Switching from 7950 to 680...how to best clear out old drivers?

[GrantMeThePower]

I have been having a slew of issues with my 7950. The model I bought was hardware voltage locked, meaning one of the big reasons for a 7950 was shot as I couldn't OC it, plus I've been having issues with the drivers not correctly detecting my display when resuming from sleep, turning off teh sound, and changing resolutions. Apparently from my reading on HTPC forums, this isn't atypical of the Radeon drivers.

I figure at this point I'll just swap it out for an Nvidia card. While the AMD are better bang for your buck at this point, the stability in an HTPC environment is worth it to me. (and the WAF (wife acceptance factor) is pretty important).

That being said, could someone tell me the best way to remove the AMD drivers before installing the Nvidia ones? I've heard that they can be tricky to remove, and I'd like to do it properly.

Thank you,
Grant

 

[Ajay]

Driver Sweeper over @ Guru3D has worked well for me in the past (just make sure you follow the instructions).

 

[Xarick]

Be careful if you have anything else AMD in your system. Driver sweeper can sometimes be indiscriminate.

 

[Kenmitch]

A couple of weeks ago I was having some terrible luck with my AMD drivers switching from beta to beta....Severe tearing in IE of all things was the biggest one.

I found this on the net somewhere but don't remember were it was. I saved it for a rainy day just in case. Cleared up all my driver issues

1. Go to Add/Remove Programs
2. Uninstall the Catalyst Install manager (Express Uninstall)
3. Reboot the computer and log back into windows as normal
4. Go to folder options and select “show hidden files and folders”
The next part of the guide will remove all ATi/AMD files and folders from the computer.
5. Go to your C drive and remove the “AMD” folder
6. Double click the “Program Data” folder (Normally hidden) and remove all ATi/AMD folders
7. Go back to C and double click “Program Files” and remove all ATi/AMD folders
8. Go back to C and double click “Program Files (x86)” and remove all ATi/AMD folders
9. Go back to C and double click “Users”
10. Access the name of your windows profile and double click “AppData” (Normally hidden)
11. Check the “Local”, “LocalLow” and “Roaming” folders for any ATi/AMD folders and remove them.
12. Go back to “Users” and check the “Default” folder (Normally hidden)
13. Double click “AppData” (Normally hidden)
14. Check the “Local” and “Roaming” folders for any ATi/AMD folders and remove them.
The next part of the guide will remove registry entries left by the AMD drivers.
15. Close everything down and go back to your desktop
16. Click start, then type “regedit”.
17. Click “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” and extend the folder
18. Click “Software” and extend the folder
19. Remove all AMD and ATi Folders
20. Click “Wow6432Node” and extend the folder (Within the software folder)
21. Remove the “AMD” folder
22. Click “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” and extend the folder
23. Click “SOFTWARE” and extend the folder
24. Remove all AMD and ATi Folders
25. Click “Wow6432Node” and extend the folder
26. Remove all AMD and ATi Folders
27. Click “HKEY_USERS” and extend the folder
28. Click “.DEFAULT” and extend the folder
29. Click “Software” and extend the folder
30. Remove all AMD and ATi folders
31. Click “S-1-5-18” and extend the folder
32. Click “Software” and extend the folder
33. Remove all AMD and ATi folders
34. Click “S-1-5-21-1632250243-966907716-928185508-1000” and extend the folder
35. Click “Software” and extend the folder
36. Remove all AMD and ATi Folders
37. Close down regedit and empty your recycle bin
38. Undo the folder options change to hide the hidden folders
39. Reboot
40. Install your AMD/Nvidia drivers and reboot

Sounds/Looks complicated but goes pretty quickly.

 

[blackened23]

I suggest not using driver sweeper. I've had it completely destroy windows installations, proceed with caution.

You actually don't have to do anything. Windows will disregard all AMD drivers if not present in your system, your switch should be pain free.

 

[tweakboy]

Most probably youll get horrible FPS or you will need a clean format. gl

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I suggest not using driver sweeper. I've had it completely destroy windows installations, proceed with caution.

You actually don't have to do anything. Windows will disregard all AMD drivers if not present in your system, your switch should be pain free.

I have never had Driver Sweeper issues. I do agree about old drivers, Windows is pretty smart now a days and you should be fine just by doing a uninstall.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Driver Sweeper over @ Guru3D has worked well for me in the past (just make sure you follow the instructions).

DS has been discontinued. So no links from them.

http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/guru3d_driver_sweeper_(setup).html

 

[spinejam]

I suggest not using driver sweeper. I've had it completely destroy windows installations, proceed with caution.

You actually don't have to do anything. Windows will disregard all AMD drivers if not present in your system, your switch should be pain free.

^^^ This -- 100% ^^^

 

[Dankk]

Why in the world are people still suggesting Driver Sweeper? It's extremely outdated and the developers no longer maintain it. No wonder it destroys systems.

Use the latest version of Driver Fusion instead. I use it regularly and have had no problems. (It's made by the same guys who used to make Driver Sweeper). http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion

0 [Pre-requisite]) Download latest Nvidia driver, and Driver Fusion. Install Driver Fusion, but don't run it yet.

1) Uninstall all AMD software through Catalyst Install Manager

2) Reboot into safe mode (press F8 while booting)

3) Run Driver Fusion, select "AMD", search and delete all residual files and registry entries

4) Shut down PC (Driver Fusion asks you to reboot, select "No" and shutdown instead)

5) Swap video cards

6) Boot up, install Nvidia driver

7) Reboot one more time

That should cover all the bases. Honestly, you should be able to simply uninstall Catalyst, swap cards, and install Nvidia without doing the whole Driver Fusion cleanup thing. But if you're OCD, then you're welcome to follow the steps I posted above. Good luck.

 

[Ken g6]

I found links from Hardforum to a site that claims Driver Sweeper has been renamed to/replaced by this: http://treexy.com/

I haven't used it, I've barely looked at it, so I have no idea if it's true or somebody took over a web site or something.

Edit: Dan beat me to it.

 

[Grooveriding]

Driver Sweeper is bad. The last time that I used it to clean out video drivers it somehow managed to kill all my USB ports.

After rebooting none of my USB ports were working or delivering power properly. Anything I plugged into them would not be properly recognized. No idea what the hell it did. Bad stuff.

 

[BrightCandle]

Just uninstall them using AMD's tool, it does the business and you don't need to do anything more than that.

 

[Ajay]

Why in the world are people still suggesting Driver Sweeper? It's extremely outdated and the developers no longer maintain it. No wonder it destroys systems.

Use the latest version of Driver Fusion instead. I use it regularly and have had no problems. (It's made by the same guys who used to make Driver Sweeper). http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion

I used it a couple of weeks ago when I had difficulty updating the driver that installed with the new CUDA SDK. Worked fine and solved my problem. That said, going with a more up to date tool makes more sense.