Severe Computer Trouble, Please Help

[Gil Hamilton]

I need a computer whiz to help me.

My computer has gone bugfuck (I'm currently on my backup computer). It started today when I was updating my video drivers. I downloaded the right driver, I swear, but when I installed them, the device failed and my computer wouldn't do more than 4-bit graphics and 600 x 800 res. This wasn't that bad, I could roll back the driver.... or so I thought. The old driver, appearantly, wasn't backed up so it would roll back. So I thought to system restore. This didn't work either, for a reason I'd very much like to know. Then I tried to do a non-destructive system recovery. This is where my computer shits itself. It restarted after the recovery and went to the Window's Loading Screen, but instead of the loading bar is says "Please Wait..." then doesn't load anything.

Now my life is damn near on that machine and more pressingly, two of my term papers which I couldn't save to disk due to them being too large. It has all my files, all my programs (some which I can't replace and others I can't put on this computer due to lack of system requirements), et cetera and I'd very much like to save them, but at this point I don't have the slightest clue what to do. I'm taking it to a computer repair place on Monday, but if anyone can give me any advice, please help me.

[Sharp-kun]

Before you do anything I'd advise taking out the hard drives and putting them into another machine, then copy critical data off them.

As for why System Restore didn't work, I don't know. How long ago was the restore point? I had a problem once where I screwed something up and used it, forgetting that I'd changed a lot on my PC since the last point was made. It wasn't happy.

[Batman]

I need a computer whiz to help me.
My computer has gone bugfuck (I'm currently on my backup computer). It started today when I was updating my video drivers. I downloaded the right driver, I swear, but when I installed them, the device failed and my computer wouldn't do more than 4-bit graphics and 600 x 800 res. This wasn't that bad, I could roll back the driver.... or so I thought. The old driver, appearantly, wasn't backed up so it would roll back. So I thought to system restore. This didn't work either, for a reason I'd very much like to know. Then I tried to do a non-destructive system recovery. This is where my computer shits itself. It restarted after the recovery and went to the Window's Loading Screen, but instead of the loading bar is says "Please Wait..." then doesn't load anything.
Now my life is damn near on that machine and more pressingly, two of my term papers which I couldn't save to disk due to them being too large. It has all my files, all my programs (some which I can't replace and others I can't put on this computer due to lack of system requirements), et cetera and I'd very much like to save them, but at this point I don't have the slightest clue what to do. I'm taking it to a computer repair place on Monday, but if anyone can give me any advice, please help me.

Windows is extremely sensitive to driver changes, and what's even worse, undoing bad driver choices can be utterly impossible depending on the driver.
Presuming booting in safe mode doesn't help you (it should work around bad video drivers), I can't think of anything besides plugging the HDD with your term papers into your backup PC and working with that.
Sorry, pal.

[White Haven]

If you've tried the automated system recovery and the install hung, then you're fairly well fucked with regards to programs. Unless you can get that to GO THROUGH, you've got an OS halfway through its install process, and hence unbootable. Yank the hard drive, plug it up in your backup system as a slave, and grab your data (especially term papers, but anything you want saved) off of it. Then hook the drive back up to the system and nuke it down to the bedrock. That kind of a system recovery is actually HELLA dangerous if it doesn't work right, I'm afraid.

[Gil Hamilton]

I thought as much. Thanks for the advice. At least I can save my art that way.

[White Haven]

If it's any consolation, a system in which the automated recovery fails was likely unrecoverable to begin with. Typically that's the LAST thing I try on systems at work.

[Vertigo1]

Before you go reloading that system, what video card do you have? We can point you to where to get the correct drivers.

[White Haven]

He's got a half-reinstalled copy of Windows on the machine, hence it's in an unbootable state. Whatever happens, he'll need to nuke it.

[Vertigo1]

He's got a half-reinstalled copy of Windows on the machine, hence it's in an unbootable state. Whatever happens, he'll need to nuke it.

No shit, but he said that he wasn't sure he got the right drivers which started the whole thing to begin with. Please try to keep up.

It started today when I was updating my video drivers. I downloaded the right driver, I swear, but when I installed them, the device failed and my computer wouldn't do more than 4-bit graphics and 600 x 800 res.

[White Haven]

As idiot-proof as video drivers are these days, I seriously question if it's /possible/ to bork them up at a user level. There's...one driver, per brand, assuming we're not dealing with an AncientPuter, and as it's got XP, it's probably not ancient. Just an assumption I was making

[Gil Hamilton]

As idiot-proof as video drivers are these days, I seriously question if it's /possible/ to bork them up at a user level. There's...one driver, per brand, assuming we're not dealing with an AncientPuter, and as it's got XP, it's probably not ancient. Just an assumption I was making

It is idiot-proof. I can read (believe it or not) and got the driver update that the manufacturer said on their site to get for my video card. Just when I installed it, the thing shit itself. It wasn't like there was a whole bunch of possible drivers on the list for me. It was "This is my video card. This is my version of Windows. OK, that's my driver."

I honestly have no idea what happened, but the thing went buttcheese on me. I suppose I had it coming, for trying to get World of Warcraft to not have polygonal shit all over the place when I was in major towns.

[Gil Hamilton]

May I ask a question to the tech heads, for the record? From my description above, did I make any glaring technical error that caused this to happen to my computer?

-My video drivers needed upgraded so I went to the manufacturer to download the correct driver update.
-The driver update caused my display to permenantly be set to 4-bit color and at 800 X 600 resolution. So I go to roll back the driver.
-The driver wasn't backed up, so I couldn't roll it back. I go to do a system restore.
-System restore doesn't work for some damn fool reason. I bite the bullet and do a non-destructive system recovery.
-System recovery fails half way through, the Windows becomes unbootable.
-Computer is taken to the repair place because my asshole brother refuses to let me do anything to repair it.

Did I mess up anywhere there and was this my fault via incompetance, or was it just damn fool bad luck?

[White Haven]

You missed a step that may have helped things. From the sound of it, you had some OS corruption somewhere, likely involving the registry or file system. Registry, there's usually not a lot you can do, aside from 'load from last known good configuration' in the F8 boot menu, which sometimes works. The step you missed, however, is similar to the automated recovery, but far less risky. Boot from the XP CD, and when it asks you if you want to enter the recovery onsole by hitting R...hit R. You'll need to select your windows install, then you'll need to enter the administrator password for the system. If there isn't one, just hit enter. Once you're at the command prompt, type CHKDSK /R and go watch a movie. It'll take a while, but it sometimes fixes broken file-systems, corrupted data, and the like.

[Gil Hamilton]

Thank you.