reverting to standard vga drivers

Question

I have an inspiron 9100 with r9700 mobility, and I'm having a bit of a problem reverting back to a standard vga driver so that i can install newer ati catalyst drivers.   I have uninstalled everything ati through control panel, uninstalled the device in device manager, used drivercleaner to remove anything ati related, used ati's cat-uninstaller, but it still wants to install the r9700 instead of a standard driver.... i tried adding new hardware, but i dont have any option for a standard vga controller, even when i choose show all devices.. it shows a couple of old ati cards and a couple of intel things, but no standard vga controller.   I have tried using the proper catalyst drivers, the omega drivers, old versions of both, standard and mobility etc etc etc.. pretty well every possible combination.. I dont use system restore, so i couldn't backtrack to where i started unfortunately :\   Every time I run through the install procedures I get the same error: 'INF error. Video Driver not found' or the same error with 'Setup was unable to complete the installation. Try to setup your display adapter with a standard vga driver before running setup' after it.    I have never had any problems doing this sort of thing on either of my desktop PCs (both running ati radeon cards (9250 in one, x850xt in the other), I do it monthly (or whenever they update catalyst) normally. They are both running a normal copy of XP Pro, not an OEM copy like on the laptop.   Does the OEM version of XP home shipped with inspirons only have the drivers suited to them? and no standard defaults? as this is what it looks like to me, with the lack of 'standard devices' in the menu...   I'm at the point where i think im going to have to reinstall windows, as nothing will fix the problem. I cant install any driver, be it new or old.. Dell has a 9700 driver on their site, but its old as the hills...   Pretty much all i use my laptop for is gaming, so being able to update to the latest video drivers is really a necessity.   anyone had the same problem? and if so how the H3LL did you get round it??.. it has me stumped.

NemesisDB · Answer

here's the procedure for installing the latest cat drivers from ati.   1) go ahead and download the latest catalyst package from ati's website.   2) download driver cleaner (pro) from http://www.drivercleaner.net/   3) download mobility modder from http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/   4) install drivercleaner   5) Use control panel's add/remove programs to remove anything that looks related to ATI.  Restart in safe mode.  If a new hardware found screen comes up, cancel it.  Run drivercleaner and remove all ATI entries.  Restart windows normally.  If a new hardware found screen comes up, cancel it.   6) execute the cat drivers package -- the installation will fail   7) run mobility modder.  follow the instructions to mod the cat drivers and complete the installation.  restart as required.  you are done

phneh · Answer

I have done everything on the list multiple times so far except for the modding.. will give it a try tonight.. thanks for the info, I will advise how i go.

phneh · Answer

it worked with the standard catalyst drivers, but i couldnt get it to work with the omega drivers... oh well, near enough is good enough... whats another couple of fps in a game anyway :P many thanks.

NemesisDB · Answer

sorry if I was unclear -- that process was only for the standard cat drivers.  the omega drivers are already modified to install on notebooks.  you should just be able to run their executable directly (once you've deleted your current drivers -- mainly once you've removed ATI's control center)

Candrias · Answer

Hi guys, I get exactly the same problem described here, but on my Desktop (Dimension 9100) - I need to revert to the standard VGA driver but there is no standard driver in the Windows driver list (just all old ATI drivers).

Is it possible to download a standard VGA driver? If not, will the technique you described above work on a Dimension? I get all the same results described going from stage 1 to 6, but will step 7 (running run mobility modder) work on a desktop or is there a better modding package to use?

Thanks!

Locked Topics – Laptops General

reverting to standard vga drivers

Was this post helpful?