Laptop PC help

[Ind3lible]

Hey my friends computer was running slow and I tried to install the newest nvidia drivers for him. Unfortunatly the drivers would not install and I got a error saying that there were no compatible drivers with my hardware. So I tried uninstalling the current nvidia driver and installing. This didn't work either which in turn resulted in no display drivers for the computer. So I went to the website of the laptop manufacturer to get the original display drivers (toshiba laptop). Like a idiot I unzipped the folder and put the unzipped folder into the WINDOWS folder figuring that would install them. Boy was I wrong. Now the laptop will not display after the Windows Bootup screen. Is there anything I can do other than reinstalling the entire OS? I know that all I have to do is take the folder I put into the WINDOWS folder out but because there is no display I cannot see what I'm doing. Any sugestions?

 

[XanoKais]

what version of windows? XP, 2K, 9X??

regardless though, most computers/laptops come with software and drivers on CD's that you can stick in to the drive and install from there.

 

[Ind3lible]

It's windows xp. I just need to move the folder I accidently put into the windows folder out. Is there any way I can do that?

 

[XanoKais]

It's windows xp. I just need to move the folder I accidently put into the windows folder out. Is there any way I can do that?

Ok, heres what you do, Hit F8, i believe it is, while its booting up through the BIOS, itll come to a screen with options, if you only have one option, read through that page and do what it says to do to get more options. Once at the more options page, youll have choices, choose the one you think would be best, Id say safe mode with networking, and Last known good config would be your best two bets.

 

[Ind3lible]

It will not boot in safe mode and booting in last known config delivers same results as booting regularly.

Is there any way to view the laptop hard drive as a target disc on another PC via USB or Firewire? That way I could view the folders and find the folder I need to delete.

I found a program called casper xp. I'm just not sure if it will allow me to do this.

I just need to take 1 folder out of the WINDOWS folder.....

 

[Puppet]

The fact that you unzipped the folder into your Windows directory should have nothing to do with this issue. The drivers actually sit in the C:\Windows\system32\drivers folder and even if you overlayed these drivers I can't see that it would stop you from coming up.

Did you try the option "Enable VGA Mode" in the F8 screen? If so and none of the F8 options are allowing you to get to a point where you can troubleshoot this, I believe you have only one option. Load a parallel install. All you have to do is come up with the XP cdrom inserted and run through setup to install the OS, however when it asks you for the folder to install to, give it WINDOWS2 or something like that. Just don't let it install to the WINDOWS folder you now have. Once that is done we can use that OS to fix your other OS. If you decide to do this and get to that point then we'll work offline in IM or PM. I will need you to gather your registry hives for me so that I can look at them through my computer and make some changes and overlay the ones that are down there now. Your other option is to do a reload. Just depends on how much you value your customizations you have made since you installed.

 

[Ind3lible]

Thanks for the reply puppet. I'm trying to see if my friend has his original xp disc. If so I think I will able ti do the system repair without deleting any of his files.

Unfortunatly there is not enough space left on his hard drive to do another install as u suggested.

Another option I have looked into is this - http://techrepublic.com.com/5102-6255-5160538.html

But I'm not sure if this device will definitely work with the hard drive he has. It's a ATA-6 Enhanced IDE drive.

 

[rocklee]

The fact that you unzipped the folder into your Windows directory should have nothing to do with this issue. The drivers actually sit in the C:\Windows\system32\drivers folder and even if you overlayed these drivers I can't see that it would stop you from coming up.

I could see why it would stop it. If he overwrote files and change the CRC on them, and those files no longer corresponds to whats in the registry, it won't recognize it and the system will stall. Also those .inf files which tell the system the driver and device information can accidently overwrite other OEM files. The system caches from these OEM files. I know, I've done it before. I had to completely reinstall the system. It was during my High School days and I didn't know what I was doing and thought you can just plop drivers into the win32 or system32 folder and expect the smart OS to pick it up and know what to do with it.

 

[Defender]

lol..Justin must be pissed or at the very least you are really embarassed. lol

Anyways XP can suck and I can tell you now from experience that the XP disc won't help you much. What you need is a another XP to boot up into. Maybe an external hard disc? Also the manufacturer usually has recovery discs.

Sorry to hear you messed his shit up. I hope he didn't have anything important on it.

 

[Puppet]

I'm sorry but you don't understand the driver entries in the registry. It doesn't store the crc for the file in the registry. The only thing it stores for the driver is under hklm\system\ccs\services\drivername and everything in there is built by the INF file at install time. It never changes again unless you upgrade or reinstall the driver. No crc's are kept here. It has an img pointer that tells it the name of the driver in the system32\drivers folder and whatever configurable parameters the inf set up. The inf's don't get used again. All Deli did was overlay a folder with some files. That doesn't change anything in the registry so the worst possible thing he could have done is either deleted the driver that was there or overwrite it with a different version driver.

 

[Ind3lible]

Well I picked up the hard drive adapter and hooked up the 2.5 HD to a G4. The G4 recognizes the drive and I can see the folder I need to delete but it says it is a read only drive so I cannot get rid of the damn folder.

When I put the folder in the windows folder it did not write over any other files. Soooo I believe that if I take this folder out I will able to boot up normally...hopefully.

He's not that mad about it. Been joking about it mainly. A co-worker and I were joking about him having KCeasy on the pc and it having so much adware and spyware..which it did(TONS). He's a mac guy as well. Unfortunately he set up this pc to retrieve his 2way messages from his phone which is the main reason I need to get it back up.

So as of now I have 2 options. I can either backup everything in a folder onto the mac drive. Do a system restore on the laptop and put the backed up files back in.....or I can try connecting the adapter to my pc at home and hope I'm able to delete that 1 damn folder then.

Too bad I just can't do this with the mac. I would be fuckin done now.

Thanks for all of your comments and wish me luck.