Got a new video card, starts normally, black screen where enter password.

Cade

Continued from this

So I got my new MSI 480 video card where the last one gave up the ghost! I take out the old one, no real problem, I install the new one, no real problem, I start it up, no beeps, no explosions, nothing seems bad and it looks like it's a success! Screen is all normal, it goes through the regular start up until I get to the screen where I normally enter my password I get a black screen, the mouse itself shows up so I wait for it just to go on through. The screen stays blank. I restart it and try it in safe mode, same thing, blank black screen though the mouse shows up.

So what is it that I'm missing here.

Sikarian

Did you just pop the card in?

Did you uninstall the drivers for the old card? Install drivers for new?

blakfeld

Yeah, this is most likely a driver problem, if you start up in safe mode, you should be able to uninstall the old driver, and get you the new one installed.

Cade

Didn't uninstall the old drivers no, but then I had no idea how to do that when the old computer wouldn't even work with said old card. I got the new card in but haven't been able to install the new drivers yet since I can't get into windows and go through the process there. Probably is a way to do it earlier but just putting in the CD doesn't start up the process.

The old card was a 8800 Ultra and this is a NVIDIA card as well so would I even need to uninstall the old drivers?

Like I said, I try to go into safe mode but I still get the blank screen even though the mouse shows up and it went through the process to launch into safe mode.

matt has a problem

Yes you'd need to uninstall the old drivers. Just put the old card back in, uninstall the old drivers, shut down, switch cards, boot up, and install the new drivers.

:edit: Just saw you said the old one "gave up the ghost". Does your motherboard have a VGA port on it perhaps?

Cade

On the mother board itself? No, I got attachments to go for the video cards so I can use VGA ports if I needed them but that's the closest I come.

Zeon

Start it in safe mode. Im assuming this is XP. Vista and 7 would have just automatically installed the drivers.

Anyway, on boot up, slam F2 or F8 or F9 or F10, one of those, i forget which one, until you get the prompt to start in safe mode. Then in safe mode, go to the device manager and uninstall your old card/drivers. Reboot. Windows will automatically install some new drivers for you, and then you can update them with proper drivers from your manufacturer.

Ok wait i just saw now in one of your posts you tried this. Ok, if the mouse shows up, its probably not the drivers, or at least, the drivers you have are working. Try pressing ctrl-alt-del and bring up the task manager. Is anything running? If not, go File->Run->Explorer. Maybe explorer is hanging up? You can force it to start this way.

Cade

It's Vista, Ultimate and as I said it won't go into Safe mode.

My computer always ask me if I want to start in safe mode(three versions of it) or normal mode since I can only shut it down by turning off the power until it's turned off properly which I can't do currently.

Zeon

Still try running explorer manually. Windows is obviously starting, your graphics card is obviously working since you see a screen and have a mouse cursor, the GUI just isnt loading. Try pressing windowskey-R and typing "explorer" into the box, or run it through task manager like i said before.

Alternatively, do a repair install on vista. Is it a premade PC? Does it have a recovery mode? Do you have the install disc?

Cade

Nope doesn't work.

The computer was ordered and assembled as I specified, got no recovery CD, I got the Windows disc it came with but that's it.

Tofystedeth

Are you actually reaching the password entering stage or is it stopping before then? And if the latter, was black the background color of your desktop (you may not have seen it if your wallpaper covered the whole thing, but there still would have been a background color.) before your previous card died?

I've seen similar problems before where something would get loused up and windows would load up to that point (mouse cursor and desktop background color) then nothing. I've had it happen myself too. Replacing files implicated by other people, msgina.dll etc, from the recovery console didn't work. Even a repair install didn't fix it.

I eventually had to boot from an Ubuntu disc to backup my data, then just reinstall Windows.

Cade

Just tried to use the original Windows CD, got a blue screen of death after it loaded.

It reaches the stage where you enter the password should pop up, but it stays black, nothing else, can see the mouse. My background was not black, though it might have had some black on it.

Zeon

Wait, it blue screened during the installation set up from the windows CD? I mean, you actually booted from the CD right? Not just stuck it in your PC while sitting there staring at the black screen, right?

Whatd the blue screen say? Googling the error message should at least point you in the right direction as to whats wrong. I dont think its drivers at this point if you cant even boot a windows install disc. You sure you didnt shock anything while you were installing the new graphics card?

Cade

Blue Screen

There is what I got when I tried to use the original windows DVD I had, not sure what that means.

Got that as soon as it finished doing the loading with the bar being filled up.

matt has a problem

That's basically a generic "there's a problem with some driver, somewhere" error.

Cade

Most likely the old driver I assume.

Okay, is there a way to basically format C drive where everything is and try to use the windows to DVD start reinstall everything? If I purged all the old stuff and put everything back on there wouldn't that take care of it?

Of course how to do that exactly is part of the problem. Aside from sending this to a techie to be fixed which would cost a good deal of cash I'm not sure what options I got.

matt has a problem

Just to be clear, when you boot directly from the Windows DVD, as in, the OS on your hard drive never gets a chance to load, you get that blue screen? Booting from the DVD where you get the BIOS splash screen, then the next thing you see is "Press any key to boot from DVD" or something similar at the top of your screen, right?

Cade

When the computer starts up and it detects the DVD it ask me to push any key to boot from the DVD and yeah then it does the loading with the bar filling up across the screen and then I get the blue screen of death.

Not sure if there is any other way to do it.

matt has a problem

Try re-seating everything. Video card, RAM, sound card if you have it etc.

matt has a problem

Also, what motherboard do you have? And when you say the old card gave up the ghost, what did it do?

Tofystedeth

Might also try twiddling the IDE/AHCI settings in your BIOS if it's getting bluescreens booting from the disc.

Cade

Forget the full name but the board itself is an XFX NVIDIA one. It worked with the 8800 ultra I had before, you can see what happened to that card in my first post which links back to when that thing crapped out on me.

I actually just took out my new card, put in my old one(just to test it) and while it ran again albeit with all the red and green lines it pretty much worked like the new card, it just couldn't do any more then the new one as well, go into safe mode or normal mode? Black screen of death.

Could it be that the problem might be elsewhere then the video card, maybe the mother board gave up the ghost or the processor? Any thoughts on that being possible.

IDE/AHCI settings?

You'll have to talk stupid to me on that since I got no idea what those even mean.

Chickeen

If you can get in to BIOS, you could try "Load Setup Defaults" and "Force Update ESCD" if it's an option.

Cade

What do those do exactly, I got an idea for defaults, that's sort of self explanatory.

But if I do these could it cause any more possible issues as well?

Zeon

If you put the old card in and its doing the same thing with that card, im betting on either you knocked something loose while you were installing the card, or you shocked something and killed it. Even a shock you cant feel is enough to damage computer parts, so dont feel bad if you didnt notice.

I mean, it was working before, you know both graphics cards are "working", but youve been inside the case messing about. Its not drivers if putting the old card back in results in the same black screen. Open the case back up, make sure EVERYTHING is seated properly. RAM is fully seated, the processor is still clipped down, all power connectors are firmly in their slots, etc.

If that doesnt solve your problem, download a linux live cd just to see if that boots. Im betting it wont, at which point youre going to need to narrow down which peice of hardware died. Its not the processor, i can almost guarantee that (if a processors fucked it generally just stops the computer from booting).

Cade

It wasn't working when I didn't touch anything, at this point I'm leaning towards it being a virus or just two bits of software conflicting with each other. It was suggested to me being the mother board but I'm ruling that out for now.

It's been said that winload.exe being corrupted can be a leading cause of this though how true I got no idea, again a virus can do such a thing or it can just be one of those things.

Oh and using F8 at start up and doing a recovery check finds both drives clean as well.

Zeon

A virus wouldnt prevent you from booting off the windows disc.

Cade

Looks like I found a good way to fix it.

I upgraded to Win 7, updating and transferring things over now. Seems to be working, thus far anyways.

I'll get rid of the windows.old folder which takes up so much space and junk that.

I did want to get Win 7 for a long time, suppose this was a good reason to do so no.