How To Force Windows to Use Standard VGA Compatible Driver (268852)

SUMMARY

When you install Windows on a computer that is using an unsupported video adapter, Windows Setup installs a standard VGA mode driver. However, after you install Windows, you may be able to obtain and install a Windows-compatible driver for your video adapter from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

Under some conditions, the new OEM video drivers may cause shutdown problems, or cause your computer to stop responding (hang). Because of this, you may want to remove the new OEM drivers and revert back to using the Microsoft Standard VGA drivers to help determine if the OEM drivers are causing the problem.

This article describes how to uninstall OEM video drivers and force Windows to use the Microsoft Standard VGA drivers that are included with Windows.

NOTE: If you press F8 and choose Enable VGA Mode on the Windows Startup menu, Windows starts with a screen area of 640 by 480 pixels with low 8-bit color and uses a potentially OEM-provided video driver, not the Microsoft Standard VGA driver. However, if you choose any Safe mode options, the generic Microsoft Standard VGA driver is used with the restrictions that are noted in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:


back to the top

Forcing Windows to Use the Standard VGA Mode Drivers Without Having to Use Safe Mode

1. When you install an OEM driver, the Windows installer program copies the OEM installation file (Oemsetup.inf) to the %Systemroot%\Inf folder, and then renames the Oemsetup.inf file to Oem#.inf, where # is an incremental number for each OEM driver that is installed. To identify the OEM video-specific Oem#.inf file, you can open each Oem#.inf file in Microsoft Notepad (Notepad.exe), and then compare each one with the original Oemsetup.inf file that is located on the OEM drivers media. After you find a match, move that specific Oem#.inf and Oem#.pnf file to an alternate location, or rename the files to a different file extension.
2. In Device Manager, right-click your video adapter, and then click Uninstall to remove the video adapter.
3. Restart your computer. After you log on, you receive a New Hardware Found dialog box with Video Controller (VGA Compatible) listed as the description and the Found New Hardware Wizard starts.
4. Click Next to start the wizard.
5. Click search for suitable driver, and then click Next.
6. Click to clear all of the search option check boxes, and then click Next.
7. Click disable the device, and then click Finish.

After you finish the preceding steps, you computer is using the Vga.sys generic video driver, and this is the same VGA driver that is used in Safe mode. Note that Video Controller (VGA Compatible) (with a yellow question mark next to it) is displayed under the Other Devices branch in Device Manager.

If the computer becomes stable or shuts down normally while you are using the Microsoft Standard VGA driver, you may need to contact the OEM driver vendor to report the problems you encountered when you used the OEM driver. You may also need to obtain and install a newer driver (if one is available) that resolves these problems.

To use the OEM drivers again, copy or move the Oem#.inf and Oem#.pnf files back into the %Systemroot%\Inf folder, use Device Manager to uninstall the VGA video adapter, and then restart the computer. Windows Plug and Play should locate the OEM video adapter and reinstall the OEM drivers automatically without requiring any user input.

back to the top