Windows XP startup problem (black screen)

[N3051M]

Windows will default to its generic VGA drivers (among others) when you access it from safe mode. In other words, you're already there.

Download the latest or most stable drivers from the nVidia website for your graphics card, and the latest Directx, then install it in safe mode

or

Go to device manager>Video adaptors and change/rollback the drivers from there,

 

[ArcNatural]

I managed to find VGA mode. This is my issue: While I can go in safe mode, both VGA mode and normal both create a black screen after startup. I can't change the screen resolution or Hz rate in safe mode as trying to apply or save just resets it the next time I load. Any strategies to getting around this? I have tried removing and downloading new drivers for the nvidia card (just display only, can sound drivers also create this problem?). Anyone know what to do if VGA mode also gets blackscreened? Also I disabled automatic restart to see if I could read the error screen. It basically said that comp has shut down due to error and the technical code was:
** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xF61764BC, 0xF79F72D0, 0xF79F6FCC)
I'm not sure if that will help anyone recognize the problem but hopefully it might.
Thanks for the help.

 

[N3051M]

You can try this Windows Repair.

How to: Repair Windows XP/2000 if you are unable to boot into Windows

This will default all your drivers to window's generic set.

 

[oldrottenhead]

black screen after start up

hi i am havng same problem, i cannot start in safe mode or anything am asked to choose start up option but all end up with black screen or in safe mode endless scrolls of prompt commands then screen stops with prompt commands, luckily my wireles network still works so i can access net via laptop.

help

 

[Idz21]

I'm having the same black screen problem, but windows doesn't seem to start up normally because there are no sounds at all, and pressing the power button doesn't shut down. I haven't installed anything new recently. It was running fine 2 hours ago, locked up and after I reset it started doing this. I can't start in Normal or Safe Mode, it does the same. I waited to see if the display came on and it reset after a while, giving a very short glimpse of a blue screen. At the moment i'm just trying to repair the Windows installation.

My specs:
Custom-built desktop PC

OS: Windows XP SP1
Processor: AMD AthlonXP 64-bit 3000+
Graphics: ATI RADEON 9600XT 256MB
Memory: 1024MB DDR400 RAM
Display: Tektronix 19" CRT Monitor

I'm in the same boat as you my friend. PC was working perfectly fine, and all of a sudden I was getting the explorer.exe file taking up 100% of CPU usage. I go to restart the PC, and haven't been able to get in since. Both normal and Safe Mode yield a blank login screen. In Safemode I can see the Safemode signs at the edges of the screen, but no login box. I don't think this is a video card problem.

 

[N3051M]

if you can access recovery console with the windows xp cd then try it. Use the command sfc /scannow just incase that its a corrupted windows file.

do you remember what you were doing before/while this problem happened? and if you made any changes to your system?

 

[Idz21]

if you can access recovery console with the windows xp cd then try it. Use the command sfc /scannow just incase that its a corrupted windows file.

do you remember what you were doing before/while this problem happened? and if you made any changes to your system?

ok I'm back. My issue was that I had a virus on my computer which wasn't allowing me to boot into windows.

I hooked up an extra hard drive to the system, installed an OS on it, and ran anti virus to clean out the affected drive. One of the files that the virus had affected was the kernel32 file which is probably what was really causing my issues.

The weird thing is that I wasn't really doing anything when I got infected. I was merely trying out a USB Flash Drive and a USB Mp3 player that I had just received in the mail. Quite strange, but that's microsoft for you.

 

[da_prodigy]

black screen!

wow where to start... Im having similar problems to all the ones stated above as in the black screen first and foremost.. I uninstalled my onboard graphics driver cuz i wanted to install a new video card (geforce7900)...however, i found out i needed a new PSU cuz of the card's requirements...so i just tried to use the card just to see if i could quickly install its drivers.. anyway i turned the pc on and after the XP logo, it went into a blank screen. I've tried almost everything: VGA mood, safe mood wont work...as far as im concerned the old graphic drivers are gone and arent interfering (i dont see a BIOS setting for disenabling it)....when i tried safemood, it went thru a list of some sort and just froze at something.sys and then nothing happened...
Please help..i believe its cuz i uninstalled the onboard graphics and so the pc just has no video display drivers at all...how can i jus get my pc to run so i can install it back or install ANYTHING at all...please help!!!!

 

[cyrusjumpjet]

Must I run at 60Hz??

Hello all,
I was having a similar sort of problem with my computer, specs listed below:

Pentium 4 2.8C
1.5gig DDR SDRAM (4 sticks)
Radeon 9800 Pro All-in-Wonder 128mb
Viewsonic VG1930wm 19" Widescreen LCD (Digital)
Antec True480 480watt PSU

I got the black screen after the Windows loading screen and nothing seemed to help. Finally after reading previous posts, I tried booting into VGA Mode and it worked! Evidently, I can run the monitor at its native 1440x900 resolution, but as soon as I bump the refresh rate up to 75hz, it either freaks out immediately (screen is highly distorted) or it will repeat the black screen problem upon the next restart.

It seems that I am forever doomed to run this monitor at 60Hz. My question is this: I'm pretty sure both my LCD and video card are designed to run at that resolution and refresh rate, so is something broken?? Why can't I run at 75Hz??
Thanks in advance for any information people can provide.

 

[scrazzy]

I had the same problem, blank screen...here is my solution that worked for me:

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 810092
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810092/en-us



I had problems with WinXP Professional. I entered BIOS and changed Primary Graphic Slot from AGP to PCI..then my system started normally even if i have AGP graphics card.

I don't like Mrkfosoft Windowz

 

[talkout]

Having the same problem, only for Windows

Hi all,
I have got the same problem. I saw a lot of solutions which I'm gonna try now.
But before I wanna say something.
I have a dual boot with Linux. This problem comes only for my Windows XP SP2. The Linux works properly. So I don't think this might be a hardware problem
I'll be back if I can solve my problem.
Bye.

 

[yellowputty]

I had this very same problem, possible answer (mine was this):

Go into BIOS and change 'Primary Video' to AGP (Instead of PCI). This could work either way I guess, if you have a PCI GFX card.

Hope this helps.

 

[hyouden]

Hi all... .

I recently had a problem with my Toshiba Satellite laptop.

When i booted the system up, after the windows logo, the screen just goes black with the mouse slightly enlarged. I tried booting it up in every mode possible but it just didnt work out for me. I even set all the BIOS to default. I'm so desperate right now because i'm not sure i want to do a system recover as all my important documents might be lost.

Does anyone know what i should do?

Thanks.

 

[urbandragon]

If you are getting to the windows XP splash screen you should not have to do a recover of your o/s

When u said you tried all modes. Please explain

Were you able to get into safe mode successfully? IF you were able to set the video adapter to default screen resolution.


An alternative would be to try hooking your laptop up to physical second monitor to see if it gets video.

you may be able to disable the lcd onboard monitor and boot into windows using a second monitor. NOTE: DO not try disabling the onboard monitor until you are 100% sure you do get an active video from the the external monitor.

 

[hyouden]

I dont know what you meant by 'set the video adapter to default screen resolution'. I think i did when i went into the bios configuration and set it all to default.

I went into all modes (eg. VGA, Safe mode,...) but nothing works and only a black screen comes up with the words 'safe mode' on it, if i was using safe mode.

btw, thanks for your reply.

 

[urbandragon]

give it some time. when safe mode comes up in all 4 corners it is loading into safe mode. you will be prompted to either restore your pc using system restore or to continue to safe mode.

Just go on into safe mode. It will look just like "Normal" but a bit altered

once you have your desktop right click anywhere on your desktop click properties then go to the settings tab.

Set your screen resolution to 800x600 and apply and save settings. Then reboot

 

[Story]

Samr PRoblem - Slight Tweak!

Hi People, Ive read through this entire thread hoping to find a solution to my problem but ,

My problem is also a black screen, but instead of it being just after the windows load up - it begins as soon as I turn on my PC. It only just started happening maybe a week ago. [and in that time Im pretty sure Ive not dl'd anything or made any significant settings changes]. The first time it happened, pulling out the connection to my monitor from my tower and replacing it brought my screen back on and this is the solution I use every day now. BUT... the time it takes for this solution to work from when I turn on my PC is growing and growing. Today it took maybe 10 minutes of pulling out the connection and putting it back in for my screen to stay on.

My system is..
AMD 3200 32 Bit
GF 6600 128 [G'Force Drivers]
1 gig RAM
Windows Xp SP2 [fully updated]

I dont really know what else to say. I actualyl have no clue about things when it comes to PC's so Im hoping for some sort of magical fix Any ideas please lemme know. Thanks In Advance. x

 

[N3051M]

either your monitor is going out the door or your graphics card has a problem. Easy to test the monitor against another PC to verify its good so do that first. Also check for damage on the pins like bent/missing etc (as i remember there should only be two pins missing only)

Then have a look at your graphics card. If it needs extra power, your PSU must be able to handle it. If its old, then it may be dieing..

That should get you started, post on how you go.

 

[stuck732]

Okay, well here's my problem. I will try to give as much detail as possible. This was on a Dell Latitude D820.
It all started when I was downloading something to a usb drive. When the download was finished, I pulled out the USB drive(as I had other times), all of a sudden the blue error screen comes up. Usually, it says stuff like Found New Hardware when you insert your USB drive in other computers, maybe this has something to do with drivers? The error said IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL, with some stop numbers. So I go online on another computer and tried various things.

Did F8, safe mode, system restore -- no go
Did F8, safe mode, tried to change display settings to lower resolution but they wouldn't let me change them, said something about default
Did F8, enter VGA mode -- nope couldn't get it to work, would just be a black screen without the blue error coming up
Did F8, revert to last working settings -- nope, black screen comes up
I sure that this has nothing to do with Reed pin or whatever it is called
Now if I just simply hard boot the labtop, it will get PAST the blue splash screen and to a black screen(note the blue error doesn't come up anymore, or I just cant see it maybe because of the black screen)

I know I can still rollback drivers/uninstall them, but I don't think that is necessary right? I mean, what prompted this was just me pulling out a usb drive. Any suggestions? Also, as one of the earlier posts said
"Go into BIOS and change 'Primary Video' to AGP (Instead of PCI). This could work either way I guess, if you have a PCI GFX card."
I will try this later tonight.


Edit: One more thing, I don't have access to the main install CD or what it's called. And when I was going into safe mode, I was logging into an inferior account, because I don't know the password to the Admin. account. Maybe if I logged into the Admin somehow, I could change the display and refresh settings?

 

[stuck732]

The problem was solved. My friend came and simply restored it back a few days(I only did one day), and it was able to reboot just fine. So hopefully it'll stay like this, and thanks anyway.

 

[N3051M]

great to hear its all solved and everything.. sorry about not replying earlier, life caught up to me...

and about the usb drives thing, always use the safe remove hardware feature in windows if you don't already use it because sometimes the PC's still writing to the device when you've just unplugged it. Its one of those "helps you not to crap anything" applications..

 

[joshisakson]

MY SOLUTION: After it went black and I heard the XP sound I hit the function key and the LCD/CRT key, which was FN+F3 on my gateway, on my compaq it would have been FN+F4. It will either say LCD/CRT or you will see a picture of the monitor plug, like the blue one found on the back of your computer. I hope this works for everyone!

 

[davidadams]

Black Screen and Blue Screen with Fatal Error!

I think I may have a unique problem to bring to the "Black Screen" debate. I foolishly changed my screen to 120dpi after re-installing my Windows XP Home Edition SP1. Now I have the same Black Screen as everyone else but when I boot in Safe Mode I get a Blue Screen which says FATAL ERROR! :dead:

PLEASE PLEASE SOMEBODY REPLY TODAY!!!

Many Many Thanks in advance. :

 

[Attwj]

Black Screen

Hi guys,

Im hoping you can help me. i have made no major hardware changes but am still having the black screen problem! Unlinke many other i cannot load my desktop in safe mode, vga mode etc

I get the bios and xp boot screen but after that all i get is sounds of everything loading but no screen.

I did a couple of days ago run damn small linux on my pc through an iso on a disc and wonder if this may have altered any of my display settings ?

Many thanks in advance !

 

[Gizmobyte]

I also had a Dell notebook which exhibited the same problems, i.e. boot part way into XP and screen goes black. Thanks to the poster who mentioned about on laptops to pull out the little tab that sticks up and is depressed when the lid is closed. I pushed this in with my fingers and it seemed to go in but I got some pliers and pulled up on it and, presto, the laptop showed the XP login. I fixed it so it wouldn't get stuck again (i.e. hot glue).