Display problems

[Enigmatic Thinker]

Hi,

I've a pc which won't display properly in standard mode. When the pc
boots, normal boot text displays, as does the XP Home Edition logo
screen. Thereafter the screen goes black, but instead of then going to
the desktop, the screen remains black.

The monitor light stays green, suggesting it is receiving out from the
video card.
Safe Mode works correctly.
I think it's a problem with the card driver, but how to uninstall &
reinstall when you can't see anything is the challenge.

Running XP HE SP1
Athlon XP 2400
512Mb ram
MSI AGP graphics card (AGP8) with N8891/MS120 on a label on the card.
MSI mainboard KT4V

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Malke]

Hi,

I've a pc which won't display properly in standard mode. When the pc
boots, normal boot text displays, as does the XP Home Edition logo
screen. Thereafter the screen goes black, but instead of then going to
the desktop, the screen remains black.

The monitor light stays green, suggesting it is receiving out from the
video card.
Safe Mode works correctly.
I think it's a problem with the card driver, but how to uninstall &
reinstall when you can't see anything is the challenge.

Running XP HE SP1
Athlon XP 2400
512Mb ram
MSI AGP graphics card (AGP8) with N8891/MS120 on a label on the card.
MSI mainboard KT4V

First get the drivers for your video card. Unfortunately, I'm not getting
any hits Googling for "MSI N8891/MS120". You're going to need to determine
what card you have, either by looking in the manual, running a system
inventory program (links below, and they will run in Safe Mode), or going
to MSI's website and seeing if you can identify your card. Obviously you'll
need to do this in Safe Mode with Networking or from a different computer.
Or you may have the installation cd that came with your computer.

Once you have the drivers on a usb thumb drive or burned to cd-r, in Safe
Mode - where you can see!) - set the computer to boot into Regular Mode
using the Base Video option by doing:

Start>Run>msconfig [enter]
Click the boot.ini tab and under Boot Options, check "/BASEVIDEO" and then
OK.

Now reboot into Regular Mode and install the drivers you got. If installing
the drivers doesn't help, then your video card is failing and you need to
replace it. f you are uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine
to a professional computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of
BigStoreUSA). Have all your data backed up before you take the machine into
a shop.

Malke

 

[Malke]

First get the drivers for your video card. Unfortunately, I'm not getting
any hits Googling for "MSI N8891/MS120". You're going to need to determine
what card you have, either by looking in the manual, running a system
inventory program (links below, and they will run in Safe Mode), or going

(snip)

Sorry, I forgot the links to the system inventory programs (free):

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.aumha.org/free.htm - Aida32 (hosted on Jim Eshelman's site)

Malke