New Motherboard, New and Old Drivers..

[SP Goodman]

Hi folks,

Recently I had to replace my motherboard and its drivers on-disk as well.
However I've been having to weed out the old drivers despite having performed
Uninstalls as well as reg scans to eliminate the obsolete stubs present. I
had several instances where old mobo drivers are still being installed when
"removed", and cause some trouble with, for instance, Tabletworks (Calcomp
Drawingboard III) firing up at the apparent same time as Realtek audio
software (mobo) on the taskbar.

Even deleting all devices and letting the automatic Found New Hardware
wizard do its thing has not resolved this, and I've noticed some folders
containing old drivers under C:\WINDOWS that I don't really want to delete,
lest I generate a situation requiring a complete scratch install. Kindly let
me know how to eliminate all drivers beyond the defaults, so I can have the
performance I need.

Thanks!

 

[Ghostrider]

Hi folks,

Recently I had to replace my motherboard and its drivers on-disk as well.
However I've been having to weed out the old drivers despite having performed
Uninstalls as well as reg scans to eliminate the obsolete stubs present. I
had several instances where old mobo drivers are still being installed when
"removed", and cause some trouble with, for instance, Tabletworks (Calcomp
Drawingboard III) firing up at the apparent same time as Realtek audio
software (mobo) on the taskbar.

Even deleting all devices and letting the automatic Found New Hardware
wizard do its thing has not resolved this, and I've noticed some folders
containing old drivers under C:\WINDOWS that I don't really want to delete,
lest I generate a situation requiring a complete scratch install. Kindly let
me know how to eliminate all drivers beyond the defaults, so I can have the
performance I need.

Thanks!

CCleaner may be able to do the trick. Before deleting selected system
and/or driver files, make sure to have a backup. Similarly, before doing
edits on the Windows Registry, also take care to back it up. And always
verify that the proposed actions are the desired ones before making any
changes.

 

[Bill in Co.]

CCleaner may be able to do the trick. Before deleting selected system
and/or driver files, make sure to have a backup. Similarly, before doing
edits on the Windows Registry, also take care to back it up. And always
verify that the proposed actions are the desired ones before making any
changes.

I thought the recommended procedure after replacing the MB was to do a
Repair Install, and leave it at that (and NOT try to get too creative and
carried away in the manual deleting of things that *appear* to be wrong (esp
in the registry), but really may not be). Presumably a Repair Install
would correct what needs to be (or nearly so). If not, a clean install
would be recommended.

 

[Ghostrider]

I thought the recommended procedure after replacing the MB was to do a
Repair Install, and leave it at that (and NOT try to get too creative and
carried away in the manual deleting of things that *appear* to be wrong (esp
in the registry), but really may not be). Presumably a Repair Install
would correct what needs to be (or nearly so). If not, a clean install
would be recommended.

That is correct. I assumed that there was a Repair Install but it
would not necessarily have removed all of the original driver files
or OEM driver files that might have persisted. This was the drift I
got from the OP.

 

[Bill in Co.]

That is correct. I assumed that there was a Repair Install but it
would not necessarily have removed all of the original driver files
or OEM driver files that might have persisted. This was the drift I
got from the OP.

But it's wiser to leave them in in that case (and ditto on tweaking with the
registry, in this case). As in: "a word to the wise is sufficient" -
particularly in this case.

 

[SP Goodman]

But it's wiser to leave them in in that case (and ditto on tweaking with the
registry, in this case). As in: "a word to the wise is sufficient" -
particularly in this case.

Nah, if it's a choice between scratch reinstall and leaving 'em I say
'scratch install'. I've been in this biz since it was called 'MIS' and have
built and serviced an untold number of PCs and configurations, so I'm aware
of what I'm doing.

BUT, I asked where the folders/directories are that contain the aforesaid
old drivers, so I could at least take 'em out of the running. Hey, if it
doesn't work it's still 'scratch' time - but I can't believe the answer to
"Where are the old drivers kept?" hasn't been discussed at Microsoft. One
would think otherwise that there's only one place, or a dither of locations.
One wonders anyway.

For instance there's a dir called C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRVSTORE. Under it
one can find folders with names like:
'amdk8 6FE44FCD212D4A086C7BC0C98B9A61978073FB7'. An example only, I
wouldn't take out the drivers for my CPU! I could probably find the latter
string in the registry somewhere - and further trace back refs to other
entries.

Any hints on this? Thanks in advance.