i'm thinking to change my old geforce ti 4200 128 to an ati 9800pro 128, the question is if a need to reinstall OS and FS9, uninstall from control panel and removing from regedit is enough???TIATUNKA

I went from a 4200ti to the 9800 a few months ago. All I had to do was remove the nvidia driver via the control panel and then install the ATI card and driver. Everything worked great, I didn't have to reinstall FS9 or XP or anything else.Tony

>i'm thinking to change my old geforce ti 4200 128 to an ati>9800pro 128, the question is if a need to reinstall OS and>FS9, uninstall from control panel and removing from regedit is>enough???>>TIA>>TUNKA>It should be, but you could also use Driver Cleaner to remove all remaining traces after you've uninstalledwww.guru3d.comAlso, when you install the new card, and before you run FS for the first time remember to remove the references to the OLD card from the FS9.cfg. You don't have to delete the whole .cfg and lose all your precious settings, just take out the following: (DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600.0)Mode=1280x1024x32TriLinear=1AntiAlias=1That forces the sim to recognise the new card when it boots, Re-set your display preferences and your done.Allcott

I would still recommend that you reformat your harddrive when changing brand like that. Just to make sure you give your 9800 PRO a fresh start. That way you know if you get troubles with it that it isn

It is completely unnecessary to format a hard drive in Windows XP just to change hardware. All a reformat achieves is to remove the registry entries for the `old` hardware and a general clean up of the operating system folder - worthy, but unnecessary. Imagine you were changing the tyres on your car, and you chose to wash and polish the car at the same time. Leads to a prettier car, but is irrelevant to the functionality of the tyres.The essence of what Win XP is about is the `seamless` transition for such devices. Now this may not ALWAYS be the case, but it DEFINITELY is when switching from Nvidia graphic cards to Ati, or vice versa. I have done it several times and mirrored the installation before and after to see precisely what changes are made. Other than hardware-specific files, none at all. Driver Cleaner achieves the same objective quicker, and more easily.If you are aware of any operating system files which will change as a result of placing new hardware in the system, please share them with the group as to the best of my knowledge, any hardware-specific drivers should be included in Windows XP by default - or the driver updates that should be the first port of call after inserting the new card.Driver Cleaner removes those registry entries automatically, and is specifically intended for BOTH manufacturers cards to ensure that transition is clean and simple..Allcott

No sadly that isn

I too, have heard of those with `issues` after changing. But following the threads through it has ALWAYS become apparent that some other factor was involved. If you can point to a definitive article that discusses the files that are changed and the reasoning behind reformatting simply for a hardware change I'm willing to look at it, but while you certqinly won't find me disagreeing with you over the benefits of a regular reformat, I have no information that changing graphics cards requires such a drastic step. And obvioously, the places to look are not here in the FS forums, but over in the techie groups. Looking for information on reformatting I can find no recommendations to that effect on any of the sites I rate for technical competency, but they reformat as a matter of policy when benchmarking, which is probably where such rumours started. I'm sure that I need not remind you that the average user of FS and this forum is likely to have several payware addons that have registration entries in the Windows Registry and unless properly backed up these will become unusable after a reformat unless the goodwill of the developer can be relied upon to re-issue codes. And we have all seen that you cannot rely on that.Allcott

Well I generally have seen those issues in www.hardforums.com an www.rage3d.com which is the ATI forum so they are definiatly there. If it

The average system is already chock full of garbage. Sound files that are never used, unnecessary Themes, screensavers and wallpapers, drivers for hardware you haven't got (so many of those they're difficult to count), Flight Sim aircraft just sitting on the hardrive, never flown, 2 gigs worth of flashy American scenery when you're flying in Europe most of the time etc. etc. Most XP users could clean around a gigabytes worth of irrelevant material from the harddrive before even turning their attention to FS!Wish people would understand that the ONLY thing that needs to be `lean and mean` for your computer to function correctly is the Registry. If you look more closely at the advice given by those who propose reformatting the drive and reinstalling the OS just to introduce a piece of machinery to replace another piece of machinery you should find that the advice is EITHER re-format OR clean the Registry. Anyone who doesn't make the difference clear is not someone I would want to have a technical conversation with, let alone listen to what they have to say.As a simple statement of fact: It doesn't matter that you have bits and pieces of Nvidia drivers floating around your system (all XP users already have, even if they have never installed an NVidia card). It only matters that the Windows Registry doesn't have any mention or reference to them, no call upon them. Clean the Registry, not reformat the computer. If you do a system restore and backup the registry it is NEVER a pain in the thingy to maintain the computer and it will do more good with less hassle than a reformat, which is actually more likely to cause problems that cannot easily be overcome. All these dire warnings of death and mutilation for those who dare to Enter the Registry are just hogwash scaremongering by tech-heads who want to preserve their status as knowledgeable - and charge for the simplest of clean-up jobs.If you're frightened of messing with the registry, use a program like JV16 Power Tools. It will do the job for you, and with almost no effort can be made to also do the job of driver cleaner, hardware remover and system washer. You will not believe how many useless and outdated entries are lurking in the Windows Registry. First time you run JV16 PT registry cleaner, expect 350-400 entries. After that, average of 40-50 depending on your web browsing propensities. Allcott

Cleaning your registry don

So now you want to reformat to defragment as well as change hardware? Sounds like w-a-y too much effort to me. I just press the defragment button and go make coffee! Again it's like rebuilding a car just because the ashtray's full!Still at least we have an answer to the original question. What the poster asked should be enough. A full reformat might also help, but only if the latest chipset drivers, graphic card drivers, sound card drivers, updated system files and all the required installation keys for addons are to hand. And you have a month of Sundays to waste.For the rest of us, uninstalling the old drivers, using Driver Cleaner to purge the registry and then switching box off, swapping old for new card should be ample. Switch box back on, install latest card drivers, and you're done, except for deleting the old card lines from the FS9.cfg. If you're being fussy, reinstall DirectX as well. Allcott

Hi,I'm definitely with Allcott on this one. I have maintained pretty efficient and clean systems for years now and NEVER had to reformat a drive. This applied to my previous system which was Win98 based, my wife's ME system and my current XP Home system. Just look after your registry, Defrag from time to time and all will be well. My current system is a complex setup with two HDs and XP resides on its own small 6gig partition. The prospect of reformatting and starting again just doesn't bear thinking about. I protect myself by performing a full backup to an external LaCie drive once a month. That way upgrading HD/s at any time in the future becomes a doddle. Furthermore, I use invaluable utilities like WinRescue XP as further insurance against registry damage/corruption although have never had to use it yet in anger with XP. Lost count of the number of times it had me up and running again within minutes during my time with Win98. It also incorporates a Registry Packer which gets rid of all the blank spaces left after an extensive cleaning operation.By far the best Registry Cleaner I have come across is one called Registry Healer. Furthermore, whenever I change drivers I routinely use Driver Cleaner in Safe Mode (latest version is 3) - always does an excellent job.When I switched from Nvidia to ATI I did the following:Downloaded the latest drivers for my new card, then ran Norton Disk Doctor to check all was well with my C: Partition where the o/s resides. I then ran Norton Speed Disk to tidy things up on the C: drive (Disk Defragmenter will do just as well). 1. Closed all background programs using EndItAll2. Uninstalled the nVidia drivers via ADD or REMOVE PROGRAMS. (With ATI Omega drivers there is also an uninstaller for the Setup files. The same may apply to the nVidia varaiants)3. Rebooted into SAFE MODE and ran DRIVER CLEANER4. Emptied the Recycle Bin 5. Removed references to my current card from the Display entry via Device Manager.6. Shutdown7. Switched Cards8. Rebooted and allowed XP to detect my new card and install the basic VGA drivers.9. Closed all background programs using EndItAll10. Installed the latest drivers for my new card.11. Rebooted and 12. Defragged again.MikeP4 2.4GHz (400FSB), 1Gig PC2100 DDR Crucial, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (Omega 2.5.30), Hyundai ImageQuest Q17 17" Monitor (1280x1024x32), Gigabyte GA-8IRXP MoBo, Ultra-Quiet PSU 400W, WinXP Home (SP1), DirectX 9.0b, AGP Aperture = 256MB

No it isn

Par, I don't think any of us were disagreeing with the principle that reformatting helps clean out the computer. Only that to do a reformat to introduce a new piece of hardware is over the top. Windows XP is designed to accommodate changing hardware - it's one of the tenets behind the reaccreditation process. But if you keep a clean and tidy system with regular cleanups, defragging, driver updates and registry tidying the marginal extra gain is minimal.But the definitive answer to the original question is still `no`, not for a graphics card. Conversely, although the same argument would still apply, I personally would reformat if I was changing the mobo/CPU. Simply to start afresh with a clean system.But then I have a CD copy of Windows XP SP2 and I'd have to install that again anyway!Allcott

Hi P