Windows and Driver problems

[yellowbadger52]

Ok so iver decided i have a major problem with my pc. It started about 2 or 3 weeks ago when i went to update my video card drivers. I downloaded them straight from the ati website. After doing so i removed the old ones just like i used to and restarted and installed the new ones then restarted again. When i was installing the new drivers windows would not allow them to work because they were not digitally signed. So i tried about 3 more times after redownloading the same and older versions of the drivers. Still the same problem.

My work around was to just boot windows and disable digital driver signatures. Ive been trying to find the problem ever since. So i still didnt know what it and on wednesday my new mouse arrived at my house and i go to install in on my pc and what do you know? the same thing happens again when installing the drivers for it. I used the drivers right of the Razor cd that came with my mouse and windows told me they were not digitally signed.

So my question is: Does anyone know what the problem is with my pc and how to fix it?

I know i can reformat it but i need to get storage space somewhere to back up my files before i do that. I just want to know if there is a way to fix it without reformatting.

 

[pillar]

Well first off, re-install the previous ati driver that u used, then do some searchin 4 an ati driver that is signed & install it (dont uninstall your driver, thats what the new driver is for). Never un-install a driver unless your going to use motherboard graphics.

 

[yellowbadger52]

ive already tried that, and the problem isnt isolated to the video drivers. its any drivers i install on my pc now.

 

[REpear]

Back up what you MUST have. Thumb drives of 8GB are cheap now days. Zero wipe drive(this is critical to do) then reinstall windows. Update windows xp 1.1a>2.0>3.0>current stuff.(manual updates on the service packs do not install the same things in between them, then auto update after 3.0) Then use the newest drivers out there that are digitally signed.

If using Vista or 7, again manual force the service packs then after the last one gets done, do the small stuff.

 

[yellowbadger52]

can people read my post. I know i can reformat but im trying to find out if there is a way to fix the problem without a reformat.

 

[Frank Booth]

With Windows it is better to wipe it out and reinstall from scratch. I always end up reinstalling windows ever year or so. And if something got screwed up and Windows did not fix with a reboot it is hard to even consider what went wrong.

Digitally signed drivers are not a requirement, especially if they are off the ATI site. I would enable what you disabled, the digital signatures, reinstall the old drivers and upgrade with them on. Or you can get extreme and remove devices from System and Device Manager and reboot which will reinstall them. Or go to properties on the device and roll back the driver.

 

[yellowbadger52]

....yet again its not just the ati drivers its also the mouse drivers that arent being digitally signed, i tried to reinstall the old drivers i had as well and it still didnt work.

 

[Frank Booth]

You are getting the same answer because it is very difficult to troubleshoot a computer when it is not in front of you. There might be a restore point you can go back to and get it to work. But nothing is as good and stable as getting it back to factory settings.

Do an online virus scan and see if anything comes up. That is another possibility.

....yet again its not just the ati drivers its also the mouse drivers that arent being digitally signed, i tried to reinstall the old drivers i had as well and it still didnt work.

 

[ToxicGeek]

Driver Sweeper is a great program.......check it out

 

[RustyPwns!]

Eh, forget those dumb programs to search for driver fixes and stuff. Chances are that you would never completely fix the problem. Just reset your computer. Backup your files in D and that's it. For future reference don't uninstall the driver, then install new ones. Just install the new ones and It'll replace the files that aren't needed. If you delete the drivers before I'm guessing you want to install everything fresh or something, you're probably ending up installing files you uninstalled. In other words, just install the drivers. Don't uninstall>restart>install>restart

 

[Stinky Wizzleteats]

Are you running Vista? If so check out this link: Clicky

Its about a driver signing issue & it has a pretty easy fix for it.

 

[ToxicGeek]

Eh, forget those dumb programs to search for driver fixes and stuff. Chances are that you would never completely fix the problem. Just reset your computer. Backup your files in D and that's it. For future reference don't uninstall the driver, then install new ones. Just install the new ones and It'll replace the files that aren't needed. If you delete the drivers before I'm guessing you want to install everything fresh or something, you're probably ending up installing files you uninstalled. In other words, just install the drivers. Don't uninstall>restart>install>restart

driver Sweeper does NOT search for driver fix's. It's a well used program that uninstalls drivers and ghost drivers that at times cannot be uninstalled.

Stacking driver versions on top of each other is very bad mojo....

 

[yellowbadger52]

my problem is NOT driver related may i add, it is windows. Im currently trying save up to buy an external hdd to backup my data on before i reformat my pc. I need to reformat both my drives i have but dont wanna lose data. Im trying to find out if there is a fix for this problem for right now until i can afford to buy an external hdd.


Thank you stinky for the help. that is one solution to the problem. i was looking for something else to fix it but thatll do for now. You were the only one to ACTUALLY read and understand my original post. Thank you very much! +1