I have never before installed new video drivers because I've always been afraid that I couldn't get back to the old setup if I didn't like the new drivers. However, I'm about ready to take the plunge so please bear with my newbie questions. I have an Alienware computer with a Radeon 9800 card and Windows XP.1st question: If I run the cat-uninstaller program and then I don't like the new driver can I restore the system to its previous driver (without downloading an old driver again)?2nd question (actually two): I know there is a driver rollback feature available. Does this mean that it's silly to set a restore point before doing this driver changeover? Does the rollback still work if the cat-uninstaller program has been run?3rd question: Is this process as simple as running the cat-uninstaller and then the driver installer? Any other hints?Thanks.

Create a restore point. I never do because whenever anything really wrong happens, I simply re-format. But in your case, that's the easiest way to go. Doing a system restore takes at most a couple minutes and creating a restore point takes a few seconds.Do a google search for Driver Cleaner. Download and install it. It's a very nice little program that gets rid of every trace of your driver from your computer. After doing this you won't be able to roll back to the previous driver without downloading and re-installing it (after uninstalling the new one) but leaving traces of the old driver when you install a new driver can cause problems and degrade system performance.Read carefully the instructions from Driver cleaner. THen uninstall your driver using the windows uninstaller. Then follow the instructions from Driver cleaner.You'll know it all worked if after restarting windows normally you get the message asking you to install the driver for your "new hardware" which is your video card. Windows cannot find the driver anywhere on your system hence the reason for asking you to do it. If however you get a message telling you that the driver was installed then you did something wrong. (It could mean that you were connected to the internet. Windows XP has this habit of searching the internet for a driver for your hardware it cannot find on your hard drive....turn off your modem).Finally, install your new driver. If you don't like it, then uninstall it (no need to run driver cleaner again but you can if you want) and install the previous one. Or just do the system restore.

Anthony,Thanks for your help. The ATI website has a program called CATALYST Uninstaller. The description follows: This tool is used to delete all ATI related files from your system. This includes ATI CATALYST software suite and any ATI Demos and/or Development tools (i.e. ATI RenderMonkey)." Do I really need driver cleaner if I run this program first? Thanks.

My apologies....I did'nt realise that you were using an ATI card. I've never had to clean ATI drivers so I don't know how well your program works, but Driver Cleaner does clean ATI drivers as well. I recommend you use your program and if, like I said, windows can't find the drivers after you restart, then they were uninstalled sucessfully.

Bill - Use the CATALYST uninstaller (no other program needed) and it will remove all the ATI files. With the new driver install you will also get automatically installed an "ATI uninstaller" program which can be accessed through Add/Remove programs (all the new driver releases include this). All you need to do is take a Restore Point, run the uninstaller, reboot, install the new drivers, and reboot again.Doug

Thanks, Doug. I did use the CATALYST uninstaller and then installed the new drivers. They made a big difference as mine went back to version 3.2 before this. I didn't know about the automatic installation of an ATI uninstaller. That's great.