Windows 7- after upgrade, blank screen

[will401]

Hi, I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me!
Yesterday I upgraded my ACER ASPIRE 7535G from vista to Windows 7. All went smoothly until I had to put the ACER cd back in after the installation to update drivers. It seemed to have crashed during this as the screen simply showed my wallpaper and nothing else, so I turned it off.

Now when i turn my laptop on, it powers up normally, with windows 7 logo etc, then the screen goes blank, the start up sound plays and the screen just stays on, but black.

I don't know what to do!

thanks

 

[kegobeer]

Can you boot into safe mode?

 

[zx81]

Welcome will401 to the Windows 7 Forums!

Probably your best choice is to perform a clean install.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

Before you do this, make sure you save your data.

Any questions left? Just ask

zx81

 

[kegobeer]

Welcome will401 to the Windows 7 Forums!

Probably your best choice is to perform a clean install.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

Before you do this, make sure you save your data.

Any questions left? Just ask

zx81

Whoa! Let's see if it's just a video driver that's corrupted. If the OP can boot into safe mode and see the desktop, then the video driver can be repaired.

 

[zx81]

Welcome will401 to the Windows 7 Forums!

Probably your best choice is to perform a clean install.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

Before you do this, make sure you save your data.

Any questions left? Just ask

zx81

Whoa! Let's see if it's just a video driver that's corrupted. If the OP can boot into safe mode and see the desktop, then the video driver can be repaired.

kegobeer,

The only reason I suggested this, is because so many problems occur when upgrading instead of clean installing. I understand what you mean.

zx81

 

[Arran]

I don't suppose you have a 2nd display hooked up do you?

I just did my first install of 7 and couldn't work out why when it booted I'd come to a blank screen... Turned my second display on and there it was...

For some reason it had prioritised the other screen... You can change it in the display settings...

 

[will401]

thank you all for your quick response.

I have tried booting into safe mode - same problem, i just get a blank screen and the startup sound.

and no unfortunately i don't have a second display attached

any other ideas?

 

[Arran]

Does your graphics card have more than one output? If so you could try attaching your display to the 2nd output...

Other than that, I haven't got a clue what it could be... As if safe mode it would load generic display drivers surely? and would use a low resolution, refresh rate etc so it wouldn't be doing something that your display couldn't handle... and besides your display would flag up an 'out of frequency' box wouldn't it?

 

[Tews]

At this point I would consider a fresh install...

 

[dimitar]

fresh install or boot up in safe mode and then reinstall and update video driver.

 

[Arran]

OP states a blank screen even when booting to safe mode...
I'd have to agree with Tews on this one... A fresh install and see what happens...

Especially as Win7 installs only seem to take 15mins...

 

[Dave76]

A new clean install will definitely work and give you a good installation.

You can also try another upgrade install if you want to try and save your programs and personal files.

Did you backup your HD before the first upgrade?

Take a look at this tutorial Clean Installation with Windows 7 , choose 'Upgrade' in step 6.

Let us know how it's going.

 

[will401]

ok, so how would i do a fresh install then?

or could i somehow connect my other laptop or deskptop monitor to it in order to use as a second display?

 

[will401]

ok. I have now managed to plug in a second display into the laptop. the laptop screen and second monitor both show the laptops screen. i repeated the last step of the install, installing the acer drivers etc, but the problem continues unless i have the second monitor plugged in.

any ideas what to try now i can see my desktop?

 

[Arran]

So now you've plugged in a 2nd display you can see your desktop?

Have you tried altering your display settings? You can do this within the Control Panel... Get it to use the screen YOU want as the primary...

Now that you can see what you're doing, you could try downloading the latest drivers also, can't hurt...

 

[thundercat]

Will401 - I've had exactly the same problem. I've got an Acer Aspire 7535G, and it has two graphics adaptors in it; an ATI HD3200 for Windows, and a HD4570 for games. Vista switches between the two graphics adaptors depending on whether you have the power lead plugged in or not (using the HD3200 for power saving without mains power.)

The problem arises when you install Windows 7. Initially I did exactly as Will401 has done, and installed Windows 7 (in my case a clean install), then the Acer driver CD. After it rebooted, I got the blank screen. However, I didn't have issues with Safe Mode so I was able to roll back the graphics driver. Since then I've been able to boot Windows 7 using the HD3200, but it won't recognise or switch to the HD4570 for games (WOW-withdrawal is kicking in!!)

I've tried every trick in the book to update the drivers for the HD4570, using MobilityModder etc, and Windows 7 has tried (unsuccessfully) to download drivers for the HD4570, but nothing seems to be working.

Having read this thread, I'm going to go back to trying the Acer driver CD and see if I can get the black screen issue to happen again as it seems from what's written here that it's just defaulting to the wrong video output. It DOES seem to be more of a driver/Windows 7 issue than anything else, though.

 

[thundercat]

Okaaay... I haven't run the CD yet, but I've had a poke about in it and tried to install some graphics drivers without going through the whole CD installation. What I've found is a problem I came across earlier when trying to install ATI drivers from their website.

When I run setup.exe in the driver folder, I get the Catalyst installation window where you select the installation language. I select English and click on Next... then there's two icons appear - one to install ATI Catalyst, the other the remove any installed software. Whichever one I click on, the window disappears and that's it - end of program. A couple of times I've had a 'Windows Compatibility' program pop up, saying that the installation didn't complete and would I like to try it again with recommended settings. If I do that, it still doesn't work.

It seems no matter what I try, I can't install Catalyst software/drivers.

I'll try the whole CD driver installation thing again in a sec, see if that gets me to the blank screen that will401 mentioned.

 

[Arran]

Like I said earlier, I had a blank screen with my Radeon 4870... Turned my TV on and there it was.. Defaulted to wrong output... So I just swapped it around in the display settings, and that was with the stock windows drivers for the 4800 series...

I then updated with the Catalysts and haven't had any problem...

I expect I'd be having problems if I had one of the 4000 series, as it would be working alongside my integrated HD3200... (I think its a 3200 I've got onboard, one of those ones that'll do discreet thing...)

 

[m900uk]

This is exactly whats happening to my machine

...so I'll watch the thread with interest

 

[thundercat]

Sorted then. Well, sort of. Install Windows 7. Then install the upgrade software and graphics drivers from the Acer CD.

Once that's done, you should find you've got a blank screen (just your wallpaper picture and the mouse pointer.) This is because the two graphics cards are set up as two displays in the new drivers, and the default display is the HD3200 which doesn't seem to be the primary display by default. Right-click, get the screen resolution, then press ALT-SPACE, ALT-M, then the arrow keys. You should find the window is pinned to your pointer so you can move it into view from the other display (extended on one side of the display or another.)

Then identify which display you're viewing and make it primary. Sorted.

The problem now is that even with the Acer drivers installed, Windows isn't switching between the HD3200 or the HD4570 when playing games/plugged into the mains etc. It's annoying that there's two displays and I can't really find a way of switching between the two. If I make display 2 the primary, I lose all the icons and taskbar as they're still on display 1 (HD3200).

Anyone know how I can sort that?