Restored Windows XP; now reinstalling Driver Adapter. How to install safely?

Question

Before people go on trying to instruct me on how to install VGA, I'm trying to get /rid/ of VGA and install ATI (my manufactured driver) instead. It's not as simple as changing the boot order and then using a CD because I don't have the CD. I only have the Restore CD which (if opened through boot) will only run diagnostics.

Firstly, how do I rid of VGA? There is no 'Display Adapters' tab in Control Panel > System and deleting the .dll file isn't an option because it's protected.

2. Will I have to restart after disabling the device? If so, how on earth am I going to re-install ATI when I can't see anything past the boot screen?

If you know a way to safely uninstall VGA and install ATI in the same session (without rebooting) that would be great. By that I mean you only have to reboot after installing ATI. My laptop is a Dell and OS, Windows XP SP2. As a note, you absolutely /have/ to uninstall the current driver first. There is no byway around that.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

Answer 1

If you are just trying to use ATI graphics card and use it; you can just install the card and load drivers for it. They should work without doing anything elese

VGA is the safe mode and I don't see any reason to remove it.

Answer 2

You do not remove the VGA... Just istall the ATI driver.  Windows will pick the "most suitable" driver when it starts.  If it still chooses the VGA driver after installing the ATI driver, then you don't have the correct ATI driver, or (less likely) the video card is damaged and not reporting itself correctly to the operating system.

There *is* absolutely no way to remove a video driver and boot the system, it *will* re-install VGA.

Trust me, if the dirver isn't installing, it's the WRONG driver for your system, or something you've done has reall hosed up the registry...  In that case, start over by re-installing again.

Answer 3

First of all, you don't want to uninstall the vga,you just want to disable it,in case something would happen to your ati.You do that in device manager,start>right click my computer>properties.hardware>device manger.Secondly,you don't need to uninstall or disable it first.Install the ati drivers,restart the computer,if you have a black screen,restart it again, press F8 when you see the screen come up,use safe mode,then go to device manger and disable the vga.Even if you have a screen you can see after restarting,still go to device manger and disable vga,to avoid conflicts.Just right click it and click disable.

Answer 4

computer mb's generally have preconfigured 1080x720 screen res, some are 800x600, so without the driver even installed it will still work depending on the age of the monitor your using, for instance old CRTs may not work well with this, chances are the newer it is the better chances of it work, LCDs will work.

Also if your not seeing the .dll or the drivers for the VGA period that means you have either already uninstalled the drivers or they have yet to have been installed, just to be sure, also check into safe mode.

When deleting any driver, generally no restarting is not required with win XP, but deleting your VGA driver wont cause you to NOT see after its restarted, computers boot operating systems off of the motherboard which POST.