Laptop video problem.

[Longhorn]

I closed my laptop to move to another location and when I opened it again, the screen was black. I restarted and got the initial Dell and Windows screen but then it goes black so I figured that there's a problem with the driver.

So I restarted in safe mode with networking and I went to the Dell site to download the driver but when I tried to install it, I got an error message that I need to install Direct X 8 first. I went to the Microsoft site and downloaded Direct X 8. The files unzipped but nothing else happened so I don't know if it installed or not. However, I still can't install the driver so right now I'm stuck with a 32-bit display that looks pretty funny.

Can you help me? Thanks!

[democracyindanger]

1. Start>

Start>Run...>type in "dxdiag"

The bottom of the first page of dxdiag will tell you what version you installed.

But I think you have to run "setup" or some such file after you unzipped the direct x files.

[Longhorn]

2. I apparently have version 5.3.

I don't understand why this is suddenly a problem. However, I cannot seem to find a place to download DirectX 8 and even though I downloaded and installed DirectX 9, I get the same error message so that apparently is not good enough!

I don't know how to proceed to get this fixed!

Thanks for your help! :hi:

[democracyindanger]

3. I think many video cards

require you to uninstall the old drivers before you can install new ones. You might give that a shot.

[Longhorn]

4. Still can't get this working.

I'm still in safe mode. I deleted the display driver and then rebooted and the "found hardware" message came up. The screen blanked and came back but still only in 32-bit so I tried to change to 256-bit (or whatever it's called) and the screen went blank again and I can only get it to work in safe mode.

So now I'm thinking it's not the video driver. There are times in the past when I've opened my laptop from standby mode and got a message that the device driver wouldn't let the screen go to standby mode. Perhaps that is related to this current problem?

I appreciate any input I can get. Thanks!

[democracyindanger]

5. I've pretty much given all I got

Maybe check with Dell support (from their reputation, I suppose that won't be much help), or even find one of those I-hate-Dell forums and see if anybody else has had the same issue.

[Longhorn]

6. Thanks! I appreciate your help and it may have very well helped

isolate the problem. :hi:

[Longhorn]

7. Update. After 90 minutes on the phone with Dell,

I'm still having a problem.

After putting me through some absolutely ridiculous tests and procedures, the service call ended the way they always do -- reinstall my operating system!

I suggested that since the screen goes black when the drivers are being loaded, perhaps this is a driver problem. I deleted the display adapter and rebooted and the screen works -- however, only at the lowest resolution and color quality. When I try to increase the resolution, the screen goes black and it's back to safe mode to delete the adapter again.

Anyone have any suggestions? I found a couple of sites that suggest that I don't have to stick to the original driver but I don't know enough about it to risk it without some help. Or maybe I just need to take it into a repair shop where they'll probably have it fixed in two minutes.

Oh, one more thing. For some time now, when I open the laptop from "sleep" mode, there would be an error message relating to the display not properly going into standby mode. The message would disappear and there wasn't any further problem but the screen first went black after I had closed the laptop to move it to another room.

Thanks, y'all!

[bemildred]

8. I'll try.

It should go something like this:

0.) Download the manufacturers current drivers for your video card
and the current DirectX package from Microsoft. These should be
self installing .exe files. If you can tell me what kind of card
you have and the OS I'll help you find them. Put them somewhere
convenient, (like C:\).

1.) Remove DirectX in the uninstall dialog.
2.) Remove video adapter drivers in hardware dialog. You can leave
the default/VGA driver if there is one.
3.) Reboot. When is says new device found for the video cancel,
that is install nothing. You should now have a 16 color VGA screen.
4.) Find the DirectX install package and run it. Reboot if
it asks. Reboot a couple times anyway.
5.) Find the video driver install packages and run it. Reboot if
it asks. Reboot a couple times anyway.
6.) Right click on the desktop and see if you now have the sort of
depth and resolution options that you expect.

[Longhorn]

9. Questions

I have a Mobility Radeon 9000 display adapter and I'm running Windows XP Professional.

When I go to "Add/Remove Programs" on the control panel, nothing named Direct X shows up. Is there another way to delete it? (Also strange -- as I scrolled down the list, I encountered large blocks of black screen, or half black/half white screens. Then the list continued. Weird!)

When you say to cancel installation of newly found hardware, do you mean to close the dialog box rather than click on it?

Thanks so much!

[bemildred]

10. Do you have the correct install packages for the drivers and DirectX?

When I go to "Add/Remove Programs" on the control panel, nothing named Direct X shows up. Is there another way to delete it? (Also strange -- as I scrolled down the list, I encountered large blocks of black screen, or half black/half white screens. Then the list continued. Weird!)

Can you see what video driver you are using in the desktop properties
dialog or the hardware video dialog? Should be default or VGA or
some such thing.

The best way to remove it AFAIK is the "Add/Remove Programs" dialog.
It might already be gone?

When you say to cancel installation of newly found hardware, do you mean to close the dialog box rather than click on it?

There ought to be a cancel button. I'm running '98, but it's a
standard Windows dialog kind of thing. Closing the dialog ought to
work too.

[bemildred]

11. Downloads:

This appears to be the Radeon drivers:

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=640

This appears to be the current DirectX package:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0A9B6820-BFBB-4799-9908-D418CDEAC197&displaylang=en

[bemildred]

12. Other issues:

You need to check in your BIOS and control panel and turn off
all the power saving and screen blanking and hibernating stuff,
at least until you have a working display.

[bemildred]

14. One other thing ...

The display drivers do not need DirectX, if the drivers package
wants DirectX it's because of the add-on stuff that comes with it,
so you might want to uncheck the add on stuff when you install the
drivers.

[jayfish]

13. If You Were Not Prompted To...

restart when the DirectX install finished, DirectX was not installed. Also, I would skip DX8 and go right for the latest version.


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0A9B6820-BFBB-4799-9908-D418CDEAC197&displaylang=en


Give it a try.

Jay

[Longhorn]

15. Thanks, Bemildred and Jayfish!

I may not have time to work on this for a couple of days but I'll be following your advice and suggestions.

:yourock:

[Longhorn]

16. Well, I'm screwed.

I told my daughter's boyfriend about the problem and the next thing you know, he does something to it -- though he says he didn't do anything -- and I can't get on at all. So I end up reformatting the hard drive as it won't reinstall Windows without doing that, and I've lost all my data. And then guess what? I install Windows XP and the damn thing still blacks out! It didn't even fix the problem!

So now I guess I've got to call Dell again and see what they're going to do about getting my laptop up and running again. I don't have time for that till tomorrow evening so I have to visit my boards via the desktop until then. :(

[Old and In the Way]

17. Curious....did you check the video outputs by connecting to a monitor?

If it's OK on an external monitor, trouble might be with the LCD display circuit. If it's the same on that display, it might be the graphics controller board?

[Longhorn]

18. No, I didn't get that far.

I was going to do some troubleshooting again after the weekend but that was before the boyfriend got ahold of it. :(

Thanks, though. At this point, it will be up to Dell to fix it or replace it.

[trotsky]

19. One more simple thing to try.

There should be a FN+key combination to toggle the output display between the LCD panel, an external (VGA) monitor, and both simultaneously. There should be a key labeled "Fn" - press and hold it while tapping another key that might say "LCD/CRT" or have two squares separated by a slash. Keep pressing to cycle through the options.

A friend of mine has an old laptop that the screen is going out on, but by flipping through the display toggle like that he can usually get it back.

[Longhorn]

20. Nope, nothing.

But thanks! The Dell people are going to call me back and we'll see what happens next. Maybe I'll get a new laptop out of it! It's only fair since I lost all my data. :(

[Longhorn]

21. This is what really pisses me off!

I just got off the phone with Dell -- another 90 minutes of my life gone forever! -- and found out that I could have attached my PC monitor to my laptop and at least backed up all my data before I did the Windows reinstall but the Dell service tech never suggested it and I didn't know I could do it. Damn!

Anyway, the box comes tomorrow for me to send my laptop in to be fixed in five to eight days and since I'm going out of town for a week, it's decent timing. I realized today that my syllabi and many other classroom documents are on Blackboard on another server so I can retrieve a lot of that data.

I'll survive! :argh:

[hobbit709]

22. That is why

every computer I have has the hard drive partitioned. If you keep all your data on "D" drive instead of in that stupid "My Documents" when you have to reformat "C" you don't lose anything on "D"

[Longhorn]

23. Update.

My computer came back yesterday, which was pretty amazing as my daughter didn't drop it off at a DHL dropoff until Friday! The enclosed form noted they updated the BIOS, fixed the hinge on the cover, and replaced the keyboard (many keys had the letters rubbed off from so much use at DU ;)) I don't know enough about all of this to know what actually fixed the problem.

I reloaded programs yesterday and got to work on my syllabi for summer session that starts next week. Fortunately, much of my school work had been uploaded to my school's Blackboard server so I didn't have to start from scratch. But I keep remembering data that I lost, such as all of my paid music downloaded from itunes. I had burned a few CDs but not all of it. :( And most of my photos from the last year, including our trip to the Rose Bowl.

Live and learn!