Windows 7 won't show up

Hi. Last night Avira detected some viruses i had on my computer. I panicked and tried doing a system restore and I think it ruined it. Windows 7 would boot up, go through that animation with the caption "starting windows". Then, the screen would go blank. I was able to start it in safe mode, but I didn't know what to do from there. I just decided to reinstall windows. I reinstalled, downloaded all of my drivers again, activated it. It automatically installed some updates from microsoft and said it needed to be restarted. I restarted it, and ran into the same problem. It booted up fine>starting windows> Screen blank. It will start up in safe mode.

 

Sounds like the video driver is bad.

 

Do you have only on-board video, only a video card or on-board video with a graphics card upgrade installed on the board?

If a driver update using safe mode doesn't solve the issue, it could be an issue with the video card or on-board chipset. Since Safe Mode only runs at 640x480 res., it puts very little stress on the GPU. Booting normally at a higher res. can overload a GPU that's on its last legs.

Some troubleshooting tips (desktop PC) if a driver update doesn't work:

* If you have "hybrid" SLI or Crossfire, disable it in the BIOS. Windows 7 doesn't support hybrid SLI and I have heard of issues with hybrid Crossfire.

* If you have a video card and on-board video, connect the monitor to the on-board video. Either remove the video card or disable it in the BIOS. If it boots normally the video card is likely bad.

* If you only have on-board video or a video card, borrow or buy a different one, try it and see if it solves the problem. If you buy, get it from a retailer with a decent return policy if it doesn't solve the problem.

 

In Safe Mode>Start> type in Device Manager and hit enter. Under Display Adapters you should see your Video chip>right-click it and select Properties (write down the Driver Provider the Driver Date and the Driver Version) then select driver update and let Windows try to find a newer driver. Once installed see if you can start normally.

[I'm not particularly good at fixing drivers so maybe gman863 or Baxter Stockman can give better advice on how to proceed in Safe Mode. I can only think of trying a Driver Update or Uninstalling the current driver and rebooting and letting Windows install the default driver]

 

My experience is that Windows Update often misses video updates (esp. ATI).

Here's what I'd try:

* Start the PC in Safe Mode with Networking (if you have problems with this, download the drivers using another PC to a CD or USB stick).

* Go into Device Manager and write down the exact brand/model of video card (NVIDIA GT210, ATI 4850, etc.).

* Go to the chip manufacturer's website (nvidia.com, ati.com, intel.com), enter the model and download the latest driver. Even if you think you have the latest one installed, reinstall in case the current one is corrupted. Do not download from the card mfr's website (BFG, ASUS, etc); they aren't always as up to date as the chip mfr.'s website

* If you cannot install it in Safe Mode, follow Sach2's advice: Uninstall the current driver and let Windows reinstall it at reboot. Still load the updated driver once the PC is up and running.

* Cross your fingers and hope it fixes the issue.

Please post back with an update. Hope this solves the issue.

 

Make/Model of the machine would be useful also make/ model of GPU, with this info you will get better help and be pointed in the correct direction towards resolving your issue.

iain.t :major

 

It finally showed up right. I didn't have to do anything to it. I don't know what it was but it wasn't my video driver. When the login screen showed up, i logged in and installed the ethernet driver so i could get online, then checked for latest drivers for my video card and it was up to date. Now I have another issue.

Because reinstalling windows cleared the registry, does that mean I have to reinstall of the games/applications I recently installed before?

 

reinstalling the the OS will reformat the hard drive. everything gone.

 

Reinstalling will only format the drive if you actually select that option upon install, its very possible to reinstall it over the previous copy without actually erasing the whole drive. You will have to reinstall apps to get them back in the registery but if you didn't choose to format the drive much of your old data is still on the hard drive.