Removing Nvidia Drivers?

[bulldog]

Is there any need to remove the 40 series drivers in Win XP when installing new ones?

 

[Insidious]

I believe it is always a good idea to remove old drivers before installing others. (Especially if the next set is older than the ones being replaced)

This post from another forum is a very effective way to remove dets completely:



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.


notes: I know this process is good for WindowsXP............ I don't know about other versions of windows Also, when the above mentions "uninstall" it is talking about using Add/Remove programs from the control panel