Blank Screen at Startup

[J]

I get a blank screen at startup just before the "Welcome
to Windows" and have to restart several times. This only
happens if the computer has been shut down for an hour or
so. Quick restarts work fine. Any ideas?

 

[Malke]

I get a blank screen at startup just before the "Welcome
to Windows" and have to restart several times. This only
happens if the computer has been shut down for an hour or
so. Quick restarts work fine. Any ideas?

This may be happening because your power supply is inadequate or dying.
Without more information about your system, it's impossible to say. If
it is power supply-related, the reason a quick restart works is that
when you cold boot, there isn't enough "juice" to get all the drives
and devices up and running. On subsequent reboots, the drive has
developed enough momentum to complete the boot into the operating
system.

If you'd like more help, then please repost with more details.

Cheers,

Malke

 

[J]

Malke,
You may be right. Have Compaq Pentium 4 Processor 2.4(HT)
GHz/800, 512MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2DIMMs),40GB UDMA Hard
Drive (5400RPM). Have reformatted hard drive, reset bios,
and did virus scan. Is there a way to test for power
supply? What else can I do?
Regards,
J

 

[Malke]

Malke,
You may be right. Have Compaq Pentium 4 Processor 2.4(HT)
GHz/800, 512MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2DIMMs),40GB UDMA Hard
Drive (5400RPM). Have reformatted hard drive, reset bios,
and did virus scan. Is there a way to test for power
supply? What else can I do?
Regards,
J

Usually one tests the power supply by simply attaching a "known good"
one, although if you have a multimeter you could test it that way. You
may be stuck, though, if your Compaq is typical and has a proprietary
form factor power supply. That's a slower drive (so-called "value"
drive), so the power supply that Compaq put in your computer is
probably fine unless you've added a lot of peripherals. Compaq usually
puts in really wimpy power supplies designed to work with the
components they ship. If this is a newish computer, you should probably
call Compaq tech support or take it to a local repair shop. The only
authorized Compaq support ctr. where I live is CompUSA.

Malke