how do i reset my hardware config?

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

ive been having some trouble with my drivers not installing properly, and i think its being caused by bad settings being left in the registry.

so, is there a way to completly reset the driver configuration?

i seem to recall reading somewhere that there is some way to do this easily.

i dont remember what it was though.

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

i really dont think that will help, driver profiles to my knowledge would not fix the problem since it's more than just the installed drivers, but if i did that when i first installed my computer it might have helped.

the problem is in the registry somehow, I pretty much have already uninstalled/reinstalled all the drivers, but there is some stupid stuff that wont uninstall from the registry, the system is somehow linking an old driver to the new one or something, and heres what the overall effect has with any dx8-9 game: The procedure entry point DdEntry1 could not be located in the dynamic link library GDI32.dll.

in dxdiag under display it says: Hardware accelerated Direct3D 9+ is not available because the display driver does not support it. You may be able to get a newer driver from the hardware manufacturer.

what i REALLY NEED is to somehow wipe out ALL of the driver settings completely.

my system is win2k my video card is a 9800 pro.

im using the latest drivers.

the problem started when i installed a new nforce2 mobo.

i think the VIA drivers/settings from my last board might be causing the conflict, or at least part of it.

 

 

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

ive already done a upgrade reinstall of win2k sp4, i have all the patches installed from windows update, and i have copies of the patches so i dont have to redownload them every time i need to reinstall them. this includes dx9.

ive also used driver cleaner and some registry cleaner tools, as well as spybot and adaware and scanned my system for viruses just in case.

i dont think installing the via-4inone is a good idea since i have a nforce2 mobo now and this is the driver i use for it: nForce_4.27_WinXP2K_WHQL_english.exe.

the driver i prefer to use for my 9800 is rad_w2kxp_omega_2551.exe, but ive also tried the regular ati one as well, just in case.

i can play opengl games fine, but any dx8-9 game doesnt work.

 

ive done all this last week, and i still cant get my system to work correctly, so i really need something to wipe out all the driver settings completely.

 

im pretty sure a fresh install would be the easiest fix, but that is absolutely not what im looking to do since ive got a lot of stuff that id have to reinstall if i did that.

[thatsteveguy 0]

The newer ATI catalyst drivers have a removal tool for all their drivers and you can find it in the Add/Remove programs list. If you use that to unistall it is supposed to remove all refrences to previous drivers.

try that

S

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

ive done that. come up with a name of an installer/uninstaller, i've probably already used it.

 

not to be rude or anything, but to be qualified to make a useable answer, you must know more about the subject at hand than the question/questioner.

if not, you arent really giving helpful advice, because ive already been there, done that.

if you cant help, maybe you can refer me to a website that can.

 

[Edited by l33t-g4m3r on 2004-07-21 12:32:23]

 

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

Driver Cleaner 3.2 comes with a readme that explains in detail how to correctly uninstall drivers.

I have followed that readme. I didnt really need to because I know how to uninstall drivers, but I did anyway. then I used the driver cleaner program as directed.

this is the driver cleaner website: http://www.drivercleaner.net

As I mentioned, I have spent about a week trying different things, and nothing has worked so far.

 

the 9800 driver really should not be giving me problems since I've had this card for quite some time now, and a simple driver update for it shouldnt cause this error.

the problem started after upgrading my motherboard from a viakt400 to a nforce2 ultra 400.

there are multiple problems caused by this upgrade, and the only way I can think of to fix it is to completely wipe all driver registry information. that is the only way I can be sure my system will work.

that is what I need to do. If you know how, please explain how I can do this.

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

im sorry if i sound a little mad, its just that it seems that everytime i mention something like i already uninstalled something, i end up getting a detailed explanation of something like this: go to start, use the left click button, then go to settings then control panel, then device manager/addremove programs/etc.....

when i already said that i did it.

 

 

but anyway....

i didnt upgrade from 98, i've had 2k for quite a while.

what i had to do was use the repair mode off the cd to even get my system to boot. something that had to do with the hard drive driver.

i had a via kt 400 board previously, now i have a nf2 400 ultra.

i believe the via ide driver was still activated and since the nforce motherboard does not use a via chipset, (its nvidia i believe), it would not boot correctly(bsod). after i did the repair i ran the upgrade install afterwards to see if that would also help.

ive tried uninstalling the via driver but i think there are still some remnant settings causing conflicts with my motherboard chipset.

as for the ATI driver removal tool, as far as i know that is the very same uninstaller that comes with the drivers, and yes i have already done that, and i've used driver cleaner on top of that as well.

my version of win2kpro is already sp4 on the cd. so i dont need to overinstall it, i also have the security update cd feb 2004 that i got from microsoft. and i have the new patches since then downloaded in a folder for backup purposes.

as for directX i dont think its messed up because dxdiag says there are no problems with the dxfiles. plus my system was setup before exactly the same as it is NOW. same 9800 driver etc.

the problem did NOT start until AFTER i switched boards.

i never said i switched the OS when i upgraded the boards, i had to reinstall/repair the OS when i switched the boards.

and as far as i know this board works fine hardware-wise. there is just some bad software settings causing problems.

as for heat temp, and other. i have a raid max scorpio 868w black case with 3 fans, a 420W powersupply, and a copper volcano11 hsf for the cpu. i also have 1024 megs of kingston ddr 2700. if you want other info i have a bunch of diagnostic programs that can output results to a text file if you want specs. eg: aida32, dxdiag, sandra, everest, etc.

aida32 also reports the via agp driver is running. i'm pretty sure thats the problem, but it doesnt show up in device manager even with show hidden settings on. ive already uninstalled it with the uninstaller, it should have been deleted but apparently it is not. so its got some stupid hidden setting somewhere keeping it enabled. which is why i think profiling wont find it, the via stuff is using some wierd workaround to run on my system.

 

also why i didnt mention gdi32 earlier is because its really not necessary. the problem is with how windows is set-up with the driver config, and its having a chain effect straight down into dx9 and gdi32.dll. if somebody told me how to completely reset the driver config from the start, i would have never even mentioned it because after correctly reinstalling the drivers the error/conflict would not even occur.

 

since i cant find much of anything else, i may try that profile thing out of sheer desparation but profiles dont get rid of/reset/delete bad registry settings.

if i get annoyed enough to try something i know wont fix the full problem, i may even just eventually do a fresh install, which is absolutely not what i have wanted to do because i have a bunch of programs i dont feel like reinstalling.

not only that, but if i reinstall, the stupid document folders will be renamed wierd because there already are existing folders, and i cant delete the existing folders in windows because its a system folder. eg: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator will be installed as C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.1232342 or something like that.

and also if i did a fresh install, that would mean all this searching on forums for answers would have been a complete waste of time, and i should have not even bothered because nobody can give me a straight answer.

 

so i really need to just find out about what registry settings would be appropriate to delete.

 

you said

Quote:

"Your statement of this topic said 'reset my drivers & there's TONS of those, not just for video..."

EXACTLY, im not looking for a specific driver unistaller, but a 100% SYSTEM-WIDE DRIVER CLEANER, because until i get rid of ALL the corrupt driver settings can i reinstall everything correctly.

which is what ive been trying to do from the very beginning.

 

Quote:

Remember above all - we're not the ones with the problem, it's you...

LOL!!! i love that.

Thanks for the advice so far.

And any advice at all is appreciated, EVEN if its not what im looking for, since there can be multiple ways to solve a single problem.

[GameXtreme 0]

Maybe this could help. I believe it would remove all driver information, but be warned, it may really mess up your system and a fresh install would be the only option.

 

Go to device manager and update the item under "Computer" to something like "Standard PC".

[Sampson 0]

l33t-g4m3r, I must say that your a better man than me in trying to change out motherboards retaining the old hard disk with W2K. Frankly, I've never seen it done with any real satisfaction. With the tenacity you've shown so far, you may just do it.

 

Possibility 1:

You could try this undocumented Setup switch:

Typing Setup /p f (use a space between "p" and "f" ) deletes the existing settings in the Registry and installs a new one during the installation of Windows. This switch is very useful if your Registry is corrupted and you cannot fix it with a backup. BUT, I do not know if this will mess up the settings for your installed software.

 

Possibility 2:

These should be the registry keys and the areas of device drivers you would have to delete. I think this is what you are asking for. It goes without saying that you would want to export them to be able to reinstall them if things really go wrong:

 

In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Select, set Current, Default, and LastKnownGood to 1. Set Failed to 0. This tells Windows to only be interested in your #1 control set.

 

Delete all keys and values UNDERNEATH these keys:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002 . . . to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet999 (if there). Don't delete ControlSet001.

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\ACPI\DSDT

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\ACPI\FACS

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\ACPI\FADT

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\ACPI\RSDT

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\RESOURCEMAP\Hardware Abstraction Layer\ACPI Compatible Eisa/Isa HAL

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\RESOURCEMAP\PnP Manager\PnpManager

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Arbiters

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Biosinfo

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-

BFC1-08002BE10318}\{CC474C34-503B-400C-B93F-A606B5170ABB}\Connection\PnpInstanceID (Note: don’t delete. Set value to zero)

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Arbiters

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Biosinfo

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\DeviceClasses

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1

-08002BE10318}\{CC474C34-503B-400C-B93F-A606B5170ABB}\Connection\PnpInstanceID

(Note: Don’t delete. Set value to zero)

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum

 

Examine the contents of the \WINNT\INF folder, in ‘Details’ view, and sorted by ‘Modified Date’. Most will share a small number of ‘Modified’ dates. Delete those that fall outside of those ranges. Delete all files in the \INF\CATALOG folder.

 

Just as an addendum - There is a program called Move Me from Spearit software: http://www.spearit.com/products.html that does a pretty decent job of moving programs from one computer to another.

 

Again, good luck, I really do hope you can pull this off.

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002 wont delete....

[Sampson 0]

Be sure that you have all disable all TSR's, firewalls, anti-virus, or any other programs in the task manager. Boot into safe mode, then bring up regedit.

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

MUWHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH GENIUS!!!!!!

the problem is fixed. (sorta)

i never did get all the drivers deleted, but i did get the via driver deleted by deleting the dll's in windows and the settings in the registry.

however the problem still existed.

until somebody gave me a fix here:

http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php?p=64784&posted=1#post64784

 

apparently there is a bug in the Direct X 9b install which installs a wrong file, causing my problems.

i guess mentioning the gdi error was necessary.

 

however now that the error doesnt pop up, things still act wierd.

maybe i should use a direct-x uninstaller then reinstall it.

 

i also wonder if there is a registry cleaner program availible that can delete old driver settings that arent in use anymore.

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

actually i have the newest dx9b installer, and after i used a dx cleaner program, dx9 reinstalled fine. i think the problem was when i reinstalled win2k, dx9 probably wasnt completely overwritten and so when i reinstalled dx9 from that, it didnt copy all the files over, probably because it thought that it already had done it.

thats my guess anyway.

 

can that program find driver settings that werent deleted correctly but arent in use anymore?

eg: viaagp.dll is in use for agp, but there is no viaagp driver present in the device manager.

 

 

everybody makes programs like startup editors nowadays, i wish somebody would make one that includes services and drivers.

im pretty sure that some spyware programs could install as a service, then how would you delete it?

in fact i think some programs that arent spyware can be just as annoying if they install themselves as a service then messup, especially stuff like norton.

because after the uninstaller doesnt work, then its HELL to fix it. ive had some programs do this before that were almost impossible to fix other than doing a fresh install.

is there any program that can clean services?

(not that i need it, but it could come in handy later)

 

 

one strange issue i still have though is with the program ati tray tools.

whenever i change any dx setting like anisotropic filtering with it, it resets my computer.

this happened before with my old board so i thought it was just the hardware, but apparently its a software conflict since it does the same thing on my nf2.

one time it didnt crash and it gave me some error, but i cant remember what it was, something about wrong display adapter maybe.

i wonder if its an old registry setting that its trying to change, like settings for an older driver i dont have installed anymore.

im thinking like display0009 is what im currently using, and display0001 is what its trying to change.

purely hypothetically speaking of course.

the program used to work a month ago, so i dont know why its not now.

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

i think i was probably too vague describing the ati tray tools, i didnt mean the one that comes with the driver, it works fine.

i meant this one: http://www.radeon2.mu/atitray/

 

thats the only tweaker program that does that to me though, all the other ones work.

i might as well quit trying to use it anyway since radlink is a lot better.

[l33t-g4m3r 0]

lol, i should have read the bug reports in the forum for that util.

http://www.thefallenangels.info/atitray/viewtopic.php?t=22