recovering a windows NT machine from bad video driver

[fjorner]

put a bad video driver on a windows NT machine and now there's a blue screen on startup even if i go into VGA mode.

suggestions!

 

[Ipno]

Er... depending on your version of NT "Last known good configuration" works well.

 

[fjorner]

tried last known good configuration doesn't work. don't know why.

apparently it was a win2000 version the driver. would 'upgrading' it to 2000 using a 2000 boot disk be advisable?

 

[John]

Swap with a different video card.

 

[johnjk]

If you have a emergency repair disk that is current that will work .
Do not overwrite .
If that doesn't work that put a different video card in temp. then reboot .
Get it to where it will boot and then put the card you want back in and
go through the install process again . NT is funny when it comes to hardware .
Any Win??? plug and play stuff will cause a real mess .
1. Try last known config like someone else said
2 .then ERD .
3. Swap the video card
4 . Once it starts working stop

 

[bocamojo]

You should be able to go into setup and do the repair option... even without the repair disk... Just be sure to only repair the portion that has to do with the video, and nothing else (stay away from security, etc.).

 

[43st]

I had a similar problem on a laptop several months ago. None of the recover/repair options worked. I had to format the drive and start from scratch.

 

[Whitedog]

If you have a emergency repair disk that is current that will work

In this situation, without this, you're screwed. I hated recovering NT4! :|

Swap with a different video card.

That's probably you're only option and should work.

 

[fetuchin]

i know it is not going to be any help to you, because i do not remember how, but i had exactly the same problem some months ago and somebody in this forum gave me a working piece of advice. Cannot find it myself but if i do i'll let you know. In the meantime if you have not formatted it yet, keep on searching old threads about it (some 8 months ago or so). Sorry for not being more precise. Good luck.

 

[dbwillis]

When NT4 boots up, there should be 2 options....


multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos

if you pick the VGA mode one..you can remove the display driver, then reboot into the regular mode and install the correct drivers...that is if you left this option on the boot.ini file

 

[John]

Originally posted by: dbwillis
When NT4 boots up, there should be 2 options....


multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos

if you pick the VGA mode one..you can remove the display driver, then reboot into the regular mode and install the correct drivers...that is if you left this option on the boot.ini file

He stated in his original post that "now there's a blue screen on startup even if i go into VGA mode."