Troubleshooting Windows: Some GPU Driver Issues
Recently, Sean Tyler resurrected a newly built computer that had crashed on him. In an effort to make everyone a computer troubleshooting professional, he has listed the situation below, with the steps on how he corrected the issue.
I built my mom a nice little quad-core, 8GB RAM, SSD, 600W, Windows 10 machine for her birthday earlier this year. All of the parts in it were brand new, except for the GPU, which was an old 8800 GT that I had lying around. Due to a lapse in judgement on my part, I failed to purchase a MOBO with on board video, so I was forced to throw this legacy card in the box to get her up and running in time for her birthday.
It was working fine until about a month ago, when she started reporting that Windows would load to the “four blue boxes” logo screen and just sit there, never advancing from that point. Also, she could see faint green, vertical lines all over her monitor. Obviously, I knew that something had to be up with the graphics card. However, I’d never seen Windows only load to the logo screen and freeze just because the graphics card was having issues.
Long trouble shooting story short, I was at the point of reinstalling Windows 7 on the machine. I could make it to the “Completing Installation…” screen, but it would crash to a black screen with a flashing white cursor in the top-left of the monitor. After verifying that nothing was wrong with my SSD, reinstalling Windows 7 a couple more times, and searching the internet for a while, I finally found a post on a message board from someone who had my same issue.
First, they verified that it was a GPU driver issue for them. Second, they suggested the following for bypassing the driver Windows was trying to use for my 8800 GT:
1. From the blinking cursor screen, force shut-down and restart the computer
2. When given the option to boot into safe made, do so
3. When you see the error box that says that it can’t continue the install of Windows in safe made, don’t hit “Ok.” Instead, open a command prompt by hitting Shift + F10
4. Type “devmgmt.msc” to open the device manager (without the quotes)
5. In your device manager box, drop-down the the box that says “Display adapters”
6. Right-click on the installed display adapter driver and select “Update Driver Software…”
7. Click “Browse my computer for driver software” on the box that opens
8. Click “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”
9. Select “Standard VGA Graphics Adapter” and hit “Next”
10. Confirm your selection of this driver and click “Ok” on the error box about installing in safe mode
Your computer should reboot and continue the installation of Windows. Sometimes it might tell you that it can’t continue with the install and you’ll need to start over.
For me, I had to purchase a new graphics card to actually make it through a fresh install. However, following the steps above, I was able to pinpoint that it was my graphics card causing the error.
Remember, errors tell us a lot, even when they’re vague. Making it past the “black screen with blinking cursor of death” let me know that loading the standard VGA driver was the catalyst that advanced my installation progress. If, after loading the standard VGA driver, my computer kept showing the black screen and didn’t advance to the new error (telling me that the install can’t continue and I’d need to start over), I’d know that something else could be causing the error.
Anyway, I hope this info can help someone else out there experiencing the same issue.
