before applying the new one.
I have never tried the portions in starz, so I can?t vouch for their effectiveness. The rest seemed to work great!
1) Run Regedit and navigate to this key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr
entVersion
2) Record the locations entered in the "Device Path" value..
3) Search these locations and also, if not included, these below also for any nv3.*nf, nv4.*nf or nv4_disp.inf files and delete them.
C:\WINDOWS\System32\ReinstallBackups (allsubfolders)
C:\DRIVERS\VIDEO (for Dell Systems)
C:\WINDOWS\Inf (which should be the first entry in the device path)
4) Uninstall and reboot - you should be using the standard VGA controller at this point - but if not dont worry.

*********NEW SECTION OF ADVICE**********************
5) Add ";c:\nvidia" to the end of the device path value (without the quotation marks).
6) Create a folder at c:/nvidia and extract new drivers here.

Note: For future updates - extract new drivers to c:/nvidia then uninstall Dets and reboot- afterwards the new drivers will install automatically. Then reboot again and use the RefreshTool and then reboot again and you're ready to go.
***************************************************

7) Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic

es\nv4 and delete this key.

Note: (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servi
ces\nv is the key which is used for detonator drivers whereas the nv4 is only for OEM and stock XP drivers)
8) Got to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
l\Video
and delete any keys (eg. FF890-7895-7896-3611) which refer to detonator drivers.
(Uninstall drivers if not working under standard VGA) and reboot.
9) Drivers should now be installed automatically. Reboot and use the refreshTool. Reboot and you're ready to go.



****TO DISABLE AUTO-INSTALL OF ALL DRIVERS*********
Export the Device Path value in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr
entVersion for backup purposes.
Now delete the Device Path data (all the locations entered).
XP should not be able to auto-install drivers without you manually pointing to them.
***********************************************

note: the 'uninstall' step refers to using 'add-remove programs' in control panel to uninstall the dets.