Computer Help!

buzzlady

<font color=purple>Loves to play tag!<br><font col
Joined
Apr 3, 2003
Messages
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This is for my mother's computer so I have no idea what she did. :scared1:

When she tries to start up her computer, she gets the black screen and a greyish/black box that says "no signal" I went into safe mode and did a restore. That worked until she shut the computer down last night and tried starting it back up today. Today she gets the same thing, no signal.

Anyone have any ideas what might be the problem? I will go over and try again today.
 
Is the cord connecting the monitor loose?
 
If the monitor works in safe mode but not in regular startup mode I would GUESS that it is the video drivers that might be corrupt.

Mikeeee
 
Thanks. Going over to see what I can do.
 

Yup -- either video drivers or the video card itself. I'd guess that the video card has gone bad or it's connection inside the computer has come loose. If so, you'll probably need to pay someone to fix it (you can check the connection itself, but a lot of people who are not techies dont' feel comfortable getting in there and mucking around!).

It's possible it's just the driver, in whcih case the fix is easier. I don't know how computer savvy you are, but I would first go into safe mode and uninstall the video drivers, then go online and get the newest version of the drivers and reinstall (if that is greek to you, I can try to walk you thru it in more detail or see below).

A third option is basically a workaround. If your mom doesn't ever do any video intensive things with her computer (play DVDs, watch videos online, play games), then you can basically turn it down. go to control panel > display > settings > advanced > troubleshoot. Under hardware acceleration, turn it from "full" to "none".

restart the computer (in regular, non-safe mode) and see if that does the trick. If not,one last thing to check -- it's possible (though not likely) that you have the wrong setting for your monitor: start in safe mode like before, go to display settings like before, and turn down the "screen resolution" to 800x600, then try restarting. You can also click the monitor tab under display and make sure "hide modes that my monitor cannot display" box is checked. Then check to see if there are several different settings available for referesh rate. Try switching to different refresh rates if there are any listed. I don't think any of these things will fix it, but it's an outside possibility.

Best of luck geting this fixed!
 
I agree with the PPs that it sounds like a video driver. If you restore and it works and then doesn't I suspect that the driver is updating itself. If it is a Windows PC and she has automatic updates set to download and install automatically change it to download but let me choose when to install them. When the little yellow shield shows up in her tray (by the clock) double click it and select custom install (advanced). When you click next you will see all the updates Windows wants to install and if one is for a video or monitor driver uncheck it and install the rest.

Yesterday was patch Tuesday so if this just started it is a good bet that was the cause.
 



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