Need steps required to remove GHOST drivers!

[dhughes]

I'm okay, but a friend of mine is having problems with her installation of a new vid card (GF2 64mb MX)in Win 98.

I had the same problem is the past, and had the directions for doing this, but two computers later... I've lost them!

Thanks for the info or link to info~
dh

[vesselle]

i'm assuming its video drivers only.

so, first off, for nVidia, ATI, Voodoo cards:

download the set of drivers you want. fresh copy. delete the old one if you have stored it on your drive. i put mine on my desktop for easy access.

now remove your current drivers

...Control Panel
...Add/Remove Programs
...Browse for the nVidia/ATI/3dfx file on your PC
...Remove it

run a search for nv*.inf or ati*.inf or 3dfx*.inf files on your machine. delete them all. note: be sure to "wildcard" them, as there are anywhere from 4 to 8 different files that will need to come out!

...now you want to go into your registry and remove your nVidia/ATI/3Dfx tab. (whichever is appropriate for your gfx card)
...HKEY_Local_Machine/Software/X (where X= nVidia or ATI Tech or 3dfx Interactive)
yes...delete the entire key.

by doing this you are going down to the MS VGA driver. which will look like ick when you reboot, but that's what you want!

now's when you want to reboot your machine, come up into all your 640x480 16 Color glory, and install your new nVidia drivers that are so thoughtfully waiting somewhere on your desktop.

should be pretty much a peice of cake at this point. it's not a biggie anyway, if you're used to playing with drivers!

good luck, sweetie!

V***V

[img]graemlins/chaos.gif[/img]

[ 05-28-2002, 02:03 PM: Message edited by: vesselle ]

[dhughes]

Thanks for the info... but, want to make sure before I send it off to the friend~

You say for her to delete the Nvidia folder.. uh, and here's where I'm not clear.. her old card is a Voodoo 3.. is this Nvidia? If so, (except for doing stuff in her registry) I guess were set to go.

Thanks again, for the help.
dh

[DraconisRex]

Same for voodoo. You can also delete it through the add/remove programs and deleting it in the hardware profile, too. But Vesselle's way is more certain.

[vesselle]

heya!!

i edited the notes above so that it includes for ATI and for Voodoo!

that way she can just pay attention to the file/folder names for Voodoo. kay?

V***V

[img]graemlins/chaos.gif[/img]

[dhughes]

Thanks again for all your help!

I just spoke with her over the phone (she lives IL, me CA) and everything went peachy, until she got to rebooting with new drivers, and then, no mouse, no keyboard... she's given up and thinks it's totally the Video cards fault (could be)~ I've never had the type of card she's trying to install (GF2 MX 400)so, I'm at a loss to tell her what else to try.

Her plan now, is to purchased the same card I have (since I'm playing Morrowind without any troubles) which is the GF3 Ti500 w/tv out~ sure hope this works for her!

Thanks again for all your help!
dh

[DraconisRex]

Hey, not to worry. Just have her take her systems disk and re-install her operating system. Somewhere she goofed something to kill the mouse and keyboard as they are in another part of the operating system. Ah. Stuff happens.

Anyway, she'll have a clean install. Then have her download the most current NVIDIA drivers and she'll be fine.

Otherwise, I can give you instructions on what to buy and just how much it'll cost... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[dhughes]

Well, she's pretty much thinking of going with my card (GF3Ti500)but, she also was asking me questions about the different cards. So, if you can enlighten both of us by all means do.

Also, maybe you can answer another question? While checking prices online.. I noticed that some cards mentioned "bulk", OEM, and Retail Box.. do you know what the differences are?

Thanks alot~
dh

[DraconisRex]

Bulk means in quantity.

OEM usually means you get the card w/o helpful gizmos, like installation disks, manuals and any sort of documentation... It depends a lot on the card manufacturer. OEM is for manufacturers and super-geeks. Those kinds do it much differently on the assembly line/laboratory then you and I do it at home.

Anyway, get the RETAIL BOX. ALWAYS get the retail box.


GeForce4 Ti 4600 GeForce3 Ti 500

Vertices per Second: 136 Million
Fill Rate: 4.8 Billion AA Samples/Sec. 3.8 Billion
Operations per Second: 1.23 Trillion 960 Billion
Memory Bandwidth: 10.4GB/sec 8.0Gb/sec
Maximum Memory: 128MB 128MB

But the biggest difference isn't just the speed. It's the 3D capabilities. I know there were some big developments, but I don't know the exact changes.