mavic517 said:
Thanks for getting back with me. After the splash screen works hard to start,
I am taken to a black screen with white letters: how I want to boot, windows
normally, last know config, safe mode, safe mode with command prompt, and
with some king of networks (I am not on a network). History: I had a ati 9800
pro which has been going bad for quite awhile. The right side of the screen
had vertical lines, and eventually I could not read the right side of the
monitor all. Right before the monitor was just full of colors (could not read
anything), the last visible screen I could see was my desktop, hardly
visible, and I got some kind of error message which I could not read. That
was the last screen I could see. I have replaced this card and CAN NOW SEE MY
MONITOR. When I boot the splash screen comes up, will not boot and am taken
to the "Mode Screen" asking me what I want to do.
I have a Dell Demension 8300, you can use F2 and F12, F2 takes you to the
mode screen, F12 is for settings. The ati 9800 pro's program and drivers are
still loaded, and the new card's drivers are not yet loaded from its CD.
Sounds like I'm in real trouble here. Yeah, I have the windows xp pro disk. I
did place it in, but it will not come up, so I quess a reinstallation is not
possible. Also, the last time I put the xp disk in, it said, install could
not continue because I was using a "newer version".
I took the computer to a repair shop years ago, was having problems, and the
repair shop, I THINK, used there copy to reinstall windows. So, I might not
be able to use my retail CD at all. I have SP3 installed on my Dell. I am
using a computer some one gave me. I have dial up w/ aol.
I've just been through a similar problem with a DELL Dimension 4400, and
one of the issues was the video card drivers. So this is very fresh in
my mind - but I am not a Windows expert.
If you can boot into Safe Mode (which isn't always easy on a DELL
certainly not on mine) then you can update the new graphics drivers from
the new graphics card CD or anywhere else you want to put them.
Don't let Windows or Windows Update choose the graphics drivers - I let
it update my card and got a boot failure as a result - and could only
rescue the situation by going into Safe Mode. I then used the official
Dell provided drivers for the installed card - in your case - it would
be the 3rd party drivers for the new card. But you can also try the Dell
site and see if they have specific drivers for your model of the card,
and if they do, I would be inclined to use them unless they were a lot
older.
It depends on your BIOS but if you are getting those different choices
at Bootup, is one of them for Safe Mode? Because if it is, go for it,
and try updating your graphics card that way - logon to the default
admin account (it may have no password set which is the default so don't
despair) - then Control Panel - and Display - Settings - Advanced -
Adapter - Properties - Driver - Update driver - and then use the
navigate option to point to where you have your graphics card driver -
DONT let Windows choose.
