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Best procedure to install new drivers?
- Thread starter IsaacMM
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- Aug 20, 2008
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With XP 32 bit the only way that works on my machine is this:
Clean out old ATI drivers:
1. http://www.ccleaner.com
2. http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/
Along with going into SAFE mode and manually deleting all ATI folders and settings.
Then going into registry and manually deleting all system 32 registry files of ATI.
Then install new driver.
I've read many times that the new ATI drivers will come clean buy using the ATI uninstall utility but from my experience this doesn't do a clean install as there are always files left behind and they hinder performance for some odd reason.
Clean out old ATI drivers:
1. http://www.ccleaner.com
2. http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/
Along with going into SAFE mode and manually deleting all ATI folders and settings.
Then going into registry and manually deleting all system 32 registry files of ATI.
Then install new driver.
I've read many times that the new ATI drivers will come clean buy using the ATI uninstall utility but from my experience this doesn't do a clean install as there are always files left behind and they hinder performance for some odd reason.
Cablespider
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2006
- Messages
- 148
I've never had any problems installing on top of just like they recommend. The only thing I do before an install is delete the ATI Support folder. This is on XP 32/64 and Vista 64. I'm sure everyones mileage may very. For me, it's not been a problem at all. In fact, on this OS, I have been installing on top of since the 9.1's.
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- Apr 11, 2007
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- 25,470
The last time I had to use this method was back in 2005. Then I started using the Catalyst uninstall utility ATI provided.
Since 2007, all I do is uninstall straight from windows control panel add/remove programs. Once uninstalled, I simply re-install the new drivers. I've been doing this for XP 32, Vista32, Vista64, and now for Win7. There are zero performance differences doing this way.
I let ATI's installer figure out what to do. If uninstalling was really needed, they would have their installer do it automatically. The advantage is that I don't have to reboot after installing if I don't want to, as the newer versions will hot swap themselves in (I usually do, though)
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2008
- Messages
- 7,437
It hasn't worked out for me. Most recently after trying this going from vanilla 9.8 to the hot fix 9.8 there was a huge problem of not being able to open the catalyst control center.
This may be because I'm running a HD4770 with XP 32 bit. Not sure why.
Clean install got things right and performance increased on SF4 and Furmark Benchmark along with higher over clocks on the HD4770. So the hotfix 9.8 worked well for my machine but only after I did a clean install.
Before you upgrade any video card driver you should have a good idea of how your current driver works. Do this by running a few benchmarks of your choice before the driver upgrade. Then after the driver upgrade run them again to see if there were any performance improvements.
Check out the before temps of your card running furmark with GPUZ and see how stable it is while over clocking.
After the driver upgrade check the temps of card with furmark and GPUZ and again see if any improvement in over clocking is possible.
This is a good way to see actual improvements of the driver if any.
This is how I have been doing it for about the last 15 months. In my machine the driver upgrades have worked better when doing a clean install.I have seen decreases in performance and general operating problems when using the ATI uninstall utility. So for me this is why I prefer to do a clean install.
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