# How to completely remove and reinstall graphics drivers (AMD, NVIDIA & Intel)



## spirit

*How to completely remove and reinstall graphics drivers (AMD, NVIDIA & Intel)*


1 - Download *Display Driver Uninstaller* (wait for a few seconds for the file to automatically download).


2 - Download display drivers for your card from the following links: *AMD* | *NVIDIA* | *Intel

*
3 - Recommended for Windows 10 users (Windows 8.1 and prior users can stick this step and move onto 4): Download and install *Windows 10 Update KB3073930 *directly from Microsoft. This update allows you to hide select Windows Updates, thus preventing them from installing. Some updates (usually graphics drivers from Windows Update) can affect system stability so to prevent Windows Update automatically updating your graphics drivers install this update. You should always update your graphics drivers using the appropriate AMD, NVIDIA or Intel software, not Windows Update. You can read the Microsoft Knowledge Base article about this update here.


4 - Disconnect from the internet (remove your Ethernet cable, disconnect from your Wi-Fi network or temporarily disable your internet adapter).


5 - Once you have downloaded DDU and your drivers and you're offline, *reboot your PC into Safe Mode*.

*Windows 7 and prior:* Hit F8 when Windows is booting and select Safe Mode when prompted.

*Windows 8, 8.1 and 10: *

- Type _advanced_ when you are on the Start Screen (Windows 8 and 8.1) or type _advanced_ into the Search Bar on the taskbar (Windows 10) and then click Change Advanced Start-up Options.

- Select Restart Now under Advanced start-up.

- Press Troubleshoot.

- Press Advanced Options.

- Press Start-up settings and then press Restart.

- Upon Windows rebooting, press 4 to enter Safe Mode.


6 - Run Display Driver Uninstaller. This will proceed to completely remove your display drivers and all associated software.

If you are removing AMD or NVIDIA drivers, *check Remove C:\AMD and or C:\NVIDIA folders*.

If you are removing NVIDIA drivers, *also check Remove 3DTV Play and Remove PhysX*.












- *To completely REMOVE your drivers (for reinstallation) * select _*Clean and Restart*_.

- *To completely REMOVE your drivers (for installing new graphics drivers for another card) * select _*Clean and Shutdown*_. Once the drivers have been removed and your computer has been shut down, you would remove the old graphics card, install the new one and then move onto step 7.


You don't need to boot back into Safe Mode once DDU has removed your drivers.


7 - Install your new drivers once you have rebooted. The reason I recommend disconnecting from the internet is so that Windows Update doesn't try and download new drivers for you.


8 - Reboot after installing drivers. Connect back to the internet.


Hopefully you are now good to go!


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## Okedokey

Hi mate, good review, I would suggest there is no need to use safe mode.  Simply uninstall all nvidia/amd drivers via THEIR uninstallers, then restart, run DDU and restart.


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## Darren

Okedokey said:


> Hi mate, good review, I would suggest there is no need to use safe mode.  Simply uninstall all nvidia/amd drivers via THEIR uninstallers, then restart, run DDU and restart.



I was curious if safe mode was needed. Why do you suggest using the built in uninstallers? DDU has it built in and seems to work just fine in my experience.


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## Okedokey

I prefer to use the standard uninstaller and then run DDU to remove any garbage left over in safe mode.  Some stuff will be active potentially - in safe mode this is not the case.


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## Shlouski

I updated to the latest drivers on my R9 270 and blue screens all over the place, thanks AMD, at least their consistent . I went back to the older drivers and still got blue screens, I then used DDU to remove all the drivers and re-install the older drivers that were working, but still got blue screens. I took the lazy route and just re-installed windows and the old drivers, now its working fine again, it seems not even DDU can find everything all of the time, but it usually works well.


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## Darren

It was probably something beyond drivers that was causing your problems if a fresh OS install fixed it.


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## Shlouski

Darren said:


> It was probably something beyond drivers that was causing your problems if a fresh OS install fixed it.



I know for 100% sure the drivers caused the problem, why and how I don't know. The system has two OS's and the drivers effected both installations it the same way. The first time I re-installed windows on one of the drives, I tried installing the new drivers again from start instead of updating them, after restarting it blue screen and continued to every time within a minute of getting into windows. I again removed the new drivers with DDU and install the old ones, it continued to constantly blue screen. After re-installing windows again, I installed the old drivers and its working perfectly again, the same for the other drive.


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## beers

Shlouski said:


> why and how I don't know.


Try not using DDU and just use the standard uninstallers.

I've never had issues swapping between brands by just uninstalling the software suite, installing the new GPU and installing the new software suite.


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## Okedokey

you may not have had problems, but there is always remnants of drivers left over that DDU removes.


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## Darren

beers said:


> Try not using DDU and just use the standard uninstallers.
> 
> I've never had issues swapping between brands by just uninstalling the software suite, installing the new GPU and installing the new software suite.



Or you're me and replace an Nvidia GPU with an AMD GPU and don't even think about drivers until you've got it powered back up...  DDU saved the day then.


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## spirit

Shlouski said:


> I know for 100% sure the drivers caused the problem, why and how I don't know. The system has two OS's and the drivers effected both installations it the same way. The first time I re-installed windows on one of the drives, I tried installing the new drivers again from start instead of updating them, after restarting it blue screen and continued to every time within a minute of getting into windows. I again removed the new drivers with DDU and install the old ones, it continued to constantly blue screen. After re-installing windows again, I installed the old drivers and its working perfectly again, the same for the other drive.


May have been something on your Windows installation that was conflicting with your drivers.

Updated the guide to include a link to the Window Update for Windows 10 which prevents Windows from automatically downloading drivers from Windows Update - that caused real issues for both AMD and NVIDIA users back in July and August when Windows 10 was new. I remember it, it bricked my OS!


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## RujoKinJal

I currently am running a GTX 560 Ti & have purchased a GTX 1070. 
Will i have to completely uninstall my drivers and reinstall everything?
Or is it just a safety measure?


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## Intel_man

RujoKinJal said:


> I currently am running a GTX 560 Ti & have purchased a GTX 1070.
> Will i have to completely uninstall my drivers and reinstall everything?
> Or is it just a safety measure?


I would uninstall drivers before powering down to swap cards. 

I even had to reset my cmos to get it to boot the first time I changed the card in.


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## RujoKinJal

okay, Thank you


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## RujoKinJal

Worked like a charm. Thanks again, this thread is super helpful


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## Okedokey

You can run the 560ti as physx too, as well as the 1070.


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## RujoKinJal

What do you mean. I am not familiar with this type of setup.


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## voyagerfan99

RujoKinJal said:


> What do you mean. I am not familiar with this type of setup.


You can keep the 560ti installed and use it as a dedicated PhysX card while the 1070 does the other graphics processing.


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## Intel_man

Okedokey said:


> You can run the 560ti as physx too, as well as the 1070.


You don't gain much from that.


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## RujoKinJal

Do i Sli it? or just leave it in there and not put a monitor to it?


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## Darren

Don't waste your time, Physx is only used in certain applications and usually is just an extra graphical effect here and there. Your 1070 can do it just fine on it's own and an aged 560 won't make any tangible difference.


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## voyagerfan99

RujoKinJal said:


> Do i Sli it? or just leave it in there and not put a monitor to it?


You just stick it in there and go into the nVidia control panel and select it as the PhysX GPU.

For reference here are the games that have PhysX elements:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_hardware-accelerated_PhysX_support

And a good comparison of no physx/physx


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## Okedokey

I would still see if it helps, benchmark it, you have the card anyway.


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## Intel_man

Okedokey said:


> I would still see if it helps, benchmark it, you have the card anyway.


On the few games that use Physx, only a few out of the few games that use physx get around an additional 4 fps at 4k. It's really not worth the additional power consumption and heat.


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## TheOnlyChaz

Okedokey said:


> I prefer to use the standard uninstaller and then run DDU to remove any garbage left over in safe mode.  Some stuff will be active potentially - in safe mode this is not the case.


Same


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## Dew

DDU didn't work for me, I downloaded it and rebooted into safemode and tried to open it. I was prompted a number of options like- Yes, Yes to all, no, no to all. Any option I choose didnt really do anything for me.
I've got windows7 and pressing f8 only brought me to bios. I went into safemode by using msconfig.

Anyone know how I can get DDU to work so I can move onto the next step?


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## johnb35

Dew said:


> I was prompted a number of options like- Yes, Yes to all, no, no to all


Would need a screenshot of what exactly you saw so we know what is going on.


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## Dew

It seems like DDU wouldn't work without being connected to the internet, or perhaps somehow I was doing something wrong but as soon as I went online and tried running DDU, it worked.


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## Dew

I am a little confused after step 6, seeing how In the beginning I've already downloaded the new drivers for my new card-and onto step 6 I've removed all drivers, now onto step 7...
It's telling me to install my new drivers??


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## johnb35

Dew said:


> It's telling me to install my new drivers??


If you have downloaded the new drivers then install them.


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## Dew

I misread, I should have installed my new card by now.  Quick question without making a new thread, but do I absoultly have to remove my motherboard when installing a new card? I'm thinking no but everywhere I read they are telling me to do so. I'm just swapping out an old card and putting in a new one, mobo is already secure but just want to make sure.


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## johnb35

No, you don't remove the motherboard to replace the video card.  Not sure where you saw that at.  You only have to remove motherboard if you are installing an aftermarket cpu heatsink/fan.


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## Dew

Iv got the new card installed, thanks for the reply. Looks great, about to install the drivers and then take it for a spin.


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## Intel_man

johnb35 said:


> You only have to remove motherboard if you are installing an aftermarket cpu heatsink/fan.


To expand on that,

Only if the aftermarket cpu heatsink/fan requires a backplate mount/bracket that you can't reach. Some aftermarket coolers don't require a bracket on the back of the motherboard.


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## johnb35

Intel_man said:


> To expand on that,
> 
> Only if the aftermarket cpu heatsink/fan requires a backplate mount/bracket that you can't reach. Some aftermarket coolers don't require a bracket on the back of the motherboard.


Yes, I should have added that.  But frankly with any decent aftermarket cooler, you'll need to remove motherboard.


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## voyagerfan99

johnb35 said:


> Yes, I should have added that.  But frankly with any decent aftermarket cooler, you'll need to remove motherboard.


Not necessarily. Sometimes for ease, yes. But that's what the CPU bracket hole is for


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## Darren

johnb35 said:


> Yes, I should have added that.  But frankly with any decent aftermarket cooler, you'll need to remove motherboard.


My H100 uses the stock AMD mounting solution. 

Actually I had to steal the stock bracket from a friend because I didn't have mine anymore. Didn't think high end coolers would ever use the stock shitty clip system AMD uses.


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## voyagerfan99

Darren said:


> My H100 uses the stock AMD mounting solution.
> 
> Actually I had to steal the stock bracket from a friend because I didn't have mine anymore. Didn't think high end coolers would ever use the stock shitty clip system AMD uses.


Interesting. I've never had a aftermarket cooler that did (except for my socket 939 cooler from CompUSA - it was their brand but for the socket).

Makes me glad Intel doesn't use a bracket anymore. Nothing to lose.


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