What Is A Clean Install Of Nvidia Drivers

Brad Chacos/IDG

If yous're suffering from software bugs or other problems with your graphics carte du jour, 1 of the first things to effort is performing a make clean installation of your drivers. That point was driven home for PC gamers this calendar week when AMD, in a mail service announcing WHQL certification for its bug-squashing new Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.two.ii driver, told gamers to manufactory reset the software if they encounter futher issues.

It's a great reminder. Performing a clean install won't ready GPU bugall the time, but it'll sure fix them alot of the time.

Mod graphics carte du jour drivers are complicated beasts, sinking hooks deep into your computer. Considering that both AMD and Nvidia's drivers counterbalance in at roughly half a gigabyte, they're some of the more complex software on your PC. They build atop your existing installation, and that'south generally a good affair! It keeps your existing settings intact. But express-installing drivers tin cause issues sometimes. Performing a clean install starts over from scratch, potentially eradicating conflicts that tin can manifest equally bugs or operation issues. I even do it every now and once more on my personal rig, but for full general organisation health.

radeon clean install — How to factory reset (clean install) Radeon graphics drivers.

"Often, many problems can be resolved with a make clean installation of our driver," AMD's Warren Eng said in the visitor's post. "In gild to perform a clean installation, you must select the 'Factory Reset' option at the beginning of the installation process. Once this is selected, former instances of the driver will be removed, and the uninstaller will restart your organisation before the new driver installation begins."

Piece of cake-peasy.

If you have a GeForce graphics card, resetting the drivers takes a slightly different (but still simple) process. Starting time the installation procedure, click Custom install, and make sure to check the "Perform a clean installation" box. From there, consummate the chore usually.

Equally Nvidia's checkbox warns, performing a clean commuter install blasts abroad your previous version of the software, which means that all settings will be returned to their default. The same goes for AMD's clean installation process, which it dubs "Factory reset." That could be a headache if you lot heavily customize your graphics card'south software, but worthwhile if you're suffering from software problems. If you've tinkered extensively, yous might want to jot downwardly your contradistinct settings before initiating the process, and then yous tin can go everything dorsum the way you want it more than hands later on.

Performing a make clean install has solved problems we've seen more times than non, especially for Radeon graphics cards. Simply sometimes, fifty-fifty that isn't enough. Seriously: Graphics drivers sink their hooks deep, and sometimes the default clean installation options misses things. If y'all're notwithstanding having troubles after performing a make clean installation using Radeon Software or GeForce Feel, give the superb Display Driver Uninstaller software—simply called DDU by enthusiasts—a whirl.

"Display Commuter Uninstaller is a commuter removal utility that can help you completely uninstall AMD/Nvidia graphics card drivers and packages from your arrangement, without leaving leftovers backside (including registry keys, folders and files, driver store)," the clarification reads. The complimentary, long-established plan is a must-use tool in our ain graphics carte du jour testing process. DDU's saved our bacon dozens of times when we've encountered driver bugs.

Display Driver Uninstaller performs invasive surgery, then the creators warn that y'all'll want to create a system restore point earlier you brainstorm—there's a button to do and then right in the software. For best results, yous'll also want to run it in Safe Fashion. When DDU's washed working its magic, effort installing your graphics menu drivers yet over again.

How to go back to old drivers

If you're yet running into troubles, well, you're out of luck. Check your driver's release notes to encounter if you're encountering a known issue. If non, you can hop into forums to effort and observe aid, or yous tin uninstall the problematic software and reinstall a previous commuter version that y'all know worked. You tin can detect Nvidia's driver archives hither.

radeon drivers previous — Where to find older drivers for your Radeon graphics menu.

AMD doesn't maintain a fundamental archive, just if y'all caput to its driver page and search for your graphics card, yous'll get a list of the latest available drivers. Curl by those, and at the very bottom of the new releases, yous'll see a tiny blue "Previous drivers" link, as shown higher up. Click that to summon past versions.

Good luck. If you'd rather splurge on new hardware than fiddle with software problems, be certain to check out our guide to the all-time graphics cards for PC gaming.

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Brad Chacos spends his days digging through desktop PCs and tweeting also much.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/398854/if-youre-having-graphics-card-problems-try-a-clean-driver-install.html#:~:text=As%20Nvidia's%20checkbox%20warns%2C%20performing,be%20returned%20to%20their%20default.

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