Driver Removal Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter The Berzerker
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The Berzerker

I'm sure this kind of thing has been asked a million times.

I always uninstall drivers before installing newer versions. However, I
hadn't realsied that with my newer 9800 pro, as soon as i reboot, windows
(XP SP1)automatically re-installs them upon startup. What am I to do about
this?

Also, I have just changed from the catalyst 4.10 drivers to omega's latest
drivers (with a nice performance increase) - however, I'd like to know how
important 'driver cleaning' utilities are... I attempted to use Driver
Cleaner 3, but its steps involve safe mode, where my system seems to
hang?!?! I've never had any driver clashes (as far as i know) - so there's
nothing to worry about?

Any words of advice about this, or perhaps future driver installations?

Thanks
 
The Berzerker said:
I always uninstall drivers before installing newer versions. However, I
hadn't realsied that with my newer 9800 pro, as soon as i reboot, windows
(XP SP1)automatically re-installs them upon startup. What am I to do about
this?
Click to expand...

But _which_ driver is it installing? If it is installing the ATI driver then
you haven't actually uninstalled the driver. Otherwise, Windows is merely
using the default vga driver (Microsoft), which cannot (and shouldn't) be
removed.
Also, I have just changed from the catalyst 4.10 drivers to omega's latest
drivers (with a nice performance increase) - however, I'd like to know how
important 'driver cleaning' utilities are...
Click to expand...

It's generally not important at all. I used to do compatibility testing at
work and I would mix all sorts of ATI/Nvidia drivers (along with a host of
sound card drivers from Creative/Hercules/MAudio/Turtle Beach) and it was
never a problem.
 
Kevin C. said:
But _which_ driver is it installing? If it is installing the ATI driver then
you haven't actually uninstalled the driver. Otherwise, Windows is merely
using the default vga driver (Microsoft), which cannot (and shouldn't) be
removed.
Click to expand...

I think it's installing the exact driver i just tried to remove. I didn't
follow up on it too much, since that wasn't in my interest. However, once it
put whatever driver it was back on, I fired up doom 3, and it all worked
fine. So whatever it did, it was complete and working. When uninstalling, i
was going to the add/remove programs panel, and removing the control panel +
the ati display driver..... so that's gotta be right?

Anyway, if driver cleaning isn't essential, then all is well..... I got the
omega's on, and get about 12fps more in Doom 3. Sounds good to me.
 
The Berzerker said:
I think it's installing the exact driver i just tried to remove. I didn't
follow up on it too much, since that wasn't in my interest. However, once
it
put whatever driver it was back on, I fired up doom 3, and it all worked
fine. So whatever it did, it was complete and working. When uninstalling,
i
was going to the add/remove programs panel, and removing the control panel
+
the ati display driver..... so that's gotta be right?

Anyway, if driver cleaning isn't essential, then all is well..... I got
the
omega's on, and get about 12fps more in Doom 3. Sounds good to me.
Click to expand...

My procedure is uninstall driver and control panel through windows
add/remove. Reboot and cancel out of the new hardware found messages. I
then run DC3. Reboot and cancel out of new hardware messages again, then
install new driver. Seems to work for me, YMMV.
 
When you first install a driver package, the installer extracts all the
files to a temp directory. By default it's C:\ATI\SUPPORT\<driver pkg
internal name> . In there, there's an ATi uninstall utility called
AtiCimUn.EXE.

Instead of going to Control Panel -> Add/Remove, just run that app.
 
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