How to roll back the driver version. How to Roll back a Driver and Restore Driver Updates

Unfortunately, even with automatic update system components, necessary for correct operation graphics adapters, many problems can arise when updating them. One of the most acceptable solutions is to restore previous versions of drivers. How to roll back a driver NVIDIA video cards, Radeon or built-in chipset, will now be considered. This is done very simply using several methods.

How to roll back video card drivers on Windows 7 or another system in the simplest way?

In the very simple case it can be assumed that the user knows exactly when the failure occurred, and graphics adapter stopped responding or exhibited incorrect functionality. How to roll back the drivers for the video card in this case? There's nothing easier than running System Restore. This can be done from the corresponding section of the “Control Panel” (in the simplest version called control command from the Run console).

If the user knows exactly the time or date the problem occurred, you can simply run the process, after which, as you know, user files will not be affected, but the state of the drivers will be restored to the previous one.

No less in a simple way booting the system using the last working configuration is also considered. In this case, at startup you just need to press the F8 key (for versions no older than Windows 7, this works, but in a higher OS you initially need to rebuild the startup system).

How to roll back drivers for a video card using Device Manager?

There is one more thing, no less interesting solution. The problem of how to roll back drivers on a video card can be solved by using the Task Manager. It is called from the same “Control Panel”, but for quick access You can also use the devmgmt.msc command in the Run menu. Here you need to find your device (graphics adapter) and use the context menu in which the properties line is selected.

On the driver tab there is special button rollback If it is active, just press it, after which the restoration will occur previous version, if some update was installed on top of it. If the button is not active, then everything is fine with the driver, and the problem needs to be looked for elsewhere.

Restoring a previous version using accompanying utilities

But that's not all. The fact is that the problem of how to roll back drivers to a video card can be solved with the help of some accompanying management programs that come pre-installed with NVIDIA and Radeon adapters. These are utilities like PhysX and Catalyst (official releases).

If nothing helps at all, you can simply try to remove the device from the system, reboot, after which Windows will automatically install the most suitable driver from own list. However, it is not a fact that then the device will work correctly. It's better to take advantage original disk with the drivers that comes with purchase, and install from there.

There are situations when we have installed new drivers on a device. However, while using the driver, we were not satisfied with some indicators or problems arose with them.

Let's look at how you can roll back the version updated drivers any device before the previous one.

Let's take a sound card as an example.

To roll back drivers to previous version, the following steps must be taken.

Right-click on the “My Computer” shortcut.

In the context menu, go to the “Properties” item. In the next window, select the “Device Manager” sub-item.

From the list of devices you must select desired device. In our case, we find the sound card.

Place the mouse cursor over this line and click right key mice. In the context menu that appears, select “Properties”.

In the next window, select the “Driver” tab. We go down and find the “Roll Back” button. See the image below.

Click on it. A new small window will appear. In it, the system will clarify whether we really want to restore old version drivers. See the image below.

Click the “Yes” button.

There will be an automatic rollback to the previous version of the device driver. You can verify this by paying attention to the driver description in the “Properties” window.

We close the window. Another window will appear indicating changes to the device parameters. In order for the changes to take effect, you will need to click the “Yes” button. The computer will restart. See the image below.

Good afternoon, dear readers of the blog site. Today I want to tell you how to roll back device drivers and when it may be necessary. From my personal experience, I’ll tell you how I had to roll back my video card drivers after incorrect update software. To begin with, I will say that restoring the previous version of drivers allows you to return the settings and installations of your computer components. A driver is a firmware that allows the equipment to work correctly as part of a computer, so to speak, to integrate into the system.

Everyone also has internal programs external devices such as printers, acoustic system or network hardware(you can read information about this in one of my articles).

Updating drivers and possible problems associated with this process

One day I came across a very interesting one on the Internet that allows you to scan your computer or laptop for outdated internal software. The program is really useful, convenient and, most importantly, free. By running it on your computer, you can see a report on all devices on your PC. The program interface will display information about which firmware needs to be updated, and which devices have the latest software installed.

As a result, I downloaded and launched this program. The whole process took little time, and it turned out that almost all devices required updating. After scanning and updating, the system automatically started the reboot process for all changes to take effect. However, to my surprise, during loading I did not see standard screen operating system, instead the screen was just a black background with a mouse cursor. Based personal experience I realized that the firmware installed on the video card causes a hardware conflict and, accordingly, the impossibility of displaying the correct image. It was decided to either roll back the driver update , or install a new version.

This situation with the video card and internal software usually happens when the Bios of your computer, or rather motherboard does not support updated software. A solution to this problem is possible Bios update, but it is better to entrust this process to specialists, since without the necessary knowledge everything can only get worse.

U inexperienced users The question may arise: how can we roll back the drivers if we don’t see any graphic image. In this case, it comes to our aid , allowing you to run operating system With minimal settings and low graphic resolution VGA. I described how to enter safe mode in a separate article, the link to which is given above.

So, after starting the system in safe mode you need to find a place where updated drivers are rolled back, but first you should check how the rest of the software installed. To do this, right-click on the My Computer shortcut and select Properties

And in the window that opens on the left side, select the section Device Manager.

After this a window will open Device Manager c, which will list the devices installed on your computer. If some firmware was not installed correctly, then an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle will appear directly next to the corresponding device. This situation can arise not only after but also during regular work. What this may be connected with depends on what actions were performed previously.

Returning to how to restore drivers for a video card, in the device manager, select the video adapters tab and click on the element we need right button mouse and select the item in the menu that opens Properties, after which another window of the properties of this or that iron should open. Next, select the tab Driver and press the button Roll back.

Next to this button it says “If the device does not work after updating the driver, a rollback restores the previous driver,” respectively, the system itself suggests a solution to the problems s.

After the completed operations, a little time should pass when the process ends and the system displays a message indicating the successful completion of the operation. Next, you should restart your computer for the changes to take effect, but before that, I advise you to once again pay attention to possible conflicts your devices and computer. If no hardware discrepancies are identified, then feel free to reboot the computer and observe the correction of our problem, in fact, as was the case in my case with the video card.

The process described above is applicable in any case and to any hardware, be it sound or. Finally, I want to say that before updating the firmware, make sure it is compatible with the version of your hardware and preferably read more information about this on the official website. The fact is that a well-chosen assembly can significantly increase the performance of the device and eliminate possible critical errors.

I really hope that the information on how to roll back drivers was useful and understandable for you, but as often happens, there may be certain questions left that you could not find answers to on the pages of my blog. To solve any problems that arise, leave a question in the comments, where we will try to give the necessary advice.

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Windows system rollback

Let's imagine the following situation: you purchased some device, for example a sound card, installed it in your computer and the device began to work, that is, play sounds.

After some time, you found another driver for this device on the Internet, the developers of which promise a significant expansion of the functions of your sound card.

But, alas, after reinstalling the driver sound card stopped working or began to work poorly.

In this case it will help simplest procedure driver rollback, in other words, a return to the previous driver that at least somehow worked.

1. Open Device Manager and find the device that is not working properly. It must be marked with an exclamation mark.

The figure shows a red arrow as Device Manager indicates a device that is not working correctly.

2. Double click on this device (in our case it is a Yamaha sound card). The properties window will appear (Figure 2).

As you can see, here we are kindly informed that the launch of this device impossible.

Fig. 2 - Properties window for a device with problems

It is in such cases that the easiest way is to roll back the driver. This can be done in just a couple of mouse clicks.

So...

3. In the device properties window, go to the Driver tab and click the Roll Back button. A window will appear warning you that rolling back the driver may impair the performance of the device (Figure 3).

Rice. 3. Warning window

4. Since the device is not working anyway, click the "Yes" button. After a few seconds, the driver will be replaced with the previous version.

5. Close the device properties window by clicking OK and view Device Manager. Now with sound card everything is fine (Fig. 4).

Rice. 4. The sound card is installed normally (yellow exclamation point not anymore)

As you have seen, driver rollback can be effective if a device driver is installed incorrectly. This is perhaps the simplest case of malfunction of all possible.

Also, you can look at the discussion of methods for eliminating more serious OS problems - it describes the simplest thing that can be done when “Windows glitches” appear - creating and returning to a system restore point

This article used materials from the book
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