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XP Home Boots To Black Screen

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DudeThatRocks

Junior Member
Hey, I need some help. I'm a computer tech here in my home town, today I recieved a computer w/ a boot up problem. When I boot the system it comes up w/ the screen saying it wasn't shut down properly and gives you the choices of safe mode, safe mode w/ networking, safe mode commmand prompt, last good configuration, or to start windows normally. I've tried all of these options, booting normally brings up the XP Home logo and the loading bar goes across a few times then the screen goes black and stays black. The green light on the monitor stays on as if it's displaying something but it's not the harddrive makes a few sounds then the system goes silent. Any help is greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Colby
 
Well the easiest thing to do is boot into safe mode and run a system restore. And if that doesn't work you'll need to start testing hardware components. Start with the video card and then move on down the list until you find the culprit.
 
thanks but,

been tryin' that all day...safe mode brings up the usual driver list and stops there...tried 3 different video cards..same thing i'm working on the other hardware now
 
Sounds like a refresh rate problem, strange that it would not go into safe mode. I would ignore the hardware and check the software..the hardware appears to be working fine if you see the XP logo at all. Just run the repair (not the recovery console) and see if it will get to the desktop then, if not, format it.
 
With all due respect, the reformat option should always be the last resort. He said it's someone else's pc, and that pc no doubt has files someone needs on it. Reformatting blows that away.

I'd be trying a Windows Repair with the XP Home CD. Of course, that assumes you have a CD and can boot from the cdrom.

Here's a good step by step (apologies, of course, if you already know this):


Configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM drive. For more information about how to do this, please refer to your computer's documentation or contact your computer manufacturer.

Insert your Windows XP compact disc (CD) into your CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.

(You can also boot with a Windows 98/Me Startup disk with CD support and run WINNT.EXE in the I386 folder on the CD)

When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message is displayed on your screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.

When you see the following message displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

At this point an option to press R to enter the Recovery Console is displayed. Do not select this option.

On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.

Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected in the box, and then press the R key to repair Windows XP.

Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Setup.

(taken from tweakxp.com)

 
Ummm, Slikk, did you read my post?

"Just run the repair (not the recovery console) and see if it will get to the desktop "

If a repair doesn't work, there really isn't anything left to try. You can troubleshoot hardware all day and night, but it is not a hardware issue.
 
Yeah, I did kind of miss that. Oops...but then again, "run the repair" is obvious to you and me, but I find it saves a post or two if you lay it out for someone rather than have to come back and explain what that means. You did mention it, though, and all I saw by quick skimming was reformat.

 
Thanks guys, i think reformatting is my only option though, I boot from the cd i go to set up windows xp and it freezes while looking for previous installatsions, i go to repair and it freezes when you select the installation..i'll wait to for a while to see if anyone has a better idea
 
That's really odd, it sounds like it might even be a hardware problem. Did you run the diagnostic on the hard drive to check it out?
 
I agree. You'd probably have trouble even trying to reformat given the current situation you're experiencing. Is the cdrom on the same IDE cable as the hard drive? I'd move it off there (and make sure you check the master/slave jumper on the CDROM if you move it to another cable).

Have you tried clearing the cmos settings and then resetting them for optimized defaults? (or at least make a note of current settings, then clear them with the jumper pin on the mb, then reset them to what they are now.)

What exactly is this system, Dude? What motherboard, hard drive, etc.? Maybe remove a stick of Ram if there's more than one in there? Reseat all the hardware? Check all the cables? All fans spinning?

Here's something else I would try. I know this doesn't make sense at first glance, but can't hurt to give it a whirl. Disconnect the floppy cable and the power connector to it. Disable the floppy in the bios, too. See if that helps the bootup. No difference? Reconnect/re-enable. Try disconnecting your other drives, like CDROM drives and DVD drives and try booting.

Here's a Microsoft Support page that's similiar to your problem except for one thing. This page says the black screen occurs before any startup logo. You say you get the logo, then the black screen. Still worth a shot:

XP Boots to Black Screen


John, love your line "Asus 52x cdrom (best cdrom ever)...which just died", heheh. I guess that means, "good while it lasted".

 
"Just run the repair (not the recovery console) and see if it will get to the desktop "

I'm not arguing with you, but why wouldn't you run the recovery console?

 
"I'm not arguing with you, but why wouldn't you run the recovery console? "

I have seen problems like this alot, I've used the recovery console, and it is worthless. The recovery console is GREAT for boot issues (fix mbr, etc, chkdsk, etc) but worthless when it comes to windows issues.
 
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