Black screen of death

[royalk4]

So this morning was I booted up fine and plugged in my printer and started to print a paper and left the comp for like 2 mins while the print job was going. When i came back there were only 3 pages of the paper printed out and my screen had gone black.

I thought weird and restarted. When trying to restart I get the WIndows Xp screen with the blue loading bar underneath and then my monitor light goes from green to orange. I restarted again and was able to load windows in safe mode but not normally. DOes anyone know what might have happend. I'm thinking that my HD might have just gone kaputz on me but I don't know why that would happen at such a random time. Please help!

 

[stevty2889]

I think the problem could be related to what you have after the *** in your sig..crappy PSU..if the hard drive went bad, you wouldn't have been able to boot in to safe mode either..did you make any recent changes to the system?

 

[imported_Tick]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
I think the problem could be related to what you have after the *** in your sig..crappy PSU..if the hard drive went bad, you wouldn't have been able to boot in to safe mode either..did you make any recent changes to the system?

I'm thinking the same thing. That's a very good first bet of thing to try. Replace it with a decent one and report back.

 

[royalk4]

I haven't updated my sig in a while but I currently have a forton 450 PSU and am able to boot into safe mode. I've looked at the error log in the management control and found numerous disk errors so I am currently running a diskchk to see what it comes up with.

 

[Cheezeit]

Prolly a HDD problem then. I would say your PSU is fine.

 

[imported_Tick]

Originally posted by: royalk4
I haven't updated my sig in a while but I currently have a forton 450 PSU and am able to boot into safe mode. I've looked at the error log in the management control and found numerous disk errors so I am currently running a diskchk to see what it comes up with.

In light of the new info, I'm thinking a hdd or controller problem.

 

[royalk4]

I'm almost positive myself that it's a HD problem. What would case the HD to suddenly stop working is what I am most curious about. It was worked flawlessly for 4 years and all of a sudden stops? That seems weird to me.

 

[crazylegs]

seems like HD to my limited experience... very similar thing happened to me when my Maxtor packed in...

1st PC froze...

2nd would only get into Windows in safe-mode

3rd would only work as a data/ non-os disk - so thankfully i could save lots of data!!!

RECONMEND YOU STOP USING THE DRIVE AND BACKUP ANY IMPORTANT DATA IT MIGHT BE STORING !!!

good luck

 

[Steven the Leech]

What kind of monitor do you have?

 

[royalk4]

Dell 1704. I don't think it's a monitor problem because it works when I reboot. I get to the windows screen where the blue bar is loading underneath and I can go to the BIOS if I need but I can't get all the way to WIndows. If I get a new HDD is there a way to load my windows w.O the CD's those are back at my house and I'm like 80 mi from there?

 

[jondl]

Make sure that your Windows isn't booting up. Listen for the windows startup sound and if you do hear it then there is nothing wrong with your hard disk.. i would say bad vga config. Try going into safe/vga mode and reinstall monitor/gfx drivers.

 

[Markbnj]

I think this is far more likely to be a problem with Windows than with any of the hardware, and I am mystified by the hard disk diagnosis. It's possible, I guess, that a particular spot on the platters went bad in the middle of a file that isn't needed in safe mode, but it seems pretty unlikely.

I would try reinstalling Windows before I assumed a hardware problem in this case.

 

[Steven the Leech]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
I think this is far more likely to be a problem with Windows than with any of the hardware, and I am mystified by the hard disk diagnosis. It's possible, I guess, that a particular spot on the platters went bad in the middle of a file that isn't needed in safe mode, but it seems pretty unlikely.

I would try reinstalling Windows before I assumed a hardware problem in this case.

Ya I doubt it is your monitor, I was just wondering if possibly there was a resolution the monitor couldnt handle [I have seen this happen with some smaller CRT, the resolution was changed for various reasons]. I would definitely backup, 1st reinstall windows, 2nd Look at power supply [may have gone bad-questionable] or hard drive, it could be a number of things though, including motherboard/RAM/video card. You really should reinstall windows before you make any purchases. It should be easy enough to run diagnostics on the hard drive [manufacturers website has downloads] and RAM [memtest].

 

[raildogg]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
I think the problem could be related to what you have after the *** in your sig..crappy PSU..if the hard drive went bad, you wouldn't have been able to boot in to safe mode either..did you make any recent changes to the system?

Are you for real? That is one of the better power supplies around.

 

[SparkyJJO]

have you tried booting xp not in safe mode but enabling vga mode??? that will drop the resolution/refresh to 649x480@60Hz, just in case something messed up resolution wise. If it boots fine, stick the resolution and refresh rate where it belongs and be happy But keep an eye on it

 

[royalk4]

I ran dskchk and it finished and then said that the disk was fine and then just sat there. It wouldn't proceed to the next screen or anything. The PSU that the first post said were crappy was my old PSU not the new Forton I bought last week. Also what mode of boot is vga mode. It give me the option of safe mode(no boot), safe mode with networking(no boot) safe mode with command prompt(haven't tried) Last known good config(no boot) and windows normally(no boot).

I have my windows disk being sent to me from my house. I'm at school now so they should be here in 2 days.

Thank you all for the help. If you have more responses after this post that would be great. I also ordered a new SATA HDD just in case, current one is IDE. If it is just a windows booting problem I've read, I think, that the SATA has to be the primary and the IDE has to be the slave, is that the case?

I listen for windows to boot up but no sounds or anything. I hear the HDD and it sounds like it's grinding or trying to boot but it won't. Kinda like when you put a scratch cd into a cd drive and you hear it rev up 3-4 times.

 

[jondl]

Originally posted by: Steven the Leech

Originally posted by: Markbnj
I think this is far more likely to be a problem with Windows than with any of the hardware, and I am mystified by the hard disk diagnosis. It's possible, I guess, that a particular spot on the platters went bad in the middle of a file that isn't needed in safe mode, but it seems pretty unlikely.

I would try reinstalling Windows before I assumed a hardware problem in this case.

Ya I doubt it is your monitor, I was just wondering if possibly there was a resolution the monitor couldnt handle [I have seen this happen with some smaller CRT, the resolution was changed for various reasons]. I would definitely backup, 1st reinstall windows, 2nd Look at power supply [may have gone bad-questionable] or hard drive, it could be a number of things though, including motherboard/RAM/video card. You really should reinstall windows before you make any purchases. It should be easy enough to run diagnostics on the hard drive [manufacturers website has downloads] and RAM [memtest].

That was my assumption as well. If you can boot into safe mode, i would suggest saving necessary files while you still can and make sure your resolution/hertz, drivers, etc are correct. An LCD's refresh rate does not matter but maybe somehow a program changed the rate on your lcd to something it cannot handle. Try something along those lines. If nothing works then you will most likely have to reinstall windows and if all else fails, swap parts from a friend with a similar setup and go from there. Your problem is very vague and this is probably as much help you can get here without doing manual trial and error. Also, if your hard disk is making unfamiliar noises like clicking then it probably is your hard drive like you assumed in the beginning.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: raildogg

Originally posted by: stevty2889
I think the problem could be related to what you have after the *** in your sig..crappy PSU..if the hard drive went bad, you wouldn't have been able to boot in to safe mode either..did you make any recent changes to the system?

Are you for real? That is one of the better power supplies around.

He changed his sig..it originaly had some ***in the end saying he was using a cheapo generic PSU that came with the case. Yes, the fortron is one of the best PSU's around, I am using one myself..

 

[AMCRambler]

Definitely the hard drive. I'm guessing the video drivers are located in the sector of the disk that went bad. I've had this happen too. As a result, Windows will not load in normal mode since it can't get to the vid drivers. However, safe mode doesn't load the graphics drivers so it's fine. I would get a new drive asap, load it up with a fresh install of your OS, and then hook the bad drive up as a slave and copy your files over. Don't keep running on the bad drive if there's anything on there you want to save. It will eventually fail completely.

 

[royalk4]

Will I need a program to copy the old files to the New HDD, assuming of course I can still access them?