Can I remotely un-install an installed graphics driver on Windows 2008 Server?

Question

I had to install a new graphics driver that turns out its not to working properly. My remote login now states: "A device attached to the system is not functioning.". Can I login anyway to un-install this driver? What is the best method to solve this?

Answer 1

Can you access the computer's device management console remotely? The device manager is part of Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which can be run remotely.

On the system you're remoting from, run mmc.exe. Click "File" > "Add/Remove Snap-in". Select "Device Manager" from the list, and click "Add >". In the dialog that appears, choose "Another computer" and enter the name or IP of the remote computer.

Once you've added the device manager to the console, click on it. You may get the following error,

Unable to access the computer 127.0.0.1

Make sure that this computer is on the network, has remote administration enabled, and is running the "Plug and Play" and "Remote registry" services.

The error was: The service has not been started.

If this occurs, you will need to enable the remote registry service first. Go to the add/remove plugins screen again, and add "Services" for the remote computer. Find the "remote registry service" and start it. Remove, then re-add the device manager snapin.

Once you have the device manager loaded, you should be able to see the device for the graphics adapter. You can then roll back the device's drivers to the previous version. This should be enough to get it back to the default windows drivers or previous drivers; then you should be able to log in remotely again and fix things up.

Answer 2

Hmm. First of all, you should install a VNC at least to be sure that you can login. Windows is not Linux, it'll start the GUI anyway, even with a wrong/basic driver. So you don't have to worry about it... but it's always better to go sure. :)

Answer 3

Find the driver you are looking for:

wmic /node:"HOSTNAME_GOES_HERE" /output:stdout path win32_systemdriver get displayname,path,pathname

Delete the driver.

wmic /node:"HOSTNAME_GOES_HERE" /output:stdout path win32_systemdriver where "name=drivernamehere" call delete"

Then reboot the machine. I am not sure what this will do the running system if you are using the driver. Perhaps do this in Safe-Mode?