Reinstalling XP from Safe Mode - Problem? Help!

[The Biffer]

OK, for whatever reason my home PC has been causing me all manner of problems recently. I was not able to get it to boot up properly, it would go through the colorful Windows XP screen, and then go black. The lights on the hard drive would still flash, but nothing good was happening.

So I found the only way I could get in was to keep switching it on and off. I KNOW this is a bad thing to do, and counter indicated if you are not trying hard to totally f up your hard drive. Anyway, I did this enough, got to safe mode and was able to copy the files I wanted to keep onto an external HDD.

I then shoved my WinXP disk into the CD drive and went through the process of reinstalling the whole thing. I figured that I had some spyware/virus or something that couldn't be detected with my virus checker or spyware checker.

Got that reintalled, but now the screen resolution is at the lowest grade available, like it always is when you go to safe mode. I've gone through Control Panel and for some reason it won't let me adjust the screen res.

Does this mean I've somehow rebooted and reinstalled into a permanent safe mode? Should I cut my losses and do it all again tonight? Or is this an easy fix?

I'm also not able to get online, which is also suggesting to me that I might be stuck in safe mode.

Any ideas? Any hints?

[mcs328]

have you installed your video card drivers yet?

[The Biffer]

have you installed your video card drivers yet?

Now you mention it, I hadn't put the drivers disk in yet, so that might explain why the resolution was off, and also why the NIC was not working either.

That's the problem with trying to do this in a hurry at home before going to work.

You might have solved that for me in one line!

[Fas-ligand]

Windows will not automatically reinstall all your hardware, especially if you have something non-standard, but I believe most video cards will need either their drivers from the CD installed or getting detonator from Nvidia for all the features of your video card to be usable.

[The Biffer]

OK, I'll go hunt down my drivers disk when I get home. It might be hidden behind the diaper bag, my house is chaos since the birth of the little biffer.