Though upgrading hardware is usually rapid and easy method of improving PC or including new features, you may find that Windows OS becomes unsteady after hardware upgrade. This trouble is generally caused by incompatibilities associated to device drivers or hardware devices clashing with one other. To repair Windows after hardware upgrade, you want to boot into Safe Mode and run "Device Manager." Troubleshooting problem takes some minutes or some hours.

Instructions

Step 1

Reboot PC.

Step 2

Push "F8" to access startup options when you see Windows logo.

Step 3

Choose "Safe Mode."

Step 4

Click "Start" and then "direct Panel." Then Click "Classic View".

Step 6

Open "System."

Step 7

Click "Hardware" tab, if using Windows XP. Skip to next step if using Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

Step 8

Choose "Device Manager."

Step 9

Find error indicators, like black on yellow exclamation point or red "X." Find category that has recently installed hardware, if you do not see any error messages. Expand category by clicking on "+".

Step 10

Open device properties box by double clicking on device name.

Step 11

Check for error messages in "Device status" section. Write error message, containing any error message codes. Research error message at Microsoft's Support site, and attempt to repair Windows according to information you find.

Step 12

Click "Troubleshooting" button if you are using Windows XP. Follow troubleshooting guide by answering questions according to particular problem.

Step 13

Click "Driver" tab. Click "Update Driver" if you have an updated driver on disk that you can install.

Step 14

Choose "Uninstall" if you have tried to update driver earlier and it did not repair problem. This permits Windows chance to re-detect hardware device and to reinstall device drivers.

Step 15

Reboot PC, and reinstall device after Windows re-detects new hardware.