HELP!! Ive killed my work PC....

[TheLemming]

Well, perhaps killed is a bit of an overstatement...

What Ive managed to do is attempt to fix a very minor problem by updating the display adaptor driver.

Ive made the mistake of clicking the microsoft update option and allowing windows to selct "a better driver".

End result? The computer is now running in 16 colour and 640 / 480 resolution. Making it a complete pain to use.

I cant find a way to restore the original driver...

Help would be very much appreciated

[Plotloss]

Find the device manager (either via control panel or the management console)

Delete the display adapter, restart your machine.

[puggit]

Just be grateful you can see that much in order to fix it!

[smifffy]

When the display driver is replaced it defaults back to this setting.

Right click the desktop and go to properties. Click on the settings tab and adjust the resolution.

[agent006]

Phone IT support, and be very very nice. Offer cups of tea, chocolate, alcohol etc.

[puggit]

hijack alert

agent006 said:

Phone IT support, and be very very nice. Offer cups of tea, chocolate, alcohol etc.

all I get is shouts and insults?!

Actually I tell a lie, I've been offered beer, snowboarding in Norway, hotel room at Las Vegas casino, jobs (how I wish I'd taken them)...

...and la piece de la resistance - one customer offered me his 18 year old virgin daughter for fixing his problem

Ahhhh, the joys of working in disaster recovery!

[TheLemming]

Thanks for the suggestions, ive tried that last night.

Unfortunately the display adaptor driver that is used when there is no display adaptor driver is the same one Ive updated to... ie 640/480 res and 16 colours.
Doesnt allow me to change the colours or the display resolution.

*keeps hoping for a miracle*

[puggit]

Could be tricky but try:

Installing a parallel version of windows on your drive if you have space.

See if the driver it uses works - if it does replace the driver in your normal windows with this one (while you are still booted in the parallel install).

Keep the current duff driver safe in case you screw it up!

[lotusfan]

if you're on window$ XP then just do a rollback to the day the adapter was working

[liszt]

I'd suggest getting the latest drivers from the web and try applying them.

Check in the the display properties to see if your video adapter is the correct one and not some default schmaltz

[FourWheelDrift]

liszt said:

I'd suggest getting the latest drivers from the web and try applying them. Check in the the display properties to see if your video adapter is the correct one and not some default schmaltz

What make of graphics card is it? Find out the type go to the appropriate manufactueres website and download the latest drivers.

name of card - right click on the desktop the "my computer" icon then chose properties/hardware/device manager/display adapters.

[malman]

I bet it shows as standard VGA adaptor now in device manager Find an IDENTICAL machine that still has a working display and check as Lizt/FourWheelDrift says.

Other option open the machi... ( nah you don't want to go there)



>> Edited by malman on Wednesday 12th November 17:50

[Bodo]

Doesn't Windows have a command like lspci on Unix; in order to scan the hardware which is connected to the PCI bus / AGP?
Some of the bods here should know, no?

>> Edited by Bodo on Wednesday 12th November 18:30

[malman]

Yeah but it probably tells him he's got a standard VGA adaptor .

I stayed with win2k, so dunno if this works on XP as I don't get to use it much. If you boot win2k in safe mode and go to the device manager I seem to remember you can see previously installed/disabled drivers. I had to do something like that for an EICON diva ISDN card ages ago cause there was a bug in plug'n'pray before service pack2 I think. I could of course be talking complete bollox but worth a go.