how to delete video drivers (at system level)

[sirpelidor]

hi, i downgraded my video card from R9000 to RV100. Then I wanted to put the R9000 back by uninstalling the driver via control panel, install hardware, and reinstall the driver i downloaded from ATI (according to AMD's website, RV100 and R9000 uses same driver).

during installation, winxp kept telling me my driver is corrupted and my video adapter needs to be in standard vga first. there's no "standard vga" to pick from Device Manager, and I can't reinstall my R9000 back to my box.

Right now, I wanted to manually delete all the video drivers I've installed in window, but I don't know what to look for (other then inf files).

what registery/path contains all the video drivers window uses, so i can forcefully take'em away?

thank you

[Kelsenellenelvian]

google "Driver Cleaner"

Or go to http://www,guru3d.com and look at that site for the driver cleaner.

It will eradicate all of those ATI drivers for you.

Edited February 25, 2009 by Kelsenellenelvian

[Ponch]

I remember pulling my hair on the phone with a friend trying to do that 10 years ago. In Win98, you had to boot safe mode, remove device, then reboot and you could reinstall a standard VGA driver, then run the ATI exe that installs the new driver. Maybe that still applies ?

[Sysdll]

Yes it still applies. As I understand it only with Vista can you uninstall and then reinstall without problems.

Here’s what I do. It might be overkill but it works.

Google, download and install the following programs: Driver Sweeper (free), RegCleaner (free), CCleaner (free) NET Framework 2.0 or higher (free), Driver Cleaner (trial version or paid version) and

6-11-pre-r300_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_38185.exe (the drivers for your R9000)

Uninstall all ATI programs under Control Panel / Add Remove Programs not add

new hardware

Reboot when prompted.

Open RegCleaner and check every box with ATI in the title. Click “Remove Selected" on the bottom of the screen. Do Not use the “registry cleanup” under the tools menu.

Close RegCleaner

Run CCleaner and CCleaner registry cleanup.

Reboot into Safe Mode.

Open Driver Cleaner and follow the instructions to delete everything ATI

After Cleaning is finished go to Tool menu / Log and delete all the backup files.

Close Driver Cleaner.

Open Driver Sweeper. If all went well it should report there are no ATI files on your computer. If it finds more ATI files, check the ATI files and click “clean” on the bottom of the page.

Close Driver Sweeper

Reboot normally.

Click on 6-11-pre-r300_xp-2k_dd_ccc_wdm_38185.exe and follow the instructions to install. I don’t use CC or CCC just the drivers but that’s your choice

Reboot and wait for the drivers to fully install.

Do a cold boot.

Let us know if it works.

Edited March 6, 2009 by Sysdll