Blank screen, during boot-up. HELP

My computer has been having a problem. where after I turn it on, everything seems to be normal, until it gets to the windows XP loading screen, after which the monitor goes blank, and nothing more happens.

the strange thing is, that it only happens ~25% of the time. and when it does happen, pressing the reset button and rebooting it fixes the problem.

I've tried everything that I could think of, updated video card drivers, monitor drivers, BIOS...etc.


any help would be appreciated.



my system specs are.
CPU: Athlon 2800+
RAM: 1gb
Motherboard: NF7-s
Graphics Card: Radeon 9800pro
Hard Drive: WD2000JB

that seemed to be all the inprotant things. but if there's anything else that would be useful information, I'd be more than happy to supply it.

might need to reinstall windows... I have had this problem before and reinstalling windows fixed it.....

Yes, reinstall windows. This is due to a driver or windows file loading incorrectly, and the chances of you finding it are about as good as finding a needle in a haystack. Just reinstall windows, and be sure to back up your registry before you do, so you don't have a bunch of programs all messed up.

easier thing to do is repair windows- keeps everything in order, just recopies system files. solves problems like that for me 99% of the time.

Boot from your windows xp cd, then go to the repair console, select your windows install (usually 1 then enter) and run chkdsk /r

This will do an advanced check disk and repair on the installation.

See how you get on after that.

Also check your even viewer (control panel, administration tools, computer management, event viewer) for errors and try to pinpoint whats causing it. Some Instant messenger apps have caused this in the past.

thanks for the advice.

I just discovered something very strange. today I turned on my computer, and the screen was blank, so I reset it, still blank, reset again, still blank. then I noticed that the light on the CD drive was on, so I press the eject button, and all of a sudden the screen came back to life.

don't know if that points to a driver, maybe? or shall I just go ahead and repair windows?

thanks again

I just tested it a couple times, and it seems that opening and closing the CD drives, will make it boot normally.

anyway, I'm going to try repairing windows, tomorrow or the next day, unless I, or someone else, thinks of something clever

Hmmm I would say that the power required to spin your CD drive is just enough to stop it booting, when the tray pops the motor shuts off and you can boot. This points to a woefully underspecified PSU. So a new PSU is what will cure any no POST boot up problems, the problems leter in the boot prcess may or may not be related. If they go away with a new PSU great, if they don't, too bad.

regards,

Road Warrior

correct me if I'm wrong, but POST finnishs before windows starts being loaded right?

the screen doesn't become blank until, after the windows loading screen has pasted, just before it should display the log in welcome screen.

I've started to wonder if it's a problem with the monitor, not being refreshed or something. since when it boots normally, there is a period (around 0.25secs) when the screen is blank (like it's changing res or something). and when there's a problem it's at the same time, it just doesn't come back on.

Oh right, didn't realise you were referring to the same thing, your first post of the two above my last sounded like it was blank as soon as you turned it on now.

ah ya, i didn't word it too well.

ok, well I just found something *really* weird. it seems that if there's a CD in the drive it goes blank, after loading windows. however if there isn't a CD in the drive, if will boot just fine, and I won't get a blank screen.


now that I have a clearer disciption of the problem, anyone have ideas?