Graphics Problem Even on Safe Mode Screen * What to Do?*

[ApplianceJunky]

I'm using a Dell 8300 with windows XP. Computer is approximately 3 yrs old.
I had purchased a new video game and it would not launch so I went to update
my sound, video and chipset drivers from the Dell website. As each updated -
and I believe I already had the newest on my computer - a had screens that
said I had the same files on already on my computer - Do I want to overwrite
the files? I said "no to all". The last update was for the video driver
(ATI Radeon 9800) and it just about completed the install when I got a
terrible blue screen with warnings that Windows had encountered a serious
error and was going to shut down. After rebooting, my display is "garbled"
with a mix of colored lines and square dots, mostly horizontal. I got to
safe mode once with broken up text and tried to select "restore windows to an
earlier working point" or something to that effect but this did not solve the
problem. After rebooting again, the safe mode screen is unintelligible with
the display problem. Any suggestions from here would be appreciated. I've
read a bit and sounds like I should use the Windows CD to repair windows and
remove and reinstall the Radeon video drivers but I don't know for sure.
Also want to avoid losing my data if possible. Thanks for the help!

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I'm using a Dell 8300 with windows XP. Computer is approximately 3
yrs old. I had purchased a new video game and it would not launch
so I went to update my sound, video and chipset drivers from the
Dell website. As each updated - and I believe I already had the
newest on my computer - a had screens that said I had the same
files on already on my computer - Do I want to overwrite the files?
I said "no to all". The last update was for the video driver (ATI
Radeon 9800) and it just about completed the install when I got a
terrible blue screen with warnings that Windows had encountered a
serious error and was going to shut down. After rebooting, my
display is "garbled" with a mix of colored lines and square dots,
mostly horizontal. I got to safe mode once with broken up text and
tried to select "restore windows to an earlier working point" or
something to that effect but this did not solve the problem. After
rebooting again, the safe mode screen is unintelligible with the
display problem. Any suggestions from here would be appreciated.
I've read a bit and sounds like I should use the Windows CD to
repair windows and remove and reinstall the Radeon video drivers
but I don't know for sure. Also want to avoid losing my data if
possible. Thanks for the help!

Even if they were the same version of driver - you should have allowed the
drivers to overwrite whatever they needed to in this case - as they may have
a newer version of a file that allows the driver to function (same name or
not.)

I am surprised that a system restore to a point before you started this
whole process does not fix things. Can you see enough to go into the Device
Manager and roll-back the driver? Usng the recovery console can be a little
daunting for some - so try that first.

 

[ApplianceJunky]

No luck in getting to the device manager. The display is really screwed up.

 

[ApplianceJunky]

Shenan - any suggestions from here? Thanks.