Updating drivers from Safe Mode?

[Mulehead]

Would it be a good, bad or irrelevent idea to uninstall my old drivers and
install new drivers while in Safe Mode?

I'm planning on updating my ati radeon 8500 drivers. IIRC (it's been awhile)
the last time I did this my computer freaked out a bit between the time I
uninstalled the old drivers and installed the new ones. So I wondered if
uninstalling/installing the video drivers while in Safe Mode might be the
better way to go.

 

[First of One]

What do you mean "freaked out"?

Never upgrade drivers or add/remove hardware in Safe Mode. Use ATi's
AtiCimUn.exe utility to remove all traces of the old drivers, reboot, then
install the new ones. The utility is located by default in folder:
C:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\UninstallAll\

 

[Mulehead]

What do you mean "freaked out"?

Thanks for your reply. It's a little hard to remember. It's been a while
since I updated the drivers. IIRC I had to reboot several times for the
display to look correctly, then I installed the newer ones and everything
looked fine. But then any video files (.wmv, .ram, .mpeg) I tried to run
caused my computer to crash. I don't remember how, but I resolved that.
Also, two of my older games no longer worked correctly. So I had to give
them up. Overall, it's not an experience I hope to repeat.

 

[kevin weaver]

Thanks for your reply. It's a little hard to remember. It's been a while
since I updated the drivers. IIRC I had to reboot several times for the
display to look correctly, then I installed the newer ones and everything
looked fine. But then any video files (.wmv, .ram, .mpeg) I tried to run
caused my computer to crash. I don't remember how, but I resolved that.
Also, two of my older games no longer worked correctly. So I had to give
them up. Overall, it's not an experience I hope to repeat.

I would uninstall them the right way again. Then reinstall them. If there
were any left laying around, doing the correct uninstall of the drivers will
rid them from your system. Then reboot and reinstall.

 

[John Doe]

Never upgrade drivers ... in Safe Mode.

If you forget to uninstall old drivers, booting into safe mode to
install the new drivers works just fine. Using safe mode is good
because Windows easily deletes files that are not being used.
Otherwise the files can be manipulated on a reboot. I guess it
doesn't matter either way, but there's nothing wrong with doing
hardware driver stuff in safe mode.

Use ATi's AtiCimUn.exe utility to remove all traces of the old
drivers,

Which probably will work at least as well in safe mode.

 

[Peasant]

If you forget to uninstall old drivers, booting into safe mode to
install the new drivers works just fine. Using safe mode is good
because Windows easily deletes files that are not being used.
Otherwise the files can be manipulated on a reboot. I guess it
doesn't matter either way, but there's nothing wrong with doing
hardware driver stuff in safe mode.

The Cat uninstaller didn't work so great with the latest CCC drivers for
me when I decided to install the Omega drivers with CP. Lots of REG
entries left behind and a few files too. Kept getting a file error at
boot up about some ATI file not being available anymore. Resolved it
eventually.

 

[KCB]

Thanks for your reply. It's a little hard to remember. It's been a while
since I updated the drivers. IIRC I had to reboot several times for the
display to look correctly, then I installed the newer ones and everything
looked fine.

It's normal for the display to default to standard VGA, 640x480, when the
correct drivers are not loaded. This is how Windows vanilla drivers work.