[swimupstream]

Hi,

Long story short - I hope.
XP PRO, sp3: Was working on a friend's computer. Slaved his hard drive to my system. I put in Windows CD and hit Enter to repair an existing installation. I decided to give it a run, so I started the repair process. And of course, as soon as I did, I realized I was on the WRONG INSTALLATION (mine, which was working - not my friend's)! The operation hadn't yet started - at least according to the progress bar - and the screen said something like, "Setup is loading" or "Setup is preparing" or something like that, so I hoped that I could quickly shut the computer off rather that letting this tool proceed with messing with my perfectly working installation. Once I restarted (back into my installation), I looked around for anything that had been altered in that literally 1/2 second of "repairing". Sure enough, in Device Manager, my NVIDIA Display Adapter had the yellow question mark. The information said "This device cannot start. (Code 10)". So I tried everything I could think of to fix it:
Roll Back Driver.
Update Driver.
Reinstalling from my downloaded installer setup program.
Uninstalling driver THEN reinstalling.
Uninstalling, restarting, reverting to Windows built-in driver, restarting, THEN reinstalling.
etc.
etc.


It all keeps coming back to the same state. When I restart, "Found new hardware" but then after going through the wizard, "Cannot install hardware for this device", no matter which way I try to search for/install it. In Device Manager, the correct device IS SHOWN, but with the yellow question mark, with the message "This device cannot start. (code 10)".

I've also tried sfc /scannow, both with the device installed and uninstalled.

Ever since this happened, my screen reacts very slowly (for example, when scrolling up and down long documents/web pages). I guess that's a refresh rate issue, but I don't know much about monitors or display characteristics.

Any ideas? I know you guys are good! I do have a backup of my system made with DriveImage, but I'd rather fix this without it if possible. This is the only problem that I'm experiencing, as far as I can tell, and I'm sure it can be fixed somehow without a full-on return to backup.

p.s. I do not have any System Restore points to revert to.

[Specsnow]

Hi there,

The first step right off the bat that setup conducts during a repair install is removing Windows-related registry keys. In your case, it seems that the setup removed quite a few registry keys that were vital to your video. SFC couldn't repair this because the files are there, just the registry links to those files are not.

You can either run a repair install, which will most likely work (just make sure to use a CD that is slipstreamed with SP3), or you could take the more advanced approach and restore just your registry from your Image backup.

Hope this helps.

[swimupstream]

Hey Specsnow, thanks for the insight about repair installations! Those both seems like great suggestions. I haven't been home in a couple days, so I haven't gotten to try them yet.....I'm about to. Yeah, I was kinda thinking along the same lines as far as trying a repair install with SP3 slipstreamed, but I don't have an SP3-slipstream CD made yet, so I'll try the Registry fix first.

I'm planning on just restoring the Registry files from my image, as you mentioned. However, I also have a separate full Reg backup made with Erunt. It's the same Reg configuration as what was included in the image I made. I'm curious -- would it be all the same just to restore using the Erunt backup?

[Specsnow]

Yes, just as long as the complete registry is included and able to be isolated as just the database file, it will work.

[swimupstream]

Well I went ahead and just tried the Erunt backup, just 'cause I had never used it before....

SUCCESS!!
Everything's back to normal! Thanks a whole bunch, Specsnow. I'll mark the thread solved and continue swearing by TSG forums!!

[Specsnow]

Thanks a lot. Appreciate the recognition. =)