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help installing vid card on vista


akaM2

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Hello all, I am installing a 7900gs on a friends xps410 with windows vista premium on it.

 

I was wondering, is it the same kind of procedure with xp?

 

Put card in computer lol

boot into safe mode (does vista have safe mode like the others? aka f8)

run driver cleaner

reboot to regular vista

install new drivers

reboot

 

 

all sound good?

 

death to vista

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I would avoid using driver cleaner until the maker (Spike) has time to write a version that will work with the Vista system. You can probably just get away with uninstalling the previous drivers, shut down, remove the old card and put in the new one.

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You can typically run drivercleaner and it is almost the same thing since all entries for the previous video card's drivers is removed completely. The problem is that Vista is different enough that it may not work or it may break the OS.

 

http://www.drivercleaner.net

 

There is a new .net version apparently that is coded to work for Vista. He charges $9.99 for it. May be worth picking up.

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why would you not uninstall and clean the old drivers with the old card in? i never use safe mode to change a vid card... i just remove any sign of the old drivers, remove the old card, put the new card in and then boot up. cancel as many times as you need to the run the installer for the new driver. reboot when it says and you're good to go.

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The reason for doing the uninstall in safe mode is because the drivers will still be in memory and some files may still be in use and may not get uninstalled. Safemode uses the default svga/vga drivers so none of the nvidia/ati drivers will be in use.

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Try going from nvidia to ati or vice versa and you may get to see why you do the switch in safe mode with driver cleaner. Or even worse if you tried to switch an old ATI like a 7500 series with one of the new x1XXX series cards and you will see some major hicups and will end up either doing the driver cleaner route in safe mode or a complete reinstall of windows.

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i've never had a problem going back and forth either just using add/remove and then installing the new driver once the new card is in. maybe i haven't done it under enough circumstances.

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