Video driver causes boot fail.

I just did a fresh XP SP3 install on my older PC. The last driver I installed was the latest nVidia video driver. When I rebooted, it got to the Windows screen with the black background. Then it stops booting completely, with nothing but the mouse arrow on a black background. No hard drive activity, mouse and keyboard are dead.

I rebooted into safe mode, and uninstalled the video driver, and it booted normally. I tried it again, and with a little bit older driver with the same results.

With the driver it won't boot. Without the driver it boots fine.

I never had problems with this video card before this install (6 years). Any help? The video card is a nVidia 6600 agp. Thank you!!!

 

you might have to visit the mobo's mfg.web site and reinstall the required chip-set(s) first,then reinstall the driver afterwards

 

They are both nVidia drivers. Would they conflict?

 

i dont think so since you were using them before,what is the make & model of your motherboard ?and did your mobo come with a set-up disc ?

 

It is a Chaintech VNF3-250 motherboard. The setup materials are long gone, but as I recall they were just nVidia nForce drivers on a disk.

 

Before you download and install the video driver again. Try cleaning out previous installs with DriveSweeper after you have uninstalled the video drivers normally.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

http://majorgeeks.com/Driver_Sweeper_d6171.html

 

http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/MOTHERBOARD/Others/Chaintech-VNF3-250-Chipset-Driver-2K-XP.shtml chipset-Xp

tgell suggestion=important

other drivers you may need http://drivers.softpedia.com/downloadTag/Chaintech+VNF3-250

 

I will try those today. Thanks!

 

I can't get the latest Driver Sweeper to work, even as Administrator in safe mode. Should I try a different version?

 

I am not sure what would cause that problem. You can try downloading from here. If it still refuses to run, I would say you are have some other issues.

http://phyxion.net/Driver-Sweeper/Driver-Sweeper/Version-3-2-0/

Here is the location of older versions.

http://phyxion.net/Downloads/

 

Ok, I think I need to update the Microsoft .NET framework first. I guess I need to get all my ducks in a row.

 

I think the problem was hardware related all along. I pulled the card, cleaned it, reinstalled it, and now it's working just fine.

Thanks for all your help!

 

Nice work and thanks for the feedback. May I ask what you used to clean it? Did you clean the contacts?

 

No problem.

I dusted it with a clean paint brush as best as I could, and I rubbed the contacts with a dry paper towel. Not the most thorough cleaning, but it got the job done for now.