Automatic downloading of hardware drivers...

[V Green]

Been trying to figure out why my Radeon
won't drive the DVI input on my Samsung 191T.

This requires a lot of uninstalling of ATI drivers.

When I reboot after an ATI uninstall, I get the
"New Hardware Found-VGA compatible" AND THEN
Windows proceeds to download whatever old version
of the Radeon drivers MS has on their website. I can
see what's happening on my WinProxy status window.
I have to kill the connection in my proxy server to
keep this from happening.

Automatic Updates are COMPLETELY disabled-
all the options are greyed-out in the tab. I haven't
been able to find any options to turn off this BAD
behavior...downloading a driver off the Internet,
even if it's from MS's site,
and then installing it WITHOUT NOTIFYING ME
is COMPLETELY unacceptable behavior and makes
hardware troubleshooting a bigger pain in the ass
than it already is...

There had BETTER be some way to turn this off.

<end of rant>

 

[SteveL]

You stated that Autoupdates are COMPLETLY disabled,
including the service?

 

[Joe]

Download & install the latest ATI drivers from http://www.ati.com/.
They should be more up to date than what MS has.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Been trying to figure out why my Radeon
won't drive the DVI input on my Samsung 191T.

This requires a lot of uninstalling of ATI drivers.

When I reboot after an ATI uninstall, I get the
"New Hardware Found-VGA compatible" AND THEN
Windows proceeds to download whatever old version
of the Radeon drivers MS has on their website. I can
see what's happening on my WinProxy status window.
I have to kill the connection in my proxy server to
keep this from happening.

Two things. First Get the needed download file from ATI and save it to
hard disk..

Then in Start - Run - MSConfig.exe go to the Boot.ini page, check
/BASEVIDEO. Don't take Reboot on Exiting , but do a normal complete
Shutdown, physically unplug your Net connection and reboot to this mode.
There uninstall the present drivers and run the ATI program to install
the new ones. Before rebooting run MSConfig again to uncheck that box
- Exit ,on reboot there will be a message about 'System Configuration'.
Check the 'Do not show again' box and exit. When it is working restore
your Net connection

 

[V Green]

Response inline:

Two things. First Get the needed download file from ATI and save it to
hard disk..

Then in Start - Run - MSConfig.exe go to the Boot.ini page, check
/BASEVIDEO. Don't take Reboot on Exiting , but do a normal complete
Shutdown, physically unplug your Net connection and reboot to this mode.
There uninstall the present drivers and run the ATI program to install
the new ones. Before rebooting run MSConfig again to uncheck that box
- Exit ,on reboot there will be a message about 'System Configuration'.
Check the 'Do not show again' box and exit. When it is working restore
your Net connection

Thanks for your response Alex.

That's basically what I'm doing when I sever
the connection in WinProxy. I already know what
to do re: getting the correct driver installed.

My gripe is with the driver autodownload process itself.

I do NOT want this happening, under ANY circumstances.
If the driver is small, it'll get downloaded & installed before
I realize what's happening, perhaps bollixing the entire system.
Luckily the RADEDON driver was large, took some time to download,
and I caught the process by noting what was happening on the proxy
server and my IDSL modem.

It is not reasonable to expect me to kill my network connection
to prevent this from happening. It NEEDS to be able to turned
permanently OFF if a user so desires. I would have thought that
disabling Automatic Updates would have done so. I appear to have
been misled.

I guess I can let it occur again, and blacklist the MS driver site
in my firewall, but it really should be an option within XP itself
whether or not you wish this to happen.