Through a long process of trying repeatly to install the right drivers, I now have my laptop in a pretty poor state. The XP logo comes up when booting up, but it then immediately goes to a blank screen instead of the desktop. I’ve tried last known good configuration (changes nothing), system restore (goes to the blank screen), and safe mode (gets stuck on a file named MUP.) I need to figure out a way to fix this without formatting if at all possible, since I have a lot of files I need that aren’t backed up. Is there a way to somehow start it up with basic drivers, such as boot disk, or even to go to the command prompt and install the drivers from there? (assuming I could put the drivers on a USB drive or somesuch.)
For specs, it’s a standard Compaq Presario V5207NR laptop with no changes made as far as hardware is concerned.