Clean Install
This page is for users who need to perform a clean install of their Windows graphics drivers.
If you are receiving an error when starting the Second Life viewer that says your graphics card is unsupported or your graphics drivers are out of date and you know that your card meets the system requirements, than this procedure will most often correct the problem.
Usually this message appears when you have upgraded from a previous version of Windows, or when a Windows Update conflicts with an installed graphics driver. It can also mean that Windows Update has installed a graphics driver for you that does not have full support for SecondLife or that your graphics driver is not Windows certified.
- Download the latest graphics driver from the chipset manufacturer (ATI, Nvidia, or Intel) not the maker of your graphics card or computer. Save the file where you can easily find it, but do not install it yet.
- Run Windows Update and make sure your system is fully patched.
- (Optional) You may download Driver Sweeper or a similar utility to remove all traces of your old driver.
- Reboot your computer and enter Safe Mode by pressing F8 at the Windows logo screen.
- Uninstall your old video driver. You can either use Driver Sweeper or Control Panel->System->Hardware->Device Manager (steps will vary: this applies to Windows XP) and then opening "Display Adapters" and right-click and choose "Uninstall."
- Reboot your computer.
- If Windows displays a message that it found new hardware, do not let it automatically install drivers. Instead, run the installation program that you downloaded in step 1.
- Reboot your computer
You should now have a clean version of your video driver.