I'm sure this kind of thing has been asked a million times.

I always uninstall drivers before installing newer versions. However, I
hadn't realsied that with my newer 9800 pro, as soon as i reboot, windows
(XP SP1)automatically re-installs them upon startup. What am I to do about
this?

Also, I have just changed from the catalyst 4.10 drivers to omega's latest
drivers (with a nice performance increase) - however, I'd like to know how
important 'driver cleaning' utilities are... I attempted to use Driver
Cleaner 3, but its steps involve safe mode, where my system seems to
hang?!?! I've never had any driver clashes (as far as i know) - so there's
nothing to worry about?

Any words of advice about this, or perhaps future driver installations?

Thanks

"The Berzerker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:41829241$0$10003$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I always uninstall drivers before installing newer versions. However, I
> hadn't realsied that with my newer 9800 pro, as soon as i reboot, windows
> (XP SP1)automatically re-installs them upon startup. What am I to do about
> this?

But _which_ driver is it installing? If it is installing the ATI driver then
you haven't actually uninstalled the driver. Otherwise, Windows is merely
using the default vga driver (Microsoft), which cannot (and shouldn't) be
removed.

> Also, I have just changed from the catalyst 4.10 drivers to omega's latest
> drivers (with a nice performance increase) - however, I'd like to know how
> important 'driver cleaning' utilities are...

It's generally not important at all. I used to do compatibility testing at
work and I would mix all sorts of ATI/Nvidia drivers (along with a host of
sound card drivers from Creative/Hercules/MAudio/Turtle Beach) and it was
never a problem.

"Kevin C." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:krEgd.36705$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "The Berzerker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:41829241$0$10003$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > I always uninstall drivers before installing newer versions. However, I
> > hadn't realsied that with my newer 9800 pro, as soon as i reboot,
windows
> > (XP SP1)automatically re-installs them upon startup. What am I to do
about
> > this?
>
> But _which_ driver is it installing? If it is installing the ATI driver
then
> you haven't actually uninstalled the driver. Otherwise, Windows is merely
> using the default vga driver (Microsoft), which cannot (and shouldn't) be
> removed.
>

I think it's installing the exact driver i just tried to remove. I didn't
follow up on it too much, since that wasn't in my interest. However, once it
put whatever driver it was back on, I fired up doom 3, and it all worked
fine. So whatever it did, it was complete and working. When uninstalling, i
was going to the add/remove programs panel, and removing the control panel +
the ati display driver..... so that's gotta be right?

Anyway, if driver cleaning isn't essential, then all is well..... I got the
omega's on, and get about 12fps more in Doom 3. Sounds good to me.

"The Berzerker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:418316f0$0$10935$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Kevin C." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:krEgd.36705$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> "The Berzerker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:41829241$0$10003$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > I always uninstall drivers before installing newer versions. However, I
>> > hadn't realsied that with my newer 9800 pro, as soon as i reboot,
> windows
>> > (XP SP1)automatically re-installs them upon startup. What am I to do
> about
>> > this?
>>
>> But _which_ driver is it installing? If it is installing the ATI driver
> then
>> you haven't actually uninstalled the driver. Otherwise, Windows is merely
>> using the default vga driver (Microsoft), which cannot (and shouldn't) be
>> removed.
>>
>
> I think it's installing the exact driver i just tried to remove. I didn't
> follow up on it too much, since that wasn't in my interest. However, once
> it
> put whatever driver it was back on, I fired up doom 3, and it all worked
> fine. So whatever it did, it was complete and working. When uninstalling,
> i
> was going to the add/remove programs panel, and removing the control panel
> +
> the ati display driver..... so that's gotta be right?
>
> Anyway, if driver cleaning isn't essential, then all is well..... I got
> the
> omega's on, and get about 12fps more in Doom 3. Sounds good to me.
>

My procedure is uninstall driver and control panel through windows
add/remove. Reboot and cancel out of the new hardware found messages. I
then run DC3. Reboot and cancel out of new hardware messages again, then
install new driver. Seems to work for me, YMMV.

When you first install a driver package, the installer extracts all the
files to a temp directory. By default it's C:\ATI\SUPPORT\<driver pkg
internal name> . In there, there's an ATi uninstall utility called
AtiCimUn.EXE.

Instead of going to Control Panel -> Add/Remove, just run that app.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."


"The Berzerker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:41829241$0$10003$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm sure this kind of thing has been asked a million times.
>
> I always uninstall drivers before installing newer versions. However, I
> hadn't realsied that with my newer 9800 pro, as soon as i reboot, windows
> (XP SP1)automatically re-installs them upon startup. What am I to do about
> this?
>
> Also, I have just changed from the catalyst 4.10 drivers to omega's latest
> drivers (with a nice performance increase) - however, I'd like to know how
> important 'driver cleaning' utilities are... I attempted to use Driver
> Cleaner 3, but its steps involve safe mode, where my system seems to
> hang?!?! I've never had any driver clashes (as far as i know) - so there's
> nothing to worry about?
>
> Any words of advice about this, or perhaps future driver installations?
>
> Thanks
>
>