No Display after Windows Repair

C

charley323

I ran a Windows repair on a system today that had onboard video. There
was no Display Adapter in the Device Manager afterward, so I looked at
the Adapter properties by going through Display Properties > Settings >
Advanced > Adapter, and it was listed as <Unknown>. The properties for
the unknown adapter listed "VgaSave" as the adapter type. I tried
updating the driver from the original motherboard disk, but with no
luck - it was still listed as Uknown. I installed an nvidia fx 5200
card, then downloaded the newest nvidia driver from their web site. I
was getting a picture through the nvidia card, but when I ran the new
driver it failed with "No Compatible Hardware Found" and the adapter
properties still listed "VgaSave". Unfortunatley I checked "Do Not Use
This Device(disable)" on the "VgaSave" and rebooted and now I do not
get a display at all after the first black "Windows XP" screen. I can
see the BIOS screen, and I can get to the F8 screen - but nothing
works. I tried "Last Known Good Configuration", Safe Mode, VGA Mode,
but all with no success. I tried running a Windows Repair from the CD
again, and had a picture all the way through copying files and
rebooting, but once it got past the black "Windows XP" screen the
monitor went black. I have tried removing the nvidia card and using the
onboard again, with the exact same results, and I have even tried an
older ATI video card with the same results. I also went to the Recovery
Console and Enabled the VgaSave service as startup_auto, but I still
have the exact same problem. I stuck the hard drive as a slave on
another system and added the /basevideo switch to the boot.ini file but
it made no difference.

Does anyone have any idea what else I could try? This is driving me
crazy!!
 
G

Guest

Unplug the computer,remove the battery,clear the CMOS (locate the jumper
pin on the board,and move it from 1-2 to 2-3 position for 1 min.or so,then
move back to 1-2),replace battery,on start-up,enter the BIOS,set basic,time,
date,then go to exit page,select "load set-up defaults" or "load optimal
defaults"
then change for any add-ons,in advanced/chipset,set to use on board,then save
and exit BIOS.To add a video card,you must disable on-board in device mgr
before
1st 2 restarts.
 
M

Michael Stevens

In (e-mail address removed) <[email protected]> respectfully replied ;-)

I ran a Windows repair on a system today that had onboard video.

There was no Display Adapter in the Device Manager afterward, so I looked at
the Adapter properties by going through:

Display Properties > Settings> Advanced > Adapter, and it was listed as
<Unknown>

The properties for the unknown adapter listed "VgaSave" as the adapter type.
I tried updating the driver from the original motherboard disk, but with no
luck - it was still listed as Uknown.

I installed an nvidia fx 5200 card, then downloaded the newest nvidia driver
from their web site. I was getting a picture through the nvidia card, but
when I ran the new driver it failed with "No Compatible Hardware Found" and
the adapter properties still listed "VgaSave".

Unfortunatley I checked "Do Not Use This Device(disable)" on the "VgaSave"
and rebooted and now I do not get a display at all after the first black
"Windows XP" screen. I can see the BIOS screen, and I can get to the F8
screen - but nothing works. I tried "Last Known Good Configuration", Safe
Mode, VGA Mode, but all with no success.

I tried running a Windows Repair from the CD again, and had a picture all
the way through copying files and rebooting, but once it got past the black
"Windows XP" screen the monitor went black. I have tried removing the nvidia
card and using the onboard again, with the exact same results, and I have
even tried an older ATI video card with the same results. I also went to the
Recovery Console and Enabled the VgaSave service as startup_auto, but I
still have the exact same problem. I stuck the hard drive as a slave on
another system and added the /basevideo switch to the boot.ini file but it
made no difference.
Does anyone have any idea what else I could try? This is driving me
crazy!!

Have you heard of paragraphs? Sure makes long posts like your problems
comprehendible.

Why did you run the system repair?

Find your motherboard manual, or access it online.

Remove any installed video card.
Boot the system and access the BIOS, no need to reset the BIOS at this
point.
Cycle through the BIOS setting windows and enable onboard video. If you
disabled it by an onboard jumper, replace the jumper to the original
configuration.
Boot the system.
Post back your results.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
 
M

malar

The motherboard is a Gigabyte 7VM400M-RZ - there are no settings or
jumpers to enable or disable the onboard video. According to the manual
this is done automatically when you either add on a video card or
remove one. I do believe that the video setting is automatic - with
both the nvidia and ati card installed the card would work but not the
onboard, and removing the card made the onboard work.

I ran a repair because I had to replace the motherboard, and the new
one had a different chipset than the old one = BSOD. I did not try
clearing CMOS, but I did try loading fail-safe defaults after removing
the add on video card. However, neither the onboard - which is a Via
chipset - nor the agp card showed up in the device manager, which is
what led to my mishap.

I may be way off base, but I feel like there is a service that I need
to enable to restore the video. The "VgaSave" option under the Adapter
settings was listed as a System Service, and disabling that caused the
video not to display any longer. Does that sound reasonable?
 
M

malar

I did not think to clear CMOS, but I did load fail-safe defaults. The
computer had been rebooted at least a dozen times after the initial
Windows repair to load drivers and clean up old temp files and a little
bit of spyware - all this with the nvidia card installed. The last
thing I had left to do was install the correct driver for the nvidia
card - and that's when all of my misfortune began.

In short, I don't think it's related to the BIOS at all.
 
M

malar

OK final post I guess, I cleared CMOS and it made no difference. I
flashed the BIOS also but it made not difference. I did find that there
was a service missing named "uagp35.sys" from the list of services I
could view from the Recovery Console. . I determined this by checking
another system with the same configuration that wasn't having any
probems and this is the only thing I found different between the two.
Does anyone have any ideas about how to install or restore a .sys file
from the Recovery Console?
 
G

Guest

Here's what I did:
I went to the display properties menu and disabled vgasave like an idiot
(trying to get the other drivers to run instead). Turns out that vgasave is
the windows failsafe driver after the other drivers don't work properly, so i
have the same symptoms:
black screen after windows loading logo screen
normal windows welcome sounds
To remedy this problem i tried the enable vgasave service_system_start
command at the RC command prompt, but it didn't work, same black screen.
I also tried to boot in safe mode by pressing F8 during startup. this
resulted in my computer hanging up after it listed a whole bunch of drivers.

Now: still having the black screen problem and i don't want to reformat....
any ideas please on how to enable vgasave???
 

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