I built a computer for a friend and....

[Terranboy]

It works fine. (Note: I just built the tower from some old parts of mine, she had her own monitor and stuff) I tested it at my house and all was well. Then I took it over to her house, and plugged it up. When I turned it her monitor went nuts with crazy colors. Kinda like the res was set too high, but it was still just the post screen. Finally after....well....hitting the side of the monitor it began to work. But went crazy again when it hit windows. So I rebooted in safe mode, and it worked. While I was in there I made sure that everything was set as low as possible (640x480 in 16 colors) and rebooted. It booted up fine in normal mode. But I couldn't get it out of those low settings. So after figuring that it was just a really old monitor and was broke, I called it a night.

Yesterday she got a newer monitor from a friend. Its showing the post screen, but going blank in windows. I told her over the phone how to get it in safe mode, and that worked. I thought it was just some screwy settings and told her to set it at 800x600x16. And the same thing happened, viewable post screen, blank Windows screen.

She said the monitor she has now is a black Dell. Since it was black I thought it had to be relitively new. Possible they are two bad monitors in a row??

Heres a thought: Her house is pretty old. The computer and monitor are plugged into a power strip which is plugged into the wall ofcourse. But the Ground Prong is broke off of the powerstrip cord. Even if it had one, the wall plug doesn't have a hole for a ground plug. Does it really need to be grounded?? I didn't think that would matter, but who knows.

Specs:

Athlon 700mhz
Gigabyte MB
GeForce4 MX440
80gb WesternD HD (new)
CD ROM
Sound card and the lot.

I have a good monitor in my floor (its the one I used to set the system up in the first place) Should I try it?

 

[KhoiFather]

Maybe it's the video card, try a new one.

 

[WackyDan]

Refresh rate set too high for the monitor? If the new one is a cheapy that could still be suspect.

Could explain why you CAN get into Windows safe mode.

 

[nitromullet]

I ran PC's for years in my house without a ground before we re-wired the house, and I never had any problems. It sounds like a display settings issue. If the monitor you first tested it with (your's I assume) is newer, it can probably handle a higher refresh rate. I would try setting that when in safe mode.

...and yes, you should test it with your monitor. That will eliminate the question of whether it's the video card or not.

 

[ucdnam]

boot into VGA mode and make the changes to the display settings there. The changes will then set it for the next time you boot up.

booting into safe mode won't give you this option, i think, and if it did, i think it reverts to the previous settings.

that should do the trick.

 

[Terranboy]

The monitor I used is a old Packard Bell monitor. Its only capable of 800x600 I think, but all the computer is going to be used for is The Sims and internet anyway. I'll try that one out and see. I know the Vid card works, or it did before the car ride to her house anyway (no way that could break it. A car ride would bust the HD first) And I'll try the refresh rate thing and see if that helps. Would the refresh rate matter if I couldn't even get the first monitor to boot in 16bit color in 640x480?

 

[ucdnam]

it is probably a refresh rate/resolution problem. That suggestion I posted should do the trick though. Aim for 600x800 at 60Hz first, then work your way up from there.

 

[Terranboy]

Well I fixed it. I tried the monitor I had used to set it up and it didn't work either. I took a CD over there with the newest Nvidia drivers for the GeForce4. Installed them, rebooted and all was well. All color modes are working and everything. I don't understand how the old drivers worked at my house, then when I moved the computer over to her house they stopped.