Fresh Win 7 load- Video drops out after Windows start

mistercrabby

Senior member
Mar 9, 2013
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Folks, need a hand from the AT technical wizards.

Got a new 500gig disk to do a reinstall. All other components the same. The initial load went fine. The restart from disk to finish the install is where i'm stuck. The video picks up at bios as normal, the signal continues into Windows boot and just before what should be the next part of the setup, the video signal drops out. It just sits at a black screen.

Asus P5N-e SLI
Core2 8400
4 Gig Corsair ddr 2 800
ATI 4000 series PCIe
Win 7 Ultimate

Tried the following-
Went back to default BIOS
Hit the F8 Menu and selected low res video
Reseated the video card (yes, all the power cables are connected)
F8 low res again
Went to bed

Any ideas?
 
Last edited:

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
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248
106
Couple of ideas:

1. Is there video in safe mode? If so, go into Programs and Features and see if Windows installed a video card driver, either in the main menu or in the installed updates section.

2. If your video card has dual output, try using the other one.
 

mistercrabby

Senior member
Mar 9, 2013
962
53
91
Thanks Ketch.

1. the install isn't complete and won't go into safe mode. when i try that a message comes up saying something to that effect, and to restart.

2. works fine out of either side up until the point it should pick up the Windows setup.
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
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248
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If it were me, I would check my BIOS settings and just try another install from scratch. Hard to tell exactly where it went wrong at that point. Anything meaningful that led to the fresh install?
 

mistercrabby

Senior member
Mar 9, 2013
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OK, I tried a couple of things and got a little further.

I used the 7000 series Radeon from my son's PC and my rig picked it up and went right into the rest of the Windows setup. I downloaded the Catalyst drivers from the ATI website and shut down.

Put my card in and restarted. No dice! Stops right before the login screen comes up.

Restarted and hit F8 and selected low res video. Same deal.

Restarted and hit f8 and selected Safe Mode w/ networking. Got some action! Went into login page, got the desktop.

Looked at device manager. The card is listed. Tried to update the card with the Catalyst drivers i downloaded and it comes and says i already have the latest.

Restarted. No luck.

F8 again. Reinstalled the Catalyst suite. Nope.

F8 again. Loaded the beta driver. During install it says it couldn't load the detection driver and fails. Could be due to safe mode.

So now i'm stuck again. Any ideas welcome!!
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
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248
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I haven't kept up with AMD cards very well, but what kinds of outputs are on that card? My thinking is:
A. there is something wrong with the card that isn't used until the drivers tell Windows how to use it, or
B. the drivers are diverting the output to a port you are not using.

Was this a problem before your fresh install?
 
Jan 20, 2013
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What 4000 series card do you have? What output are you using? Have you tried another output?

I had a MSI 4670, which had two DVI outputs.

The last Catalyst for 4000 series is 13.1.

The last Catalyst for 7000 series is 13.4, don't believe it supports 4000 series?
 

mistercrabby

Senior member
Mar 9, 2013
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So here's what i ended up doing:

I called my friend Matt and he said to get into Windows in safe mode and delete the device from device manager, then restart. It worked to get me into Windows in normal mode. I did some updates, rebooted and it dropped out again.

Hmmm. So i went back in with safe mode and looked at device manager. Still using the Windows driver even though the Catalyst driver was installed on the system. I tried to replace the windows driver buy it wouldn't allow me to do it, kept saying it had the latest driver.

I deleted the device again and restarted and got into normal windows again. I reloaded the catalyst driver again. This time, because i was in normal windows it detected the card and updated the drivers. (Safe mode apparently doesn't allow the detect environment function to start.) I checked the adapter in device manager and it showed the ATI catalyst driver. Good sign!

I restarted, skipping F8 and it went right into Windows without skipping a beat!!

I guess the moral to the story is that the driver Windows 7 64 uses for that card is glitchy.

Thanks to everyone who came into to help.
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,553
248
106
So here's what i ended up doing:

I called my friend Matt and he said to get into Windows in safe mode and delete the device from device manager, then restart. It worked to get me into Windows in normal mode. I did some updates, rebooted and it dropped out again.

Hmmm. So i went back in with safe mode and looked at device manager. Still using the Windows driver even though the Catalyst driver was installed on the system. I tried to replace the windows driver buy it wouldn't allow me to do it, kept saying it had the latest driver.

I deleted the device again and restarted and got into normal windows again. I reloaded the catalyst driver again. This time, because i was in normal windows it detected the card and updated the drivers. (Safe mode apparently doesn't allow the detect environment function to start.) I checked the adapter in device manager and it showed the ATI catalyst driver. Good sign!

I restarted, skipping F8 and it went right into Windows without skipping a beat!!

I guess the moral to the story is that the driver Windows 7 64 uses for that card is glitchy.

Thanks to everyone who came into to help.

This is what I was thinking in idea 1. I have noticed before where windows actually puts video card drivers under Critical Updates. Never considering the off-chance that they might detect the wrong thing, or have a bad match in their database. Good job getting her going!

Moral(s) of the story:
1. Do a once over on all updates before installing them, even the ones that Windows calls critical! and
2. Don't give Windows permission to install updates on it's own. Take control of that.