Recurrent Uninstalled, Reinstalled Driver Issue

[arnnad]

Hi. Have troublesome Win 10 issues with crashing, BSOD and apparent memory kernel errors. I'd updated all the drivers, including the ATI Radeon HD 4600 video driver with no improvement. After months of these very episodic problems I thought of uninstalling the video driver, which I did via "device manager". I was overjoyed because the PC now worked perfectly- for about a month.

The crashing, mouse lockup, BSOD, etc. suddenly returned and I tried the same uninstalling, reinstalling process, i.e. reinstalling by rebooting the PC. The PC is, for the last hour, working perfectly. I went to the AMD site, hoping for advice on what to do next and noted they offer something to do a clean driver removal,

So my question is do I need to clear out any remnant of the driver and then download a new driver from AMD, rather then by rebooting the PC. Something is corrupting the reinstallation process.

Thanks for helping.

 

[Regedit32]

Hi Arnnad,

AMD offer a cleaner utility such as you refer to but they recommend only using it if uninstalling the Graphics Software via Program & Features is unsuccessful.

The tool they offer if run after failing to succeed in uninstalling software will do the following:

• Remove the AMD Catalyst Center
• Remove remnants of this software left behind after a failed uninstall
• Remove any remnants of former installations of the AMD Catalyst Center
• Remove left over Registry entries pertaining to the Radeon HD 4600 install
• Remove other enum's created in the registry from attempting to install a different graphic card,and/or other enums added because of multiple upgrading of the drivers.
• Remove all display / audio drivers associated with any install ever done [ a full removal; meaning you'd need to physically get new drivers and isntall them yourself ].

In my opinion, it would not do any harm in using this tool after you have uninstalled the software first. Starting with a total clean state can only serve to help prevent installation issues.

It would help if you could provide more specifics on the BSoD's though, because there may be more going on that just an issue with the Radeon card. For example, when was the last time you had the heat sinking on motherboard checked? If its damaged or aging that can lead to overheating issues that could trigger BSoD's.

 

[arnnad]

Hi Arnnad,

AMD offer a cleaner utility such as you refer to but they recommend only using it if uninstalling the Graphics Software via Program & Features is unsuccessful.

The tool they offer if run after failing to succeed in uninstalling software will do the following:

• Remove the AMD Catalyst Center
• Remove remnants of this software left behind after a failed uninstall
• Remove any remnants of former installations of the AMD Catalyst Center
• Remove left over Registry entries pertaining to the Radeon HD 4600 install
• Remove other enum's created in the registry from attempting to install a different graphic card,and/or other enums added because of multiple upgrading of the drivers.
• Remove all display / audio drivers associated with any install ever done [ a full removal; meaning you'd need to physically get new drivers and isntall them yourself ].

In my opinion, it would not do any harm in using this tool after you have uninstalled the software first. Starting with a total clean state can only serve to help prevent installation issues.

It would help if you could provide more specifics on the BSoD's though, because there may be more going on that just an issue with the Radeon card. For example, when was the last time you had the heat sinking on motherboard checked? If its damaged or aging that can lead to overheating issues that could trigger BSoD's.

Thanks. I'll try checking out the motherboard. Hadn't thought of heat issues since problems occur soon after turning on PC.