Black screen - AGP card or mobo problem ?

[monkeyboy74]

Hi, I decided to build a pc this year and it's been tough going so far...I started with an Iwill P4R533-N mobo and appropriate P4 chip - a 400 watt power supply, 1 gig of PC800 ram, cd and dvd burners + floppy. The first problem I encountered was installing Windows - I kept getting messages that certain files could not be installed etc. - It would eventually finish up but would give me the blue error screen and shut down whenever it tried to start up. We assumed it was a problem with the mobo since that was the only used item in the group. I bought a new, identical Iwill mobo and now it's a whole nother problem. Everything is hooked up but when the power is turned on I get a black screen on the monitor. It goes from the test mode into a suspended mode. The pc appears to be opperating fine. Both drives are lighting up but nothing appears on the monitor. I tried another monitor, but the same thing. The ATI radeon video card I'm using is the same one used on the previous mobo and worked fine but I went ahead and purchased a newer model anyway and still get the same result. Does anyone have any suggestions? Am I forgetting to do something? I've disconnected everything on the mobo and retraced my steps with no success. I'm about ready to give up.

 

[elfinster]

I've got a computer at work thats doing the same thing. If you find anything out let us know.

 

[RickM]

Hi,
First thing is you need to put the brakes on and chill out a little.
I do understand that when things go wrong we "ALL" get a little toasted.
There is an answer to your problem.
First thing... The first problem I encountered was installing Windows - I kept getting messages that certain files could not be installed etc.. Whatever these files that could not be installed are needed. The BLUE screen is known as the BLUE screen of death. Something is totally twisted up.
I bought a new, identical Iwill mobo and now it's a whole nother problem..
Try this.... go into the BIOS and tell it to BOOT from the CD ROM. Put your Windows Installation CD into the CD and reboot.
When you install WINDOWS you will need all of your driver discs to reinstall all your drivers for all of your peripherals. You will also need your mobo CD too.
I do not know what Windows O.S. your are trying to install .. 98 ? NT ? XP ? 2000 ?
If you are installing XP I reccomend you format in NTFS
For information on NTFS just click on this link...http://www.ntfs.com/
You are going to need to do a complete new install to get this to fire up.
I will check back to see how you are doing... also, I am sure many others will be giving you advice too.

 

[IronDuke]

It may be enough just to repair the installation or re-install over the top depending on the OS you're using.

 

[gbhall]

Do you get a boot screen?

It is not quite clear from your post if you get a boot-up bios screen when you switch on or not?

If you dont see anything, there is possibly a faulty mobo, or less likely, video card. Building your own PC, well, I hope you are fully aware of the need to keep yourself earthed, not to touch anything with metal circuits with your fingers, ensure no part of the mobo is touching metal of the case except via spacers designed for the purpose. People vary in how much static they hold - some people can handle anything, others blow a circuit just by looking at it.

If you do get a boot up bios screen, first thing is to go to each page and set to default options (there will be a way of doing this on every page). You see, possibly you have inadvertently got a bios setting incompatible with your processor, video or memory. In particular, if you are using an old video card, make sure your mobo is set to use AGP or PCI video, and not any on-board video: that would certainly give a black screen!

PS if installing Win 98 you should install without APCI support as most new mobos will crash out with it on.

install /p i

at a dos screen after booting from the CD and choosing to browse the CD

 

[Merc14]

The first problem I encountered was installing Windows - I kept getting messages that certain files could not be installed etc. - It would eventually finish up but would give me the blue error screen and shut down whenever it tried to start up. We assumed it was a problem with the mobo since that was the only used item in the group.

I believe that those files that could not be installed were driver files that weren't WHQL certified. No WHQL certification isn't generally a problem and when the message pops up saying "This driver is not WHQL certifid do you want to install...?(sic)" just say YES and let the installation continue. Since you are at ground zero anyways I would reformat the hard drive and start the XP installation from scratch (and say yes when a driver install is questioned). This will give you a nice clean XP install to start with.

Are you trying to install a RAID array? If so you'll need to create a special floppy with the RAID drivers on it and will have to hit F6 early in the XP install. One thing to check here is if the floppy drive light is on continuously. If it is then you need to flip the cable around on the back of the drive. This is a common error because the drive end of the cable is usually not coded in anyway.