Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - My computer will not not go beyond ASUS screen at startup. Please help!

PyroGuy · 03-04-2005, 11:15 PM

Athlon XP Barton 2500+
512 MB ram
WinXP
Radeon9600 & nVidea Geforce4 4200

I'm having a similar problem; it occured in trying to switch video cards from the Radeon to the Geforce. Similar issues to problems people were having at past thread Blank Screen with GeForce FX 5200 ...I know it is NOT due to spyware or virus because I have had BOTH these video cards installed on the same machine before, and have not been connected to the internet for 6 months, and have Norton (02 I think) with relatively recent virus definitions (from early 04). Never had a problem like this before. Shows memory test and bios info, (when nvidea card is in, displays nvidea info first, as is standard), then starting windows screen, then blank-screens as soon as it should show my password screen and desktop. Signal is still being sent through, I managed to log onto desktop by clicking blindly and entering password until I heard the logon to windows chimes, still no picture.

This began happening when I tried to uninstall radeon and use nvidea card. Setting BIOS to VGA mode does NOT work--same problem. I've set BIOS to both AGP and PCI, still no luck. Both cards are AGP. Starting into Safe mode from the F8 menu causes the same problem Poppin Fresh described--repeating DOS-looking text, though I don't remember the exact name of the file/directory listed. I tried every option from F8 menu, and they all blank screened. I think a few may have caused repeated line problem that safe mode did.

Anyone know if there's a way to read from a CD BEFORE starting into Windows? As of now I can't reinstall anything, nor change any settings in Windows. I think I went through improper procedure in uninstalling/changing video cards. FIRST began uninstalling ATI software, but there were several programs; I'm not sure which were drivers and which were software helpers like Catalyst. First did Win control panel un-inst, then ran ATI un-inst all ATI software program. Didn't fully remove all, however. Then swapped video cards. Geforce was still running @ higher res that VGA mode can't. Re-inst and un-inst ATI software & ATI DRIVER software. DRIVER SOFTWARE was just listed as "directX 9." I did not think it possible to UNinstall directX, so the uninstall may have done nothing. I chose DON'T restart right away, and then from DEVICE MANAGER, chose disable device driver for video card.

After this point couldn't start into windows. I didn't think disabling video card device disables basic 16-color VGA mode (or whatever, I'm not sure of exact technical term, but there have been loads of times I've been using an advanced video card with no drivers installed that picture still goes through @ 640X480 16-color). Neither card will start into windows. Any help would be much appreciated.

03-04-2005, 11:15 PM	#3 (permalink)
PyroGuy Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 2 OS: WinXP	similar problem, no spyware Athlon XP Barton 2500+ 512 MB ram WinXP Radeon9600 & nVidea Geforce4 4200 I'm having a similar problem; it occured in trying to switch video cards from the Radeon to the Geforce. Similar issues to problems people were having at past thread Blank Screen with GeForce FX 5200 ...I know it is NOT due to spyware or virus because I have had BOTH these video cards installed on the same machine before, and have not been connected to the internet for 6 months, and have Norton (02 I think) with relatively recent virus definitions (from early 04). Never had a problem like this before. Shows memory test and bios info, (when nvidea card is in, displays nvidea info first, as is standard), then starting windows screen, then blank-screens as soon as it should show my password screen and desktop. Signal is still being sent through, I managed to log onto desktop by clicking blindly and entering password until I heard the logon to windows chimes, still no picture. This began happening when I tried to uninstall radeon and use nvidea card. Setting BIOS to VGA mode does NOT work--same problem. I've set BIOS to both AGP and PCI, still no luck. Both cards are AGP. Starting into Safe mode from the F8 menu causes the same problem Poppin Fresh described--repeating DOS-looking text, though I don't remember the exact name of the file/directory listed. I tried every option from F8 menu, and they all blank screened. I think a few may have caused repeated line problem that safe mode did. Anyone know if there's a way to read from a CD BEFORE starting into Windows? As of now I can't reinstall anything, nor change any settings in Windows. I think I went through improper procedure in uninstalling/changing video cards. FIRST began uninstalling ATI software, but there were several programs; I'm not sure which were drivers and which were software helpers like Catalyst. First did Win control panel un-inst, then ran ATI un-inst all ATI software program. Didn't fully remove all, however. Then swapped video cards. Geforce was still running @ higher res that VGA mode can't. Re-inst and un-inst ATI software & ATI DRIVER software. DRIVER SOFTWARE was just listed as "directX 9." I did not think it possible to UNinstall directX, so the uninstall may have done nothing. I chose DON'T restart right away, and then from DEVICE MANAGER, chose disable device driver for video card. After this point couldn't start into windows. I didn't think disabling video card device disables basic 16-color VGA mode (or whatever, I'm not sure of exact technical term, but there have been loads of times I've been using an advanced video card with no drivers installed that picture still goes through @ 640X480 16-color). Neither card will start into windows. Any help would be much appreciated. Last edited by PyroGuy; 03-04-2005 at 11:22 PM.