screen goes black during boot

CA_Tone · 01-14-2009, 11:20 AM

I am working on a customer's computer and I'm a bit stumped. During the boot sequence (right after displaying the windows XP logo with status bar) the screen goes black. It continues processing (the front LED flashes & the mouse/keyboard LEDs stay on). At first I thought that it was either PSU or video card related, so I attempted to boot into safe mode just to make sure. Well, it boots fine into safe mood with no display problems. I then figured that it must be software related and ran something called a "re-image" (from reimage.com). After running this I still have the same problem. I am gonna try the new PSU while i wait for a response, but if that doesn't work, what should I try?

specs:
HP Pavilion a1410n
AMD 64 Athlon

**Dunedin** · 01-14-2009, 03:46 PM

Hello CA_Tone

I think this will be a driver, possibly the video driver.

Boot into Safe Mode and check these for problems
1. Right click My Computer / Properties / Hardware / Device Manager.
Look for "Yellow" errors
Check out the video driver here

2. Control Panel / Performance and Maintenance / Admin Tools / Event Viewer / System.
Look for "Red" errors. Double click on error.
Take a note of the Event ID and also the Source and post them back.

.

dai · 01-14-2009, 05:09 PM

either the video driver is not installed or there is not enough power to to run it
it's at this point where it hands over to the video card

01-14-2009, 11:20 AM	#1 (permalink)
CA_Tone Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 83 OS: XP SP3/ Linux Ubuntu 8.04 LTS desktop	screen goes black during boot I am working on a customer's computer and I'm a bit stumped. During the boot sequence (right after displaying the windows XP logo with status bar) the screen goes black. It continues processing (the front LED flashes & the mouse/keyboard LEDs stay on). At first I thought that it was either PSU or video card related, so I attempted to boot into safe mode just to make sure. Well, it boots fine into safe mood with no display problems. I then figured that it must be software related and ran something called a "re-image" (from reimage.com). After running this I still have the same problem. I am gonna try the new PSU while i wait for a response, but if that doesn't work, what should I try? specs: HP Pavilion a1410n AMD 64 Athlon

01-14-2009, 03:46 PM	#2 (permalink)
Dunedin Mentor Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Over the Forth from Edinburgh, Scotland Posts: 3,600 OS: WinXP Pro/Windows7 RTM Ultimate	Re: screen goes black during boot Hello CA_Tone I think this will be a driver, possibly the video driver. Boot into Safe Mode and check these for problems 1. Right click My Computer / Properties / Hardware / Device Manager. Look for "Yellow" errors Check out the video driver here 2. Control Panel / Performance and Maintenance / Admin Tools / Event Viewer / System. Look for "Red" errors. Double click on error. Take a note of the Event ID and also the Source and post them back. . __________________

01-14-2009, 05:09 PM	#3 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 56,609 OS: win 7 32x 64x rtm	Re: screen goes black during boot either the video driver is not installed or there is not enough power to to run it it's at this point where it hands over to the video card __________________