XP remembers settings after clean install

[tjodrik]

I installed XP on this old laptop. It worked just fine. The display also looked fine, but I noticed in Device Manager that it hadn't installed a display driver. The laptop has a Chips & Technologies 655555 (forget how many 5s) chipset, and XP doesn't have a driver for it (Win98 does, though). I went to the manufacturer's website and downloaded the XP driver and installed it. They apparently hadn't done a great job, because it completely messed up the display, giving an extremely low resolution and very few colors. I uninstalled it, but that didn't change anything.

So I decided to do a clean install of XP again. I deleted the partition and did a quick format FAT. But, for some reason, XP remembered the old display setting and kept it, even after the clean install was complete. That really surprised me, since I formatted the hard drive and did a clean install. How can XP then keep settings from my previous install?!

Any ideas what to do?

Edit: The only thing I can think of is doing a regular format instead of a quick format. Is that really the reason? Meaning that quick format doesn't actually delete the stored information at all?

Edited May 21, 2009 by tjodrik

[Ponch]

The display also looked fine, but I noticed in Device Manager that it hadn't installed a display driver.

What do you mean with that ? What did it say ? I'd be surprised any vendor wouldn't have a working driver for XP, unless you card is really too old for your laptop to run XP.

Format does erase data "enough" for XP to consider them "gone", so there might also be a hardware problem (video memory?) or maybe a Bios setting that you could change.

[jaclaz]

Just in case, VBEMP/UNIVBE should be compatible with your chip:

http://www.geocities.com/bearwindows/vbemp.htm

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?...c=2325&st=0

jaclaz

[tjodrik]

The display also looked fine, but I noticed in Device Manager that it hadn't installed a display driver.

What do you mean with that ? What did it say ? I'd be surprised any vendor wouldn't have a working driver for XP, unless you card is really too old for your laptop to run XP.

Format does erase data "enough" for XP to consider them "gone", so there might also be a hardware problem (video memory?) or maybe a Bios setting that you could change.

Device Manager had this yellow exclamation point with "Video controller (VGA compatible). But I noted nothing wrong anywhere.

So why would XP then retain the messed up display? Installing a display driver in Windows can't possibly destroy the hardware or change the BIOS settings.

[tjodrik]

So this is what I did:

Boot from 98SE cd

Format c:

Delete c: partition

Create c: partition

Format c:

Install 98SE

The display is working just fine. In other words, there was nothing wrong with the hardware. The conclusion is that fast format of the hard drive when booting from XP cd does _not_ make Windows lose its previous settings, if it for some reasons believe it should retain them.

I'm surprised too, but what other conclusion could there be?

[cluberti]

The display is working just fine. In other words, there was nothing wrong with the hardware. The conclusion is that fast format of the hard drive when booting from XP cd does _not_ make Windows lose its previous settings, if it for some reasons believe it should retain them.

That the setting was changed some other way? A fast format clears the MBR and the file table information, so even if there are files existing on sectors on disk the OS is not going to ever "see" them or be able to use them. While your conclusion might make sense on paper, it's not a valid conclusion. It's more likely that somehow you had been able to get XP to use settings more amicable to the display without installing the correct driver for the display chipset before the reinstall, whereas the default resolution for XP with the "Standard VGA Driver" settings it uses if it can't find the driver for your video card is 640x480 at 256 colors, which is expected behavior (and probably the resolution and color depth you saw).

[tjodrik]

It's more likely that somehow you had been able to get XP to use settings more amicable to the display without installing the correct driver for the display chipset before the reinstall, whereas the default resolution for XP with the "Standard VGA Driver" settings it uses if it can't find the driver for your video card is 640x480 at 256 colors, which is expected behavior (and probably the resolution and color depth you saw).

No, the default resolution is what XP used because it couldn't find the correct driver for the chipset. Which should _also_ be what XP uses during a clean install after format. But instead, during the clean install, XP used the messed up resolution that came after installing a bad driver, which was more like 5 colors - I could barely make out anything on the monitor at all - only shades. How could XP possibly do that during clean install, if it hadn't kept the setting from having installed the bad driver?

Another funny thing: after having installed Win98SE, I installed XP again, this time with 'slow' format. Now, the user name I gave during the install of 98 was 'X', and when I installed XP, it specifically said my name couldn't be 'X', 'Administrator', or 'Guest'. XP has never said that before, I always, always use 'X'. So apparently, XP remembered that my user name in 98 was 'X', and decided to ban that. _Even though_ I did a full format first.

I don't trust the format function in XP at all anymore ...

[Ponch]

And what's written on that XP cd ???

For your first issue, is it possible that the 1st time you installed XP, you installed on top of 98se and that's what made the difference and the "good" behaviour of your screen ?

If format wasn't erasing data, I think people would have noticed by now.

[tjodrik]

And what's written on that XP cd ???

What? What's physically written on top of the CD disk??

For your first issue, is it possible that the 1st time you installed XP, you installed on top of 98se and that's what made the difference and the "good" behaviour of your screen ?

No, I never install an OS on top of another OS. Before formatting (with 'slow' format) with the XP setup, I had a half-installed Ubuntu.

If format wasn't erasing data, I think people would have noticed by now.

This surprises me too, but I have two good indications now.

1. XP remembers the display settings of a former installation

2. XP remembers the user name of a former installation

If anyone can explain this without assuming that the format function in the XP setup doesn't erase all data, I would be happy to see it.

[cluberti]

How are you performing the quick format? And are you absolutely certain the drive is indeed formatting? I've honestly NEVER ever heard of this happening before, because again, without the file table information even though the data is physically on the disk, the OS has no way of knowing what it is or where it is (and when it writes it's own file tables, it keeps track of only what it's writing, etc). If XP is "seeing" previous installed settings, the format most definitely did not occur (even if the app or OS installer says it did).

[b-man]

2. XP remembers the user name of a former installation

If anyone can explain this without assuming that the format function in the XP setup doesn't erase all data, I would be happy to see it.

no xp wont allow you to have the computer name and username the same

[urie]

May sound silly but have a look at monitor settings even though it is a laptop.