Can Anybody Help Please?

[mrbojangles]

My computer was working fine yesterday.

However today it just boots up but nothing comes on the screen.

I turned it off and back on again and started it in "safe mode". Everything worked fine getting into safe mode, so i did a system restore to a check point last week and re-booted....Nothing again, just a blank screen.

Has anybody any ideas?

Thanks people

[Kyosuken]

Try this, go into safe mode, then go to the device manager (right click "my computer" then select "manage" on the tree menu of the left just select "Device manager"). And there select "Display adapter", then where you see the display adapter for your graphic card, right click it and then select "Uninstall". After that restart the computer and see if the screen is still black. If not then you had a faulty driver for your graphic card and then you will have to reinstall the adhoc drivers.

Hopes it helps

regards

[cdnvic]

Can't say for certain but this is often a buggered graphics card driver.

Go into your BIOS and change the drivers to the default VGA drivers, then reboot and try downloading and reinstalling your graphics card driver. Burn a copy to a disk or a floppy in case it happens again.

[mrbojangles]

Cheers guys,

cdnvic, how do i go into BIOS?

[Kyosuken]

I don't get what the bios have to do with changing the default card to "vga" drivers under windows ?! (btw uninstalling the driver under safe mode is the same as chaning to vga as i described in my earlier post)

The only thing you can change in bios is if you want pci or agp to be detected as first primary graphic adapter, it's not driver related, or to disable the onboard vga adapter when the motherboard got one, though it's mostly automatic nowadays.

[Guest Reimar]

The Bios has only someting to do with the graphic adaptor if the MB has VGA/AGP onboard!

In case you're able to start in Safe Mode, do what "Kyosuken" wrote and uninstall the existing driver in the Device Manager. After rebboting the comp and the screen come up, downlpoad a new driver or use the one from the Installation CD of the VGA Card but not the former istalled one.ystem want to install the old driver again cancel that installation and install a "clean" one.

[mrbojangles]

Thanks for the help guys. I just went into safe mode and uninstalled the driver but to no avail, the screen is still black. Any other ideas people.

Khrap khun khrap

[Guest Reimar]

Thanks for the help guys. I just went into safe mode and uninstalled the driver but to no avail, the screen is still black. Any other ideas people.

Khrap khun khrap

Seems to be that yoiu need to reinstall Windows. Do it on the way of "repair".

Start here:

1. reboot the comp from the CD you've used to install windows;

2. ignore the first screen with give you the opportunity to repair;

3. Press F8 at the EULA (End User License Agreement);

4. the ucoming screen should give you again the opportunity to "repair": HIT THIS BUTTOM

Windows will re-install completly without loosing of Data or Programs, except Service Packs.

If the 2. "repair" screen didn't come up, start windows again in Safe Mode and backup all Data because you may need to do a "clean", which means a complete new installation.

[Kyosuken]

+1 to Reimar it's the way to go for not having to look for what is going on for too long

[gharknes]

it is possible you have a hardware fault or a problem with your monitor (not showing hires) or XP boot up is stopping near the end due to a corrupt file, the corrupt file could be something other than a display driver

at what point does the display go off during boot up ?

to check that windows is booting all the way put a music file in the startup folder to play when xp starts

uninstall the display drivers (safe mode) and start the machine...............if you get a desktop then report back

depending on the results from above you may want to do some hardware re-seating and checking

you can also do some selective boots by using msconfig

[mrbojangles]

Seems to be that yoiu need to reinstall Windows. Do it on the way of "repair".

Start here:

1. reboot the comp from the CD you've used to install windows;

hi Reimar, i don't have the CD, it was all loaded when i bought it.

it is possible you have a hardware fault or a problem with your monitor (not showing hires) or XP boot up is stopping near the end due to a corrupt file, the corrupt file could be something other than a display driver

at what point does the display go off during boot up ?

The display goes off right at the end of boot up, just before it normally goes to log in. Up until then the monitor is working fine, it works fine in safe mode too

Thanks for your time folks, it really is appreciated

[mrbojangles]

to check that windows is booting all the way put a music file in the startup folder to play when xp starts

On that point. I just clicked a file and was going to play it, to put it in start up. But a message "windows media player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There might not be a sound device installed (there is cos it was working fine) on your computer, it might be in use by another program, or it might not be functioning properley"

Could this have anything to do with it?

[cdnvic]

Seems to be that yoiu need to reinstall Windows. Do it on the way of "repair".

Start here:

1. reboot the comp from the CD you've used to install windows;

hi Reimar, i don't have the CD, it was all loaded when i bought it.

See if you can borrow one from someone. Just make sure you use the same kind of disk as what you have loaded (XP Home, XP Pro, Windows 2000 Pro, etc)

Enter your own COA License key when installing. It should be on your computer case.

Looks like this and has numbers on it.

Don't worry about legalities. So long as you have that COA, you can use any matching disk to install it.

[A_Traveller]

Forgive me for playing catchup

Monitor goes dark after Windows boots? Can you be more precise about this, examples does the power light go orange or stay green, what's the last thing you see ?

Monitor displays processing before i.e. black and white text about your PC?

Windows does boot in safe mode successfully?

Is PC a known brand or one built in a shop?

Any specifications you have to hand {Motherboard, graphics card etc.}

Regards

/edit typos//

[mrbojangles]

Forgive me for playing catchup

Monitor goes dark after Windows boots? Can you be more precise about this, examples does the power light go orange or stay green, what's the last thing you see ? Power light is green

Monitor displays processing before i.e. black and white text about your PC? It does everything normally until the final bit, when it usually goes to the windows logo and logon screen

Windows does boot in safe mode successfully? Yes

Is PC a known brand or one built in a shop? Built in a shop but has worked fine for about a year

Any specifications you have to hand {Motherboard, graphics card etc.} Not sure but i know the motherboard is the new type with the extra pins (is 900+ as opposed to the old kind with 700+ pins) The graphics is a S3 Graphics - VIA/S3G Deltachrome IGP

My answers above in red

Edit:- Is this the details of the motherboard:- AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor 3500+ 2.20 GHz 960 MB of RAM

[mrbojangles]

Nobody else got any ideas folks

<deleted> computers, a marvellous invention but frustrating as <deleted> when they go wrong

[A_Traveller]

Problem is difficult to diagnose from a distance, and since you don't seem to be that familiar with the PC itself then it makes things even more complicated.

On the basis of what you are saying, it is probaby a failure of the drivers for the graphics card since {standard vga} safe mode works and the screen doesn't 'power down' without a signal.

Identify the card go to the web site for the maker and download the latest drivers and install them. After that if the system is still failing then it may be a physical failure of the card relating to the higher performance functions. though that is somewhat unusual.

If you are uncomfortable doing that or the drivers do not fix the problem then it looks like a visit to the shop is required.

Regards

/edit additional//

[nikster]

Nobody else got any ideas folks

<deleted> computers, a marvellous invention but frustrating as <deleted> when they go wrong

Yeah, go into safe mode, create a new user, and see if you also get the problem when logging in with the new user (in non-safe mode). If that works then it's just something that is starting up as part of your login. And at that point you can do more to check what it is, or just use the new user and migrate your documents and settings folders.

Also when the screen is black, hit ctrl-alt-delete and see if the task manager pops up. If it does, force quit Explorer task from it, then go to the leftmost menu, select "Run.." and type in "explorer" (without the quotation marks).

Did you do anything prior to the system getting hosed? Like, install software etc.

Cheers N.

[nikster]

Problem is difficult to diagnose from a distance, and since you don't seem to be that familiar with the PC itself then it makes things even more complicated.

On the basis of what you are saying, it is probaby a failure of the drivers for the graphics card since {standard vga} safe mode works and the screen doesn't 'power down' without a signal.

Identify the card go to the web site for the maker and download the latest drivers and install them.

...

That is an excellent suggestion and I definitely recommend trying that before anything else. Can work wonders.

[gharknes]

..............On the basis of what you are saying, it is probaby a failure of the drivers for the graphics card since {standard vga} safe mode works and the screen doesn't 'power down' without a signal......................

sorry but it could be a problem with many things not just graphics

use msconfig in safe mode to selectively disable things that start during boot up, this should allow you to narrow down your problem, also remove all cards that are not essential to xp

something is being initialised during normal boot and locking your system up, could be sound - networking - graphics or anything else you have installed, you just need to eliminate stuff and reduce your system to the bare bones...my guess is corrupt file or hardware fault.

[A_Traveller]

..............On the basis of what you are saying, it is probaby a failure of the drivers for the graphics card since {standard vga} safe mode works and the screen doesn't 'power down' without a signal......................

sorry but it could be a problem with many things not just graphics

use msconfig in safe mode to selectively disable things that start during boot up, this should allow you to narrow down your problem, also remove all cards that are not essential to xp

something is being initialised during normal boot and locking your system up, could be sound - networking - graphics or anything else you have installed, you just need to eliminate stuff and reduce your system to the bare bones...my guess is corrupt file or hardware fault.

Agreed, that was why I placed probably in italics. Logically one can only go through each element discounting it until you arrive at the solution. An additional issue here, and in no way critically, is that the OP is not familiar with the PC environment he is using, which further exacerbates the situation for those trying to assist, at a distance.

Given the above, as I suggested a visit to 'the shop' might well be the best option for the OP.

Regards

[mrbojangles]

Thanks for all your info guys but it's off down to shop today. I'll let you know what the problem was.