Complete Removal of 3dfx Drivers

[SkyDiver]

Hey guys,
A week or two ago, I read a great post on how to totally remove drivers from nVidia and 3dfx.

I think that I've got some old 3dfx drivers screwing up my GF2. Unfortunately, I can't find the post. Does anyone here know this? The post referred to the registry and deleting files starting with a certain string of characters in certain Windows directories.

Thanks,
SkyDiver

 

[CrimsonWolf]

Have you tried running a search?

 

[SkyDiver]

Yeah, I tried two or three searches but got no response.

 

[BFG10K]

Go to add/remove programs and unistall 3dfx's drivers. Then search your registry and delete all items containing "3dfx" in them (after you have installed your new video card of course!).

 

[DaGoose]

I deleted all glide files from windows/system32 and did a search for all 3dfx files and deleted them from the C drive.

 

[kyutip]

I also have the same problem.
I've searched for all "3dfx" files on c: and none found
same thing on glide files on /windows/system32
but haven't tried registry yet.
and when I launch some games, it is still detecting and asking me to choose between glide (3dfx) or D3D/OpenGL (I have geforce2).
Any suggestion ??
should I just find any reference to 3dfx on registry and remove them ?

 

[RobsTV]

The "ONLY" way to completely remove them is format the drive.
I have done the registry thing, and the deletion thing, but
some still hide. Until I reformated, GF2 GTS locked up occasionally,
and freshly installed games still "detected" 3dfx as a choice.
After formating, lockup's are all gone. Heck, the last 3dfx
drivers or 2 ago, failed to properly install, and the only way
to correct was to format again.

 

[Auric]

If you know what to look for you can remove it. Generally, you can extract a driver install and then hunt down those files in windows as well as any entries for the manufacturer in the registry. I saw at evga.com they have some help for removing all that troublesome Voodoo doodoo.

 

[BFG10K]

Heck, the last 3dfx drivers or 2 ago, failed to properly install, and the only way
to correct was to format again.

I hope I don't have to resort to this with my new video card. I remember how 3dfx were bashing their competitors for not removing their drivers correctly. Pot-kettle-black if you ask me.

 

[hans007]

i dont see why you'd even have to remove the 3dfx ones. On my system i didnt even remove them , installed a gf2 for a while and it was all fine

 

[SkyDiver]

hans007: I don't know if they are contributing to my instability or not, but it seems that the computer can "idle" for hours and then work fine, but it seems to freeze up in spreadsheets or other modest applications after a few hours.

In the SHOGO game, it freezes up in less than an hour or half hour. I thought that perhaps an old 3dfx VXD was being called upon and it was crashing the system.

It still happened after I removed all or most of the significant 3dfx references in my registry, so I think I'll re-install SHOGO. If that dosen't work, I'll probably reformat the whole C: drive because it was originally copied via PowerQuest's DriveCopy from another PC. It never had a clean install.

SkyDiver

 

[BFG10K]

i dont see why you'd even have to remove the 3dfx ones. On my system i didnt even remove them , installed a gf2 for a while and it was all fine

That's not a good idea at all and can lead to porblems later. If you don't unsitall the drivers the registry file and the Windows driver database still have records of the drivers, and Windows tries to load them up at startup. This can lead to longer startup times and problems with the new drivers later on.

At the very least you should always run the driver uninstaller to clear the registry from the driver file entries. That is basic system maintenance.

 

[RobsTV]

My results were similiar to skydivers.
System worked fine at idle for days. Would easily run 3DMark 2000.
But, online browsing would lock up after a few hours every time.
Some 2d games like AOE2 would also lockup after a while.
After a reformat, all traces of 3dfx have been removed, as well
as all instabilities and lockups.

 

[Blain]

I did a search for "freeze" in the video forum. Now I wish I hadn't
I've been having random freezes also. On the web, flying in flight sims, running 3D Mark 2000. It sounds just like SkyDiver & RobsTV problems. I hate to reformat, but will if I have to.

I'm running a STEP P3-550e on a Soyo SY-6vca using an Asus sloket adapter. A Voodoo5 5500 AGP and 256mb Micron PC-133.

I don't have anything OC'd right now. I've loaded the latest (as far as I know), Voodoo5 drivers for the VIA chipset. The top side of the Voodoo card (over the GPU's), does get pretty warm. I've even added a 3" case fan blowing fresh air in from the side (side cover is off).

Is it reformat time for me? Or is there a "quick fix" for this thing?

 

[SkyDiver]

Blain & RobsTV: My IS guy just gave me a copy of "Tufftest Pro." It boots from a floppy and has its own operating system, so isn't dependent on Windows. It will (apparently) run stress tests on the hardware components, so I should be able to verify if my "freeze" bug is related to hardware.

I don't think it is hardware because both my Mobo and Graphics card have temperature monitoring systems and neither show a tendency to run hot.

SkyDiver

 

[Blain]

From what you've found out about your system using Tufftest Pro...
Is it worth the $29.95 for the Download?

 

[SkyDiver]

Blain: I wouldn't spend the money on Tufftest if I were you. It could not recognize my ATA100 drives, so I couldn't test them. It was able to test the video and RAM which were OK for me.

I have Ontrack's SystemSuite 2000 and I ran it's diagnostics last night too. Here is what I found for both HD's.

WinAPI HD1 (52 Minutes, 22 seconds)
Butterfly Seek Test: No Problem
Random Seek Test: No Problem
Read/Verify Test: FAILED.
Failure may have been due to: 1) A defective head or cylinder, 2) A defective or incomplete low-level format or 3) A drive failure, either electronic or mechanical.

I had the same error on both of my IBM 75GXP hard drives (30 & 15 Giggers). I don't know if this is my ultimate problem, but I'm wondering if a low-level format problem may be occurring.

What kind of hard drive(s) are you using?

SkyDiver

 

[Blain]

I've got a 20.5GB IBM

 

[3dfxAlf]

If you search the registry and the hard drive, you WILL turn up all the relevant files and keys that need to be delted to get a clean install. However, if you're still having problems, contact 3dfx tech support. We have an uninstaller app that might help.

 

[Jakeman]

http://www.guru3d.com/tech/voodoo-to-nvidia/index1.shtml

Jakeman