Foolproof Uninstall/install method

[shasha]

...UPDATED 30DEC03...

If you don't want to use this as a first step then I suggest you try Driver Cleaner as it automates most of this for you and works very well. If that doesn't help or you like to do things manually then try this.

First thing to do is to make 100% sure that you have all of the necessary drivers and MMC SW for YOUR product. The latest CAT, Control Panel and WDM drivers (only for AIW) are usually all you need to install drivers. For some of the newer drivers and MMC you also need WMP 9 and DX9. Make sure that you read the ATI release notes for your SW and drivers before you install anything.

This guide is geared more towards removing all of the ATI SW to ensure that you have the cleanest possible driver install. This is not guaranteed to fix problems with other issues you may have with your system, resource conflicts, bad 3rd party SW and oddball codecs, insane OC'ing induced issues, it is to eliminate the possiblity of old ATI stuff mixing in with your new ATI SW. Think of it as a troubleshooting step.

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ATI drivers do not always uninstall/update very well so I have my own foolproof method to make sure that everything goes as planned. This is geared towards WinXP, but the principles are the same in all Windows OS's. This the closest I can get to a clean install of ATI drivers/SW that I have figured out short of a reformat.

You will need to do the file deletions in the \system32 folder while in safe mode (press F8 during startup and select Safe Mode).

Items you will need before you start:

• Download all of the necessary drivers from here
• Download and install Regcleaner (the best registry tool out there) from here.

System purging procedure:

• Uninstall all ATI SW, drivers, hydravision, MMC, remote SW, whatever because it makes it easier to clean up your system and it won't cause problems when restarting. Don't reboot until everything is uninstalled.
  
• Delete the following directories while in safe mode:
  
• C:\ATI
• C:\Program Files\ATI Multimedia
• C:\Program Files\ATI Technology
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Raviscent Shared
  
  note: you may not have all of these depending on your card type, just delete the ones you have

• Clean out the C:\Windows\Temp directory. There is a chance there are some driver files in there as well.
  
• Go to the C:Windows\system32 directory, make sure you are in detail view and right click on the header (where name, file type, date modified...is) and select more and check the box for Company. Then double click on the Company header and then delete all of the ATI files in there. Do the same for the C:Windows\system32\drivers directory.
  
• Go to the C:\Windows\inf directory and delete any file that starts with ATI (open the inf files in notepad). Then go down to each file named oemxx.inf and open it, delete any that refer to ATI. Make sure that you delete the corresponding .pnf file as well.
  
• Run Regcleaner. Delete any ATI entries.
  
• Empty the Recycle Bin.
  
• Unplug your internet connection or disable it. (Mainly for WinXP) If you don't Windows will try to download a driver for you and install it.
  
• Reboot

Driver/SW install

• Install the WDM drivers For AIW cards only. Do not reboot.
  
• Install the Display drivers (Catalyst). Do not reboot.
  
• Install the Control Panel. Reboot.

On startup Windows will install all of your HW went it boots and it will take a few minutes. If you are using a non-AIW card you are done. For AIW users, there are two more setps:

• Install the MMC DVD Decoder SW. (may require a reboot)
• Install the MMC SW. Reboot.
  

Like I said, I have done this more than a few times and it always works for me. I wouldn't have spent all of the time formatting this message if I didn't believe in it.

[**G.I.BRO**]

Thanks
Stickied.

[zakrocz]

Thanks for the post shasha.

I followed your instructions and it all went real smooth.

Hopefully my system will be more stable now that I've performed my cleanest ever install of ATI drivers.

And that Regcleaner is a real nice bit of kit.

[megatron]

I just reinstalled the control panel from the new leaked beta 7.83. I wanted two reactivate the 2d .exe part of the drivers, but not the smart gart. I extracted the drivers to a folder. Changed the properties of the two .reg files concerned with my OS (winXP) to non- read only. I scrolled down to the smart gart entry and it was 01,00,00,00 and I changed it to 00,00,00,00. The smart gart did not install while the 2d did since I left the rest unchanged.

Just thought this could be unsefull for new driver installs too. Ofcourse only if you have no problems that smart gart can help with!

[Robbiesan]

nicely done Shasha.. thanks!

[Shaolin95]

Thats very nice but I always think that uninstalling problems are weird. I mean, if I install a new driver and somehow there are still pieces of the older driver in the pc isnt the new driver supposed to over write them or at least asked me if I want to keep or overwrite x file? My poiint is..if for some reason the new driver doesnt overwrite an older file is because it wont be using it hence should not cause any coflicts at all. I always use control panel to uninstall and thats it no prob whatsover.
Regards

[saberx]

Is MMC-7-6 DVD.exe really necessary? I can't seem to locate a copy. Only thing that I can find is the nodvd version. Anyone have a link maybe?

[megatron]

Originally posted by saberx
Is MMC-7-6 DVD.exe really necessary? I can't seem to locate a copy. Only thing that I can find is the nodvd version. Anyone have a link maybe?

You need to have a CD which came with your graphics card. Only then can you install ati's DVD player updates. There was a leak of the whole r9700 player which I got before it was pulled, but since I didn't realise I was going to buy a r9700pro at all let alone a sapphire one (without ati dvd) I just deleted it to save space.

[T07N]

Hmmm... It would be nice if someone decides to write an ATI Drivers remover... =) But this is good too, just takes very long but it's all good! Thanks!

[Cova]

Not a bad list of things to do, but I'd add a couple more steps into it (note: I also have an AiW so some users may find these redundant). What I am describing is what I've done in the process of upgrading from an AiW8500DV (Cat 2.5 + MMC 7.7.0.1) to an AiW9700 Pro (now on Cat3.0 + MMC8 + DX9)

These instructions will get you to the combined latest versions of everything from various sources, with all the ATI extras installed. (eg. MMC8 which is only available on the CD, Cat3.0 from the web, GuidePlus again only available on the CD, etc.)

1. Uninstalled everything as was originally listed. I didn't go into quite the detail with cleaning the windows directory and such, but I still did some manual filesystem/registry cleaning. EVERYTHING related to ATi was removed. Powered off system.

2. (won't apply to 99% of people) Took out the 8500DV, put in the AiW9700, turned system back on.

3. Inserted the ATI CD that shipped with the card and did a complete install including driver, MMC, GuidePlus, remote-wonder, etc. Reboot.

4. Install DX9

5. Uninstall ATI Display Driver and ATI Control Panel from Add/Remove programs, leaving all other ATI software installed. Reboot.

6. Install Cat3.0 (includes control panel now)

And everything is working perfectly (including all AiW features using the WDM's that were installed from the CD which are Cat2.4 version). Until ATI releases MMC8, Remote-Wonder 1.4, and the other latest-versions of their software onto the website this is the way I would recommend people do their drivers.

[GotNoRice]

You know, I find it kinda funny when I see posts like this that show people going through all these elaborate steps to un-install their drivers. Here's how I do it.

Step 1: Install new drivers over old drivers.
Step 2: Go into device manager, and select your card, manually install drivers again from the place the installer extracted them too. Make sure to specify the driver manually and not let it search, etc.

I have never had this method not work. And i've done this with over 20 driver updates.

[shasha]

Yes sometimes just installing overtop works fine, but a lot of cases have been made here that it causes issues. I ended up getting to this method after installing one of those modded versions and it hosed my system. I am not into formatting to fix a problem, it is not as much fun and I really hate going through the entire process of personalizing my system.

Anyway, I have run into instances where there were parts of old and new dirvers installed, not always a bad thing, most cases it will work, but I like to be 100% sure that I am getting the full benefit of a new dirver set. And depending on your system, Windows will protect certin files or just reinstall the last known drivers to make sure that it is "working". I stole the network idea from someone whom I thought was being anal, but sure enough I went through all of the cleaning and booted up to find a driver version that i had never even heard of installed. It was from MSoft. My overly anal opinion of that person changed and I figure that if I go through all of the trouble to clean it up, I might as well do it right from beginning to end.

As for an uninstaller, I thought about it. There is a nice little app called Wise installer that would make it possible, but with all of the different driver sets, Windows versions, video cards and anything else that you can imagine that would make one system different from another, it would be near impossible to do it and be sure that it worked even remotely as well as this method does. Registry keys would be the real big issue, I kow that similar systems with the same card and drivers don't even always make the same entires. I would know where to get about 5% of the way through it and then I would be second guessing everything from that point on. I can't even figure out how to uninstall just the drivers, I have to completely DE-ATI the entire system just to be sure. MMC, Remote wonder, control panel, whatever, they all look the same with a name like ATIxxx.dll. Better safe then sorry.

If there is nothing wrong with your system and the newest version does not address any bugs or significant increases in performance, then just don't install every driver set. At this point in the game, if you are using an 8500 or something in the same age range, you won't see too much of a difference. It has been pretty much run through the wringer and they got it working for the most part. I don't think that they will unlock a 50% increase anywhere. Should just be bug fixes from this point on.

[megatron]

Originally posted by shasha
I really hate going through the entire process of personalizing my system.

It helps a bit if you back the things in your user profile, like favorites, sendto (if you customise it), My documents sometimes has game saves in it. I can the entire start menu in the all users profile - so back up this too. Thiis gives it your basic structure - like however you like to set up - games in one folder ect.

I don't have a working CD-RW, but if I did I would have already have made a ghost backup.

[ronss]

thanks for the driver un-install and install procedure, very informative. forums like this are great, belong to 5 of em-

1.dell computer forum
2.amdmb forum
3.via-arena forum
4. rage3d forum
5.linuxquestions.org forum

[shasha]

Originally posted by megatron
It helps a bit if you back the things in your user profile, like favorites, sendto (if you customise it), My documents sometimes has game saves in it. I can the entire start menu in the all users profile - so back up this too. Thiis gives it your basic structure - like however you like to set up - games in one folder ect.

I don't have a working CD-RW, but if I did I would have already have made a ghost backup.

I actaully use TweakUI and relocate my Documnets to a seperate partiion, and I ususally back up my Favorites folder on a regualr basis, I also have my email and stuff on the partiition as well. It just makes life a little easier if you do have to format. The biggest snag for me is the actaul tweaking of the system, I use X-Setup and while it isn't that hard to do it is a little time consuming. I like to modify a few things in the windows shell like I can right click on My Computer and go directly to a few different dirextoires. I can also eliminate the OE/MSN Messenger integration. It is stupid that opening OE opens up MSN Messenger. The biggest issue though for me is all of my video editing stuff, I have a lot of programs that need to be tweaked in .ini files and a lot of plugins that are not really in installer packages, you need to copy a file to one directory and another to a different then setup shortcuts and then configure the SW to use it. A few programs like that and my usual tweakng adds up to about 7-8 hours for a full system rebuild very quickly. And that is not sitting around playing either, it just takes a while to load and go through everything to get it just right. And nothing is more irritating than having to do something and realizing that it isn't setup right. Then you have to dig out discs and do it. It may seem like whining, but after I get my system running right I don't want to have a new set of drivers be the cause of a day of my life being lost. 20 minutes beats the crap out of 8 hours. Plus every install takes on a life of its own. You may have a driver issues early on with anouther piece of HW or one app just doens't want to cooperate correctly for some strange reason. A lot of video stuff can be quite picky. Tehn there is the stuff that one app registers as a directshow filter or something an d you have to go through and tell it to uise another DS filter. Ever have something that used to work fine in one install adn then it just didn't look quite right afterwards? That is the cause a lot of times. Order of SW installs can make a difference without you even realizing it. Add some serious troubleshooting time to that one and you are down for a day or two atleast.

[Buzzbe]

Hola,

Window's ME here with Radeon 64 DDR ViVo.

I'm seeing atri*.* files in my System directory, should they be removed aswell?

Is DX9 evil? Should I just stick with DX8.1 with my ViVo?

Thanks in advance...

[stinger7]

I suggest anyone with an AIW 9700 Pro follow these directions if you install the Catalyst 3.0 Drivers. When I installed the Catalyst 3.0 drivers everytime I rebooted it would try to install more devices even though everything was already installed and working. I uninstalled everything multiple times and same d*mn thing. But after I followed the instructions as mentioned above it works fine now. ATI still has a way to go with their drivers even though they have improved some. This is way too much trouble for a high dollar video card. It should work out of the box. I'm tired of being these d*mn companies debuggers. All of them, Microsoft, ASUS, ATI, etc. Sorry for the rant. lol

[bakunin]

quote:
..."Here is my 100% foolproof, completely anal, over the top method for a completely clean ATI driver/MMC install. This the closest I can get to a clean install of ATI drivers/SW that I have figured out short of a reformat.
I have upgraded drivers about 15-20 times with my card in the last 4 months without a hitch, so I know that it can be done. This is geared towards WinXP, but the principles are the same in all Windows OS's...."


!! ATTENTION !! - !! IMPORTANT !!

If you want this "guide" above to have any effect,read the following:
....just one tiny detail you forgot:YOU HAVE TO DO THIS IN WinXP-SAFEMODE,otherwise everything you delete in system32 folder will be there again in 10sec !!!!!
(you must be blind...you never had problems using your superduper guide,eh? well that was just luck!)

ever heard of windows file protection? guess not..



PS:Just found out that of course with Win98ME you also have to use SAFE-MODE boot to manually uninstall ATIdrivers...you know,for some reason you cant delete files in windows that are still in use...

..so again,follow the "guide" above,but when it comes to delete anything in the windows-folder,reboot into safemode to do so.Dont forget to clean out the registry before.
then reboot again normaly into windows and install drivers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sorry ,but this kind of disinformation just makes me sick,do you know how many people you send into hours of headaches when you write such poor guides?
..and then the thread was also made sticky .....i have no words..


..indeed,very anal..lets see how much time it takes you to update your "guide" EDIT: ..... hmm,more than 2days till now..another 200 people pulling their hair.COULD SOMEONE PLS UPDATE THIS GUIDE ??!..it isnt all bad ,except this crucial details missing..

[stinger7]

Since your pointing out all the problems with the foolproof way why don't you just rewrite it yourself and repost it. While you're at it add in that if you have AIW 9700 Pro that it won't reinstall the dvd player unless you start from scratch and use the cd then update. I have 3 computers and never upgraded to XP, do you think I'm buying 3 seperate copies of XP for each computer. I think not I'll stick with W2K until it dies or Linux improves. Does anyone know a way to get the DVD player back? I looked on the cd and I don't see a standalone install of the DVD player. You have to have the new version that came with the AIW 9700 Pro. Thanks. Let me know when you post the new updated verison of the foolproof way. Later. hehe

[megatron]

Yes you have to have the CD unless you copy it to hard drive I guess. I have the DVD CD from my 8500 and I can use it for my r9700pro aslong as I chose not to install drivers - then it says card is not good enough!

[stinger7]

I don't think you understand what I am saying. I can install everything but the dvd player. With my AIW 9700 PRO it comes with Multimedia center 8.0. I had the dvd player when I installed everything from the cd, but when you try to install the programs seperately it won't install the dvd player. I can get everything but the dvd player. I have multimedia center 8.0 now. I tried to use the 7.6 dvd player on their website but it says it's not compatible. I have another dvd player I can use which is actually better but as much money as I paid for this video card it should work. The whole reason I UNINSTALLED everything is because of ATI's buggy a** drivers. When I install everything from the cd that came with my AIW 9700 PRO and then install the new cat 3.0 and the new control panel it screws everything up. Everytime I reboot it keeps trying to install the same things over and over. I'll just use my windvd platinum because I'm not reinstalling everything again for the 3rd freaking time.

[megatron]

Whilst I not an ATI representative, I can only suggest that you either follow the completely uninstall everything guide or reinstall. I have a problem with nero that if I uninstall and then reinstall it will allow me only to have trial functionality. I know this happens so I take precautions like not uninstalling it and/or keeping a system restore with it working.

I had a problem with installing the drivers in that if I installed an update then 8* agp would be lost and in fact I would be running at 0* AGP which is slow. Its just something you have to deal with. I wanted to update the drivers, I had to keep restoring because of that problem. In the end I just reinstalled. When I can get an RMA for a CD-RW from the thieves at www.overclockers.co.uk then I will make a ghost image then I can reinstall in like five mintues at a level of tweak which takes another 3 hours!

[janne]

About the guide,in winxp you have to remove the ati files from windows\system32\dllcache before you remove them from windows\system32 othervise xp copies them back to windows\system32 from windows\system32\dllcache after you have removed them.

[bakunin]

@janne:nope that also doesnt work...first ,windows file protection also protects this folder(dllcache),2nd ,winXP stores the drivers it protects in .cap files,you would have to open and search which cap has what drivers in it...use safemode,works really 100%,because i tested it before i posted it..

[shasha]

Actually I use X-Setup to disble WFP as soon as I install WinXP, that is probably why I don't have an issue with it. I have been doing it for some time now so it really isn't something that I thought about. I agree, it is an issue that should be addressed, I just overlooked it.

If you don't like the guide, write one yourself, not being harsh or a jerk here, just write one. If you can do a better job than I am sure that it will help out many people. That is the point of the forums, it is not an ego thing, it has not scored me points with the ladies and I didn't see a little something extra in my paycheck. I was sent a personal message to post it here so that it could be stickied, it is not like I stickied it myself.

just trying to be helpful, if that is a problem then I apologize. One thing that I always believe though is that regardless of who built the system, how similar it is or how it was done, there are differences. One thing may work for some, but not for another. This guide was an effort to try to make a standardized solution to cover a lot of different configs and systems. It had to be general enough to cover a lot of different things, but still specific enough to get everything for the most part. It has helped a lot of people since it was posted on the VIVO/AIW forum many months ago. So it is not like people hosed their systems up using it.

So I would appreciate it if you did write a nice guide that covered everything and posted it.

[bakunin]

so you just thought everyone uses X-setup and disabled WFP? ..cmon ,admit that you made a mistake(we are all humans..) in "your" guide(well at least you posted it), that made it almost absolutely useless...no big deal.

..and pls add the missing "details"..just 2 textlines,no need to rewrite the whole guide.


..i appreciate your efforts,peace..greetings,bakunin.


Quote:
"just trying to be helpful, if that is a problem then I apologize"
-dito

[shasha]

Said that I forgot about it. What do you want a 3 page aplology?

I am so very sorry that I made a mistake. My God, I just wanted everyone to love me so much...

Good enough???

[bakunin]

NO! im not satisfied! MOORE! i want MOOOORE! I AM THE KING,noone is so hyperIntelligent,brave and gooood as i am and ...I WILL START A WAR AGAINST YOU! YOU ARE A TERRORIST! yes you are! ..you and this Jesus-guy..shut up!denying makes you even more a Terrorist.....i must protect the world from you.....evil-- EEEVIL everywhere...destroy.. must kill in the name of peace..more nervegas...more peacekeepers..ill kill you and then you gonna learn...

I AM GOD !





..or g.bush inc.



enjoy..

[megatron]

Lose £200 and go straight to the funny farm!

[Overlag]

cant remove ATI control panel, it wont let me