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returning from Me to 98

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13 replies

by mary

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After installing Me, the monitor went dark
and Windows would only run in Safe
Mode. I completely deleted Me from the
drive and reinstalled 98 but the monitor
remains dark except in safe mode. I
cannot reinstall the original video and
graphics drivers because they are on CD,
will only install from Windows, and the
CD is not recognized in Safe Mode.
Help!

13 replies

by pschuvie

This should get you back to a point to install the video drivers.

Go ahead and boot to safe mode. Go to Control Panel and click on the Display and then the settings tab. Click on the Apply for the existing settings. A screen will pop up and say that you will loose custom settings, are you sure you want to continue, say yes.

Then reboot the machine, the display will look like it did in Safe mode because it is using a minimal driver set, which you already know works.

When you reboot you should have all the settings except for the display and your CD Rom should be back then go ahead and reinstall your video and graphics drivers.

HTH

by mary

Unfortunately, this didn't work. The
display is in 640 x 480 when it opens
in Safe Mode, and that's what Apply
makes it. Yet when I reboot, the
monitor is black again. (Control
Panel settings say Unknown monitor
on Unknown device, btw.)

by nils_hess

Boot into Safe Mode and delete the Graphics adapter and Monitor under device manager. If the startup logo shows then you can try holding the shift key, while the system starts loading ME until the the system has loaded completely , and the HDD has stopped thrashing. It should prevent the loading of certain drivers and programs on startup. It could help.

by mary

Sounds like a good idea, but it
didn't work. Remember, I'm back to
Windows 98...the device manager
has display properties but not
separate graphics and monitor
properties. The startup logo does
show up, but the shift key has no
effect, either with or without the
display adapter active.

by adam in nc

It would sound as if your harware is not compatable with the HCL list. If the other guys suggestions do not work, try installing your hard drive into another persons computer, and copying your personal files to another hard drive. Once this is acomplished format your hard drive and reinstal Windows 98. I really suggest reading the HCL (Hardware compatabilty list) before installing new hardware/ software.
Windows ME and Profession 2000 are some picky operating systems.

by mary

I may have to resort to this, but
remember, I am back in Windows 98
and the system was working (with
crashes) before I started re-installing
things.

by chris conley

Ok, give this a shot, boot into safe mode, go into Display Properties, and then select the settings tab. In the lower right hand corner should be the "Advanced" button. This should bring up a pop up that will have a bunch more tabs how many is determined by what you have allready instaled. The second tab should read "Adapter" Click on it and it should have whatever it thinks is your adapter listed, and a button to change it on the right side. Press the button, and a Wizard should pop up to findnew drivers. If you have the right drivers, give them a shot, if not, select Generic VGA from the "Let me Select" section. Then it should tell you to reboot. Remember that the Drivers that you used for WinME will probibly not work for 98, so use the98 Drivers. One more Idea to get your CD Drive up, use the Win98 or ME Boot disk to start with CD support, and then go into your Windows Directory and Typw "Win" Sounds Stupid but give it a shot.

by mary

This answer gave me more
troubleshooting tools for my
repertoire, but, alas, it didn't help. I
really liked the idea of booting up
from a startup floppy and then going
to Windows from the C: drive, but I
was unable to do it (missing file).
In the end the problem was solved
by a pay-per-incident call to Microsoft.
Bad video card. :-(

by mbcoe

...didn't make a boot disk?
...thought there was an option somewhere to boot to DOS w/CD-ROM support...
...as a last resort, may have to manually install CD-ROM in Autoexec.bat and Config.sys to get access to your driver files (can use a boot-disk to do this, but will have to set the path to get windows to run)

by mary

When I boot from the boot disk with
CD-ROM support, I still can't install
the drivers because the driver
installation on the CD says it
requires Windows to run.
What I'm doing now is copying the
driver setup folder from the CD onto
the hard drive. Then I'll restart in Safe
Mode and try to install from the setup
folder.

by bean baggins

Boot to safe mode, remove the graphics adapter from device manager, then use add new hardware wizard to install a standard video driver. When given the option, select "No, I want to select the hardware from a list." The n select Display Adapters then a "standard display adapter (VGA)" or a "standard PCI graphics adapter (VGA)". This should allow you to boot normally, tho in 640 x 480 x 16 colors.

by mary

More troubleshooting tips for my
repertoire, but didn't solve the
problem. Solution mentioned in #4:
bad video card.

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