Loaded wrong GPU driver and cant see screen!

[roblondon]

Hi

I had to reinstall the XP o/s and accidentally installed an ATI radeon driver and rebooted then realised I actually have an Nvidia card when the screen stayed black. The SVideo doesnt seem to be working on my TV either.

Is there a way to boot off the bios to reinstall the O/S or some otherway to disable the driver?

Thanks for any help


Rob

 

[Fardringle]

Does the screen go black after Windows starts to load, or does it stay black the whole time after you reboot the computer?

If it stays black the whole time, then it's not a driver problem and you should check all of your connections and reseat the video card to make sure it is plugged in properly.

If you can see the BIOS and then it goes black after Windows starts, start Windows in Safe mode (press F8 repeatedly when you see the BIOS/POST screen and then select Safe Mode when you are presented with a boot menu. In safe mode, completely uninstall the ATI drivers and reboot into normal mode, then install the correct drivers for your card.

 

[roblondon]

thansk ill try it, didnt have time to read the motherboard manual last night. it was working fine until i installed the ATI driver then rebooted and the monitor went to 'no input'. could it have damaged the video card? the monitor is black all the time, no bios/ boot screen coming up.

 

[Sam25]

I don't think it'll damage the video card anyway. Just follow the above steps and it should work fine when you install the proper Nvidia card drivers again.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Thats correct, the wrong drivers will not effect the card at all. Load into safe mode and you will be able to delete the drivers and install the right ones.

 

[roblondon]

its not showing anything just a black screen. it was all working fine before that. i can hear the computer turning on fine as well. i guess ill have to try a new graphics card which is not the end of the world but it does semm very odd timing for the graphics to suddenly stop working just after loading the wrong driver.

thanks for the advice guys.

 

[Sam25]

If the card did fail (although I still have my doubts on that) wouldn't the on-board graphics then render display?

I mean once after a re-install of XP Pro, I did not install my Nvidia drivers, the PC turned on fine but ran on Intel Extreme graphics. I then got the Nvidia card drivers installed later.