Here's a challenge for you! I disabled all the video card drivers.

[leafgreen]

Hi there. I hope you can help. The PC is at the computer shop, and they haven't been able to restore from Windows! Ok I'll start at the beginning.
PC environment: XP Home SP2 with latest patches. Intel P4 3.0GHz, Asus P4C800 deluxe motherbd, internal Maxtor 240GB ATA drive, internal NEC DVD-RW drive, Matrox Millenium G450 dual head video card, 1GB RAM.

Everything was fine and then using Windows control panel to remove programs, I removed Matrox display software and rebooted. XP went to 640x480 res. I reset to 1280x1024. Restarted PC. Everything was fine. Opened the Matrox software installer and cancelled installation halfway through. (oops!!) Opened the Windows Display control panel, advanced section, and saw that the only driver in the pull-down list was something like "VGA default". Also, the four fields in the column on the left side said something like <unavailable>. So I ***disabled*** this driver. Brilliant, huh? Restart. PC boots, Windows XP startup screen, and then monitor went black (power on). I could tell PC was still booting normally from HD activity light.

I tried to boot in safe mode. PC hanged while loading drivers at agp440.sys. I did find the Microsoft article here http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;324764
Once in the Recovery Console, since there is no password for Administrator, at the C:>, I typed in listsvc and the next line was C:> and nothing else.

At this point I give up and bring the PC with the original, genuine Windows XP CD with a date of 2002 to the computer shop and leave it. Two hours later I call and the tech says that Windows restore is failing because my CD is different from the copy of Windows installed on it.

At that point I had a flash of inspiration. I told the tech to let the PC boot all the way, normally. Then use keyboard commands to access the Windows Display control panel and re-enable the video driver. I couldn't call before he closed, so I don't know if that worked. But if it doesn't, what can I do??? My last backup is from a week ago, and I really hope you can help me figure something out so I don't lose a week of work, which is, well, about 40 hours of stuff!

FYI, I don't use PCAnywhere or Gotomypc, but I do have the "let someone access my pc for troubleshooting" enabled. (I forgot what it is called.)

Thank you so much in advance!
Kind regards,
Leafgreen

[vidster]

You say a 'restore' failed? Did you mean to say a 'repair install' failed?

If they (and you) haven't tried a repair install, that should be the next thing to attempt in my opinion.

Instructions on performing a Repair Install.