# LCD Monitor goes black at Startup - Ok in Safe Mode



## design (Aug 1, 2007)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have a Dell Dimension 9200 running XP Home Edition and has been running fine with a Dell 2007WFP LCD Monitor connected via a DVI cable with a 256MB ATI RAdeon X1300 Pro PCI Express Graphics Card.

Until this morning that is. When I started up I get to the welcome screen then after around 10 seconds it goes black though the login music sounds and the disk sounds like it's all running as normal I just can't see anything (cursor included). 

I use Zone Alarm Security Suite and it completed a system scan yesterday, while updating the anti virus it said that any changes would take effect the next time I started up which was this morning.

I'm able to get to my desktop via safe mode and I've downloaded the latest drivers for the monitor but I can't update the drivers because the Properties option under Settings->Advanced->Monitor is greyed out.

I'm also able to get to the desktop via VGA mode and using a VGA cable though the monitor settings are greyed out here also.


I've also tried removing and replacing the graphics card to no effect.

Totally stumped as to what to do next, the setup's worked fine for a couple of months now so strange that it would stop. I'm a self employed designer so need to find a solution soon before impatient clients start chasing me down!

Thanks in advance.

Grant


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## design (Aug 1, 2007)

Ouch, just spent the last 7 hours trying to get to the bottom of this with no luck.

Anyone got any pointers? It'd make my day if you could help in any way.

Thanks.


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## doubloh (Mar 28, 2005)

Greetings.
I experienced the same type of problem this morning out of nowhere! In searching for a solution, I saw a thread in the XP forum that indicated the following as a solution to what sounds to be the same problem.
The solution is to boot into safe mode, go to control panel, system, hardware and open device manager.
Remove all the display adapters.
Exit out by clicking OK as often as necessary then reboot.
Supposedly Windows will reinstall the display adapters and solve the problem.
I am going to try it tonight...
Good luck!


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## design (Aug 1, 2007)

Hey doubloh, sorry you got struck with it too. Thanks for the tip, hunted down the thread in the XP forum you mentioned. Backing up some stuff now just to be safe but think I'll give it a try. Only thing not too sure about is the original poster says to remove them then to reboot while the other poster says they used dell's driver reset tool after removing them.


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## Urir1 (Apr 26, 2006)

design
to me it sounds as to what happens when you change the screen resolution to be more than what the monitor can handle. That would still load windows and everything would work but you wont see anything. If it is that, you can either go and change the resolution in safe mode and then try boot normally or you could do like mentioned here, uninstall the ATI drivers and then boot normally and reinstall them.


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## design (Aug 1, 2007)

Thanks a million guys, back in business. I deleted the ATI drivers in safe mode, restarted and downloaded the latest Radeon ATI drivers from their website. I can see again


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## vixen79au (Aug 2, 2007)

Hi,

I'm having the same problem. I've followed what's been said, I've got the device manager open but I'm not sure what ATI Drivers are and I thought I should ask before I go deleting anything. Also, if I were to download the latest version, where do I get that from? 

Thanks
Vicky


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## vixen79au (Aug 2, 2007)

No matter, I fixed it!! :up:


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## firefoxo7 (Aug 1, 2007)

Hi, 
My computer is stuck in safe mode.. ive tried multiple ways but its stuck in safe mode.. i had a trojan viruses on my computer and had to start in safe mode to remove them, luckily i removed them and everything is fine except the safe mode problem. i tried F8 and normal mode wouldnt work, i tried running msconfig and normal.. still wouldnt work.. i would appreciate any sort of help.. thanks


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## Urir1 (Apr 26, 2006)

What do mean its stuck. Is it stuck after it load windows or while its loading drivers? 
You can try the Last known configuration option, hopefully that will save you . If not you can use the Windows cd to boot from and than do Windows repair, but that may cause some problems with the existing software you have installed.

If you dont like these two, try to give more details as to what you did right before it happened and you spec. and such.


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## firefoxo7 (Aug 1, 2007)

No after it loads windows.. it stays on safe mode.. n those two ideas not good.. Well wat happened is my computer was acting up because of the system alert trojan virus.. i downloaded SuperAnti spyware and had to restart my computer in safe mode to run superanti to get rid of the problem, afterwards i restarted the computer and tried to go back in normal mode but wouldnt work.. ive tried misconfig and clicked on normal mode, wouldnt work.. i unchecked the safe mode box in misconfig.. still wouldnt work.. i tried F8 and normal mode samething.. thanks so much for your help.. let me know if i can be of any more assistance...appreciate the help..


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## Urir1 (Apr 26, 2006)

hold on you said that you ran MSCONFIG (not msiconfig btw) but how can you ran it if you cant loggin to windows?


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## firefoxo7 (Aug 1, 2007)

sorry misspelled it.. but ok no i can log into windows.. the computer starts and logs on but stays in safe mode with the black screen and safe mode in all four corners.. this is all my dads fault, he was looking at stupid websites and invited viruses.. i cleaned it but now my only problem is that.. like i cant go back to normal view.. im sorry, i dont know much but let me know if you have any more questions.. thanks for trying though..


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## Urir1 (Apr 26, 2006)

Ok what you can try to do is. If you go to MSCONFIG set it to SELECTIVE STARTUP and check everything underneath it. Then go to the STARTUP tab and uncheck everything you have there. Then close the window and restart the computer. Try to log in to windows in normal mode, if it works it will ask you something related to msconfig, just answer Never start these programs again or something like that.

let me know if it worked


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## firefoxo7 (Aug 1, 2007)

ok it kind of worked.. the resolution and size and whatever went back to normal.. but its still in stupid safe mode and it didnt ask me what you were talking about.. it keeps asking me and has been asking me this everytime windows log in and starts up: "Windows is running in safe mode blah blah.. To proceed to work in safe mode, click yes, if you prefer to use system restore to restore your computer to a previous state, click no..." im so sorry, im not helpful.. but hey atleast everything isnt as big as it was, now the screen is fit and the size and resolution are back to normal.. again i appreciate this so much, let me know if you have anymore ideas.. thank you


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## firefoxo7 (Aug 1, 2007)

ok your the best man! i did what you told me to do, and it kind of worked like i told you, then i went to msconfig and remembered the safe mode box thats checked which i tried earlier but didnt work.. but after i did what you told me then i went and unchecked the safe mode under boot.ini tab and restarted the computer it finally is out of safe mode.. wow i never hated safe mode this much...i appreciate your help so much.. do you work for this website??


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## firefoxo7 (Aug 1, 2007)

Again..Thanks..So much.. i found this website today after 3 days of trying on my own to remove the stupid system alert virus Trojan crap.. and then the safe mode thing happened last night so i decided to google this in as well and again i found a solution.. appreciate your help.. your a life a saver..


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## Urir1 (Apr 26, 2006)

So even when you hit F8 and select 'Start windows Normally" it still goes to safe mode?


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## firefoxo7 (Aug 1, 2007)

ya even when i did that it started windows in safe mode...boy does it feel good to have my computer back..


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## Urir1 (Apr 26, 2006)

No problem..  glad i could help


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## Palau (Aug 9, 2007)

Hi
I too have this problem, I see the initial start up screen and then the monitor goes blank. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to force safe mode as my keyboard doesn't respond until later in the boot up process (new keyboard) and by then the screen is blank.
Any suggestions?


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## firefoxo7 (Aug 1, 2007)

Sorry..Can you be more specific..Ill try my best to help out..


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## firefoxo7 (Aug 1, 2007)

Palau- You can not enter or exit from safe mode?..


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## Palau (Aug 9, 2007)

Correct, can't enter safe mode as keyboard doesn't function until after the windows startup screen and after the screen has gone blank.


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## Urir1 (Apr 26, 2006)

Well first u need to get an older keyboard( even thou any keyboard should work right when u turn on the pc, otherwise you cant go to bios)

And was there anything u did before that started?


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## Palau (Aug 9, 2007)

There are 2 hard disks and one is partitioned and I cleared all the old game programs off and reformatted the disk that games were stored on, NOT the disk with Windows on! The computer was working fine after that. It was only on the next reboot we got the problem.


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## firefoxo7 (Aug 1, 2007)

Urir1 is the person to ask...Hes the best...


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## Palau (Aug 9, 2007)

Must add that all the operating programs/software are kept on one of the disks which I haven't touched.


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## Palau (Aug 9, 2007)

Urir1, told you're the best, so I'd better find a PS2 keyboard, not so easy to do these days, especially when I don't live in an english speaking country and don't have easy access to computer shops!


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## Urir1 (Apr 26, 2006)

I just find it strange that a keyboard wont work, even my G15 keyboard work on Post, but whatever. Yes u need to get to safe mode somehow to see that everything is in place, if you wont be able to get to safe mode then its another problem and you might need to repair or reinstall windows.


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## Palau (Aug 9, 2007)

Got into safe mode - Ran MSCONFIG like you said on another post, selecting, deselecting etc, but no diff when loading normally


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## Palau (Aug 9, 2007)

prob solved i think... someone had turned off the Internal Graphics Card - (MY MOTHER)


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## Urir1 (Apr 26, 2006)

lol, how da hell did she manage to do that?


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