is it really necessary to remove old drivers in the registry?

magdt · Feb 25, 2003, 05:49 PM

I was wondering if it is really necessary to remove old drivers in the registry. I just upgraded my card to a radeon 8500le. Before doing so I did a control panel/remove programs of my previous nvidia geforce 2 GTS. Is that enough? Is it really necessary to trudge through the registry and remove any references to it?

I'm just wondering what negative effect it would have to leave the old garbage there. Doesn't windows just access the information concerning the new ATI card?

Juho · Feb 25, 2003, 07:55 PM

I upgraded from a integrated ATi Rage Pro to a GeForce 2 MX400 sometime ago on my old machine.

I left all those ATi's registry thingys and my system worked REALLY slow and unstably. After I removed those registry components things got much better.

I know this is kinda other way around, but I think you should remove those registry parts. Theres some programs which make this very easy.

~~craig588~~ · Feb 25, 2003, 08:57 PM

I just throw on the new drivers without touching the old ones, I even took out my voodoo5 6000 and replaced it with the r9700pro without removing the old drivers. I never have driver related trouble, just errors between the chair and keyboard. (My waterpump being unplugged will haunt me forever)

UberLord · Feb 25, 2003, 11:33 PM

All IHV's had horrendous problems a few years back with their old drivers not cleaning up after un-installing hence the recommendation to remove everything possible. These days it's not too bad. On my PC I have ATI, Matrox and Kyro drivers co-existing in harmony on Windows XP

If you are running WinXP or 2K then you can probably avoid cleaning old drivers off even by another IHV if they are relatively new - say a year old tops.
Any other Windows OS and I'd say hunt hunt or reformat.

dipstick · Feb 27, 2003, 03:22 PM

It's best to clean them out. Use this regcleaner(free) and clean out the ATi entries; it's extremely easy so why not do it. http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/software.shtml

Feb 25, 2003, 05:49 PM	#1
magdt DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 13 Rep Power: 0	is it really necessary to remove old drivers in the registry? I was wondering if it is really necessary to remove old drivers in the registry. I just upgraded my card to a radeon 8500le. Before doing so I did a control panel/remove programs of my previous nvidia geforce 2 GTS. Is that enough? Is it really necessary to trudge through the registry and remove any references to it? I'm just wondering what negative effect it would have to leave the old garbage there. Doesn't windows just access the information concerning the new ATI card?

Feb 25, 2003, 07:55 PM	#2
Juho DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Finland Posts: 7 Rep Power: 0	I upgraded from a integrated ATi Rage Pro to a GeForce 2 MX400 sometime ago on my old machine. I left all those ATi's registry thingys and my system worked REALLY slow and unstably. After I removed those registry components things got much better. I know this is kinda other way around, but I think you should remove those registry parts. Theres some programs which make this very easy. __________________ Soltek SL-75KAV (KT133A), AMD Athlon XP 1800+, 512 Mt (133 MHz DIMM), Gainward GeForce 3 Ti200 (4xAGP, 128 Mt DDR)

Feb 25, 2003, 11:33 PM	#4
UberLord A Legend in Underwear Join Date: May 2002 Location: Unknown Posts: 5,255 Rep Power: 0	All IHV's had horrendous problems a few years back with their old drivers not cleaning up after un-installing hence the recommendation to remove everything possible. These days it's not too bad. On my PC I have ATI, Matrox and Kyro drivers co-existing in harmony on Windows XP If you are running WinXP or 2K then you can probably avoid cleaning old drivers off even by another IHV if they are relatively new - say a year old tops. Any other Windows OS and I'd say hunt hunt or reformat. __________________ Gentoo Linux - Developer (baselayout) Read my blog "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." Stephen Roberts

Feb 25, 2003, 08:57 PM	#3
~~craig588~~ Banned Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: In clothing Posts: 3,510 Rep Power: 0	I just throw on the new drivers without touching the old ones, I even took out my voodoo5 6000 and replaced it with the r9700pro without removing the old drivers. I never have driver related trouble, just errors between the chair and keyboard. (My waterpump being unplugged will haunt me forever)

Feb 27, 2003, 03:22 PM	#5
dipstick HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: USA Posts: 3,609 Rep Power: 71 System Specs	It's best to clean them out. Use this regcleaner(free) and clean out the ATi entries; it's extremely easy so why not do it. http://www.vtoy.fi/jv16/shtml/software.shtml