Need help bringing a dead computer back to life

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07-08-2007, 08:41 PM
Vets

Need help bringing a dead computer back to life

I need help bringing a dead computer back to life.
I just returned from a two week trip to find that my main computer may have died. The computer is a Medion running Windows XP. After starting it up, it boots to a black screen and the monitor switches from receiving a signal to none at all. I already exhausted a couple of recovery options.
Does anyone know of any tricks to bring it back to life?
Fortunately, I have most of the files backed up with the exception of a few emails. I also have two other computers I can use.
I'd appreciate any suggestions.
07-08-2007, 11:59 PM
uncle crud

I'm not a computer expert but I've built several of my own. I've had hard drive deaths, CPU deaths and video card deaths on past computers.

As I understood you, it does start (boot) up, and shows some life on the monitor as it's starting, but once it's running the monitor stops receiving a signal. This sounds to me like it has MS-DOS basic video signal translation okay, but it drops out when the OS (Windows XP) is running the show.

From your description it sounds like only the video aspect is dead, which could be a dead video card.

But I'm sure there are other potential causes.
07-09-2007, 08:03 AM
Crass3000

Quote:

Originally Posted by uncle crud

From your description it sounds like only the video aspect is dead, which could be a dead video card.

But I'm sure there are other potential causes.

This sounds likely. I would start the computer in "safe mode" and then delete the driver for the video card that is installed. When you run in safe mode the computer should default to default video and not your graphics card thus allowing you to see what you need to during the driver deletion process. As I mentioned... delete the driver for your graphics card while in safe mode and then try to reboot. Once the driver is deleted you would be defaulting back to default video and driver after rebotting in normal mode. If your problem is resolved you likely have a bad video card. You can either get a new graphics card or deal with the default depending on your needs.

Note that I had this problem in the past on a Dell Inspiron laptop and the above procedure worked for me. However when I put a new video card in it worked for a very short period before hurting the graphics card again. This implied that I likely had a larger issue with my motherboard which didn't make any sense to change out because of cost. I am running on default video now.

As Uncle Crud mentioned... there may be other possible causes but I would imagine this would be the most likely... especially if deleting the driver of your video card in safe mode and rebooting allows you to see what you normally would -- however you may be in a different monitor resolution (which can be changed but may not allow the same resolution that you were using).
07-09-2007, 12:07 PM
DJSapp

1. Pull out HD from dead computer
2. Install HD as a slave into other computer
3. Hot install windoze onto slave drive
4. Put HD back into dead computer

This solves many many issues, though it is a shotgun approach. Your video card is fine. If it were dead, you would not see anything, ever. Should take about 1 hour start to finish. This is usually faster that trying to actually research, diagnose and solve the real problem.
07-09-2007, 12:12 PM
Zalg8

It sounds like it's either the video card or the motherboard, probably the video card. If you have a compatible one from another computer, try plugging that in to see if it works.
07-09-2007, 01:09 PM
RShea

First questions is are do you ever see anything on the screen from the computer and are there any serious of beeps when it does start-up? If you get a black screen, and the power light on the system does come on it could be in this order: power supply (if no beeps- if the unit beeps then less likely), main board, video card (most likely if the system has a separate card and the system has some beeps at the start-up), hard drive (if the system allows you to go into the bios- esc key or similar but not load the Windows- ie the video works for a few seconds then quites as Windows tries to load), or finally the CPU.

Also check the fans to make sure they are all working or else you could be overheating somewhere in the system.

Without parts it maybe hard to test for all these things and especially if you do not know what you are doing inside the system at all.... One thing you can do is disconnect most all the drives inside, remove the video card (if not on-board) and see if the unit beeps at start-up/power on or not.
07-09-2007, 01:22 PM
Crass3000

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJSapp

Your video card is fine. If it were dead, you would not see anything, ever.

I don't think that's true. You would see the Windows pre-boot screens which use default video drivers and likely onboard video prior to Windows starting up and loading the video card drivers -- which if the video card is not working will result in the screen going blank.
07-09-2007, 01:37 PM
RShea

I am not sure if he is or is not seeing anything- it is really vague as to if he can start the computer and see the power on stuff (memory tests, Windows opening screen, etc.) and then the issue is when he tries to go into the Windows OS it goes black or if the screen and computer come on, but the monitor goes immediately to the yellow or orange power-savings mode and is not getting any signal from the computer video. So it is speculation until that is answered whether the issue is Windows and drivers or where it quits.
07-09-2007, 02:29 PM
icanseeformiles(andmiles)

Here'sa link to beep codes. Use it to diagnose startup probs.
07-09-2007, 02:41 PM
Odin

You need to test the ability of the computer to function outside of windows, first.

So unplug the hard drive and see if you get a post error on the screen. If that is the case than there might be something wrong with your windows config. If you get nothing from the computer, try removing all extraneous devices (memory, hd, motherboard battery) If you THEN get multiple beeps, then reconnect the battery and the memory, and see if you can get to a bios page, THEN reconnect your hard drive.

IF you get nothing at all, no beeps, no sounds, no graphics, then you might have an overall mother board problem. If you can start it up with nothing, then it fails with memory, you know the memory is the problem. If you have an on board video card try switching back to using this.

Troubleshooting.
07-09-2007, 02:52 PM
Vets

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I'll add a few more details. When I start the computer I get the pre-boot screens and Windows XP graphic before it goes to black.
Would swapping out the graphics card for another card be another way to diagnose this? Any other possibilities?

P.S. So far no beeps.
07-09-2007, 02:53 PM
Odin

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vets

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I'll add a few more details. When I start the computer I get the pre-boot screens and Windows XP graphic before it goes to black.
Would swapping out the graphics card for another card be another way to diagnose this? Any other possibilities?

Your video card probably isn't bad.

Go into safe mode.

Hit f8 as the your bios windows come up. select safe mode. if windows loads, it is either a driver problem or a settings problem. Go back to default if you have to.
07-09-2007, 03:02 PM
RShea

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vets

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I'll add a few more details. When I start the computer I get the pre-boot screens and Windows XP graphic before it goes to black.
Would swapping out the graphics card for another card be another way to diagnose this? Any other possibilities?

P.S. So far no beeps.

Then it probably is not an issue with the power supply, motherboard, etc. It could be heat related still, a Windows driver issue (as a number of others recommend- safe mode is next step if it is drivers) or a few other areas that would be way down the list.

Do you know the type of card in the computer- AGP, PCI-E etc. and what a video card looks like (obviously you can follow the monitor cable to the plug to determine which card it is- if it is not on board video.) If it is on-board video it still could be a memory problem with the memory modules on your motherboard.
07-09-2007, 03:15 PM
Vets

Quote:

Originally Posted by Odin

Your video card probably isn't bad.

Go into safe mode.

Hit f8 as the your bios windows come up. select safe mode. if windows loads, it is either a driver problem or a settings problem. Go back to default if you have to.

Yes. I went into safe mode and did a system restore from there. It appears to be working now. It must have been a settings problem. Thank you and thanks to everyone for their input.
07-09-2007, 03:17 PM
Odin

not that this is the problem, but after experiencing wierd issues like this it is always wise to update your virus protection, scan your computer and then scan for adware.

www.adaware.com for free ad scanning

www.trendmicro.com for free online virusscanning (will take awhile/a long time)
07-09-2007, 03:29 PM
Buster Highmen

Nothing to add but confusion

When windoze starts up, the graphics card is in VGA mode, none of the accelerated mode registers are actually rendering. I'm pretty sure the driver isn't loaded.
So, it could be a fried graphics card.
What's strange is that if you see the xp startup screen, you're running the bootloader, so at least that part of your disk is being read. But it sounds like ntdll.dll isn't getting loaded, which could mean that it's corrupt.