Hi there. I hope you can help. The PC is at the computer shop, and they
haven't been able to restore from Windows! Ok I'll start at the beginning.
PC environment: XP Home SP2 with latest patches. Intel P4 3.0GHz, internal
Maxtor 240GB ATA drive, internal NEC DVD-RW drive, Matrox Millenium G450 dual
head video card, 1GB RAM.

Everything was fine and then using Windows control panel to remove programs,
I removed Matrox display software and rebooted. XP went to 640x480 res. I
reset to 1280x1024. Restarted PC. Everything was fine. Opened the Matrox
software installer and cancelled installation halfway through. (oops!!)
Opened the Windows Display control panel, advanced section, and saw that the
only driver in the pull-down list was something like "VGA default". Also, the
four fields in the column on the left side said something like <unavailable>.
So I ***disabled*** this driver. Brilliant, huh? Restart. PC boots, Windows
XP startup screen, and then monitor went black (power on). I could tell PC
was still booting normally from HD activity light.

I tried to boot in safe mode. PC hanged while loading drivers at agp440.sys.
I did find the Microsoft article here
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;324764
Once in the Recovery Console, since there is no password for Administrator,
at the C:>, I typed in listsvc and the next line was C:> and nothing else.

At this point I give up and bring the PC with the original, genuine Windows
XP CD with a date of 2002 to the computer shop and leave it. Two hours later
I call and the tech says that Windows restore is failing because my CD is
different from the copy of Windows installed on it.

At that point I had a flash of inspiration. I told the tech to let the PC
boot all the way, normally. Then use keyboard commands to access the Windows
Display control panel and re-enable the video driver. I couldn't call before
he closed, so I don't know if that worked. But if it doesn't, what can I
do??? My last backup is from a week ago, and I really hope you can help me
figure something out so I don't lose a week of work, which is, well, about 40
hours of stuff!

FYI, I don't use PCAnywhere or Gotomypc, but I do have the "let someone
access my pc for troubleshooting" enabled. (I forgot what it is called.)

Thank you so much in advance!
Kind regards,
Leafgreen

You can try several options,1st,re enter recovery,type:CHKDSK C: /R When
its thru type:EXIT Let xp start.2nd,the reason the cd isnt conforming to
the OS
is because SP2 is installed,you can however,boot to cd,select,install
xp,repair
this copy.You'll loose all updates + SP2 but all settings,files,etc stay
intact.Youre
other try,boot to cd,install xp,new copy.Also,when starting safe-mode,enter
as
administrator,youre user account might be corrupted.

"Leafgreen" wrote:

> Hi there. I hope you can help. The PC is at the computer shop, and they
> haven't been able to restore from Windows! Ok I'll start at the beginning.
> PC environment: XP Home SP2 with latest patches. Intel P4 3.0GHz, internal
> Maxtor 240GB ATA drive, internal NEC DVD-RW drive, Matrox Millenium G450 dual
> head video card, 1GB RAM.
>
> Everything was fine and then using Windows control panel to remove programs,
> I removed Matrox display software and rebooted. XP went to 640x480 res. I
> reset to 1280x1024. Restarted PC. Everything was fine. Opened the Matrox
> software installer and cancelled installation halfway through. (oops!!)
> Opened the Windows Display control panel, advanced section, and saw that the
> only driver in the pull-down list was something like "VGA default". Also, the
> four fields in the column on the left side said something like <unavailable>.
> So I ***disabled*** this driver. Brilliant, huh? Restart. PC boots, Windows
> XP startup screen, and then monitor went black (power on). I could tell PC
> was still booting normally from HD activity light.
>
> I tried to boot in safe mode. PC hanged while loading drivers at agp440.sys.
> I did find the Microsoft article here
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;324764
> Once in the Recovery Console, since there is no password for Administrator,
> at the C:>, I typed in listsvc and the next line was C:> and nothing else.
>
> At this point I give up and bring the PC with the original, genuine Windows
> XP CD with a date of 2002 to the computer shop and leave it. Two hours later
> I call and the tech says that Windows restore is failing because my CD is
> different from the copy of Windows installed on it.
>
> At that point I had a flash of inspiration. I told the tech to let the PC
> boot all the way, normally. Then use keyboard commands to access the Windows
> Display control panel and re-enable the video driver. I couldn't call before
> he closed, so I don't know if that worked. But if it doesn't, what can I
> do??? My last backup is from a week ago, and I really hope you can help me
> figure something out so I don't lose a week of work, which is, well, about 40
> hours of stuff!
>
> FYI, I don't use PCAnywhere or Gotomypc, but I do have the "let someone
> access my pc for troubleshooting" enabled. (I forgot what it is called.)
>
> Thank you so much in advance!
> Kind regards,
> Leafgreen

Try Safe Mode: Enable VGA Mode loads default video display

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/EN-US/

--
Dennis S.
I''m from Illinois. I hope I helped you. Good Luck.


"Leafgreen" wrote:

> Hi there. I hope you can help. The PC is at the computer shop, and they
> haven't been able to restore from Windows! Ok I'll start at the beginning.
> PC environment: XP Home SP2 with latest patches. Intel P4 3.0GHz, internal
> Maxtor 240GB ATA drive, internal NEC DVD-RW drive, Matrox Millenium G450 dual
> head video card, 1GB RAM.
>
> Everything was fine and then using Windows control panel to remove programs,
> I removed Matrox display software and rebooted. XP went to 640x480 res. I
> reset to 1280x1024. Restarted PC. Everything was fine. Opened the Matrox
> software installer and cancelled installation halfway through. (oops!!)
> Opened the Windows Display control panel, advanced section, and saw that the
> only driver in the pull-down list was something like "VGA default". Also, the
> four fields in the column on the left side said something like <unavailable>.
> So I ***disabled*** this driver. Brilliant, huh? Restart. PC boots, Windows
> XP startup screen, and then monitor went black (power on). I could tell PC
> was still booting normally from HD activity light.
>
> I tried to boot in safe mode. PC hanged while loading drivers at agp440.sys.
> I did find the Microsoft article here
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;324764
> Once in the Recovery Console, since there is no password for Administrator,
> at the C:>, I typed in listsvc and the next line was C:> and nothing else.
>
> At this point I give up and bring the PC with the original, genuine Windows
> XP CD with a date of 2002 to the computer shop and leave it. Two hours later
> I call and the tech says that Windows restore is failing because my CD is
> different from the copy of Windows installed on it.
>
> At that point I had a flash of inspiration. I told the tech to let the PC
> boot all the way, normally. Then use keyboard commands to access the Windows
> Display control panel and re-enable the video driver. I couldn't call before
> he closed, so I don't know if that worked. But if it doesn't, what can I
> do??? My last backup is from a week ago, and I really hope you can help me
> figure something out so I don't lose a week of work, which is, well, about 40
> hours of stuff!
>
> FYI, I don't use PCAnywhere or Gotomypc, but I do have the "let someone
> access my pc for troubleshooting" enabled. (I forgot what it is called.)
>
> Thank you so much in advance!
> Kind regards,
> Leafgreen