Guest SRam_z Posted October 10, 2008 Posted October 10, 2008 You see it all the time: "Make sure to update your display drivers to the latest version." So, I did. I have an ASUS (ATI Radeon) HD3850 PCIe display card. I did exactly what it said to do: Go to 'Add or Remove Programs' and click on the "ATI Software Removal Utility" then follow the prompts, restart the system and install the new (latest) drivers. However, when I restarted, I got the Windows starting screen (with the moving bar) and that's it! At the point where I should be looking at the "Welcome" screen - I'm instead looking at a black screen. As though the monitor is turned off. (It isn't, though; the light is green.) There is about 20 more seconds of hard drive activity, then nothing. Keyboard does not work; nothing. My only recourse is to hit reset, or the power button. Yes, yes; I've utilized every option in the boot menu (via F8) and it responds to each the same way! All three "Safe Mode" options are useless, as well. As if this wasn't enough; I decided that I better try and repair what was wrong, so I popped in my Windows XP Media Center Edition v:2005, Disk 1 and proceeded to boot to it. Setup, of course, begins its ritual and makes it through the initial filecopy phase; then it says "Setup is starting Windows" and a moment later - black screen. I waited over an hour, during one of these sessions, sill nothing. It won't recover, after I turn off - then back on. Finally, even though I know that there is nothing wrong with my HD3850, I decided to pop in my previous card and see if that would help. Nope. Naturally, this is because it, too, is an ATI card! Logic dictates that if I were to install an nVidia card, I would likely have visual once again. Reality, I'm afraid, dictates that I can't afford such a troubleshooting path. My system consists of: ASUS P5ND2-SLI Mainboard ASUS EAH3850 Top/G/HIDI/512M/A GDDR 3 Video Card 2GB Patriot DDR2 RAM ViewSonic P225f Professional Series CRT Windows XP MCE 2005 (Although, I don't use the MCE features at all; so it's technically the equivalent of XP Professional, SP2.) Other than the display drivers, I am absolutely certain that the system is up-to-date! Note that I have not upgraded to Service Pack 3 yet; but the OS is up-to-the-minute, as of Oct 7, 2008. Sorry for the length. I'm at my wits-end here; any ideas? Thanks, very much, for reading this far!
Guest M.I.5¾ Posted October 10, 2008 Posted October 10, 2008 Re: Uninstalling ATI Display Drivers hosed my system! "SRam_z" <SRamz@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:499B45B4-853E-447B-AB1C-7AFE0A78BAF1@microsoft.com... > You see it all the time: "Make sure to update your display drivers to the > latest version." So, I did. I have an ASUS (ATI Radeon) HD3850 PCIe > display > card. I did exactly what it said to do: Go to 'Add or Remove Programs' and > click on the "ATI Software Removal Utility" then follow the prompts, > restart > the system and install the new (latest) drivers. > However, when I restarted, I got the Windows starting screen (with the > moving bar) and that's it! At the point where I should be looking at the > "Welcome" screen - I'm instead looking at a black screen. As though the > monitor is turned off. (It isn't, though; the light is green.) There is > about > 20 more seconds of hard drive activity, then nothing. Keyboard does not > work; > nothing. My only recourse is to hit reset, or the power button. Yes, yes; > I've utilized every option in the boot menu (via F8) and it responds to > each > the same way! All three "Safe Mode" options are useless, as well. > As if this wasn't enough; I decided that I better try and repair what was > wrong, so I popped in my Windows XP Media Center Edition v:2005, Disk 1 > and > proceeded to boot to it. Setup, of course, begins its ritual and makes it > through the initial filecopy phase; then it says "Setup is starting > Windows" > and a moment later - black screen. I waited over an hour, during one of > these > sessions, sill nothing. It won't recover, after I turn off - then back on. > Finally, even though I know that there is nothing wrong with my HD3850, I > decided to pop in my previous card and see if that would help. Nope. > Naturally, this is because it, too, is an ATI card! > Logic dictates that if I were to install an nVidia card, I would likely > have > visual once again. Reality, I'm afraid, dictates that I can't afford such > a > troubleshooting path. > My system consists of: > > ASUS P5ND2-SLI Mainboard > ASUS EAH3850 Top/G/HIDI/512M/A GDDR 3 Video Card > 2GB Patriot DDR2 RAM > ViewSonic P225f Professional Series CRT > > Windows XP MCE 2005 (Although, I don't use the MCE features at all; so > it's > technically the equivalent of XP Professional, SP2.) > > Other than the display drivers, I am absolutely certain that the system is > up-to-date! > Note that I have not upgraded to Service Pack 3 yet; but the OS is > up-to-the-minute, as of Oct 7, 2008. > > Sorry for the length. I'm at my wits-end here; any ideas? Thanks, very > much, > for reading this far! I think there is one thing that you forgot to do before you uninstalled the Graphics driver. You should have set the display to 640x480 resolution and 8 bit colour. This would force windows to use the default VGA driver for the graphics (which all graphic cards support). Since presumably you didn't, windows is trying to use whatever resolution you left it at and which it can't find a supporting driver. So: try this. 1. Boot into safe mode (this should use the VGA mode by default) and into the Administrator account. 2. Right click on desktop, select 'Properties' and then the 'Settings' tab. You will note that the resolution is set to 640x480 and 8 bit colour (select it if it isn't). You will also note that the 'Apply' button is not greyed out. Click the apply button *and* the 'OK' (note that in this case 'OK' does not include 'Apply'). 3. Now back out and reboot normally. You should now get a display albeit at VGA resolution. You should now be able to install your graphic card driver and once you have done so, be able to select a higher resolution. You may have to reboot as you go to get the higher colour resolutions available. In general terms, I am always reluctant to install a newer driver for anything unless there is a particular problem that the new driver solves or some functionality demanded by something I am installing.
Guest SRam_z Posted October 10, 2008 Posted October 10, 2008 Re: Uninstalling ATI Display Drivers hosed my system! I can't boot into safe mode. When I try, I see the paths to all of the necessary drivers that are being loaded, in a long list on my screen. The last one, in the list, is vidstub.sys - then it switches to the black screen. I've tried all three of the safe mode options available, and get the same results. As I said, I can't even get get Setup to work. "M.I.5¾" wrote: > > "SRam_z" <SRamz@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:499B45B4-853E-447B-AB1C-7AFE0A78BAF1@microsoft.com... > > You see it all the time: "Make sure to update your display drivers to the > > latest version." So, I did. I have an ASUS (ATI Radeon) HD3850 PCIe > > display > > card. I did exactly what it said to do: Go to 'Add or Remove Programs' and > > click on the "ATI Software Removal Utility" then follow the prompts, > > restart > > the system and install the new (latest) drivers. > > However, when I restarted, I got the Windows starting screen (with the > > moving bar) and that's it! At the point where I should be looking at the > > "Welcome" screen - I'm instead looking at a black screen. As though the > > monitor is turned off. (It isn't, though; the light is green.) There is > > about > > 20 more seconds of hard drive activity, then nothing. Keyboard does not > > work; > > nothing. My only recourse is to hit reset, or the power button. Yes, yes; > > I've utilized every option in the boot menu (via F8) and it responds to > > each > > the same way! All three "Safe Mode" options are useless, as well. > > As if this wasn't enough; I decided that I better try and repair what was > > wrong, so I popped in my Windows XP Media Center Edition v:2005, Disk 1 > > and > > proceeded to boot to it. Setup, of course, begins its ritual and makes it > > through the initial filecopy phase; then it says "Setup is starting > > Windows" > > and a moment later - black screen. I waited over an hour, during one of > > these > > sessions, sill nothing. It won't recover, after I turn off - then back on. > > Finally, even though I know that there is nothing wrong with my HD3850, I > > decided to pop in my previous card and see if that would help. Nope. > > Naturally, this is because it, too, is an ATI card! > > Logic dictates that if I were to install an nVidia card, I would likely > > have > > visual once again. Reality, I'm afraid, dictates that I can't afford such > > a > > troubleshooting path. > > My system consists of: > > > > ASUS P5ND2-SLI Mainboard > > ASUS EAH3850 Top/G/HIDI/512M/A GDDR 3 Video Card > > 2GB Patriot DDR2 RAM > > ViewSonic P225f Professional Series CRT > > > > Windows XP MCE 2005 (Although, I don't use the MCE features at all; so > > it's > > technically the equivalent of XP Professional, SP2.) > > > > Other than the display drivers, I am absolutely certain that the system is > > up-to-date! > > Note that I have not upgraded to Service Pack 3 yet; but the OS is > > up-to-the-minute, as of Oct 7, 2008. > > > > Sorry for the length. I'm at my wits-end here; any ideas? Thanks, very > > much, > > for reading this far! > > I think there is one thing that you forgot to do before you uninstalled the > Graphics driver. You should have set the display to 640x480 resolution and > 8 bit colour. This would force windows to use the default VGA driver for > the graphics (which all graphic cards support). Since presumably you > didn't, windows is trying to use whatever resolution you left it at and > which it can't find a supporting driver. > > So: try this. > > 1. Boot into safe mode (this should use the VGA mode by default) and into > the Administrator account. > > 2. Right click on desktop, select 'Properties' and then the 'Settings' tab. > You will note that the resolution is set to 640x480 and 8 bit colour (select > it if it isn't). You will also note that the 'Apply' button is not greyed > out. Click the apply button *and* the 'OK' (note that in this case 'OK' > does not include 'Apply'). > > 3. Now back out and reboot normally. You should now get a display albeit at > VGA resolution. > > You should now be able to install your graphic card driver and once you have > done so, be able to select a higher resolution. You may have to reboot as > you go to get the higher colour resolutions available. > > In general terms, I am always reluctant to install a newer driver for > anything unless there is a particular problem that the new driver solves or > some functionality demanded by something I am installing. > > >
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