NT issue, start up halt on blue screen, reboot, driver uninstall??

[Waidesworld]

Ok I have worked out that the problem lies with the video driver I attempted to install but if it won't boot beyond the blue screen then how do I uninstall the driver? I can't boot to VGA mode (why can't they say "safe") and the repair option on a NT CD didn't work either.

 

[G0AOZ]

When you say you "can't boot to VGA mode", do you mean it hangs as per the normal boot? Or what?

Immediately after the boot menu there's an option to invoke "Last Known Good Configuration" by hitting the spacebar. Have you tried that?

Tried putting in a completely different video card, in an attempt to completely fool it?


ROGER.

 

[wolluf]

Suspect you'll need to reinstall - NT repair usually causes more problems than it solves (as install CD usually no service pack, installation usually SP6 - too much happened in between).

Unless you can do something clever from outside NT - eg, load drive as slave in another machine. If you know where NT installs its drivers & registry entries to control them, you could remove the files causing the problems, and by loading the registy hives, use regedit to remove the entries controlling them - so should be back to VGA mode. Obviously you'd need to research this - and personally I'd just back up any critical data, wipe the drive and reinstall.

 

[Waidesworld]

So how are you suggesting I backup when I can't access the HDD? I have custom software there that was installed a few years ago and I don't have the install disks.
Thx GOAZ but as wolluf suggests I have to slave it to another PC.

 

[compaqtech]

Hi try these in the boot ini the basevideo should solve it or try also the F8 option on boot this should invoke /safeboot which load minimun drivers. If you can modify the boot.ini via another computer hope this helps

God bless

/BASEVIDEO ( BASEVIDEO : use standard vga)

/SOS
Causes Windows to list the device drivers marked to load at boot time and then to display the system version number (including the build number), amount of physical memory, and number of processors

 

[wolluf]

does the custom software have dlls etc in the system folder and entries in the registry? If so, can only suggest you try rebuilding it elsewhere by, for example:-

Copying the Program files folder to other machine
Run the executable - it should return dll not found or similar. Copy that file from problem machine to other machine, & repeat till it stops complaining about missing files. It may now run - creating its own registry entries - or it may just fall over - because of lack of registry entries. So, you'd need to find the registry entries in the problem machine's registry - eg, by loading the software hive from \WINNT\system32\config on the original machine into regedt32 on the new machine, finding the appropriate branch (hopefully under program or supplier name), and exporting it - so you can import it to registry on new machine. This sort of approach was also what I meant regarding removing the problem drivers - except you'd actually update the problem machine's - presumably system hive in that case.

Just some ideas.

 

[Waidesworld]

Yeah, I will be going through those motions tomorow in the office. Right now it's baseball time . Either way I will post what I did.

 

[Waidesworld]

Boot.ini has the following information

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos

which means it should be base video in the VGA mode but it's still rebooting on me. After examining the HDD there is way too much code there to have this puppy rebuilt.

 

[Waidesworld]

OK I am now going down the rebuild avenue, hoping too many gobline, gremlins and trolls don't envounter my presence until this thing is up and running again.

This is where you type something cool about yourself OK "something cool about yourself

 

[Waidesworld]

Rebuild worked.

Please address my pet hate, "a cable is loose, you lose your keys