Black Screen after Windows XP Starting....

When booting I see the POST and the Windows XP loading screen, then the screen goes black and the monitor looks like it has gone to "stand-by ". It always happens before XP loads. XP was fine before.

I have tried another monitor, but get same problem. I them swapped the graphics card and XP loaded twice then the same problem has returned.

Any ideas what I can try next?

Thanks in advance.

XP build.
Athlon 1800XP

PS - PLease ignore my signiture specs - the broken PC is not my PC.

 

Can you boot into safe mode? Repeatedly tap F8 while booting.

 

Hi silverwork,

Your first port of call should be Safe Mode (press, tap or hold down the F8 key as soon as you hear the POST beep).

In Safe Mode go to Add/Remove programs and remove/uninstall anything related to video. Reboot. When you reboot Windows should detect and offer to install the drivers for the Graphics Adapter. If it looks like it has selected the correct ones you can try them. If you get the blank screen again you will need to go back into Safe Mode again and change the Graphics Adapter to "Standard Display Adapter" (or you may need to use one of the other standard drivers). When you reboot do not let Windows select the adapter, make it keep the standard adapter. When you get to "normal" Windows run the graphics card's drivers program. Check for new drivers at the graphics manufacturer's website.

There may be a possibility that the problem is in the monitor drivers. If so, in Safe Mode change the monitor in Device Manager (or Display in Control Panel) to "Default Monitor ". Find and install the latest drivers for the monitor.

Matt
(Hi sparrow, you posted before me )

 

Make sure that on-board graphics is disabled in the BIOS settings. Sometimes this can cause conflicts with systems running with a video card installed.

 

Thanks for the help guys. I will try that out later.

I don't think that it can be the Graphics Card drivers, as when I swapped it, I installed the latest from Nvidia.com

I also made sure that onboard graphics were still off in the BIOS. I will try safe mode.
If I can get into Safe Mode - does this means that the problem is definately a Driver issue?

Thanks again - always helpful people here

 

Almost definitely from my experience. Blank screen when Windows is loading I have found is due to drivers. The problem is not having the latest drivers, it is a clash of new and old drivers hanging around in the system. You need to pretty much get rid of all video drivers (best done in Safe Mode) so that you can install the new set on a clean slate. I have noticed that nVidia are very finnicky about old drivers being around, although I recently installed a Radeon 9600 and found the drivers did not install properly (my old card was a Radeon 7500). Removed the drivers in Safe Mode...now it goes well. You can get a benchmark at PCpitstop. If you get much less than "standard" then you may have to "rip 'em out and shove 'em back in again" (as I say ).

Matt

 

Having a resolution or refresh rate that is set too high for the monitor will also cause this and the only way to fix it is to boot to safe mode and change settings.

 

I have been unable to try these potential solutions as the screen does not come on at all now, so it is like there is no signal going from graphics card to the monitor. I have tried two monitors and two graphics cards again and no combination will get me a picture, so I can't even get into POST or SAFE MODE now.

What hardware can I try now - or is it going to be a broken motherboard or AGP slot? All the lights are on on the MOBO and it looks normal other than the lack of signal.

 

HI Silverwork
If your AGP Slot have problem, you can go to the biso and check if the graphics Card has been sopted.
it seems mainboard was not support the card. So your can eliminate one by one. and you will find the problem.

 

Does that mean you no longer?

I wonder if you disconnect, and ground the case and yourself when changing hardware. Now sounds like something else has happened. See if you can get into BIOS - use the PCI graphics card if you have one. If you can't, it sounds like the mobo or CPU or both have died, and you'll have to consider taking the computer to a shop, unless you're a builder, in which case I'd start from scratch (the beginning, taking it all apart) and diagnose by substitution, replacing what doesn't work, as you rebuild.

 

It has not been completely established whether the motherboard has onboard (built-in) graphics. This could be a root cause.
I would get copy of the motherboard manual. If it has onboard video, connect the monitor to that and then "reset the CMOS ".
After that consider sparrow's suggestions. It will need to be taken back to basics. Far too many possibilities for us to start investigating here (for example, some motherboards will automatically disable onboard graphics when a video "card" is installed, others need to be configured in the BIOS settings. One of the cards may be incompatible with the motherboard, which is very hard to diagnose...etc, etc).

Matt

 

Thanks for the help.

The MOBO does not have onboard graphics and I deon't have a PCI crad to test.
I will have to try another MOBO or just get a new PC

 

Suggest you try replacing the CPU first; that's more likely the problem now.

If you need to replace the mobo, suggest you replace the power supply at the same time to be safe.

 

I have now replaced the MOBO, CPU and CPU Fan, luckily I had a spare MOBO of same Mmodel with a lower end CPU and fan, so no need to worry about drivers.

I started the PC up and was back to the XP loading screen, so I thought I had found the problem. However, as soon as the loading screen finishes or scandisk finishes the monitor goes to standby.

This only leaves the PSU and the HARD DRIVE with XP.

My guess is it's the PSU, but that is almost new (6 weeks) from PCWorld and has enough power for the system.

I will post my findings for those that are interested.

 

Considering you've done the above already, you could either swap out the IDE cable for your HDD or try using a different power cord for the PC.

Also check to see that power management in your BIOS menu is disabled as that will sometimes cause conflicts with the Windows Power management featture.

 

Hi, I have alrady changed the IDE and Power cables. I have also now changed the power supply. This means that EVERYTHING has been changed except the memory and the HDD. The computer boots to XP logo and looks like it's loading then the monitor goes to standby. Or it gets to the end of scan disk and then goes to standby.

If there is a problem with Windows (XP) loading these are not the usual symptoms are they?

 

Unless I missed this, can you now boot into safe mode??

This IS step one!!

Let us know!!

If you know what brand of harddrive you have, download the proper utility from the manufacturer's web site to test the soundness of the drive.
Very important!
After the download, you build the floppies that you boot off of. These disks will test the drives integrity.
Follow the instructions CAREFULLY.

This sounds like a Windows/Driver/Software problem gone wild to me. I'm guessing here that the hardware is OK.

My next step, after the above, would be to boot from a Windows floppy and format the drive. Then, reinstall Windows. Backup whatever you can or just kiss it goodbye and try to get it running.
Make sure you have ALL the driver disc's on hand first!!

Dale

 

My suggestion (check my previous ones):

If you cannot get to Safe Mode I would suspect corrupt files on the HDD (maybe some sort of virus), although it may still relate to the graphics drivers and hopefully not a video/motherboard incompatibity.

If you can't get anywhere, try a repair or reinstall of Windows.

If the graphics drivers are completely corrupted (for want of a better word), you may need to format your drive and reinstall Windows. After installing Windows, then install the motherboard/chipset drivers, then the video(graphics card) drivers, then any other drivers.

Matt

 

If you need to follow matt's suggestion to "try a repair or reinstall of Windows ", first fdisk your HDD (from a win98 boot disk) and delete and remake partition(s) (at least 2) so the boot sectors and part. table are clean. If you don't do that, your problems may persist - I've seen that happen.

 

Hey: Just fixed a friends machine that was having what sounds to be the same issue. Machine would boot to Windows screen then trip out with the message frequency over range on the monitor.
If you can get to safe mode try setting your refresh rate to default or find a restore point that works.
Regards