unable to remove older Matrox video card?

[Les Caudle]

I'm having a real problem removing a on older Matrox PCI multi-monitor card from
by system.

I added an ATI 9200SE PCI for use with a digital display. It worked great!

I then made the Matrox card's ports inactive (so they would not extend the
desktop) and then removed the Matrox drivers.

I then rebooted, powered down and removed the Matrox card.

When I booted up, Win2000 SP4 crashed at the same point every time - with
Innaccessible Boot Device (I think).

I added the Matrox card back in, and even though it was not used, the system
booted up just fine.

I can understand having a problem when adding a card, but I've never had one
when removing a card.

Any hardware guru's have an idea how to resolve this? My goal is to add more ATI
9200SE's - and I need the Matrox's slot.

 

[Todd B]

Hi there,
Get yourself a copy of ERD commander. From network essentials. Its a
bootable cd that allows you to access the systems registry and you can
remove the driver file from trying to load. There are other ways like daisy
chaining your trouble drive under a working OS and open your registry editor
and click file load hive browse to the trouble drive and search for the
problem driver.

 

[Les Caudle]

Todd - If I couldn't boot, that would be a good solution, but I can boot by
adding the card back in.

I'm unclear why, as I uninstalled the card's drivers, they would still be
getting loaded - or if that is indeed the problem.

So, with Win2000 fully up and the card back in place, how do I proceed to
'debug' this? In what spot do I look to make sure the registry is not trying to
load the matrox driver (after I un-install them for another try)

Thanks, Les Caudle

 

[s_m_b]

I had a bad one like this a while back, and it turned out to be
conflicting drivers loading - the uninstall didn't have the full list of
files/keys etc to remove, and the only way round it was to hunt down the
offending file.