Help! Windows won’t start!! Part 2 – driver problems
Posted on 08. Oct, 2008 by Mike Halsey in crisis
In part 1 of this article series I talked about rescuing a Windows installation where the boot sector, or boot files of the operating system have become corrupt. What is much more common however is that a driver, very commonly a graphics card driver, will prevent Windows from starting, commonly giving you the infamous Blue Screen of Death.
If this is the case then you should still able to boot Windows into Safe Mode, a diagnostic and support mode in which most drivers and software aren’t running. To start Windows into safe mode, if the computer is not already offering you the option to do so at startup, keep pressing the F8 key on your keyboard at around the time the Windows logo is due to appear. This will bring up the option to start Windows in safe mode.
You’ll need to remove the offending driver and I’m going to assume it’s for your graphics card as these drivers are the only ones embedded so deeply into Windows that this problem can occur.
- Open the Control panel, you may need to click the link to use the Classic View
- In Windows XP or earlier open System and click the Hardware tab and press the Device Manager button
- In Windows Vista or later open the Device Manager.
- First, look to see if the appropriate driver under Display Adaptors has a yellow warning triangle next to it
- If everything looks normal click on the + symbol next to Display Adaptors
- Right click on the correct device and select Properties
- Click on the Driver tab in the window that appears
- Press the Roll Back Driver button
- If this fails to work, right click on the correct device and select uninstall. Windows Vista and later will give you the option to delete all files associated with this device, and this would be a good idea
You can now restart WIndows as normal and get to your full desktop without incident, though you may have reinstall another, more stable, driver instead.
Next… Part 3, Hardware Failure?
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