Driver sweeper program

[limjack]

Have any of you experienced a blue screen using driver sweeper? I am not computer savvy. I downloaded today and went into safe mode and ran the driver sweeper. Hit backup ,analyze and clean. It did it’s thing and then I rebooted and got the quick blue screen…gulp…tried re-booting in safe mode and every other type of mode as well as restore last good configuration and noda, nothing….double and triple gulp by now with beads of sweat running down my forhead. After two hours of messing around with computerI found my restore disk and figured out through the bios how to access my cd player and got my computer back using the repair option (Thank you Lord), I was about ready to go blue screen myself and crumble to the floor. So any info or why this would happen? Looks like a cool program to keep things clean.

:isadizzy:Jim

[Bjoern]

Never had one and I'm using the 2.0 version on Win 7 Pro x64. No problems back in the day on XP Pro x86 either.

Did you uninstall your driver before running Driver Sweeper?
Using this tool on a normally installed driver without uninstalling first is like shooting yourself in the head or sawing off the legs of the chair you're sitting on.

Here's a rough sketch of my perfectly working driver cleaning procedure for Windows 7:

- Open the Device Manager, select your video card and uninstall it with "Delete drivers" checked.
- Reboot.
- Let 7 install the default drivers for the card, then run Driver Sweeper.
- Reboot.
- Install the new driver.
- Reboot.
- Set the driver's control panel or NHancer up to your taste.
- Done.

For XP:

- Delete the video card driver from the control panel ("Programs and Features" or "Software" or however that thing is called in the english version of XP).
- Reboot into safe mode.
- Run Driver Sweeper.
- Reboot into regular XP.
- Install new drivers.
- Reboot.
- Set the driver's control panel or NHancer up to your taste.
- Done.

I've only tried this for NVidia drivers though. Could be that this procedure also works for ATI's drivers.

[limjack]

Thanks for the response. I guess I did shoot myself in the head. I assumed (O yes, that word assumed gets me into trouble so much) the program found fragments of drives on my system and I could just delete them. Now you know the rest of the story. But all is well now as everything is back up in running. One good thing I did learn from this experience is how to access my CD with the bios when all of my safe modes are taken away. I also learned one other thing. When my system rebooted it changed my date back to 2007, I did not see this at first. I just noticed my security program as well as others crapped out on me and they would not update but yet I had an internet connection. Then with a little search found out my clock and date were out of sync with the programs. As soon as I set the date and time all was well again. Ok, enough learning today for my head. Thank Bjoern for showing the right way. Will try again next time I update a driver.
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Jim

[harleyman]

Ouch.....

[Bjoern]

You're welcome, Jim!

[IanHenry]

Which is the best Driver Sweeper program?


Regards,
Ian.

[CBris]

I use the payware "Driver Detective" from PC Drivers.

Had it for years and years, and they even provide free crossgrades as I went from Win98 through XP and Vista to Win 7.

Great service and a reliable tool that has done me great service.

[IanHenry]

Thanks for that CBris, but i've done a search for that and I can only find sites offering a lot of free dodgy looking downloads!

Ian.

[CBris]

OK, try:

http://www.drivershq.com/

[IanHenry]

OK thanks for that, I'll give it a try

Regards,
Ian.

[Bjoern]

Why payware?

http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/