Datasheet

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Installing New Hardware
Knowing what to do if anything goes wrong
If your driver installation goes belly-up, try these strategies in any order that
makes sense to you:
✦ Review the instructions. Look for a section with a title such as
“Troubleshooting” for suggestions on how to proceed.
✦ Call or e-mail the manufacturer’s technical support service for help.
The manual or the Web site can tell you how.
✦ Call the store, or pack up everything and take it in. If you happen to
have a 7-foot-tall friend named Guido who drags his hairy knuckles on
the ground, take him along with you. Moral support, eh?
If your computer no longer works correctly, restart Windows 7 with the last
known good configuration. (See the instructions in the next section.)
Restarting with the last known good configuration
When you install a new device driver, you change the Windows 7 configura-
tion. The next time you restart your computer, Windows 7 tries to use the
new configuration. If it succeeds, it discards the old configuration and makes
the new one current.
The whole process involves some smoke, a few mirrors, and the Windows
Registry.
Sometimes, you install a new device driver and everything goes to heck in a
handbasket. If that happens to you, restart Windows 7 and tell it to use the
last known good configuration — which is to say, Windows should ignore
the changes you made that screwed everything up and return to the state it
was in the last time it started. That action effectively removes the new driver
from Windows 7.
To start Windows with the last known good configuration, follow these
steps:
1. If your computer is working, click the Start button, click the right-
facing arrow to the right of the little lock, and choose Restart.
Windows 7 restarts. Skip to Step 3.
2. If your computer isn’t operating, press the power button to turn it off.
Wait a minute or so. Press the power button again to turn the com-
puter back on.
If that doesn’t work, try pressing the button again and holding it in for
several seconds. If that doesn’t work either, pull the power cord out of
the back of the computer; wait a few seconds, and then plug it in again. If
you’re working with a laptop, you may have to remove the battery. Yes,
it happens.