Help me avoid a Win XP Reinstall !!!

[bjassin]

I have a big, big problem and would be very, very grateful to anyone who can help. I have a P3 system with Win Xp Prof. installed. Everything was fine in my system until I installed the latest beta version of the nvidia drivers (I think it was 23.10). In any case, when I restarted the computer the desktop loaded fine, but I lost all control over the cursor !! When I move the mouse, nothing happens. I have a USB mouse, so I disconnected that one and plugged in my old mouse into the mouse port---again nothing. Not only that, but the keyboard doesn't work either ! When I press the windows, key, nothing happens. Pressing CTRl-alt-del causes no changes. Nothing happens.

I didn't change any settings in my bios, but I went into the bios, and found that the arrow keys work well--so it's not an issue of the keyboard not being recognized by the motherboard. I think it's the same with the mouse. I am typing this message from a laptop I had hooked up to my other computer (the one that doesn't work), so I have access to the files in that computer from the laptop.

Oh yeah, I also already tried booting into safe mode--same problem, gets to the screen where it says to pick a user and then I can't move the mouse. I also tried booting to 'last known good configuration' and also 'vga only mode'--again, I get to the desktop, but can't do anything since neither my mouse or keyboard will move the cursor.

Are there any files that can be deleted from the desktop computer (using the laptop) or any changes that I can make to force windows to re-recognize the mouse or the keyboard? I would hate to have to reformat and reinstall win XP just because of a stupid driver install.

Thanks,

BJ

 

[bjassin]

anyone??

BJ

 

[Tates]

I had problems with the 23.10's on my P3 system. Kept dropping back to standard vga driver. Went back to 22.80's, which run stable.

 

[jsouth]

Roll back to the previous drivers (nvidia). It's on your display device in device manager.

 

[Allanv]

try the system resore go back a few days see if it helps

 

[elkinm]

I don't think these options would work as he cannot access anyhing in windows at all. The restore option might work from DOS but I am not sure.

 

[bjassin]

That's exactly the problem. I don't have mouse or keyboard control from windows--even after trying a 'safe mode' restart. Is there any way to access a 'commmand-line' interface to do a restore. Again..this is win XP, so no DOS.

BJ

 

[Panther505]

I would try to Restore/Recovery console. Boot from the CD and as you go through select repair. YOu may have to run it multiple times(I usually need to run it 2 times in W2K) If not then you can go through the steps as if you were going to reinstall and when the Xp installer detects the previous install it will present you with a "repair" option. Generally this rewrites all of the .sys, and .inf. In W2k it does not reinstall the original drivers but I suspect that in XP you will forced back to the "certified" drivers.


IF you do this I would suggest that you back up and data that you have ...... or make an image on a second HDD so that you can afford to screw it up...

Best of Luck

 

[bjassin]

I got into the commmand console, but I can't find a way to run the 'restore' program from here. Is there any way to do a system restore to a previous day using the command line interface??

BJ