ATI video cards - DRIVER ONLY installation procedure

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Taken from this topic: Updating AMD/ATI cards, 'drivers only'. - Sysnative Forums

ATI "Driver Only" installation procedure
(Instructions developed on a 64 bit Win7 system - 32 bit Win7, Vista, and even XP should be similar.)

NOTE: Laptop (Mobility Radeon) users please read the following by clicking on the "Show" link. It pertains to the compatibility of generic ATI drivers on your systems:

Read More:

The AMD Mobility Radeon Driver Verification tool helps you determine your notebook’s compatibility with generic AMD Catalyst Mobility drivers. It helps to prevent incorrect installation on incompatible notebooks which may lead to disabled features or functionality.

If you experience difficulty while using the generic AMD Catalyst Mobility drivers, we recommend reverting to the driver provided by your notebook vendor. Please contact your notebook vendor for their most recent graphics drivers.

The following notebooks are not compatible with this tool:
Notebooks equipped with switchable graphics
Toshiba® notebooks
Sony® VAIO® notebooks
Panasonic® notebooks

The AMD Mobility Radeon Driver Verification Tool is available from here: AMD Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

While the procedure below may appear daunting, just follow it one step at a time and it'll work for you. If you have any questions, just post them in the forums and we'll be glad to provide assistance.

NOTE: If you already have the ATI drivers installed, please use the Catalyst Uninstall Manager (in Control Panel...Programs...Uninstall a program) to remove all of the ATI video driver components. Be careful as you may uninstall AMD chipset drivers also - which will then require reinstalling them!. Here's a link from AMD about removing graphics drivers: GPU-57: How to uninstall pre-existing graphics card drivers from a Microsoft Windows based system

NOTE: Thanks to SATROW for the link to this newly released ATI Catalyst Uninstall Utility: AMD Clean Uninstall Utility

1. Download the latest version of the Catalyst Software Suite from Support & Drivers .
2. Double click on the downloaded executable file (it's name will look something like this: 12-3_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc.exe ).
3. The installation will first stop at a screen which notes where the installation folder is (in my case it's: C:\AMD\Support\12-3_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc ). Please make a note where this folder is located as you'll use it later on to install the drivers. Then click on Next/Install to continue with the installation.
4. The installer then extracts the files to that folder and then launches the AMD Catalyst Install Manager. Click on "Cancel", then click on "Yes" to exit the AMD Catalyst Install Manager.
5. Go to Start and type in "devmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and then press Enter when devmgmt.msc shows up at the top of the search box.
6. In Device Manager, click on the +/> sign next to Display adapters.
7. Right click on the display adapter and select "Update Driver Software".
8. Select "Browse my computer for driver software. Locate and install driver software manually."
9. Type (or paste) the location of the installation folder that you remembered from Step 3 (in my case it's: C:\AMD\Support\12-3_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc ) into the search box and ensure that "Include subfolders" is checked - then click on "Next" in the lower right corner.
10. Drivers will install (and screen may go black temporarily). System will then show a window that states "Windows has successfully updated your driver software" Click on "Close" in the lower right corner of the window (Screen may again go black temporarily).
11. And you're done!!!
    
    NOTE: If it says that the most current drivers are already installed - go back and uninstall all ATI video stuff (be careful as you may uninstall AMD chipset drivers also - which will then require reinstalling them!). Then run the procedure from Step 5 again (the new directory from Step 3 should still be there).