I can't uninstall my video drivers

[The Lodge]

I’ve spent the last four hours trying to install different video drivers. I have an Abit NF7-S v2.0 and a GF4 Ti 4600. I have the newest bios for the board and the 3.13 NForce chipset drivers. Well that unified driver pack installed the 52.16 display drivers on my system. Which I must add I’m not impressed with at all, then again I don’t have the newest card either. I’m getting funny colors and octagon shaped skies and ground affects in certain parts of COD. When I go to the add remove programs wizard and remove my display drivers it only removes them from that list and not the computer. I went into the device manager and tried to uninstall the driver and it tells me it can’t uninstall the hardware from my computer cause it needs it to boot. I tried using nasty file remover and it can’t uninstall my display driver either. I’m really at a loss here and any suggestions\tips (ex. The best way to uninstall video drivers) would be greatly appreciated. I would love to go back to the 4x series of drivers, they seem to work the best with my card. “Note: it did uninstall my video card once but no matter what I did I couldn’t reinstall it, so I bounced back with system restore.” It’s just been a vicious cycle of rebooting.

[Direct1]

Download Detonator R.I.P. (http://download.guru3d.com/detonator-rip/) -- that should do the trick. Good luck! :D

[The Lodge]

Thanks for the lead. I'm gonna give it a whirl right now. I'll report back soon, hopefully with some good news. Thanks.:D

[fishybawb]

If that doesn't work, try uinstalling the Detonators via Add/Remove, then instead of rebooting, search for all files (including hidden and system) matching nv*.inf.
Delete all of them. Now reboot. When Windows starts asking for drivers, keep clicking on Cancel, then install the Detonators you want. Always worked for me :t

[The Lodge]

Detonator RIP won't even fire up. I get an error message. I'll try what you suggested fishybawb. I'll be back.:confused:

edit: Would it matter that these are forceware drivers and not detonator?

[Direct1]

Try running Detonator R.I.P. in safe mode (keep tapping the F8 key as you re-boot). If that doesn't work, check out this site...

Proper driver uninstallation Guide for Windows XP (http://www.xtremecomputing.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=496#post496) --good luck! :D

[The Lodge]

Unbelievable. I went to the add\remove and uninstalled my display drivers and the typical boxes came up, “your gonna uninstall blaa, blaa, blaa, are you sure”. And yes I’m sure. Well at this point I’m not sure about anything. It removed it but didn’t ask me to reboot. I went and searched for all the dlls like suggested and deleted them. Rebooted and guess what. That’s right, everything is still in tacked. Except for the option to remove it in the add\remove programs. What is going on? Should I uninstall all the Nvidia drivers and install an older version like the 2.45s? I’ll give the detonator in safe mode a try. I’ll keep ya posted. :confused:

[The Lodge]

No luck with safe mode. Going to try Driver Cleaner as mentioned in the driver uninstalling guide. I'll be back. :confused:

[The Lodge]

YES!

It worked. Nice link Direct1, thanks. If many other people have problems uninstalling drivers you should make that guide a sticky. At least that's how I feel now, after all the frustration I've been through. It took a little guidance installing the new drivers, (just had to point windows to the path) no big whoop. Just had to let ya know I'm golden now. Thanks a bunch, The Lodge :t