Completely Uninstalling Old Graphics Card Drivers

[mike breck]

This is taken from previous posts I've answered and I've just combined them here to save me writing all this again.

This first part applies to Windows 95, 98, and Me.

NVidia Drivers

Here are the specifics for uninstall the old drivers when using Win9x. These are for NVidia cards but the principles apply to most cards.

BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY.

First change your video adapter to Standard Display Adapter. Right click on Desktop>Properties>Settings tab>Advanced Properties> Adapter tab.

Click the Change button and at the bottom, click the "Show All Devices". In the left pane, scroll up to the top and choose Standard Display Types. In the right pane, choose Standard Display Adapter (VGA). Click OK.

Then boot into Safe Mode by holding down the Shift key when the PC boots. Remove Nvidia drivers thro Control Panel>Add/Remove programs.

Then to the Registry.

Go to Start and Run and type regedit. Press Ok. Double click the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to open it up, then SOFTWARE. If it still exists, delete the Nvidia Corporation key by right clicking on it and choosing Delete. Exit Regedit

Then clean up any leftover files.
Go to Start>Find>Find Files &Folders. Do a search for these files:
In C:\Windows\System: nv*.*
In C:\Windows\Inf: nv*.inf
In C:\Windows\Inf\Other: nv*.inf
Delete the ones you find in those folders. Be careful you just delete the ones with "nv", nothing else.

Reboot. Reinstall DX and then install your new video drivers.


Voodoo Drivers

BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY.

Change your graphics adapter to Standard VGA.

Go into Safe Mode and remove the Voodoo from Add/Remove Programs and Device Manager.
Delete the Voodoo setup file in C:\WINDOWS\INF\.
Also delete the "inf." file in C:\WINDOWS\INF\OTHER.
The "INF" folder is a hidden folder in Windows, so you may have to go to VIEW>FOLDER OPTIONS>VIEW and tick "Show all Files".

Then go to START MENU>RUN and type REGEDIT.

Left-click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the Regedit Window. Click on "Find" and type in "Voodoo". When regedit finds a reference to Voodoo, right-click on it and select DELETE. Then left-click on the EDIT tab at the top again and click on FIND NEXT. Regedit will find the next entry for Voodoo.
Some single line entries may appear in the right-hand pane and some complete Voodoo folders will appear in the left-hand pane. Delete them all, but be careful you only delete Voodoo entries. Take your time.

When Regedit tells you it has finished searching the Registry, then you know that you have deleted all entries and can exit Regedit.

Reboot. Reinstall DX and then install your new video drivers.

[shifty]

I just uninstalled a voodoo video card.Thanks for the tip.I'll check it out.Running ok with new Radeon card but I'd like to keep the system as clean as possible.

[shifty]

Mike,I see a folder in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/software/3Dfx Interactive.Should that folder be deleted too?It has two folders in it:Voodoo 3 and Edge tools.Thanks.