Uninstalling ATI drivers

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Hello,

Hopefully this problem I have is a simple one that I am simply overlooking. Recently I tried installing beta drivers that I heard on BioWare forums fixed some Dragon Age 2 problems. I had read others with the mobility ATI card using them without problem, so decided to go ahead with it.

They didn't really fix any issues and as far as I can tell have caused more problems. I've tried to uninstall the ATI driver like the ATI website recommends (Control panel->Uninstall the Catalyst install manager) but when doing so I get a black screen with a blinking cursor partway through. I would like to find a way to uninstall the ATI drivers so I can install the correct and updated Mobility ATI card for my video card. Below is the specs for my version of the 27 inch iMac:

3.20GHz Intel Core i3
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR3 SDRAM
8x double-layer SuperDrive
Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
Magic Mouse

I also am using Windows 7.

I'm rather new to the whole mac thing and appreciate any help/insight into this particular problem!
 

chscag

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You have to uninstall the ATI drivers from Safe Boot mode. And install the new mobility drivers the same way. After the old drivers are removed and the new ones installed, you can boot Win 7 back to normal mode.
 
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Ok, thank you for the response! I will give that a try.

Edit: I tried uninstalling it via control panel in safe mode and it said windows installer was not available in safe mode. Should I be trying to uninstall it via device manager?
 

chscag

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Yes. Go ahead and remove it via the Device Manager from the hardware tree. I'm not sure that will completely remove it, however.

When in Safe Boot mode, Windows only loads the generic drivers for video, sound, etc. You might also try rolling back the video drive from Safe Boot mode, again from the Device Manager hardware tree.

If all the above still gives you a black screen, you may wind up having to do a repair install of Windows 7. Let us know how it went.
 
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I am able to uninstall the driver but unable to install the ati drivers in safe mode. It doesn't recognize that I have a video adapter after I have uninstalled the drivers via device manager.
 

chscag

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OK, at least you were able to uninstall the bad driver. Can you now boot to Windows normally? The resolution and screen may look terrible without the proper driver, but if you can boot without getting the black screen, you should then be able to install the mobility driver that you need.
 
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Well, I *think* I uninstalled the driver. I am not sure now that it uninstalled completely. What I did was: Uninstall the driver completely in Safe mode, Restarted in Safe mode and it installed a default ATI driver. Windows was now detecting my video card as an ATI Radeon HD 5670.

I couldn't install the driver from Safe mode so I rebooted into normal windows and installed it there. Everything went correctly (although when I loaded windows up normally, it had normal resolution for the 27 inch screen). When the driver was installed, DXDIAG was detecting my video card as the following: AMD Radeon HD 6570M/5700 Series which was what it was detecting when I had the beta drivers installed. DXDIAG is also detecting the correct driver as well though, 8.831.2.0 so I am not sure what to make of this.

The installer for the new driver did go through without errors though. I'll test the driver some tonight where I was noticing issues with it and see if they are resolved but as I said, I am now unsure if it uninstalled completely. I do have Drive Cleaner which I could use if this didn't work (and see if that will uninstall any remaining bits).
 

chscag

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Don't use the drive cleaner unless you absolutely have to. Using it could get you right back to the black screen issue. Let us know how it goes.
 
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I've been testing it for a few hours now (about 5) and I can say that based on that time most of the issues are gone. One of the issues is still present, namely smoke/water/effects of a similar sort cut off part of the characters hair and makes the face extremely jagged around the edges which was not present before (I use AAx4). That issue might be with the driver itself though as prior to this I was using Catalyst driver 11.2 instead of 11.3.

Other then that, upon starting Windows today I got the option of running Windows Repair or starting Windows normally (it was the first time I'd done a start up instead of restart) and made me think windows didn't start normally. I tried starting it normally and it has ran fine since and I've been unable to reproduce the problem.

Those are the only two issues I have noticed really, everything else has ran smooth (and in some cases better). I'm not sure if it'd be worth messing around with it more or just doing a wait and see approach. What do you think? Also, I appreciate all the help you've been with this issue I've had!
 

chscag

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Those are the only two issues I have noticed really, everything else has ran smooth (and in some cases better). I'm not sure if it'd be worth messing around with it more or just doing a wait and see approach. What do you think? Also, I appreciate all the help you've been with this issue I've had!

I agree. If it's not broke right now, don't mess with it. I'm not sure I understand why Windows started with the option to repair, but you did the right thing by starting normally. A repair install will overwrite all your updates and put you back to square one. You should only use that if all else fails.
 

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