Proper way to install forceware drivers?

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Circuitbreaker8

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jul 22, 2004
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How do you do it...? I tried manually doing it, but no folder was made and it was kinda screwy...can someone guide me through it? Not really used to this hehe just came from a 9800
 
found this trolling around online. first you have to remove your ATI drivers completely (it seems doing that using the control panel add/remove of the ati drivers still leaves files and registry settings that will conflict w/ the new nvidia drivers). i found that out the hard way when switching from an 8500 to a 6800 gt... :)

after that, just boot back up, win xp will say it found your new nvidia card, hit cancel... then double click the exe and it'll do the rest... hope it helps.

For total (manual) removal apparently this works a treat :

(shamelessly copied from the OcUK Graphics card FAQ, I have on good authority this works properly and doesn't mess up the registry or anything )

A guide to completely uninstall ATI Radeon Drivers:

WinXP/2K
1. Go into the Control Panel and under the ADD/REMOVE SOFTWARE icon uninstall the ATI MultiMedia software and/or the ATI DVD software.

2. Uninstall the ATI drivers also found in the Add/Remove section. Once removed, it will prompt you to reboot....do so.

3. When returning to windows, the NEW HARDWARE FOUND wizard will come up and will tell you that it has found a new VGA card and will prompt you for drivers. Hit CANCEL!

4. Now, go to START - SEARCH - FOR FILES OR FOLDERS and do a search for all files and folders using the filename ati*.*
This search will normally give you 3 to 4 files found in your c:/windows directory and subdirectories (including the Windows/System directory). Select these files and erase them. Now go to your Recycle Bin and Empty your bin.

5. Next...time to go to your Registry. Go to START -- RUN -- regedit

Here go to key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -- SYSTEM -- ControlSet001 -- Control -- Video . Here there should be 4 entries. 3 of them are default Windows XP entries and the 4th one is put in by the ATI drivers. Expand each one by one until you see ATI entries. Once found, erase the entire key.

Now repeat the same step above for the ControlSet002 key and the CurrentControlSet Key. Normally, whenever you erase a key in the ControlSet001, XP automatically deletes it in the CurrentControlSet section too. So if the ATI key is not found in the CurrentControlSet section, don't worry about it.
Once all keys are deleted, proceed to the next step.

6. While still in the registry, go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -- SOFTWARE section. Here you should find an ATI Technologies key. Select it and delete it. In that same section, look for an Installed Options key. Expand it and there you should find another ATI Technologies key. Select it and erase it.

7. Still in the registry, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -- Software and there you should find another ATI technologies key. Select it and erase it. Once all this is done, close the registry. the registry is now clean.

8. Close all windows and reboot.

9. When in windows after the reboot the NEW HARDWARE FOUND WIZARD will pop up again. Cancel that. Now find the new ATI drivers that you have downloaded and extracted and run the SETUP file. Once complete, reboot and you are done. You may want to reinstall your ATI MMC software and DVD software if you use them. DONE!
 
Well I just reformatted so...yeah ;) But the forcewares dont have an .exe file...how do you make a folder for nvidia and install the drivers there?
 
not sure about that one... :confused:

i actually tried that w/ the non- exe forceware drivers and couldn't get it to work right... maybe someone else can help...

why don't you just use the 61.77 exe from nvidia? i found they're the most stable. the newer ones (like from guru3d) are buggy for me.
 
MuadDib420 said:
not sure about that one... :confused:

i actually tried that w/ the non- exe forceware drivers and couldn't get it to work right... maybe someone else can help...

why don't you just use the 61.77 exe from nvidia? i found they're the most stable. the newer ones (like from guru3d) are buggy for me.
Click to expand...

ya i think im just gonna stick with them
 
After you completely remove all Ati drivers you can simply uninstall forcewares>reboot>install new drivers>reboot...everything should be fine. It makes it much less harrowing to try out new beta's..
 
1. use control panel to uninstall drivers - reboot

2. use driver cleaner to clean up any old bits of drivers (either ATI or Nvidia)

3. Install new drivers. If they dont have an exe, goto system, device manager and click on the graphics card (which should have an ! next to it) and click on update driver and point the installer to the file where your download is. Most downloads you will need to unzip the files from first before that works. Theres not too many versions that dont come with their own installer though.
 
I second Summoner's suggestion of Driver cleaner. Driver Cleaner 3 is free for DL and will clean all the ATI files and reg settings simply and cleanly. Just read the Readme that goes with it and you'll be all set.
 
You should run Driver Cleaner 3 and Cab Cleaner in Safe Mode even when you just installing updated drivers and not switching from one brand to the next. Aspects of the older drivers can be left behind even when you uninstall and they can interfere with the performance and settings in the new drivers your installing.
 
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