Windows 98 Upgrade to XP Home Issue

[Guest]

A friend of mine asked me to look at her computer (REALLY - it's not mine!).
She had Windows 98 installed and wanted to run the upgrade CD for XP Home. I
told her to run the program that checks to see if the computer is compatable
and/or needed upgrades to become compatable with XP Home. She says she did
and got several recommendations that she doesn't remember - but one mentioned
video/display. She installed XP Home and when the computer rebooted, she has
no display at all on the screen. So, working blind, what can be done to undo
this? I have some video cards available to me and everything that came with
her HP Pavilion.
Thank you!

 

[Bruce Chambers]

A friend of mine asked me to look at her computer (REALLY - it's not mine!).
She had Windows 98 installed and wanted to run the upgrade CD for XP Home. I
told her to run the program that checks to see if the computer is compatable
and/or needed upgrades to become compatable with XP Home. She says she did
and got several recommendations that she doesn't remember - but one mentioned
video/display. She installed XP Home and when the computer rebooted, she has
no display at all on the screen. So, working blind, what can be done to undo
this? I have some video cards available to me and everything that came with
her HP Pavilion.
Thank you!

You can try booting into Safe Mode and installing the video adapter's
manufacturer's WinXP-specific drivers.

Worse case, you may be able to return the system to Win98. The normal
way to "uninstall" any operating system is to format
the hard drive and install a new OS of your choice.

But if she performed an upgrade from Win98/Me, elected to backup
the old system files, and didn't convert the partition to NTFS, then you
can boot into Safe Mode and click Start > Control Panel

Add/Remove Programs. All of these conditions must be met for the

uninstall option to be available.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrum Russell

 

[thecreator]

It can't be undone. However, it can be fixed.

Procedure to Reinstall Windows XP!

If you want to save any files, make a backup of those files off the Hard
Drive and proceed.

0. - Turn off the printer.
1. - Go into Computer Bios and Set Defaults and Exit, if you know how.
Make sure the Boot Order is set to Boot to CD-Rom Drive First.
2. - Insert Windows XP CD into CD-Rom Drive.
3. - Reboot the computer.
4. - Welcome to Setup.
5. - Reinstall XP - Press Enter
6. - F8 - I Agree
7. - Esc: Don't Repair
8. - Select Partition to Install Windows XP on.
Use UP and DOWN ARROW Keys to Highlight Partition.
9. - Press Enter.
10. - Press C to Continue.
11. - Highlight the Action You Want To Take.
Type of Format you want to perform.
12. - I selected Format The Partition using the Fat File System.
13. - Then Press Enter to Continue
14. - Warning Message
15. - Press F
16. - To Continue To Format Partition with the FAT32 File System.
17. - Press Enter.
18. - Now it formats.
19. - After Formatting It Checks The Drive.
20. - Then Copies files to partition.
21. - Now it Reboots to Windows XP. Don't press a key to boot to CD.
22. - And now it installs Windows XP.
23. - You need to be here now.
24. - Starts at 39 Minutes to Complete.
25. - At 33 minutes, you need to set Time and Time Zone.
26. - And Enter The Product Key.
27. - At 29 minutes, you need to pick the Network.
28. - Now wait for Reboot and you are done.

 

[Guest]

Thanks to both of you - But I have no video on the monitor. It's a black
screen - so I can't see what's going on as the computer runs the post test,
etc. Now what?
Thanks!

 

[Jim]

Thanks to both of you - But I have no video on the monitor. It's a black
screen - so I can't see what's going on as the computer runs the post
test,
etc. Now what?
Thanks!

If you have a black screen while the BIOS should be displaying its menu,
then (most likely) your monitor or your graphics card is toast. You do have
to be quick to get the BIOS code running.
Jim

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Thanks to both of you - But I have no video on the monitor. It's a black
screen - so I can't see what's going on as the computer runs the post
test,
etc. Now what?
Thanks!

What *is* the display adapter? You should be able to read this, briefly,
as the system starts from cold boot. Some video adapters are simply not
compatible with XP, and if the system uses one of these, you'll have to
replace it.

To troubleshoot, you want to be sure that the basic hardware is actually
working; you can do this with POST and BIOS. Press the keys to enter the
BIOS setup at restart, and if you can't get video there, the problem has
nothing to do with Windows.

If you can't see anything on the monitor at boot, replace the card. Also
try replacing the monitor - and if the monitor is a new LCD with DVI and VGA
inputs, be sure it's set to the VGA port.

HTH
-pk

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Thanks to both of you - But I have no video on the monitor. It's a black
screen - so I can't see what's going on as the computer runs the post test,
etc. Now what?

If you're not even seeing the POST, you have a hardware failure; most
likely either the monitor or the video adapter, although I have seen
motherboards cause this on rare occasions. Are there any beeps being
sounded?


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrum Russell

 

[thecreator]

Hi FDQ,

Try resetting the Computer BIOS before replacing anything. Resetting the
Computer BIOS where the CD-ROM is in the Computer Boot Order, should placed
the CD Rom first, Floppy 2nd and Hard Drive 3rd. This would allow you to
boot to the Windows XP CD to Reinstall Windows XP.

You need to open the computer and for safety, unplug the computer from
the Wall outlet. Once the computer case is opened, remove the Battery from
the motherboard for 1 minute. Then reinstall the battery. Close the Computer
Case. Reattach all wires and power wires. Turn on the computer. Insert the
Windows XP CD and boot the CD.

 

[Keith]

A friend of mine asked me to look at her computer (REALLY - it's not
mine!).
She had Windows 98 installed and wanted to run the upgrade CD for XP Home.
I
told her to run the program that checks to see if the computer is
compatable
and/or needed upgrades to become compatable with XP Home. She says she
did
and got several recommendations that she doesn't remember - but one
mentioned
video/display. She installed XP Home and when the computer rebooted, she
has
no display at all on the screen. So, working blind, what can be done to
undo
this? I have some video cards available to me and everything that came
with
her HP Pavilion.
Thank you!

Subject: RE: Disabled my monitor... :-(
Date: 11 December 2005 18:10

RE-ENABLE MONITOR

Boot Windows; give it time to finish loading everything.

1) 'push your mouse UP & RIGHT as far as you can. As you can't
see the pointer, this should avoid any Icons
2) RIGHT CLICK MOUSE
3) UP ARROW
4) ENTER 'The Display Properties opened, though invisible
5) TAB,TAB,TAB,TAB
6) RIGHT ARROW,RIGHT ARROW,RIGHT ARROW,RIGHT ARROW
7) ALT-V 'You are in Advanced settings
8) TAB,TAB,TAB,TAB,TAB
9) RIGHT ARROW,RIGHT ARROW
10) ALT-P 'You are on the Monitor Properties page
11) TAB
12) UP ARROW 're-enabled hopefully
13) TAB
14) ENTER,ENTER,ENTER
'WAIT 5 SECONDS - display properties closed
15) CONTROL-ALT-DEL 'Open Task Manager
16) ALT-U
17) DOWN ARROW,DOWN ARROW
18) ENTER 'Should Shutdown
19) RESTART