Windows 7 Black Screen Appearing Withing a Minute of Start Up

[Seraphyn]

I know there's another thread and I've checked out the links posted for the Black Screen but none seem to work.

My promblem is, I shut down my computer earlier in the afternoon yesterday. I come back and turn it on and after running a minute or two, the fans are going like crazy and screen goes black, monitor goes to sleep. I manually hold down the power button, restart and choose the option to repair. Once again, after a minute or so fans start running hard, blacked out screen, monitor goes to sleep.

My husband has tried F8 and we've tried going back to a restore point. It will start and sound normal, but when the fans start to run hard we know the screen will go black. Opinions from various people I know and from websites are stating it's my ATI Radeon graphics card. We've even tested the RAM, yet within those two minutes after start up, monitor goes black and states no signal or it's sleeping. We've also tried numerous monitors, just for sake of process of elimination.

I can't get to the desktop, I can't get past anything no matter what option I choose. Could it truly be the graphics card? Or something worse, like the motherboard? Any help is appreciated, thank you!

 

[IIllytch321]

You had the Radeon card before and everything was fine, right? I don't see the card itself as the issue if that's the case.

When EXACTLY does the screen go black and fans run towards 100%?

Is there anything you installed or modified software-wise or hardware-wise before you shut down yesterday?

Do you own a dog that perhaps could've urinated on your computer?

 

[Seraphyn]

It appears you were correct, we cleaned out the video card, uninstalled and reinstalled and now the fans run clean. However, we are now getting this error: 4400:011A which is followed by this message: Msg SCSI-0-000_Disc_Generic_SD/MMC Target Not Found.

My husband has gone to the thread Repair Install: How to Repair Install to Fix Windows 7, yet he can not get passed the blue/green background screen. He's run diagnostics but it all stalls out at the background screen. We have not uninstalled or modified anything software or hardware. The only reason why the computer was on was to let my son watch some TV shows on YouTube yesterday.

I have a three year old son learning to potty train, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't pee on my tower, hahaha!

 

[IIllytch321]

If I understand, the fans turning on max load and the black screen is no longer a problem, but now you cannot get into Windows at all and you are receiving that error?

*EDIT*
Sorry, you can get into Windows but when you try to repair it via Windows' installation CD, it gives you that error message?

I'm reading similar issues on other sites that mention Dell computers with a card reader that needs to have a card (SD?) in the reader for the message to go away. Also reading about a Ctrl+F11 command at startup for a system restore of some kind (for a Dell system).

 

[alishathomaz]

There is a possibility that some third party program or startup item installed on the computer is causing the delay in startup time.
I would suggest that you perform clean boot procedure and check.

Perform clean boot and check if you have the issue.
1. Click Start, type msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.
2. On the General tab, click Selective Startup.
3. Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup Items check box.
4. Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
5. Click OK.
6. When you are prompted, click Restart.

Hope these guidelines helps you in fixing this problem.

 

[seavixen32]

At a guess I'd suspect the graphics card, motherboard, power supply or even the hard drive.

Is your computer still under warranty? If so you need to talk to Dell about the problem.

One of my computers is the same model as yours and I had the motherboard replaced under warranty for exactly the same problem that you are experiencing.

At the very least you should check to see that your motherboard components such as the graphics card and RAM modules are seated correctly.

While you've got the box open you can always carefully shift any dust with a can of compressed air.

One possible solution I've read about involved switching your computer off then disconnecting the card reader power cable and grounding it to earth to discharge any power stored on it then reconnecting it.

I also remember reading that leaving a card plugged into the reader can cause problems during startup.

http://supportfordell.iyogi.com/inspiron-545/error-code-2.html

You might also want to run the Dell Diagnostics utility to see if you have a hardware problem.

http://support.dell.com/support/top...9E3A15597A04AFBB02EE16785D39C5C&isLegacy=true

 

[Seraphyn]

I'm sorry for the long absence, I wasn't ignoring anyone's helpful comments. My husband and I were able to get the computer to work. Apparently I needed a big game license to hunt the dust bunnies collected in my graphics card.

Soon after we began running into error messages that said my SATA 3 and 4 were not there and blue screens and finally my hard drive just completely went to crap. Mix in an emergency week trip home and it's been crazy. I have a new hard drive now, and I'm trying to download everything that had been on my old hard drive. Can someone possibly provide a link to download all updates for ATI Radeon graphics cards? All bookmarks are wiped and I can't find the site that I use for the life of me.

On a side note, when I go to Device Manager, the ATI Radeon HD 5700 isn't coming up in the list. I've downloaded/extracted everything off my drivers and utilities disc, so I'm not quite sure what's going on.

Thank you all for your helpful tips!