So I've been skimming through the various threads about Catalyst drivers (since my computer has an ATI Radeon card) , and I was wondering how do you properly installing new video drivers? I'd appreciate it if someone could give me a step by step process of how to do it 'cuz I don't know what I'm dealing with when it comes to drivers. I think the one that came with my Asus is Catalyst 12.1. My os model is AsusG73jh, Windows 7 64-bit.

easy

1 download your new driver
2 uninstall your old driver.
3 i usually do a reg cleaner\diskfrag.
4 restart comp
5 install new driver.
6 test game to make sure its running ok...then continue gaming

Installing new versions is as simple as just running the installer. Some use driver sweeper I however do not. I just install and then run my registry cleaner. You can do what the poster above said and uninstall first but restarting before installing the new driver leads my system to roll back to the 11.11c (my default). Best on waiting on the restart until after the new driver is in place.

Rolling back to a previous driver I recommend uninstalling the current version(when prompted to restart say no) and then install the one you want(again best to clean the reg first before install of the new one) and then install the previous driver version you wanted and then restart your system.

I do it a mix of both Thoth and Smoka's ways.

1) Download the new driver and save it someplace handy, like the desktop.

2) Remove the old driver. I usually do this by going to the Change/Remove control panel and then launching the AMD Catalyst Install Manager and having it uninstall the driver software. I don't use a program like Driver Sweeper or anything like that afterwards; never had the need. Also, if you're using a program that hooks into your drivers like MSI Afterburner...shut it down and make sure it won't try to boot with Windows. (Temporarily at least; I use MSI Afterburner for a fan profile myself, and I suspect it wouldn't react well to searching for GPU drivers that have been uninstalled. So I disable the boot with Windows feature and shut it down until the uninstall/install dance is complete.)

3) I do reboot when prompted by the uninstaller...my system apparently being content to derp around with whatever video drivers are on my Intel motherboard (something like 800x600 resolution and no Windows Aero ) until otherwise instructed. It doesn't revert back to an older driver version like Thoth's does.

4) Run the installer for the new drivers. Twiddle thumbs. Reboot when prompted. Resolution, Aero settings, CCC settings etc. all snap back to what they were with the old drivers at this point, and you should be good to go. (Also, restart MSI Afterburner or whatever at this point, if you use them.)

as posted above by Tyraa....it IS best to do a restart after uninstalling any driver...the reason is simple. You uninstalled a driver that was IN use, any file that is in use can not be deleted till a restart.

If you find windows is installing a driver on restart...there is a setting to tell windows NOT to download and install drivers. I would never install a video driver until I could boot to windows and it said "Generic display driver". and your looking at a 640 x 480 ugly pixel mess....lol

Safe mode wipe of driver is best.

I forgot to turn off MSI while installing going to redo the install with it off....sigh.

Just so I don't mess it up, I tell the Catalyst Install Manager to do a custom uninstall and then I have these options: check everything (the Catalyst Control Center, the HDMI Audio driver, or AVIVO) or uninstall one of the three. Is AVIVO the driver I want to uninstall??

Ya should have noted my rig doesn't work that way........if I uninstall and then restart some aspect of my system(didn't build it or install the OS) reverts to the default drivers from day 1 which is 11.11c (I know life could be worse) on the next boot. Thus I wait until the new install goes through and then restart. Then I repair my driver install by installing the same version that I want again. Run registry sweep via CCleaner and good as gold.

Choose express uninstall, it'll remove everything that needs to be removed. Then reboot and install new drivers.

Ack...I did as you said but I have no idea how to check and see if I installed the 12.3 drivers correctly. I noticed there were some programs that hadn't been installed, but when I had the Installer install them, my screen got all tiny and then it blue-screened. Am I doing something wrong?
This is what I see:
AMD Catalyst Install Manager version 3.0.868.0

AMD APP SDK Runtime version 10.0.898.1

AMD Display Driver version 8.951.0.0000

HDMI Audio Driver version 7.12.0.7706

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 version 10.0.30319

AMD Accelerated Video Transcoding version 2.00.0002

AMD Drag and Drop Transcoding version 2.00.0000

AMD Media Foundation Decoders version 1.0.70309.0018

Catalyst Control Center version 2012.0309.43.976

look in ccc, information, software. it displays the version there

I had a blue screen installing AMD drivers once as well using express so I opt for custom. I just uninstall everything on the list which kind of defeats most of the purpose to do custom just that I like to see what is happening.

Since I was having issues with it, I uninstalled the 12.3 drivers. Somehow though when I had the Catalyst 3.0 manager uninstalled too, the 12.3 drivers don't include a "new" CC manager? (so I couldn't change my graphic card settings or anything). Is there a certain name for my drivers in the Device Manager that I can look for??

I also rolled back to 12.1 since 12.3 didn't really do much of anything and I lost some performance in BF3.

@ Shade Where did you dl the installer from? AMD or somewhere else?

AMD drivers are quite a pain sometimes. AMD broke their AHCI driver (12.1 and newer) for 7xx series chipsets. It will BSoD after rebooting and you have to a System Restore. Custom installs are recommended.


Uninstalling AMD drivers is NOT recommended, especially if you have an AMD chipset. Occasionally, this will also uninstall the chipset driver causing the system not to boot. All driver package should include a Catalyst Control Center type manager. If it didn't get installed then you had an error during the install process. Some drivers simply won't install correctly on certain configurations. Try an older driver (simply install over the old package) and it SHOULD correct the problem.

Newer drivers use AMD Vision Engine Control Center.

I downloaded the drivers from AMD's website. It is better to use their "Auto detect" program, or to install the drivers by finding ones that are compatible with Win.7 ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870??

So by "older driver" do you mean 11.1 or something? I never understood what 11.1c etc. was.Can you tell me the difference that these drivers have compared to ones that only have numbers??

Catalyst drivers are really easy to track. Its ., so 11.1 is January, 2011. Although the driver's written date might be different it was the driver released sometime in January of 2011. If it has a letter next to it is is a hotfix. AMD released hotfixes when the driver has major bugs or if a new generation of GPUs is released and they want to make sure they work.

Ah okay this makes more sense now. Thanks for clarifying that for me. I'll wait to see what Thoth has to say in response to my post.
Oh, one more inquiry for you: are drivers a necessary thing to have for your video card- to keep it functioning, or are the new drivers just there in case people want them?

Okay so I went back to square one with installing 12.3. This is what I did: installed everything but the audio and display drivers. Then I restarted the computer. Installed audio-restarted.Screen was fine; installed display (screen got tiny, but a restart fixed the resolution). So then I thought I had everything under control. I loaded Skyrim and tried to play an old save, but before it was able to load the screen flickered then there was a PSOD (my screen went all grey with lines) Couldn't start task manager so I held down the power button on my laptop to reboot it.

"Cr*p" I thought.

So then I rolled back the video card driver, tried to run Skyrim again. Screen turned white. Ended the program via task manager (which I couldn't do before, but then even my desktop suffered from black and white checkered flash patterns which only vanished after yet another restart of my Asus).

Uninstalled everything but the Catalyst Control Center. Skyrim now works fine. Whenever I try to open CCC though it says that "there's currently nothing installed to configure". My guess it's because I don't have the 12.3 drivers anymore?My laptop's got isues with new drivers. w*f.


**I use CCleaner to wipe old files from the registry**

[bump] (I still need help with this; reply when you can please)

There are separate installers for Mobility cards and desktop cards. Make sure you are using the right installer.

I see a system restore in your future....

Ya that is so strange....CCC not being there. I remember trying to install drivers without it(radeon pro) was a serious pain.

I had the update back at the beginning of March which broke the AA (shows up as AMD Catalyst 12.3) and been waiting for the next driver update which was said to fix the AA problem. It was supposed to update on the 1st April and then it changed to 5th april and now it changed again to 19th April. Does anyone know if they are actually going to auto update or are there drivers which fix this problem already out?

Shademyth make sure you install the driver after the one causing the AA problems just so you don't end up having more problems.

The Official 12.3 is out should not contain the AA issue.....that said I still prefer 12.1 as there is really no difference between the two for 6 series cards.