Wapsi Square Forum

So, purging drivers:

What I think of when you say that is this:

Right-click on start button
Select "Device Manager"
Uninstall each driver

Now, last time I did that, I uninstalled the audio driver. After rebooting, it was back, and working properly.

Will that happen with the graphics driver and everything? Because if not, and I end up with a computer with no display capabilities, I'll be completely lost.

GlytchMeister wrote:Will that happen with the graphics driver and everything? Because if not, and I end up with a computer with no display capabilities, I'll be completely lost.

What you might be able to do is change your display driver from the custom one used for your video card, to the simple built-in VGA-only driver used in Windows "safe" mode. Once you've done that, you could reboot in VGA mode, uninstall the good graphics driver, then reinstall and activate it. That way you wouldn't be cutting yourself off at the knees.

Dave wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote:Will that happen with the graphics driver and everything? Because if not, and I end up with a computer with no display capabilities, I'll be completely lost.

What you might be able to do is change your display driver from the custom one used for your video card, to the simple built-in VGA-only driver used in Windows "safe" mode. Once you've done that, you could reboot in VGA mode, uninstall the good graphics driver, then reinstall and activate it. That way you wouldn't be cutting yourself off at the knees.

...

Huh? My laptop has two ways to display stuff? I thought display was handled by the video card only. I have never heard of this. What is this sorcery you speak of?

(One of the benefits of your computer breaking is you learn all kinds of interesting things about said computer in the process of fixing it. Same for cars, too, actually.)

GlytchMeister wrote:Huh? My laptop has two ways to display stuff? I thought display was handled by the video card only. I have never heard of this. What is this sorcery you speak of?

(One of the benefits of your computer breaking is you learn all kinds of interesting things about said computer in the process of fixing it. Same for cars, too, actually.)

Most video cards support a set of basic display modes... sort of a "least common denominator" set of resolutions and pixel depths, using industry-standard collections of I/O register addresses and values. These basic modes (e.g. 640x480, 8-bit pixels) are what the boot-time BIOS, Windows startup code, O/S install programs, Linux boot, and Window Safe mode will use. They don't provide hardware acceleration, so they aren't very fast, but they can be used without a hardware-specific video driver. Every version of Windows I've ever worked with, had the ability to use a vendor-independent basic Windows video driver that uses this sort of common-to-almost-all-hardware capability.

Then, there's usually a video driver specific to each family of video card, which knows how to use that chipset's hardware acceleration, GPUs, off-screen memory, etc. for much better performance, more pixels, more colors, etc. These are the drivers which so often get messed up during Windows updates (or vendor driver updates).

So, if you can persuade Windows to switch to the built-in VGA driver for a while, the chances are good that you can de-install your hardware-specific driver and then reinstall whatever version of it you want to use. The display will look rather ugly when VGA is in use, and it may be slow, but that will get better after you reinstall the "good" driver.

So that's why safe mode looks so fugly and old.

Ok... I have no idea how to switch to the VGA display driver. I will cross that bridge when I get to it, I guess.

Kudos for Dave's eloquent and detailed explanations.

Dude's making me homesick for doing full-time desktop support...

On the Home Front; I installed a new SATA HD into a Toshiba Laptop, defaulting to Win7 (yeah, I know, not TEN..) and it worked OK, mostly, but Toshiba seems to have better support for Drivers and such for a 64bit version, which is likely what was installed on the original, FUBAR'd drive.

I'm going to hook the Orig. HD up to a 'mule' PC and do an overrnight surface scan to try and recover data, no promises at this point. Maybe retrieve an Office license number, etc.

The Win10 system's I've been dealing with lately have been Dell dual-core, 2Gig RAM, SATA only small-office market PCs that are a few years old and were donated to a non-profit OR a buddy's small laptop (Toshiba I think, and very new-ish).

The Desktops have been a clean install, no troubles at all, the Laptop seems to be one of those 'Microsoft wanted it to be Win10, So now it's Win10' situations and I haven't gotten my mitts on it recently enough to look for trouble. If any.

Only trouble, other than rebuilding the empty HD back up, is clients who don't have the wherewithal, when using LibreOffice, to 'Save As' a Microsoft file format prior to emailing attachments (I should have defaulted ALL the apps in the suite to save as Office 97, etc, etc...). And then they be grumpy about it. mudder-fudders... grumble, grumble...

TazManiac wrote:Dude's making me homesick for doing full-time desktop support...

Really?!?

TazManiac wrote:Only trouble, other than rebuilding the empty HD back up, is clients who don't have the wherewithal, when using LibreOffice, to 'Save As' a Microsoft file format prior to emailing attachments (I should have defaulted ALL the apps in the suite to save as Office 97, etc, etc...). And then they be grumpy about it. mudder-fudders... grumble, grumble...

I was not aware of difficulties when opening Open Document Format files by other programs... Has that been an issue?

Wrangler,

It shouldn't be a problem, and the truth in this case is that while I did set the default format to an MS version for the Word and Excel- like apps, I missed the Powerpoint type program, so when it was saved and emailed it came across as "What do I do with this attachment you sent? It wont open...." from the recipient.

Neither the document creator nor the receiver are Tech Savvy in that they'd be able to run w/ the ball as far as working out their own solution when somebody sends you a 'strangely formated file.

Right now- I'm having trouble getting the newly installed 64bit version of Win7 to do it's first Windows Update pass.

GlytchMeister wrote:I am *this* close to taking the damned thing out back and SHOOTING it.

I always imagine putting it in a vise and adding an extra 90° bend it then mailing it back to the manufacturer...

Question for you, Dave:

When you say "Windows Filesystem Integrity Checker" do you mean "System File Checker tool (SFC.exe)"?

GlytchMeister wrote:Question for you, Dave:

When you say "Windows Filesystem Integrity Checker" do you mean "System File Checker tool (SFC.exe)"?

I was thinking in older terms (the older "fsck" utility from DOS and earlier versions of Windows).

It looks as if SFC.exe, and DISM.exe serve the same functions in newer versions of Windows.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 5b60477a93

ok, thanks. Just making sure.

...

Ugh, this is a slow scan. Jeeze. This process is gonna take a while.

TazManiac wrote:...
Right now- I'm having trouble getting the newly installed 64bit version of Win7 to do it's first Windows Update pass.

Ha Ha! Got it to work by first running THIS on an Internet connected PC;

WSUS Offline
http://www.wsusoffline.net/

It asks you to select the platform and libraries you are interested in (32bit vs x64, C++, Office Suite, etc...) and it goes about downloading them directly from the Microsoft (ftp?) server. Really useful if you are getting a PC ready but it has no Internet connection at the time.

Now that this Win7-x64 Toshiba L775D-S7112 laptop is past the initial hump, it's getting it's Updates correctly.

PS- During the troubleshoot process I had installed Win10-x64 on this same laptop; it work fine out of the gate...

Toshiba Satellite L645D (Win7 Home 64-bit) here...
Upgraded to Win10. Suffered through a couple months of frequent "insufficient memory" errors and video driver changing resolution at will, going black with cursor visible or internal monitor going dark. Ran memtest86; no errors on two passes.
Win10 pushed update, internal monitor went dark, but would drive external monitor. Checked BIOS; no monitor default setting. Memory/vid errors continued, but at one time, video driver enabled both internal and external monitor, so it does not appear to be a hardware failure.
Backed up personal files and took machine to "out of the box" Win7 factory reset. Internal monitor did not come along for the ride.
Upgraded to Win10. Internal monitor still MIA, but vid errors have stopped. Memory errors still occur, but frequency has dropped from every other hour to close to a week since last error.
Still looking for a way to resurrect the laptop's internal monitor. [Fn+F5] monitor switch says I don't have an internal display, just the "CRT" external.

...back up your personal files and software license keys, then format C? Then put everything you need back on the drive?

Otherwise known as "kill it! Kill it with fire!"

So I bought a new hard drive, installed the 64 bit version of windows on it, connected the old hard drive... And all I can really access is my pictures. Most of the stuff there, it doesn't even show. I never set up any partitions, as I don't know how.

So I just wasted time and money.

There ought to be a way to use the file manager/explorer to dig down through all of the directories on the old drive. You might have to enable a user setting to let you see all of the directories.

Ah! I can get my music moved to the new drive. Most of my stuff wound up in a folder titled "Unknown Artist". As for my games and stuff, most of them I can reinstall, but for Java, which I need for Minecraft, I need to connect it to the internet.

Alkarii wrote:Ah! I can get my music moved to the new drive. ... < snip > but for Java, which I need for Minecraft, I need to connect it to the internet.

Tennis shoe network to the rescue!


Go to a PC (of any kind) that is connected to the Internet and resolve this URL;

https://java.com/en/download/help/windo ... wnload.xml

It relates to downloading the 'Java Offline Installer', which you can port over tot he offline PC via flash drive, etc.


Dems me 'tinks on dat...

PS- This is relevant to many an Update/Install and Win10 too...