The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Video Driver Updates

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by sliqsystems, Sep 3, 2008.

  1. sliqsystems

    sliqsystems Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    17
    Messages:
    122
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I was just curious if everyone who updates there video drivers actually removes the previous driver first? I was reading some forums, that basically said, Remove Current Drivers, Reboot, Install New Drivers, Reboot.

    I have never done this in the past and havent had any problems (on desktop systems). I always worry that removing the current drivers will potentially make the screen unviewable once you reboot with no drivers
     
    sliqsystems, Sep 3, 2008
    #1
  2. auburncoast

    auburncoast Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    335
    Messages:
    705
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I do just in case. I've had it mess up in the past. its just a few extra steps that can save some hassle sometimes.
     
    auburncoast, Sep 3, 2008
    #2
  3. Kevin

    Kevin Egregious

    Reputations:
    3,289
    Messages:
    10,780
    Likes Received:
    1,782
    Trophy Points:
    581
    There will always be a Generic VGA driver, when you uninstall the Nvidia display drivers, so no need to worry about that.

    Sometimes I do unistall and clean, but lately I've just been installing right over the old driver.
     
    Kevin, Sep 3, 2008
    #3
  4. gavinh

    gavinh Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    60
    Messages:
    588
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    The kind folks over at www.driverheaven.net always advise you uninstall all previous drivers, reboot into safemode, run Driver Cleaner, reboot, install new drivers. It definitely avoids conflict and often solves many graphics related issues but is horribly time-consuming.

    www.drivercleaner.net

    I've also found that running driver cleaner and its including cab cleaner occasionally frees up a ton of space. Like a gig's worth.
     
    gavinh, Sep 3, 2008
    #4
  5. Rorschach

    Rorschach Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    1,131
    Messages:
    3,552
    Likes Received:
    17
    Trophy Points:
    106
    I just about never run a drive cleaner when I install new drivers. I haven't had any problems doing it that way yet either. If you really want to, just download something like ccleaner and run that after you update your driver.
     
    Rorschach, Sep 3, 2008
    #5
  6. ashveratu

    ashveratu Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    318
    Messages:
    470
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    As most above have stated, it is generally a good idea to uninstall current drivers, run driver sweeper, reboot and install the new ones. This habit is really important in the desktop realm where you can replace a nVidia card with an ATI card or vice versa.

    Honestly though, I never had any conflicts when updating to a newer version of a driver. I only uninstall and run sweeper when installing a completely new card which only applies to desktops mostly.
     
    ashveratu, Sep 3, 2008
    #6
  7. sohail99

    sohail99 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    64
    Messages:
    294
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    sohail99, Sep 3, 2008
    #7