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Installing Video Drivers in Win 7 Safe Mode

D

Deeky

Gawd
Joined
Feb 7, 2008
Messages
982
Is this acceptable practice? Or will safe mode somehow hamper the install?

I reinstalled my Nvidia drivers after struggling with my PC all morning (trouble cold booting, long story). I uninstalled in Windows 7, rebooted into safe and used the Guru 3D driver sweeper. I then rebooted back into Windows ... which immediately went about replacing the drivers with an out-dated version. I've tried to disable the Windows driver auto-update, but it hasn't made a difference.

So I uninstalled again, booted into safe, ran the sweeper then reinstalled while still in safe. The installation completed with no issues. I booted back into Windows and everything seems fine. Should expect shenanigans?
 
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Usually, I only enter safe mode to fully remove the previous drivers with a removal tool. In this case, I stayed in safe to avoid booting back into Win 7, which would promptly auto-install an out-dated driver (I can't seem to disable the function). I've never installed a driver in safe mode before. In this case, there doesn't seem to be a problem. I played Dead Space for the better part of an hour with no issue.
 
well with Nvidia you don't even need to go into safe mode at all even just to uninstall previous drivers. and actually Nvidia recommends in thier FAQ to just install the new driver over the previous one anyway. I have been doing that for many years and I have never had a driver problem from doing it.
 
Actually, me too. I used to be super picky with the safe mode/clean sweep process, but eventually I began simply installing over top of old drivers. I never had a problem ... until now. Started getting random (though rare) BSoDs linked to nvidia.dlls. I'd also lose picture for a second or two at random; the device would always recover but it was 100% Nvidia related. Not to mention the occasional issue with cold booting wherein the monitor would refuse to wake up (no signal), the entire rig would freeze after entering windows, etc. Not entirely sure the latter issues are video driver related, but it's the next logical step in my troubleshooting.

I decided to do an old school driver nuke in safe mode and the problem is gone (for now). Might be a coincidence, only a matter of time before it reappears.
 
Deeky said:
Actually, me too. I used to be super picky with the safe mode/clean sweep process, but eventually I began simply installing over top of old drivers. I never had a problem ... until now. Started getting random (though rare) BSoDs linked to nvidia.dlls. I'd also lose picture for a second or two at random; the device would always recover but it was 100% Nvidia related. Not to mention the occasional issue with cold booting wherein the monitor would refuse to wake up (no signal), the entire rig would freeze after entering windows, etc. Not entirely sure the latter issues are video driver related, but it's the next logical step in my troubleshooting.

I decided to do an old school driver nuke in safe mode and the problem is gone (for now). Might be a coincidence, only a matter of time before it reappears.
Click to expand...

Mine started doing that recently also (the screen flashing with the recovery notice, and the freezing after waking from sleep) so please post if a clean re-install helps at all. I'm hoping new WHQL drivers fix the problem, but so far it isn't annoying enough for me to search very hard for a solution.
 
Will do. It was the same for me; it wasn't annoying enough to warrant any serious troubleshooting but this morning it went to a new level. Usually a quick restart would clear things up, but this morn I couldn't get the system to boot stable. I'd complete a boot with no picture, it would hang during boot, I'd get into Windows but it would freeze seconds later. Went on for nearly two hours. Never had a prob booting into safe mode, though (thankfully). Made me think it might be driver related. Still, I reset the BIOS to factory and started yanking memory. No help. I reinstalled/updated all my chipset drivers (USB, LAN, everything). Flashed the BIOS to most recent (ASUS has been cranking out BIOS updates for the P6X58D Premium, it seems). Still freezing. I've since attempted the clean video reinstall and I've been stable ever since. Several cold boot tests have been successful. I'm still not 100% confident, though.

I'll report back if anything changes for the worse.
 
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I went from 10.8 to 10.9 ATI drivers recently. I decided to forgo the long install (Uninstall, boot into safe mode ect ect) and and try the quick version of installing the newer overtop the older drivers. What happened??? BSOD on three tries....

Went back to the longer method....VIOLA!!!!! The drivers upgraded fine....

Depends on what you want to do and how lazy you are....
 
The Cobra said:
I went from 10.8 to 10.9 ATI drivers recently. I decided to forgo the long install (Uninstall, boot into safe mode ect ect) and and try the quick version of installing the newer overtop the older drivers. What happened??? BSOD on three tries....

Went back to the longer method....VIOLA!!!!! The drivers upgraded fine....

Depends on what you want to do and how lazy you are....
Click to expand...
Nvidia recommends installing new drivers right on top of the old ones but I don't think ATI does.
 
cannondale06 said:
Nvidia recommends installing new drivers right on top of the old ones but I don't think ATI does.
Click to expand...

Which is strange, because doesn't the new beta 260 drivers have a built-in "driver cleaner" as part of the install process? I have the betas but haven't pulled the trigger on installing them yet.
 
cannondale06 said:
Nvidia recommends installing new drivers right on top of the old ones but I don't think ATI does.
Click to expand...

I will try and find the link, but someone from AMD did indeed say that the "normal" way is to install over the old drivers, and is something I have been doing for a good while now with no ill effect.
 
I wonder, exactly when did they change their tune?

Either way, I prefer the piece of mind that comes with a good ol' fashion clean sweep prior to driver installation. Maybe it's 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back, but it's time well spent in my mind.

PC is still 100% stable following the fresh 258.96 WHQL install. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
 
Deeky said:
I wonder, exactly when did they change their tune?

Either way, I prefer the piece of mind that comes with a good ol' fashion clean sweep prior to driver installation. Maybe it's 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back, but it's time well spent in my mind.

PC is still 100% stable following the fresh 258.96 WHQL install. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
Click to expand...
where did you get that?

on the current FAQ page it says:

Q: Do I need to uninstall my older driver first?
A: No. It used to be the case that an uninstall was first required. Today the recommended method is to overinstall the newer driver on top of your older driver. This will allow you to maintain any current NVIDIA Control Panel settings or profiles.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/drivers_faq.html
 
Deeky said:
I wonder, exactly when did they change their tune?

Either way, I prefer the piece of mind that comes with a good ol' fashion clean sweep prior to driver installation. Maybe it's 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back, but it's time well spent in my mind.
Click to expand...

http://www.nvidia.com/object/driver_rollback.html

Must have been a while ago, because if you don't install over your old drivers, you can't rollback your drivers afterwards, which has been supported since XP.
 
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