Display turns of at boot up - only safe mode works

  • Thread starter Thread starter =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ren=E9_Jensen?=
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=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Ren=E9_Jensen?=

Hi guys,

I have installed Vista on a seperate partition and I am fairly happy
with it. However, a few days after I installed it, it sort of stopped
working. What happens is that when it normally goes from the boot up
resolution to the custom resolution that I have chosen (1280x960) the
monitor just turns off (and I actually don't know if the PC is still
alive - there seems to be some harddisk activity, but not like if it
where logging me in).

At first I thought it had something to do with the display driver
(Radeon 9600), but I can't boot in VGA mode either. However I can boot
in safe mode, so I am able to do some debugging if only I was smart
enough. I hope I can get some advice on how to figure out what the
problem is. Is there anywhere that I can see what has caused the PC to
turn on the monitor?

Thanks in advance,
René
 
Hi René,

At a guess, I'd say either the display adapter has been disabled or the
resolution is not supported. These are tricky, as changes cannot be made in
safe mode to fix it. What I've done sometimes in the past is to trace out
the steps in safe mode, then repeat them in normal mode while the screen is
blank to reset the resolution.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Had very similar problem yesterday after installing on a new machine.
Everything was perfectly fine until I adjusted the screen refresh rate.
For some reason the screen decided it didn't support the new rate. What
happens in XP is that if this happens you can just hit escape to cancel
the new settings or wait 15 seconds and they will revert back. Not so in
5384 on my machine at any rate.

So I had no display. I restarted the machine and tried VGA mode... same
problem. I restarted and went to safe mode where I couldn't change the
refresh rate..... so eventually I found that....

from safe mode go to device manager and disable the display adapter.
Then I could boot normally into windows. Then go to device manager again
and found that if I just enabled the adapter I was back with the same
problem. So instead of enabling I went to Nvidia and downloaded their
Vista drivers and installed them. Restarted and all fine. But I think
the problem wasn't so much the driver as the way Vista implements
changes to display settings.
 
Rene--

There actually is a way to test your video driver in safe mode, That's one avenue. I'd be inclinded to try Startup Repair first though. Another thing in the differential of a monitor going out is always a cold solder joint (connection in the monitor although it's relatively uncommon).

This MSKB will work in Vista I believe:

How to troubleshoot the video adapter driver in Safe mode in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292460/en-us

I think Rick was referring to the fact that Safe Mode doesn't have the MSI loaded, so you can't install when you're in safe mode although I can get an already downloaded XP SP2 in for some reason in safe mode.

In addition to testing your video driver (it could as you know and as any driver can--corrupt at any time. My sound driver corrupted on a Vista boot the other day, and while reinstalling should have ended the problem I had to reinstall *after cleaning out all its files including its .inf files before it would work. But this is an old legacy driver (Turtle Beach) that hasn't even been made for years. Sure works fine once in.

In addition to testing the video driver, my first move would be to try to run Startup Repair because it has the capacity to fix a broken driver and many other things--just restart with the Vista DVD in and you'll get to it at the lower left of your setup screen--the link will say *System Recovery Options

If you have a Vista DVD, there is a promising "feature" or utility in Vista
called Win RE or Windows Recovery Environment.

If you run Win RE's Startup Repair in Vista, it will try to check and repair the following and we're taking about under three minutes usually when it works which is often: (this is not a complete list but a list of major tasks it can perform):

Registry Corruptions

Missing/corrupt driver files (you don't have to guess here--it looks at all of them

Missing/corrupt system files (disabled in Beta 2 as is System File Checker but present newer builds)
Incompatible Driver Installation

Incompatible OS update installations

Startup Repair may offer a dialogue box to use System restore.



***Accessing Windows RE (Repair Environment):***

1) Insert Media into PC (the DVD you burned)

2) ***You will see on the Vista logo setup screen after lang. options in the
lower left corner, a link called "System Recovery Options."***

3) Select your OS for repair.

4) Its been my experience that you can see some causes of the crash from
theWin RE feature:

You'll have a choice there of using:

1) Startup Repair
2) System Restore
3) Complete PC Restore


Good luck,

CH
 
Try uninstalling your antivirus software in Safe Mode. I and some others
have noticed such problems with EZ Trust Antivirus in particular that
resolve after removal.
 
Bernie skrev:
from safe mode go to device manager and disable the display adapter.
Then I could boot normally into windows. Then go to device manager again
and found that if I just enabled the adapter I was back with the same
problem. So instead of enabling I went to Nvidia and downloaded their
Vista drivers and installed them. Restarted and all fine. But I think
the problem wasn't so much the driver as the way Vista implements
changes to display settings.
Click to expand...

OK, disabling the graphics adapter enables me to start up the PC in
normal mode. I then uninstalled the ATI software, but when I try to
reinstall it, it just says that the software is already installed - even
though in uninstalled it, and it is no longer available in the programs
list. After it says that the software is already installed it requires a
reboot, and then the problem is back. I wonder if there is any way I can
"force" the ATI installer to install the software? Maybe I just need to
delete the right file.

Any ideas?

TIA,
René
 
Mike Williams skrev:
Try uninstalling your antivirus software in Safe Mode. I and some others
have noticed such problems with EZ Trust Antivirus in particular that
resolve after removal.
Click to expand...

I have avast - I will try to install this.

BR,
René
 
That is the same problem I had. My solution was to install a different
version of the driver not just uninstall and then reinstall.
 
Bernie skrev:

OK, disabling the graphics adapter enables me to start up the PC in
normal mode. I then uninstalled the ATI software, but when I try to
reinstall it, it just says that the software is already installed - even
though in uninstalled it, and it is no longer available in the programs
list. After it says that the software is already installed it requires a
reboot, and then the problem is back. I wonder if there is any way I can
"force" the ATI installer to install the software? Maybe I just need to
delete the right file.
Click to expand...

After you uninstalled the ATI software, you looked through
\windows\system32 for files from ATI? Use detailed view in Explorer and
add a column for company. Also, do a search in the \windows\inf folder
for ATI and OEM inf files referencing your video card. Then look in the
\windows\installer and \program files\Installshield Installation
Information\<some number> at the .ini files and see if any refer to your
ATI installation. I think if you delete all those referring files, there
can't be anything to balk at a new installation, except for references
still remaining in the registry.
 
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