Need Help!

nitrousoxide52 · Sep 4, 2005, 12:44 AM

My friend was crashing in games. So I advised him to update his chipset drivers he had nforce. So he installed the latest. Now his comp won't boot, not even into safemode what can he do?

md5 · Sep 4, 2005, 06:06 AM

Tell him to boot his PC from his XP install CD. The installer will give him an option to repair a damaged windows installation. If that doesn't help him, he needs to reinstall (or use the safe mode command prompt if he feel comfortable using the command line)

kodiak · Sep 4, 2005, 10:48 AM

Depends on the system and what is on the PC that he wants to keep. If he has very important data, which is not backed up, he can take it to a PC shop or call them and see if they have the ability to boot an unbootable system. I do tech service and have the software capable of doing so. If you have XP they can go in and use system restore to set it back. If you have nothing important on the PC, and can't get to safe mode, then just reinstall. Can you get to a command prompt?
You can also do what Md5 said.

ReDGuiTaR · Sep 4, 2005, 11:19 AM

What is the chipset driver version he installed ?? He might have choose the wronf one, i ve seen this many time . The right one is 5.10 wich is a year old now ( release date September - 17 - 2004 ) . Also some people got problem with the ATA driver wich could explain why it does not boot, to repair it you have to repair Windows installation and reinstall Windows own ATA drivers .

kodiak · Sep 4, 2005, 11:40 AM

A repair install isn't allways the safest way to repair a system but it is an option. Using system restore is the best option in my opinion however you need the software to boot the unbootable system. This is just another option that is the safest. System repair you will need to run all updates again also. Another option is to put the cd in and once you get to the first place where it stops hit R to repair and select your windows directory and when it asks for the admin password if you have not put one in hit enter and this will give you a command line, type in chkdisk(space)/r and this will aslo repair system files. This is a safer way of reparing the system and requires no updating after finished if you are comfortable with the command line.

md5 · Sep 4, 2005, 12:06 PM

Quote:

A repair install isn't allways the safest way to repair a system but it is an option. Using system restore is the best option in my opinion however you need the software to boot the unbootable system. This is just another option that is the safest.

He can't use system restore because his Windows installation refuses to boot. You don't always have to reinstall all updates after a repair - I've got a slipstreamed SP2 CD and it replaces files with the SP2 ones, which are fine with me. The install CD is the only option in cases of unbootable systems and it's much better having an outdated installation that works, so that you can update it afterwards than a totally unusable system.

If he's happy using the command line, then it is better indeed, but not many people want to use the command line, something that I explained in my post as well

kodiak · Sep 4, 2005, 04:05 PM

You can boot an unbootable system if you have the software to do it and run system restore from it and that was just an option I was throwing out there. If your OS cd contains SP2 then all you will have to install is the updates after SP2, you are correct. Allways take the least evasive to more evasive coarse of action.

1.Last Known good configuration (just below safe mode)
2. chkdsk /r at the recovery console
3. Repair instal

If you have very important data take it to a professional and they should have the sofware to boot the system and use system restore.

If it has not booted to windows yet after the install of the drivers also try to use last known good configuration which should take you back to before those drivers. This will only work if it has not booted up since you installed the bad drivers.