Saturday, February 7, 2009

Windows 7 – BSOD installing video driver

While installing the NVIDIA driver suggested by Windows Update, I got the wonderful blue screen desktop with the enhanced bzzzzzzzzzzzzz audio track.  Worse than the BSOD was coming back into Windows 7 to a desktop with Aero disabled!  Screenshots were created after the problem was solved and I tried to make them look as close to what I was seeing as possible.

no Aero

Ok, no problem right?  Just reset the desktop personalization…..errr….NOPE.  Desktop settings disabled?

Ok, System restore right?  errr…NOPE.  Service not available error.

Then I noticed a very tiny red x in the taskbar.  Clicking on it said “Security Service not available”.  I was also missing networking.  So, pretty much every service that Windows uses was not running.  After poking around, I finally pulled up System Configuration and WOOHOO!!!

no services  

All the checkboxes were un-checked.  Also, in the status column all of the services were “Stopped”.  You can see that they are running in this screenshot.  By, re-enabling them in the configuration file and rebooting, I got everything back to normal.  YEAH!

Evidently, Windows Update disabled services and the BSOD took place before they got re-enabled.  Hopefully, this will help someone else trouble-shoot a scary situation.

1 comment:

  1. There is a great application Digeus I recommend it when windows freezes, hangs, works slow or chashes. I also use Windows Tune Up Suite. It improves your Windows PC's overall performance and stability.

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