Installing in the dark

A

ABC

I blew it. I repair installed XP and it had a little disagreement with
my ATI 9550 driver----so the machine remained at the default VGA mode
and refused to accept the 9550 driver. Error message was something
about conflict with the VGA driver.

So I disabled the default VGA adapter ------now the screen is always
black, even though the system and hard disk are obvioulsy working. I
tried to repair install again and, once the windows start booting ,
the rest of the installation proceeds in the dark.

Is there a file in the Windows folder I can tweak to get a screen
back?

Thanks very much

ABC
Do not reply by email. Replay to NG
 
T

The P

try starting in safe mode and setting your screen resolution lower. The
computers at work tend to go blank when the users set the resolution too
high.

P
 
K

Kenny S

How many display adaptors (including the onboard ones) do you have?
If you have 2 see if the monitor works when you plug it in to the second
one.

post back,

Kenny
 
A

ABC

How many display adaptors (including the onboard ones) do you have?
If you have 2 see if the monitor works when you plug it in to the second
one.

post back,

Kenny
Click to expand...
I have only one adapter(no onboard VGA). Remember I was in the middle
of a re-installation so windows always boot to CONTINUE the
installation.

I used F8 and I chose VGA mode and got the XP screen that "setup is
restarting....." ,but it stayed there, with the setup obviously
continuing in the background.
So it seems that the installation is just not feeding new screens to
the video card. Same result with the safe mode.

So my XP is still waiting to finish the installation.......... There
must be a file or driver that I can delete somewhere. The terrible
thing is that I cannot do a "fresh" repair install. The DOS setup
page now recognizes the half- finished setup and I must continue with
it....Remember that "upgrade" option on the dos screen?


ABC
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G

george

See if you can start from the CD and fire up the Recovery Console.
If that works, then you can use the ENABLE command (see Help info below) to
re-enable your adapter, to at least get something visible.
If that pans out, reboot your machine and continue with the, still
incomplete, reinstall.

hth

george

Enable
Enables a Windows XP, Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0 system service or a
device driver. The enable command is only available when you are using the
Recovery Console.

enable {service_name | device_driver_name} [startup_type]

Parameters

service_name

The name of the system service you want to enable.

device_driver_name

The name of the device driver you want to enable.

startup_type

The startup type that you want to designate for the service or device
driver. Valid startup types are:

a.. SERVICE_BOOT_START
b.. SERVICE_SYSTEM_START
c.. SERVICE_AUTO_START
d.. SERVICE_DEMAND_START
Example

The following example sets the startup type for the Eventlog service to
Automatic or SERVICE_AUTO_START:

enable eventlog service_auto_start

Notes

a.. If you do not designate a startup type, the enable command lists the
current startup type for the service or device driver you specified in
service_name.
b.. When you use the enable command to change a startup type, the previous
startup type's name will display on the screen. You should write this name
down in case you need to restore the startup type to the previous setting.
 
C

CWatters

The terrible
thing is that I cannot do a "fresh" repair install. The DOS setup
page now recognizes the half- finished setup and I must continue with
it....Remember that "upgrade" option on the dos screen?
Click to expand...

Well you probably could make a boot disk and then reformat the HD.
 
B

BBUNNY

ABC wrote:
| I blew it. I repair installed XP and it had a little disagreement with
| my ATI 9550 driver----so the machine remained at the default VGA mode
| and refused to accept the 9550 driver. Error message was something
| about conflict with the VGA driver.
|
| So I disabled the default VGA adapter ------now the screen is always
| black, even though the system and hard disk are obvioulsy working. I
| tried to repair install again and, once the windows start booting ,
| the rest of the installation proceeds in the dark.
|
| Is there a file in the Windows folder I can tweak to get a screen
| back?

I hope that you have your data backed up.
ATI onboard? ATI AGP or PCI?
Where did you disable the VGA adaptor? BIOS? Device Manager?
What drivers are you talking about ATI catalyst? ATI provided on the
XP install disk?
 
A

ABC

See if you can start from the CD and fire up the Recovery Console.
If that works, then you can use the ENABLE command (see Help info below) to
re-enable your adapter, to at least get something visible.
If that pans out, reboot your machine and continue with the, still
incomplete, reinstall.

hth

george
Click to expand...
Thanks. this must be the most logical solution. Except I have not clue
what the vanilla VGA driver is called. I typed " enable vga", the
return message is that the driver cannot be found in the registry.

any help appreciated.

ABC
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A

ABC

ATI onboard? ATI AGP or PCI?
Click to expand...

ATI AGP card
Where did you disable the VGA adaptor? BIOS? Device Manager?
Click to expand...

in the" display setting-- propery-Adapter--general" tab
What drivers are you talking about ATI catalyst? ATI provided on the
XP install disk?
Click to expand...

Catalyst. But remember it refused to load ATI driver and defaulted to
VGA---I disabled the VGA so nothing is on left.


ABC
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G

george

ABC said:
Thanks. this must be the most logical solution. Except I have not clue
what the vanilla VGA driver is called. I typed " enable vga", the
return message is that the driver cannot be found in the registry.

any help appreciated.

ABC
Do not reply by email. Replay to NG
Click to expand...

Don't know if it will help (can't really 'simulate' this 100%), but when
running RC type the command 'listsvc', that will list you all services and
devices on your system and tell you what their startup-values are.
See if there is something 'vga?????' to be found in the list. (List is
presented screen-page at the time, hit enter for next page)
if there is (on mine I found VgaSave System) and with some luck yours could
read VgaSave Disabled :))
If that's the case type: "enable vgasave service_system_start" to set
this device to start upon system start.

hth

george
 
A

ABC

(on mine I found VgaSave System) and with some luck yours could
read VgaSave Disabled :))
If that's the case type: "enable vgasave service_system_start" to set
this device to start upon system start.
Click to expand...
Tried that. Mine is VGASAVE enabled - system. So I am at a dead end.

Just found out that I am not the only one making this big mistake. MS
should do something about it:

http://forum.osnn.net/archive/index.php/t-36260.html

http://www.duxcw.com/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=7407;prev_next=prev

nothing in the first post worked for me. The second posting cannot
help a half done installation.

ABC
Do not reply by email. Replay to NG
 
G

george

ABC said:
Tried that. Mine is VGASAVE enabled - system. So I am at a dead end.

Just found out that I am not the only one making this big mistake. MS
should do something about it:

http://forum.osnn.net/archive/index.php/t-36260.html

http://www.duxcw.com/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=7407;prev_next=prev

nothing in the first post worked for me. The second posting cannot
help a half done installation.

ABC
Do not reply by email. Replay to NG
Click to expand...

ABC,

Gotten any further??
If not (and you haven't already decided to do a clean install :-(((( ) then
you might consider taking a look at ERD Commander.
This provides you a graphical interface running from CD that enables you to
get to the crucial system parts of a windows installation, such ad Services
and Drivers, Registry, Explorer, etc. etc.
The bad news is, it's not freeware.

george
 
A

ABC

Gotten any further??
If not (and you haven't already decided to do a clean install :-(((( ) then
you might consider taking a look at ERD Commander.
This provides you a graphical interface running from CD that enables you to
get to the crucial system parts of a windows installation, such ad Services
and Drivers, Registry, Explorer, etc. etc.
The bad news is, it's not freeware.

george
Click to expand...
I gave up. formatted and clean installed.

Apparently, what I did was fatal.

http://forum.osnn.net/archive/index.php/t-36260.html

http://www.duxcw.com/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=7407;prev_next=prev


ABC
Do not reply by email. Replay to NG
 

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