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2007-06-29 04:15:09
bennisboy
Member
+829|7117|Poundland
Okay I'm absolutely screwed on our main PC. I was playing 2142, and when I came out, the screen was just black, with the white cursor in the middle. I thought Okay I'll just restart it. The windows splash screen comes up but when you get to the login page. Its just black with the white cursor. The thing is the computer is actually working fine apartf from that. Like you can actually login and here the sound of it logging in and the computer working. You just cant see nything. Dell's technical support is rubbish, but I'm pretty sur this is a video crd driver corruption. I really need help this time guys. I cant get it to work.

system specs:
Dell dimension 5100
1gb ram (stock)
256mb ati radeon x600
3.0ghz p4ht
windows xp sp2
2007-06-29 04:18:05
daddyofdeath
A REAL Combat Engineer in the house
+187|6724|UK Bradford W,Yorks. Age 27
Dont wanna insult your intellogence and state the obvious. But has your monitor had it?
Lol at Intellogence^^    lmfao, Im the dumb fcuk!!! I meant intelligence. Woweeeee. Glad I redeemed myself.....erm, I did redeem myself didn't I?

Last edited by daddyofdeath (2007-06-29 04:20:31)

2007-06-29 04:18:55
Jackabo
Member
+127|7029|Dublin, Ireland
Boot in safe mode. Try and find the problem, or you could ring up dell.
2007-06-29 04:23:44
bennisboy
Member
+829|7117|Poundland

daddyofdeath wrote:

Dont wanna insult your intellogence and state the obvious. But has your monitor had it?
no the monitor is fine. It shows the splash screen and then just the mouse. Looking at the Dell forum, there has been quite a few of theses errors. the general consensus is that it is a vieo card driver corruption. I'm pretty sure this is correct, because I remember when I accdently had 2 radeon drivers installed, it would cause this when the second one started up, but then I could log in and stop it from loading up. Here I cant even see the login page.

X-Ecuti0ner wrote:

Boot in safe mode. Try and find the problem, or you could ring up dell.
I cant actually remember how to boot in safe mode, its been such a long time since I had to. However looking at the dell foum apparently the same thing occurs, but with "safe mode" in white around the edges
2007-06-29 04:26:39
daddyofdeath
A REAL Combat Engineer in the house
+187|6724|UK Bradford W,Yorks. Age 27
Without seeing the screen you're pretty limited as to what you can do really. Have you got a spare monitor to try? Just to confirm it isn't your monitor thats broke. All I can suggest is same as executioner says. Boot in safe mode, but you cannot see the screen to activate it, or reformat. Wow, this is a tricky one.

Last edited by daddyofdeath (2007-06-29 04:27:07)

2007-06-29 04:39:17
bennisboy
Member
+829|7117|Poundland

daddyofdeath wrote:

Without seeing the screen you're pretty limited as to what you can do really. Have you got a spare monitor to try? Just to confirm it isn't your monitor thats broke. All I can suggest is same as executioner says. Boot in safe mode, but you cannot see the screen to activate it, or reformat. Wow, this is a tricky one.
yeah thats why I'm screwed. I'm not sure if theres actually anyway I can boot up in th command prompt mode and then delete the ATi driver. I'm pretty sure if I could this would mean it would revert to the stock driver, allowing me to see the screen and then install the ATi driver again
2007-06-29 04:42:59
t05h
Member
+2|6765
Press F8 after POST.  then select either SAFE MODE or ENABLE VGA mode. I'm pretty sure your vid drivers are fecked. You will need to uninstall then re-install your drivers
2007-06-29 04:50:59
daddyofdeath
A REAL Combat Engineer in the house
+187|6724|UK Bradford W,Yorks. Age 27
Not a very big tech person myself, but if you unplugged your video card and reinserted it, would this default it then restart?
2007-06-29 04:51:26
Twist
Too old to be doing this sh*t
+103|6994|Little blue planet, milky way
Thing is there's been quite a few problems with not only dell, but also one or two other manufacturers whos hardware "mysteriously" stop working after 18-24 months. Consumer groups estimate almost 15% complete systems failure after 18 months, and a whooping 20%+ after 24 months with the "worst" offenders. If this is intentional, or it's because they all use the same component that's just crappy, I cannot say. But I do know that it's led to quite a few product (laptop) recalls in parts of Europe where the warranty period IS 24 months in many countries. So you're not alone.

However, as you say yourself, it CAN be related to a video driver corruption problem. So first thing to try is an external monitor. If that doesn't work, then you'll probably have to restart in safe mode and see if you can remove your drivers, if THAT doesn't work, then you need to reinstall windows. If THAT doesn't work, then you're pretty screwed, as you then might have to try to format the PC before installing (hope you have a backup or a spare drive). And if THAT doesn't work either, then you're pretty certain you have a hardware problem, and you will need to have a decent technician look at it. I wouldn't recommend PC surgery on a laptop as your first DIY experience.
2007-06-29 04:56:06
bennisboy
Member
+829|7117|Poundland
I'm on the dell live chat site atm. I've got the login page up again. Now I just need to get the drivers re-installed
cheers guys. I'll let you know if it works
2007-06-29 04:57:13
daddyofdeath
A REAL Combat Engineer in the house
+187|6724|UK Bradford W,Yorks. Age 27

bennisboy wrote:

I'm on the dell live chat site atm. I've got the login page up again. Now I just need to get the drivers re-installed
cheers guys. I'll let you know if it works
exe.Good luck buddy
2007-06-29 07:04:43
bennisboy
Member
+829|7117|Poundland
wooo! I succeeded. Longer than I thought it would be. Tried to uninstall the current drivers in safe mode, but it wouldnt let me. So I had to disable my graphics card in the device manager, then reboot, forcing it to start using the onboard graphics. Then uninstalled the ATi drivers, restart, re-install drivers, restart and done! yay

 

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