Home computer is acting up

billwill

Hey all,

This morning I tried to get on my desktop PC and it was acting like the display wasn't getting a signal, even though the computer itself was on.

I manually shut it off and reboot, and voila, the display is working as it chugs through the start-up process. I don't choose safe mode because I figure everything is fine, but after a few more moments the display says "no signal" again. I reboot again, and this time I choose safe mode. Everything starts up as it should, and it goes to my desktop, but I can't connect to the internet or start most programs. I restart AGAIN and try normal mode, and the same "no signal" thing happens again.

Anybody have an idea as to what's up and how I can go about fixing it?

Raern

First guess is that your graphics card driver got corrupted somehow.

If you recently updated it then roll-back the driver in safe mode.

If not then try to get into safe mode and uninstall the driver completely, then boot normally into windows and see what happens. If you get that far don't let it automatically reinstall a driver, download a new one from your graphics card vendor's site.


As a side note, a lot of things not working in safe mode is normal, it's designed to not load the drivers needed to use hardware to avoid crashes caused by drivers and other software.

billwill

I have not updated the graphics card driver. Ever.

How do I go about uninstalling the driver completely? And I have no clue about who makes my graphics card... how would I discover that?

Raern

Do you know anyone who'd know how to do this for you? It's not too hard, but hard to explain on here without asking a lot of questions.

This is only a most-likely solution, it may fail, which could mean any number of other things are wrong.


Finding out what graphics hardware you have is helpful. If you run 3D games it's almost certainly either an NVidia Geforce card or an ATI/AMD Radeon card. But if you have any original documentation or installation discs that came with your computer then you should be able to figure out which.

If you do have such an install disc you may be able to bypass anything too technical by loading up the computer in safe mode, finding the disc with graphics drivers and installing the original ones. If it is a corrupt driver issue it should repair things simply.


Beyond that the basic idea to get rid of a potentially corrupt driver is:

1. Load computer in safe mode.
2. Open 'My Computer' (Assuming you're running windows here)
3. Open 'System Properties' and find 'Device Manager'
4. Open the 'Display Adapter' tab in the Device Manager
5. Right-click the adapter itself, the item that shows up under 'Display Adapter' and select uninstall

You might be able to identify the graphics card model from that menu, I can't remember what information is visible in safe mode.

If all went well and it was a driver issue, then you should be able to reboot into Windows normally.

If Windows tries to automatically install a driver, say no. You need to install a working driver either from a disc or from the internet.


I hope that's not too confusing.