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WinXP doesn't Boot after Driver Install

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3 replies

by anguis2174

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Specs:
WinXP Pro
AMD Socket 939 (AMD X2 4200)
NVIDIA nForce4 SLI - GA-K8N Pro-SLI
2.5GB ram

So I was having problems with connecting to the internet so I decided to reinstall my drivers for my LAN device. The installation didnt seem to have worked successfullly (nForce utilities were not working) so I tried reinstalling the driver again. After installation completed, instead of saying "You must restart your computer now or later" all that came up was "1155: [Okay]"
Then I restarted the computer and now it does not load XP after BIOS initiations. Just kind of stalls with a black screen, but the computer does not reset or shut down, just stalls.
It gets passed the BIOS stuff but does not show any of the XP boot screens.
I looked it up a little and found http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
that for data recovery, and potentially making the drive bootable again?
I'm not sure what to do, any way to get the computer to boot windows again without any loss of data? And a correct procedure of reinstalling the LAN driver would be nice, as it didnt work as I expected (unusual)
Any and all help is appreciated, hopefully I can get my rig back up and running in no time!

3 replies

by thumbsup2

If the LAN card is removable, take it out of the machine and try booting without it. If it's not removable, go into the BIOS and try to disable it, then boot up.

If you are able to boot normally, go to add/remove programs and see if there is anything for the nForce utilities to uninstall. Shut down and put the LAN card back in (or enable it in BIOS), then reboot to see if WinXP sees the new device and asks for drivers.

If you are not able to boot normally, try getting into Safe Mode to look for something to unistall.

If all else fails, you MAY be able to boot to last good configuration, depending on how long ago it created a restore point. You may not want to do this if it set the restore point a long time ago. Let's see what we can do with the card first.

Let us know how it goes.

by anguis2174

Couldnt get into Safe Mode. I disabled the LAN in the BIOS and still wouldnt boot.
With data recovery, is it possible that I could simply take another HD, install it, make it the Master and the other the Slave, fresh install XP on the new Master, and drag and drop whatever files I want to have safe onto the new HD? Seems like it would be pretty simple, and if I am not mistaken, it would work like a charm (drivers from the old HD would not affect anything since it would be the slave right?)
Im buying a new HD (400GB WD SATA) for 60 bucks on friday, so I figure I could just wait til then and do that. Maybe a fresh install would be a good thing overall (with recovering my non-OS-driver-related data of course)

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