[Poll] Driver issues and driver cleaners

Mussels · Mar 24, 2015

This came up because of all the threads i see with people who have issues upgrading their drivers, because quite bluntly i never see any of these issues on any of the systems i own, sell or maintain for friends and family.
Always, it seems that these people use driver cleaners to fix their issues and there is a very common theme that "only driver X works for me, nothing newer!"

Personally i believe that the driver cleaners themselves cause these issues, but since they may not show up for a few months people are simply unaware what caused the problems when they do become obvious.

edit: i allowed two votes max, to allow for people with two systems. For example, a person who uses cleaners on their desktop and has problems but also owns a laptop trouble free.

95Viper · Mar 24, 2015

I don't use driver cleaners.
I have not had trouble installing over, or uninstalling and reinstalling... except, maybe, once with both AMD and Nvidia, when I was playing around with some beta drivers.
And, I manually clean things out.

Guess I have just been lucky.

Caring1 · Mar 24, 2015

Never use driver cleaners and never have issues.
Yet people I know that have used them have problems.

R-T-B · Mar 24, 2015

Never use driver cleaners and never have issues.

Tried one once as well, and didn't have an issue either.

Also reformat/reinstall about 3 times a year.

HammerON · Mar 24, 2015

R-T-B said:
Never use driver cleaners and never have issues.

Tried one once as well, and didn't have an issue either.

Also reformat/reinstall about 3 times a year.

95Viper said:
I don't use driver cleaners.
I have not had trouble installing over, or uninstalling and reinstalling... except, maybe, once with both AMD and Nvidia, when I was playing around with some beta drivers.
And, I manually clean things out.

Guess I have just been lucky.

Caring1 said:
Never use driver cleaners and never have issues.
Yet people I know that have used them have problems.

Same as those who stated that they do not use driver cleaners and have had few to no issues.

FordGT90Concept · Mar 24, 2015

I downgraded from Omega to a 2013 driver recently and the only way I could install the 2013 driver was by using Display Driver Uninstaller to get rid of Omega. The official uninstallers clearly don't do a good job at purging everything.

CAPSLOCKSTUCK · Mar 24, 2015

i never use driver cleaners, i do however use Driver Booster from IOBIT to check if my drivers are up to date.
http://www.iobit.com/driver-booster.php

When i refurb, clean up or set up a pc i always install and run it. I recently fired up an old forgotten XP laptop. Driver booster found 44 outdated drivers which, at my prompt it downloaded and installed. It gives you the option to install or not and is really rather good. :peace:

P4-630 · Mar 24, 2015

I don't use driver cleaners but once I installed a new display driver PhysX was unchecked in GPU-Z.
I had to do a clean windows install sometime ago after that(not because of a display driver), updated the display driver and all is fine till now.
Next month I may update my display driver again for GTA V, we'll see how that goes then, hopefully without any issues.

Mussels · Mar 24, 2015

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:
i never use driver cleaners, i do however use Driver Booster from IOBIT to check if my drivers are up to date.
http://www.iobit.com/driver-booster.php

When i refurb, clean up or set up a pc i always install and run it. I recently fired up an old forgotten XP laptop. Driver booster found 44 outdated drivers which, at my prompt it downloaded and installed. It gives you the option to install or not and is really rather good.

i have always assumed those driver installer programs were all fake/garbage, good to know at least one is usable.

edit: dubious installer contains crapware, but otherwise seems ok.

R-T-B · Mar 24, 2015

Mussels said:
i have always assumed those driver installer programs were all fake/garbage, good to know at least one is usable.

edit: dubious installer contains crapware, but otherwise seems ok.

Me too. I'm not against the concept (well, I am for myself being a control freak, but not for recommending to others), but i have yet to see one that did anything good.

CAPSLOCKSTUCK · Mar 24, 2015

Mussels said:
i have always assumed those driver installer programs were all fake/garbage, good to know at least one is usable.

edit: dubious installer contains crapware, but otherwise seems ok.

get it from IOBIT......it works well, i wouldnt suggest it if i didnt trust it.

vega22 · Mar 24, 2015

when upgrading drivers over the past couple of years i have had no troubles but rolling back to older drivers has caused issues.

then driver cleaners are needed imo.

edit

not voted as none seem to apply?

Mussels · Mar 24, 2015

marsey99 said:
when upgrading drivers over the past couple of years i have had no troubles but rolling back to older drivers has caused issues.

then driver cleaners are needed imo.

edit

not voted as none seem to apply?

i'll add downgrading, as you are not the first to mention it.

Devon68 · Mar 24, 2015

No driver cleaners and no issues but then again I don't download the latest stuff right away.

GhostRyder · Mar 24, 2015

Mussels said:
This came up because of all the threads i see with people who have issues upgrading their drivers, because quite bluntly i never see any of these issues on any of the systems i own, sell or maintain for friends and family.
Always, it seems that these people use driver cleaners to fix their issues and there is a very common theme that "only driver X works for me, nothing newer!"

Personally i believe that the driver cleaners themselves cause these issues, but since they may not show up for a few months people are simply unaware what caused the problems when they do become obvious.

edit: i allowed two votes max, to allow for people with two systems. For example, a person who uses cleaners on their desktop and has problems but also owns a laptop trouble free.

Personally, I do not use driver cleaners except in 2 situations as I have almost never had driver issues.

1: To fix a critical problem with the driver (The one time I had a problem with Catalyst on my 6990's in the CCC 12 variants somewhere I did a clean sweep and fresh install of drivers which alleviated my issue though later I had other problems so I did a fresh install of the OS and whole system which fixed everything).
2: Downgraded a driver on a system before (not my personal machine in specs, but one with an APU to test it for problems).

I find it weird many people have problems with drivers as its such a rarity for me. Most of the time when I find a problem or get a problem from someone something else is causing the issue not the drivers themselves. I feel most people instead of clean installing constantly should just do a quick update and be done with it as that is more likely not to cause problems for people at least in my experience.
IMHO

Octopuss · Mar 25, 2015

I do use DDU, but only just to be safe. There's a LOT of garbage left after uninstalling Catalyst the official way, but I never had a problem with it. People say this may cause problems when upgrading. Never happened to me, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I like DDU because 1) it's free 2) is not outdated by 4 years (Driver Sweeper), 3) the author is a nice guy and gathers feedback directly from users over at Guru3d forums, and looks like he knows his shit pretty damn well. The direct communication with people is key here, I believe.

Cybrnook2002 · Mar 25, 2015

@Frag Maniac ,where you at boss?

natr0n · Mar 25, 2015

I used DDU today actually.

The 15.3 beta was randomly locking up system with html5 videos on youtube.

I really dont like using these cleaners, but it does help in certain situations.

The Mac · Mar 25, 2015

I use DDU exclusively, since its inception and never had a single issue.

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VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
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Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

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Software	Gentoo Linux x64 / Windows 11

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Keyboard	Corsair K70
Software	Win 10 Pro
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Motherboard	MSI B550 Gaming Plus
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Memory	2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
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Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply	Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse	Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard	Tesoro Excalibur
Software	Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.

[Poll] Driver issues and driver cleaners

Do the following apply to you

I use driver cleaners , and have no issues

I use driver cleaners and have issues (I use the cleaners to fix them)

I dont use driver cleaners, and have no issues

I dont use driver cleaners, but have regular driver issues

I format/clean OS install regularly.

I use driver cleaners, but only for downgrading drivers. (Give details in comments)

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

95Viper

Super Moderator

Caring1

R-T-B

HammerON

The Watchful Moderator

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

CAPSLOCKSTUCK

Spaced Out Lunar Tick

P4-630

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

R-T-B

CAPSLOCKSTUCK

Spaced Out Lunar Tick

vega22

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

Devon68

GhostRyder

Octopuss

Cybrnook2002

natr0n

The Mac

System Name	Party On
Processor	Xeon w 3520
Motherboard	DFI Lanparty
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Memory	6 gb Ballistix Tracer
Video Card(s)	HD 7970
Case	a plank of wood
Audio Device(s)	seperate amp and 6 big speakers
Power Supply	Corsair
Mouse	cheap
Keyboard	under going restoration

System Name	AlderLake / Laptop
Processor	Intel i7 12700K P-Cores @ 5Ghz / Intel i3 7100U
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Software	Windows 11 / Windows 10
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System Name	panda
Processor	6700k
Motherboard	sabertooth s
Cooling	raystorm block<black ice stealth 240 rad<ek dcc 18w 140 xres
Memory	32gb ripjaw v
Video Card(s)	290x gamer<ntzx g10<antec 920
Storage	950 pro 250gb boot 850 evo pr0n
Display(s)	QX2710LED@110hz lg 27ud68p
Case	540 Air
Audio Device(s)	nope
Power Supply	750w superflower
Mouse	g502
Keyboard	shine 3 with grey, black and red caps
Software	win 10
Benchmark Scores	http://hwbot.org/user/marsey99/

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Cooling	Noctua NH-D15
Memory	G Skill Flare X5 2x16gb cl32@6000 MHz
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon RX 6950 XT Nitro + gaming Oc
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Display(s)	LG 27GP850P-B
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Power Supply	Seasonic Prime GX-850W
Mouse	A4Tech V7M bloody
Keyboard	Genius KB-G255
Software	Windows 10 64bit

System Name	SnowFire / The Reinforcer
Processor	i7 10700K 5.1ghz (24/7) / 2x Xeon E52650v2
Motherboard	Asus Strix Z490 / Dell Dual Socket (R720)
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Memory	Corsair RGB 16gb DDR4 3000 CL 16 / DDR3 128gb 16 x 8gb
Video Card(s)	GTX Titan XP (2025mhz) / Asus GTX 950 (No Power Connector)
Storage	Samsung 970 1tb NVME and 2tb HDD x4 RAID 5 / 300gb x8 RAID 5
Display(s)	Acer XG270HU, Samsung G7 Odyssey (1440p 240hz)
Case	Thermaltake Cube / Dell Poweredge R720 Rack Mount Case
Audio Device(s)	Realtec ALC1150 (On board)
Power Supply	Rosewill Lightning 1300Watt / Dell Stock 750 / Brick
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Logitech G19S
Software	Windows 11 Pro / Windows Server 2016

Processor	Ryzen 5800X
Motherboard	Asus TUF-Gaming B550-Plus
Cooling	Noctua NH-U14S
Memory	32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo F4-3600C16D-32GTZNC
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon Rx 580 Nitro+ 8GB
Storage	HP EX950 512GB + Samsung 970 PRO 1TB
Display(s)	HP Z Display Z24i G2
Case	Fractal Design Define R6 Black
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Power Supply	Seasonic PRIME Ultra 650W Gold
Mouse	Roccat Kone AIMO Remastered
Software	Windows 10 x64

System Name	natr0n-PC
Processor	Ryzen 5950x/5600x
Motherboard	B450 AORUS M
Cooling	EK AIO 360 - 6 fan action
Memory	Patriot - Viper Steel DDR4 (B-Die)(4x8GB)
Video Card(s)	EVGA 3070ti FTW
Storage	Various
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Case	Thermaltake Level 20 VT
Audio Device(s)	LOXJIE D10 + Kinter Amp + 6 Bookshelf Speakers Sony+JVC+Sony
Power Supply	Super Flower Leadex III ARGB 80+ Gold 650W
Software	XP/7/8.1/10
Benchmark Scores	http://valid.x86.fr/79kuh6

System Name	Main rig
Processor	Intel i7-4790K Devils Canyon
Motherboard	Asus Z97-A
Cooling	Antec Kuhler 620
Memory	16GB Corsair Vengence Pro
Video Card(s)	Sapphire R9-290 Vapor-X
Storage	Samsung 840 EVO 1TB
Case	Corsair 600T
Audio Device(s)	Sound Blaster X-FI HD Platinum
Power Supply	Corsair AX750 Gold