Radeon Driver Problems

[headshrinker]

I have just upgraded my graphics card from a Geforce4 MX 440SE to a Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT. The hardware itself has installed fine but I am having problems installing the driver.

I start my computer in Safe mode as administrator and attempt to install the driver from the cd rom but I am getting an error message

Severe
Setup was unable to complete the installation.
Try to setup your display adapter with a standard VGA driver before running setup.

Any help?

Thanx

 

[michaelsil1]

Try installing the Driver out of Safe Mode.

 

[DrDevin]

Uninstall any video card drivers then restart your computer. Windows should pop up after a little while saying it has found a new hardware device. It should then install a very basic VGA driver. When it says that it then becomes ok to install the driver. Also I would install the latest catalyst drivers and not the old ones that come on the CD.

 

[headshrinker]

Ok,

I uninstalled my old Nvidia drivers then rebooted. Windows started as usual and the hardware wizard installed the card. I still cannot install the driver though. In normal mode I get an error message telling me that setup has been aborted as I am not in administrator mode. In administrator mode I get the same message as before.

Its really pissin me off. I have no idea what to do now. I have been on the ati website to try and find a solution but nothing.

I have windows xp. Any more ideas?

 

[Troika]

Usual routine is: uninstall Nvidia Driver - remove Nvidia card - install Ati card - boot normally, without going into safe mode - hardware wizard finds hardware, cancel it - install 5.1 drivers with Classic Control Panel (smaller file) from ATI website. Reboot.

The driver must not be installed in safe mode, and of course do not use the driver on the installation CD, 'cause it's older than ATI's one for sure.

If this routine doesn't work, you probably have corrupted XP system files, so you gotta run XP repair or reinstall XP.

 

[All_Steamed_Out]

You may have a huge problem on your hands...

I went through a very similar situation. I had an MX440 SE and made the change to an ATI 9800 PRO.
I did a lot of research in advance and just about everybody, (including the gaming shop which built my machine) felt the safest way to change from Nvidia to ATI (or the other way around) was to reformat the hard drive and do a fresh install of XP. Their fears were based on the fact that elements of the Nvidia drivers insinuate themselves into the Windows registry and it is very difficult to be certain you get it all removed. This can create driver conflicts which can do things ranging from nothing, to slowing down performance, right up to an incurable black screen.
I searched the net and came up with a utility called "Detonator Destroyer" (http://www.guru3d.com/detonator-destroyer/). I downloaded it to my desktop, but did not run it. I also went to the ATI site and downloaded the most recent driver which I saved to my desktop - but of course, did not run.
I began the installation during business hours, so I could get to my shop if everything fell to pieces on me.
These are the steps I took:
(I was warned by ATI to update my AGP drivers in advance of the card installation - I did this with a tool MSI provided - ATI believed this was a significant step - If you haven't done this, you should)
1) Went into the Windows Add/Remove programs utility and removed all Nvidia titled items including the display driver.
2) I then ran the Detonator Destroyer utility - it found several items not removed by Windows. I completed the removal, then ran it again. This time it came up clean.
3) I shut down the machine, removed the MX440 and installed the 9800 PRO.
4) I booted up the machine, ran the installer for the ATI Catalyst driver and re-booted again
5) No problems - based on benchmarks of several types, the machine is "on-spec" (Incidentally, my Aquamark3 score went from 7,642 to 31,543).
A systems engineer friend of mine - said I was lucky (mind you, a systems engineer gets paid for solving problems).

You might try running the Detonator Destroyer now and see if it helps. In any case - good luck..

 

[Kirkburn]

Christ, you didn't actually uninstall the nVidia drivers first?? Scaary.
To everyone going from nVidia to ATi or vice-versa make sure u use a utility like Detonator Destroyer or Driver Cleaner.
(This is me just backing up All_Steamed_Out, here)

 

[LordBug]

What drivers are you trying to install?

The ones that came with the card? The latest Catalysts? Omega's? DNA's?