Please help with video driver problem

Skipjacks · 09-27-2007, 08:14 PM

Alright this is a good one.

I've broken computers before, but I've outdone myself creatively on this one. I'm almost proud.

Here's the deal...

I was trying to update the driver of my lilliput. Somehow though I got into the wrong screen in the driver details and clicked on "STOP DRIVER".

Well you see where this is going. The driver shut off, so the monitor went off. It's easy to fix....IF YOU CAN SEE THE SCREEN!!!

When you can't see the screen...WAY harder to get back to that menu and click on the START DRIVER button.

I tried to boot up in safe mode to fix it...but of course...safe mode doesn't work. I don't mean that the driver still doesn't work, I mean the computer won't boot up in safe mode. At all. It hangs up during the part where it runs down the list of .sys files.

The computer works fine. It boots up. I can hear my start up and shut down sounds. I can control winamp through the keyboard. So it works. I just can't see anything.

Any thoughts on how to fix this? The best I've got so far is to try and figure out the key strokes I can use to get to that menu on my desktop, then go to the car and type in that same sequence of keystrokes and see if I get lucky. But that's all I got.

Skipjacks · 09-27-2007, 08:25 PM

Okay...and I now have just learned that memorizing the sequence of keystrokes won't work because there aren't ALT "letter keys" to get from one tab on the video settings menu to the other.

Uhg...I hate Windows some days.

DarquePervert · 09-27-2007, 08:26 PM

Ctrl-Tab.

Hope that helps.

Skipjacks · 09-27-2007, 08:37 PM

Ooohhh...that DOES help!

Thanks!

Still..it's one thing to use the keyboard to navigate windows when you can see the screen. I give this about a 20% chance of working when I get out to the car in a few minutes.

Does any string of keystrokes make the monitor screen come up?

Otherwise I'm going to have to try and close iGuidance (which comes up when Windows starts) and then click on the desktop to get to the properties menu...all in the dark.

DarquePervert · 09-27-2007, 08:47 PM

Let's see....

Alt-F4 will close iGuidance. (Don't know if there are any dialogs that come up).
Ctrl-Esc brings up the start menu
C to get the Control Panel
D D to highlight the Display icon. (The first D highlights Date & Time)
ENTER to open it.

From there you're kinda on your own, buecase I don't knw what you need to do.
Also, my instructions are going on the assumption that there's nothing else in the start menu that would respond to a C key, that your control panel icons are in alphabetical order and that there are only two icons in there that start with D.

Good luck, man.

Skipjacks · 09-27-2007, 08:58 PM

You are the man. This is EASILY the most messed up fix I've ever tried.

It's almost comical. ALMOST!!!

The dumb part is that it would take about 3 seconds to fix this if I could see the screen. But if I could see the screen I wouldn't have a problem. Oh....good times....

Skipjacks · 09-27-2007, 09:02 PM

Well that was a waste of time.

It's official. You can't use the keyboard to navigate windows when the screen doesn't work.

So aside from completely starting over and reinstalling everything, which I REALLY don't want to do, anyone got any suggestions on how to fix this?

I've never been able to get the Windows Repair feature to work right. So I have little hope that I can use that to reinstall the display driver. But if I HAVE to try it I will.

In the mean time I'm left wondering what the hell is wrong with Microsoft. Why the hell would they make it an option to kill the video driver entirely? I mean not even a warning messaeg saying "HEY DUMBASS!!! DON'T DO THIS!!!" like they have for every other thing in the system.

Skipjacks · 09-27-2007, 09:53 PM

Alright, I tried installing an AGP card to see if that would load with some kind of minimal driver and it doesn't work.

I hear a rumor after searching more than it WILL load into Safe mode after like 30 minutes of sitting on the screen where it lists all the system files it's loading. Any truth to that?

Skipjacks · 09-27-2007, 11:45 PM

Okay still no luck with anything. (I don't consider this a wasted 4 hours. I consider that I'm now 4 hours closer to the solution!)

Here's where I am on this now that I'm out of gas and need to sleep. Hopefully someone will have a groovy answer by morning.

1) I can simply reinstall windows. That'll work. It'll just **** me off because I'll have to reinstall all the software, some of which I'd have to search high and low for. For some reason my Windows disk doesn't give REPAIR A COPY OF WINDOWS as an option. So I'm still trying to avoid this option if at all possible.

2) I feel like the answer is in the recovery console. I ran the recovery console and looked at LISTSVC and saw all the enabled and disabled driver, but without knowing the name of the driver I'm trying to enable I can't find the one I need. They all have names like asc345ug and stuff like that. Things that in no way give any indication of what they are. (God forbid that Windows would label the video driver with a little description like it labels half the other useless drivers no one will ever use in that thing...but I digress)

So for those of you who know how to use the recovery console on the Windows CD, any thoughts on the name of the driver that I want to enable?

I can't give you a list of your choices because there are like 1000 possibilities.

To narrow it down, I'm using a lilliput monitor, but I don't think I ever installed lilliput software. I'm pretty sure it's generic windows drivers that I'd been using.

Also, if we can figure out the file name of the driver to enable, can someone tell me the exact text string to type in the command line?

3) There's still this rumor that waiting 30 minutes or so for the system to boot into safe mode will eventually work, because it takes forever the first time the system boots into safe mode. I couldn't just sit there and wait 30 minutes tonight because it's pouring down rain. But it'd be nice to know if there's any credence to this. Right now trying to boot into safe mode runs a list of .sys files and hangs up in the middle of the list.

Jenyus425 · 09-28-2007, 12:11 AM

have you tried using a different monitor? try pulling ur desktop monitor out to your trunk and see if you can see anything then. if that doesnt work, you're gonna need a fresh install of windows.
or pull out your hard drive and plug it in to a desktop computer if you can. see if you can get the appropriate driver and just drag it on to your hard drive in a simple location, such as your desktop. Then put it back into the car pc and memorize key strokes to get to your desktop. then just run the .exe file and, if you can, simultaneously run the installation on another computer so you can guess at where to go next. you might be able to get around it that way. otherwise, put in the xp cd and boot off of it. it SHOULD include the necessary drives on the disc to get it to work. hope this helps

Skipjacks · 09-28-2007, 07:23 AM

I thought about the new monitor this morning. It occurred to me that I may have shut off the monitor, NOT the video card.

If that's a the case I'm hoping a new monitor will be recognized as new hardware that hasn't been shut off and will suddenly work.

The question then though is if I can get it to run on a new monitor, how do I get the lilliput back working? If I'm using a different monitor it's only going to give me the driver info and display settings for THAT monitor. Anything I change will affect only the one I'm using, right? I know there's a way around this, but I don't know what it is.

I would like to take one more opportunity to say just how incredibly stupid Microsoft is for having the option to completely louse up a computer like this. Why doesn't it have a scan during boot up that tells it "hey...there's no monitor here...let's be sure to run some basic generic driver for it to make sure the user isn't locked out" Stupid Microsoft.

Also, will iGuidance 2.0 run without being formally installed? If I overlay a new version of windows and maintain my file structure, iGuidance will be there. But will it run? I ask because I can't find my iGuidance disks anywhere.

Skipjacks · 09-28-2007, 10:26 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Jenyus425

put in the xp cd and boot off of it. it SHOULD include the necessary drives on the disc to get it to work. hope this helps

Wait a second...

Explain this option a little more if you would.

I can boot off the XP CD, but it goes into the installation screen. Is there a way I can boot enough to get into the computer using the CD and make a change?

If there is that'd be fantastic!

Thanks for the help, everyone! I'm determined not to have to reinstall. I won't let Windows beat me!

Skipjacks · 09-28-2007, 11:15 AM

I'm going to try one other thing if adding a new monitor doesn't work. I'll add a PCI card that supports duel monitors, try to run the PCI card monitor as the main one in the bios, and then use it to fix the busted one.

Just a suggestion to Microsoft though...ALT-F9 or something should be a hotkey fix to load the most basic monitor and VGA card drivers immediately. Just tossing that out there.

marshallh · 09-28-2007, 02:50 PM

Here's a suggestion:

1. On your other computer, get the driver you were trying to install. Note the names of the SYS files (they are the drivers.).

2. Boot using the XP installation CD, and goto Recovery Console.

Code:

cd C:\windows\system32\drivers (just going from memory here) 
del drivername.sys

and delete the driver.

3. Next time you boot up, XP will not find the driver and hopefully load the vanilla VGA driver.

EDIT: Another idea, download RealVNC and make a CD with the setup program. Also, make a file called autorun.inf with the following contents:

Code:

[autorun]
open=setup.exe

Then put the CD in while your blind computer is running. Hopefully you can memorize the keystrokes required by dry-running the setup on anotehr machine. If you are hooked up with Wi-Fi you can remote-control the computer.

Skipjacks · 09-28-2007, 04:13 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by marshallh

Here's a suggestion:

1. On your other computer, get the driver you were trying to install. Note the names of the SYS files (they are the drivers.).

2. Boot using the XP installation CD, and goto Recovery Console.

Code:

cd C:\windows\system32\drivers (just going from memory here) 
del drivername.sys

and delete the driver.

This is the kind of crazy outside the box thinking that I'm looking for!

I'll give this a shot.