[shirleythewerewolf]

Hi Everyone! I was wondering if someone could please help me. I was installing a copy of Windows XP on my friends computer so she could get ITunes and things like that. The XP was a regular cd that I bought that I had used on my computer to upgrade to XP just a few days ago, it wasn't a burned copy or anything like that. I had Windows ME previously, and so did she on her computer. However, the installation on hers appeared to go fine, but now when you go to start the computer, the XP screen loads, and then it's just a black screen. Nothing else comes up. I know the hard drive isn't fried or anything like that because I can boot up off of the cd, but that still doesn't get me into any kind of start menu, last known good configuration or anything like that. Can anyone help me?

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Might be the drivers for the video card. Find out if your friend has an onboard video adapter and whether or not they're using it. If not, plug the monitor cable into it and download the drivers for the other video card then restart the computer and go to the display properties <right click desktop, properties, display> and make sure the other video card is listed. Good luck.

[Donarudo]

Might be the drivers for the video card. Find out if your friend has an onboard video adapter and whether or not they're using it. If not, plug the monitor cable into it and download the drivers for the other video card then restart the computer and go to the display properties <right click desktop, properties, display> and make sure the other video card is listed. Good luck.

[shirleythewerewolf]

Alright, I'll definately try that, I hadn't even thought of that. Thank you for the suggestion!

[Donarudo]

No problem. Post back if you need further assistance.

[shirleythewerewolf]

I just went and checked, and she doesn't have any seperate video cards. Do you think the problem could be solved by following one of the tutorials on the site about deleting the partition and just starting over from scratch?

[Donarudo]

That would help IF there were an actual error causing this behavior. It's normal for debugging to occur when Windows is freshly installed -- So if she doesn't have seperate video cards does this mean she's using the video card that's attached to the motherboard? Because not all computers come with onboard video adapters.

[shirleythewerewolf]

Yup, she's just using the card that was attached to the motherboard. It's just really odd, because it acted like it was installed properly, but when it comes to starting the computer and running, instead of the windows start screen the screen is just black. If I could just start from last known good configuration I'd do that, but it's not even giving me that option. It's gone insane lol.

[Donarudo]

That's because everything is usually all good up until the Windows logo. After the logo you get to the logon screen and that's basically where you need to get. This definitely seems like a video card problem to me tho. Was this computer built from ground up or is it a manufactured computer. If it was built then you can try repairing Windows with the cd and when it says press F6 to install a third-party software, you do so and insert the software for the motherboard and it installs all the drivers including the one for the video adapter.

[shirleythewerewolf]

First off I'd like to say thanks for all your help because I'm basically lost when it comes to fixing this for her. It was just a manufactured computer, it's a Dell that was operating on Windows ME up until last night, when I tried to upgrade it to Windows XP. Is there any way I could get XP off so it just goes back to normal ME?

[Donarudo]

Well you can always try calling tech support and having an Indian guy who barely speaks English to you run you through 50 steps lol... but seriously... re-installing Windows ME would do you no good right about now because you would end up in the same place... a fresh installation of an operating system with no drivers to get you going. Try looking around in the BIOS (press F1 as soon as you turn on the computer) and look to see if she could enable anything that would trigger the video adapter to be the default adapter and the only adapter. Try not to change the values of anything you don't know so you won't cause further problems :-p

[shirleythewerewolf]

lol I'll try that. What in particular should I look for? If worst comes to worst, would installing a new video card fix the problem?