[poimhn]

I had an idiot messing with my computer trying to "maximize its potential". He changed my monitor settings to too high for the monitor to handle. Then, instead of letting it revert back to its previous setting when it went blank, he pushed enter or something to make it stay that way as though we could see. But we couldnt. I didnt know how to reset anything because U couldnt see to do it. It just shows it starting windows then blanks. The monitor says that it was working and the scan is set too high and to change it on the pc. I also needed to register windows xp on the computer and so I thought that I might insert the disk and see what happened. Well, it gave me the option of repairing, which I thought might help, but when it went into setup it went blank again. Even VGA mode booting goes blank. Any ideas?

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Howdy and welcome to G2G:

Try booting into Safe Mode.. Once there, go into Device Manager and remove your video card from there..

Reboot and let Windows find the card again .. re-install the proper drivers and set the resolution/refresh rate appropriately..

Muray

[Murray S.]

Howdy and welcome to G2G:

Try booting into Safe Mode.. Once there, go into Device Manager and remove your video card from there..

Reboot and let Windows find the card again .. re-install the proper drivers and set the resolution/refresh rate appropriately..

Muray

[poimhn]

When I try to get into windows in Safe mode, it runs some command scripts or something like that for a few seconds then goes blank as it enters windows. So its still blank in Safe Mode.

[Murray S.]

Sounds like something more wrong than just what you are describing.. When in Safe Mode, Windows ONLY uses it's generic drivers so any video card settings would not even show..

Is your video card integrated or an add-on??

Also, do you see the POST screen as the system is booting??

Murray

[poimhn]

I dont know how to tell if it is integrated, I think its part of the motherboard but I am not completely sure. Also what is the POST screen?

[Murray S.]

Integrated means located on the mobo.. Makes things a little harder..

The POST screen is the one you see when the system first boots up (Ram check, IDE drive check etc)..

Murray

[poimhn]

It shows a blue ASUS screen, then a boot screen asking which of the two alternate versions of windows I want to use on this partition (ie the one the goes blank or the other one that just got loaded on with no programs on it). I pick the alternate one and it runs lots of commands fast then blanks. I dont see anything that talks about my IDEs unless I enter setup, and same with the RAM. So if those two define POST screen then I dont see it but if it only means the page I see when I boot up, then yes I see it. So I dont know, but if you are asking if I can see other screens outside of windows then definitely yes.

[Murray S.]

Based on that last reply, am I safe to assume you are using a branded system (Dell, HP, Compaq, etc) ??

Did you try to re-install XP for some reason??

As a sidenote, did you "suggest" to the idiot, that they either get your system running again or you will take it to a tech and have them foot the repair bill?? That may save someone else this "person" decides to help!!

Murray

[poimhn]

I did try to reinstall xp, cause I figured I hadnt registered the previous version yet so.... As for the computer, its the hard drive from my previous gateway, a new asus motherboard with an athalon processor, new power supply, new case, some new RAM....basically its an older hard drive but everything else is new cept the CD drive. As for the "friend" he is actually in south america for the year (to add to the rediculousness of the situation, I feel like this should be on a sitcom or something)

[poimhn]

And I can see fine in that second version of xp, I just dont have anything loaded on there, ie I would rather have all my old programs and stuff than start from scratch, thus trying to recover that previous version.

[Murray S.]

Have you tried booting with the XP cd and running a "repair" on the original install??

Murray

[poimhn]

I am trying right now. I dont know/remember the administrator password for it so it is not letting me proceed. any other ideas besides trying everything I can think of several times over?

[Murray S.]

Normally, unless you specifically setup an Admin password during setup, the password will be blank, nada, don't type in anything!!

Murray

[poimhn]

Haha, thanks that worked a lot better than all the passwords I tried. I am trying to repair as I type this. I will let you know

[poimhn]

The blank password went through and it is giving me a DOS-esque command prompt thing saying C:WINDOWS/ What do I do now?