Very Odd boot problem

[mharper]

Bear with me, this is a long story. I rehabilitated an older laptop with new memory and HDD and have installed XP.

Each time I turn it on the post and XP splash with the moving bar underneath comes up as usual.

Every other time I turn on the machine after the XP splash it goes to a blank screen. There is disk activity and the familiar music of XP having been loaded, but the screen is blank. No keys or mouse clicks have any effect. When I turn it off I hear the familiar music of XP having been shut down and there is disk activity supposedly saving the settings.

The next time things work as normally expected. After the XP splash the pointer appears and shortly the desktop appears along with the music of XP having been loaded. Things work normally. When I shut it down I see the message that says "Windows shutting down" and I hear the familiar music of XP shutting down and I see the message that says "Saving settings" and there is disk activity saving the settings.

It doesn't seem to matter if i shut down with software or simply press the on/off button. Every other time I get the blank screen. This is freaking me out. Does anybody have any suggestions

 

[Tmagic650]

Try booting into the SAFE MODE and check your video device in the control panel... This is caused by a faulty video driver

 

[mharper]

Reinstalled the video driver

I deleted and then reinstalled the video driver. It came from the XP installation disk. There's no change in behavior.

 

[Tmagic650]

Try installing Windows 98SE on the laptop and see if this stops under Windows 98SE. If the video is normal, XP is probably not suited for the system

 

[XPULTRA]

BOOT WINDOWS XP to Black Screen. VGA workaround

If you have a problem when booting WINDOWS XP (Black Screen), you need to employ the VGA workaround

Tap F8, and get to the SAFE MODE screen, then chhoose VGA Mode.

It shloud reset VGA modes, and allow re-configuration/installation of devices/drivers

I hope this helps you problem, i have had this problem on many occasions, on different systems. (i am a system builder!)

Regards

XPULTRA

 

[Tmagic650]

"Tap F8, and get to the SAFE MODE screen, then choose VGA Mode"

XPULTRA,
where is this "VGA MODE"? In the bios or display properties?

 

[SNGX1275]

Tmagic650.

Its the same menu you get when you need to boot into safe mode by pressing F8 on a 2k/XP install. But one of the options on the same menu that has Safe Mode is VGA Mode.

 

[Tmagic650]

Thanks SNGX1275,
I've not really ever noticed it...

 

[mharper]

Please excuse me if I didn't word the original message clearly and/or if I have misinterpreted anyone's reply as if they didn't understand the original message.

The blank screen with boot up happens only half the time. If I turn on the machine eight times the video is normal on even numbered tries and is blank on odd numbered tries.

I did install Win98 and booted a dozen times or so with no blank screens at all.

I have recently downloaded and installed the latest video driver from the manufacturer of the laptop and the results are the same.

It's like there is a toggle switch somewhere that flips each time the computer is turned on turning off the video every other time.

Once after installing the latest video driver it turned on normally three times in a row, then reverted to previous behavior.

Once for no reason I could determine it turned on normally seven times in a row then reverted to previous behavior.

After having turned this thing on and off 70 + times I've pretty much resigned myself to this strange behavior. It just takes twice as long to get the machine up and going.

 

[Tmagic650]

This could be indication that the on-board graphics chip is failing, or a general cleaning and maintenance be performed on the laptop