ATI driver update advice pls

[EffBee]

My eldest lad has started having a problem with one of his main apps just recently. It is one of those apps automatically updated by (?possibly?) steam. He seems to think other people have had similar problems solved by upgrading graphics drivers. He is delightfully vague and not at all interested in the technical stuff.

His current drivers for an HIS 1950 PCIe card are at least a year old.

I'm on Nvidia these days and have lost touch with the world of ATI.

1) Catalyst 8.1 looks like the one to install. 8.2 I believe is out but only just and is a bit new for my liking.

2) Should I go to AMD/ATI site and work from there, or go to HIS site. Gut instinct says go with HIS site since they made the card and, just maybe, they have actually tested the drivers against his card type.

3) Is the advice still to use a cleansing utility before installing the new drivers? If so what?

4) Anything to watch out for. Is the process still safe? Any possibility of trashed OS, hard drives structure etc. Backing up is such a pain.

Thanks in advance.

 

[skunksta]

1.Uninstall drivers

2.Boot up in safe mode ( use driver cleaner to remove any of the remains of the ati drivers

3.boot to windows normal install vga drivers if xp then 8.2/8.1 ati drivers

I have 8.2 installed and dont have any problems 8.1 give me mad fire fox colour's .Your find driver cleaner easy google it.

PS AMD home page should do the trick cant see the HIS drivers being any dif tbh.
and its safe i have never had to do a fresh install as long as the old drivers have gone and i never installed over them.

 

[chaosophy]

Yep as above. grab the 8.2s from here. If you get the 'regperm error' thing at the start just clear it and continue, doesn't seem to affect the install of the drivers at all.

 

[EffBee]

Thank you.