video card disabled by mistake. How do I enable the device?

[Zero]

I have a laptop that was handed to me and was told that he accidently disabled the video card in device manager and rebooted. Now nothing comes up on the screen. You can hear windows boot up as normal...just no visual. How can i re-enable the device? I tried using remote desktop(could not connect), computer management(no device manger option), and recovery console(wasn't sure which service or driver to focus on).

this is a gateway mx6124 with windows xp pro.

thanks!

Zero

 

[bob4432]

kick the guy in the nuts!!! maybe use one of the linux live cds and maybe somebody here knows of how to turn enable the video card through a file or registry? i am just grabbing here....

 

[WoodButcher]

Safe mode? What about the bios? Call gateway. For desktops they had their own recovery console. I know dell partitions their hard drives with goodies/ tools the average user will never see, Go to Gateway Support for your notebook.

 

[Dream Operator]

I don't understand why that would affect the laptop until it boots to Windows. The BIOS shouldn't have anything to do with OS settings. I wish I could think of a solution. HD format? Flash the BIOS? Good luck!

 

[0roo0roo]

yea it should be fine until windwos boots all the way, meaning you could get to safe mode

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
yea it should be fine until windwos boots all the way, meaning you could get to safe mode

I'd try the safe mode then a live cd to make sure its not a hardware issue ..saw a few times on laptops that its the switch when the lcd/lid is closed (stuck or just bad..)

 

[F1shF4t]

Press f8 on boot up and select "enable vga mode"... that should boots the comp in 640*480...
Try if that works.

i have a file server which runs with no monitor, so after a while the comp will boot up like there is no gfx card, (its rebooted sometimes with no monitor) the screen turns off right after the windows loading screen. When that happens the only way i found to get it to work (apart from taking out and putting back the card) is that procedure.

 

[dangerdred]

I'd try a repair install. I'd also seriously doubt the story of the videocard disable. The machine would automatically boot into VGA mode (if it was enabled in BIOS), if your story was true.

 

[chizow]

As mentioned, F8 > VGA mode should do the trick since it loads up the standard VGA driver you get during Windows install. Once inside, try to use device manager to manually install a new driver, run the driver setup, or scan for hardware changes until you get the device enabled and recognized by Windows, then reboot.

 

[Zero]

I've tried everything you all have suggested prior to my original post. Well, I haven't done the repair install yet.

"enable vga mode" comes up with the same issue as booting normally.

safe mode hangs when loading "cpqagp.sys"

I can get into the bios no problem, however there are no opions for enabling or disabling the onboard video card.(This is a laptop and not a desktop). I didn't think this option would be available in the bios but I'd thought I'd try and disable and re-enable to see if windows would recognize a new device and reinstall the driver. But like I said, there was no option in the bios.

It seems that windows has completely disabled the device(video), hence no visual. Windows can load with disabled devices, including video cards. But I've never actually had a situation where the primary video card was disabled.

I thought I could go into the recovery console and use the "listsvc" command to see what drivers and services were disabled. I was able to see the drivers and devices that were disabled but none of which looked related to the video card.

I'll just try the repair install, but I'm certain there has to be another way to fix this issue. Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll post back to let you know the results of the repair install.


Zero

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Zero
I've tried everything you all have suggested prior to my original post. Well, I haven't done the repair install yet.

"enable vga mode" comes up with the same issue as booting normally.

safe mode hangs when loading "cpqagp.sys"

I can get into the bios no problem, however there are no opions for enabling or disabling the onboard video card.(This is a laptop and not a desktop). I didn't think this option would be available in the bios but I'd thought I'd try and disable and re-enable to see if windows would recognize a new device and reinstall the driver. But like I said, there was no option in the bios.

It seems that windows has completely disabled the device(video), hence no visual. Windows can load with disabled devices, including video cards. But I've never actually had a situation where the primary video card was disabled.

I thought I could go into the recovery console and use the "listsvc" command to see what drivers and services were disabled. I was able to see the drivers and devices that were disabled but none of which looked related to the video card.

I'll just try the repair install, but I'm certain there has to be another way to fix this issue. Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll post back to let you know the results of the repair install.


Zero

call ms or the manf of the laptop

 

[Jiggz]

If you do not see the laptop posts during boot up, this is not about a disabled display card! It's a video problem. If you see it post, and it sounds like you do since you mentioned about the system hanging during Safe Mode, then maybe it's a disabled problem. The only remedy is to either restore the system using the Restore CD or boot using a Windows Installation CD. If you cannot do either of these the other option is to press F8 and choose "Last Known Working Configuration . . " and hopefully this works. Otherwise, you have to do a Restore or a installation Windows CD and do a Repair Installation so as not to lose your data.

 

[Dream Operator]

Forget the data! It's not even his!! Reinstall windows. Get on with the show.

 

[corkyg]

If you can boot and get into BIOS your should be able to do a System Restore instead of Safe Mode. Then go back to a date before Numby did his/her thing.

Also, you might try changing to an external monitor (a BIOS change) and see if it will "find new hardware," etc.

After all that - boot to the XP CD and do a clean install.

 

[Jiggz]

Another option is to connect an external monitor but make sure you press a combination of F Keys (depending on model) to shift between external and laptop monitors.