Screwy Video Card

[telcontar]

I recently tried to install a new driver for my Diamond III s540 video card. I downloaded the driver installation program from www.driver-guide.com, and ran the program, which was an installation program distributed by Diamond software. Well...upon restarting the computer, things went wierd. BIOS and whatnot runs fine, but as soon as the computer starts Windows, the monitor shuts itself off, and the green status light changes to orange. Windows itself starts up fine, the startup sound plays and everything, its just that the monitor remains black.
I'm thinking somehow the driver update screwed up the connection between the computer and the monitor. Any ideas on how to fix this?

My friend recommended just upgrading to win2k, and reinstalling the drivers from there. I tried to reinstall 98 using the windows 98 se cd, but it didnt allow me to, saying that I had a disk compression utility in use.

The computer is a Compaq Presario 7935, the monitor is MV720, and its running Windows 98.
Thanks for your help!

[Gallaeglagh]

I would try uninstalling the video card first through device manager, you'll pobably need to do this in safe mode. Make sure you uninstall all references to your video card, then reboot and try to install the driver again or maybe even the older driver.

[telcontar]

I found some info on the s3 website, and I think I know basically how to fix it. Problem is now my computer refuses to go into safe mode. I dont remember if its f5 or f8 on my comp, but I've tried both, and neither has worked. I've also tried the hold down ctrl tactic, which doesnt work either.

[sleddog]

It's F8 and you only have a very brief time in which to use it.

Reboot and as Windows starts to load, keeping tapping F8.

[telcontar]

alright, my computer is really messed up
safe mode isnt working at all...holding down ctrl as the computer starts doesnt do anything. frantically tapping f8 doesnt do anything. After the COMPAQ red letters come up, it immediately goes into the windows 98 loading screen without any pause. then it prints the "verifying, please wait.." screen, with all the antivirus stuff...then it goes back to the windows 98 loading screen, then the monitor blacks out.
At no point does the option to go into safe mode come up...

[Budfred]

When are you madly tapping on F8? It usually seems to work best right after the opening screen and before the Windows loading screen comes up. If that isn't successful, you may have to do some backup from DOS and then Restore your system.

[Gallaeglagh]

I had a computer that didn't like to go into safe mode. The only way I could get it to go into safe mode was pushing to reset button while it was booting up.

[telcontar]

hmm...any other ways people know of to get into safe mode? i read somewhere that you start it in msdos mode and type win:m\d...i tried it, but all it did was reboot the computer normally...

[Budfred]

If you can't get into Safe Mode, I would try running some diagnostics from DOS. You can run ScanDisk and you can do a Registry Restore from DOS that might at least get you back into Windoze.

[ski]

To get into Safe mode, try pressing the F8 key when the 'Starting Windows 98' screen appears.