Solved Strange Video Problem

[epete]

I have a system that all of a sudden does not display video after the W7 splash screen. This system has a graphics card in it and I had disabled the motherboards graphics port in the BIOS a couple years ago when I built it.

It has worked well ever since I built it but has changed due to either someone messing with it or maybe a windows update.

I currently have the system connected to a TV with an HDMI cable, but I have confirmed with an old monitor, it does the same using the VGA port.

I have also tried to repair using the Windows Repair Disk which strangely enough goes blank after the "Loading Files" screen.

All three options of safe mode stop after a certain amount of files that load. The screen does not go black here; it simply remains frozen with the file list showing.

I tried to do a fresh install of W10 and again goes black after the loading files.

Sorry I am being vague about the Hardware as I would typically look it up from the control panel and the boxes I had for the mother board, processor, GPU, etc are somewhere in the house and will have to find them.

Any ideas on what is going on? Maybe I need ot go into the bios and re-enable the onboard graphics and try that way.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

epete mate obvious query but have you just tried reseating the card, and have a look around the board for any accumulated crud and faulty caps etc??


Edit: Mate what was that about Windows 10 you mentioned??

 

[epete]

ICIT2LOL - Thanks, sinc I get video during the splash screen I didnt think it would be a video card seating problem, but maybe you are right. I will check this.

The W10 reference was because I got so frustrated I thought I would try and install Windows 10 to see if the problem went away. The instalation didntallow me to get very far before the screen went dark so the system is still on W7.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes well it was a simple problem like reseating a card in one of my desktops that prompted me to suggest that and it takes very little effort and time and in my case I had been chasing a solution for two days unitl in frustration I reseated the card.

Now because the 10 trial also had the problem suggests the problem might just be in the card and as it isn't going to work have you access to another card or even just try the on board graphics with a monitor??
Edit I meant to say remove the card first of course.

 

[epete]

It has been a while as the PC that I am having problems with was an HTPC and was in a shelf interconnected with multiple other AV stuff. Today I finally took the whole thing out and brought it upstairs to my office

Specs

Built 2013
Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H-B3
G.Skill RipJaws F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
Intel Core i7 i7-2600K LGA1155
GeForce GT430
Crucial SSD

1. I have confirmed the Video Card was properly seated.
2. The Video card has now been removed and I have enabled the onboard graphics and see the same problem with a monitor connected to the motherboard
3. Video goes black when booting
4. Booting stops in safe mode in the middle of the Loading Files part of booting
5. Inserting a w7 install USB and booting from USB goes to loading files followed by the W7 splash screen, followed by black screen.

This happens with multiple monitors

I am totally baffled by this.

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[epete]

ok, it is a sw problem. I removed all drives other than the SSD with the W7 OS on it, same problem, then I put an alternate SDD on the system and it booted up. I guess I had a test install of W10 on it and it seemed to be compatible with my build.

I guess I should connect the other SSD with the W7 OS just to see if I can browse it and confirm the SSD works. That is the only thing I can think that could be the problem.

 

[epete]

...it wont let me log on in W10 as I have no idea what the password is. It also doesn't seem to have my proper network drivers so I cannot connect to my network. I did plug my W7 SSD into another SATA port and when turning on the system, it looked like W10 found some problems. Not sure if it was fixing something on the W10 SSD or the newly added W7 SSD.

So now wondering what my next steps should be.

 

[epete]

I have connected the W7 SSD to another PC. I went into disk manager I tried to delete the two partitions so I could format, but it wouldnt let me. It wont even let me reformat each individual partitions. Maybe the SSD is shot and maybe the PC is hanging at the point where it wants to write to the SSD?

 

[epete]

OK, I am able to reinstall W7 on the SSD that had W10 on it. So the problem was I had an SSD that was bad. I am going to just reinstall W7 on the SSD that had teh W10 image on it and call it a day. Actually with all of the W7 updates I will have to install, I may end up having to call it a day and a half.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok mate just to say that whenever I do a reinstall onto a drive that I have had an OS on it and particularly 10 I always clean the drive first with DISKPART because I find that a straight format does not always remove all the other OS stuff on it, and there have been many posts in the forum where people have had problems with a downgrade or reinstall of 7 after having 10 installed on a drive.

That is just me though being pedantic if you see it that way but at least I know I have a really clean drive - just as if it was brand new
The choice is up to you but if you want to have a look at this Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command I always use the command prompt option and then this
Clean Install Windows 7

The clean up you will need another working machine to run Windows to do that and you can either use a USB to SATA adaptor or just plug it into the machines board like another drive - just be careful wehn you choose the drive to be cleaned though it cannot clean the drive that is currently running Windows it is best any other drives are disconnected

I know this seems as I said pedantic but at least I know there is a low possibility of anything fouling up.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
It's actually a lot easier to clean install now days
Just a little preparation before is all that is needed
See post #2 here
windows update

 

[epete]

ok, since I only went through the first install and no updates, I will do the clean and clean all as you described. Thank you for the suggestion.

Also, the drive that I am using is only 80G not sure how well it will perform. The SSD will be dedicated for the OS and regular HDDs will be used for programs and data. Should I just wait until I get a new and larger SSD or do you think this will work long term. Not sure how many more years Microsoft will be pushing out fixes.

 

[epete]

Hi,
It's actually a lot easier to clean install now days
Just a little preparation before is all that is needed
See post #2 here
windows update

Who hoo! This is the best news I heard all day. Thank you for posting.

 

[epete]

I am downloading the three "Cat and Mouse" updates from your one drive. Thanks for sharing. I will put them on the same W7 Ultra 64bit USB. So you dont explain how to manually install the files. Do I just unzip and double click on them?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes well as I said it is me being pedantic and clean is all you need really clean all takes much longer.

Having said that Thrash Zones post is a good way to go - just I tend to overkill from the very start and with an 80GB drive well shouldn't take long to clean it. By the by is that a spinner drive?? if so I owuld rather use a SSD say 120GB for the OS - not expensive now.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Once you get to the win-7 desktop connect the flash drive and move the 3 updates anywhere really downloads folder/ desktop/.... then right click one at a time in the order they are to be installed and use Extract all
The extract all location popup message will be in the same place as you moved them too
Plus the extracted file will also open in a new window

When it does it might show a folder just double click on it and again on the next item which will be the .msu file
You'll get a prompt do you want to install this item after a brief search approve and repeat for the other 2

 

[epete]

The install worked well. As of 23-Oct 2016 there were 72 updates after the 3 update files from your onedrive, followed by about 7 more after reboot and check windows updates. It was relatively painless.

I am wondering why you went through the steps to disable the Windows Update service and disable checking for updates. Wouldn't it be easier to disconnect the ethernet and disable wifi if wifi receiver is installed?

When I was done, I went back to services and the windows update service was started and no longer set to manual. Not sure if the reboot did that or maybe I didnt save the configuration correctly. I did have my Ethernet unplugged until the 3 updates were applied.

 

[ThrashZone]

Him
Yep you can do either one disconnecting from the internet is the easiest way
Some people have issues with that one though all wifi or something and don't have a simple wifi switch or don't know where it is ?