I know this is is an ancient thread but I am replying because I could not find
the solution to this problem and have been searching and attempting fixes for
the last two days. I signed up to tis forum for the sole reason of explaining
what I did to solve this problem WITHOUT REINSTALLING, please do not delete this thread.
First off:
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DISABLE THE VGASAVE SERVICE!
But if you do:
First off, try to use Last Known Good Configuration by hitting F8 before
windows boots.
If that does not work:
Get into the windows recovery console with your windows disk and type:
enable vgasave SERVICE_SYSTEM_START
This works for most, but did not for me.
So next I tried fiddle with the registry but could not find anywhere to enable
it. I did find out how to make a WinPE
Boot Disk though, and I think that was worth the trouble I went through.
Here's what I did next:
I enabled remote desktop connection on the messed up. Do that through the
network or through the boot disk using
regedit PE or (like I did) through another windows partition on the same pc using regedit PE.
Remote desktop does not work with accounts with no passwords so I had to boot up with the boot disk and used Sala Password Renew to add passwords to my admin accounts.
Additionaly, I had my pc setup to automatically log into my user account so I
just had press enter or <space> to ok the wrong password dialouge and could then access it using Remote Desktop.(I disabled the autologin as soon as I connected to avoid this problem)
Next I went to the device manager went to view>show hidden devices and deleted(I still don't know how smart or necessary this was) vgasave from under "Non-Plug and Play Drivers" and then restarted the pc and after seeing that it did not work, I used remote desktop to log in again.
Then I decided to reinstall the VIA 4-in-1 drivers with the ones that came with my motherboard. But when it started installing it asked if I wanted to instead uninstall so I decided to uninstall all of them. I then restarted, still no change so again with Remote Desktop.
I checked the device manager and nother that there were now some unkown devices named display adapter or something so I decided to try installing the ATI drivers and was able to do so succesfully. I restrted the PC and after 2 long days was finally able to see my destkop.
I may come back and edit this for clarity, since I just finished solving this, I am not at my cognitive best.
