Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
GFX drivers are a very dubious bunch of clowns. Although it is said that you can trust nowadaysw (in case of nVidia drivers) to just install one version over the next and the installation taking care of everything necessary, I found this to be wrong on several occasions. So, I ALWAYS manually delete the old driver before installing another version. Since system restore also never has earned my trust, but failed almost every time I ever cared to try it, it is no option either.
Another good advice is to stick with the version that works stable for you and your needs, it does not matter if you use a version that is two years old. If it works for your needs and your stuff, then it works for your needs and stuff. I think "updating" gfx drivers never has solved any issue for me that I ever might have had. And often trying out a new driver version just introduced new problems to me, leading me to moving back to the former version again.
Some things just need to be done manually, the hard way. That might be old-fashioned - but in case of gfx drivers it is the only thing that works for me, since very long time.
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Very true and typically I ignore all notices to update gfx drivers as long as everything is working okay. About the only time I update them is if I'm having problems or if I install a completely new card - and I always completely uninstall what I've got before installing the new software, but as you say it seems like the "normal" way of doing that is insufficient sometimes. There were obviously traces of old drivers on my system and I think Windows was being led to look for files that were outdated and/or no longer there, because that was the continual message showing up in the error logs - that some service related to the gfx was looking for a file and not finding it and shutting down as a result.
When I started over from scratch this time I used the drivers on the disc that came with this card and I'm not going to experiment with anything different unless I start having issues again. When I was online looking for solutions I did see something about a "cleaner" program that was supposed to *completely* remove all traces of ATI gfx software from your system prior to updating or reinstalling... I didn't look into it as I'd already pretty much resigned myself to wiping everything and working up from the OS but I will definitely keep that idea in mind for the future rather than relying on the uninstall options that come from ATI or Windows itself.