Hieroglyphics..... and a black screen

[YeloBlammo]

I've had a Dell Inspiron e1705 laptop for a few years.

Never ever had a problem with it. Never froze, blue screen, intermittant slowness, etc. nothing.

I was using it the other night and the screen went black.
Did a hard shut down and brought it back up.

The first thing i see when i hit the power button is a black screen (usual) but there are A's with accent marks randomly placed on the screen (like hieroglyphics everywhere). That lasts a few seconds.
Next XP screen starts loading like usual for maybe 5 seconds.
Next I would expect my desktop to come up, but get just a black screen.

System boots up in SafeMode

I used AVG frequently and a spyware program I forget offhand.

I thought first it may be the video card.
I plugged it into my LCD at work and I still get a black screen instead of my desktop but the monitor also says no signal.

I also tried a system restore for as far back as possible.
That worked. I then used my computer for about a week and then it happened again.
I haven't been able to get it going since. (except in SafeMode)

Any ideas?
This was completely random.

Thanks
Scott

 

[Thresh]

The video is bad. You need a new mobo.

<Dell Field Service Tech

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

Why would he have to get a new mobo is just the video is bad? Why not jsut disable onboard and get a new video card? Seems a bit extreme to say get a new mobo when a simple Video Card replacement would work jsut fine.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[Peter.Cort]

its a laptop.

 

[KSoD]

Grr...

Moved to laptop area.

 

[YeloBlammo]

why would a sys restore temporarily fix the problem then?

I thought it was the vid. card as well but then the sys restore fixed it for a few days.

 

[Jorsoft]

I wouldn't say for sure that it's a video/mobo issue yet. Especially since a system restore fixed it. Easiest way to check it out is to pop in your restore discs and wipe everything and start from scratch. Do you have them handy?

 

[KurrentEweser]

I've had a Dell Inspiron e1705 laptop for a few years.....


I thought first it may be the video card.
I plugged it into my LCD at work and I still get a black screen instead of my desktop but the monitor also says no signal.


Thanks
Scott

Did you press function(Fn) F8 to activate the external monitor? Do you get a normal display when viewing the bios or while booting from your XP install CD? I would backup your data and reinstall XP SP3.

 

[YeloBlammo]

I wouldn't say for sure that it's a video/mobo issue yet. Especially since a system restore fixed it. Easiest way to check it out is to pop in your restore discs and wipe everything and start from scratch. Do you have them handy?

No i don't. The box came with a piece of paper shaped like a CD saying no need for a copy of the OS because the computer is equipped w/ system restore, if there is a problem, use that.
I found this out when i was going to wipe the OS and start from scratch. Nice, huh?

Did you press function(Fn) F8 to activate the external monitor? Do you get a normal display when viewing the bios or while booting from your XP install CD? I would backup your data and reinstall XP SP3.

I think so. I pressed function and some Fx key. It may be F8 (the computer is at home right now) The key is labled in blue LCD/Monitor.

I don't have a XP install CD.

When booting with the external monitor i can see the funny letters everywhere and also view when XP is loading. After that, when my desktop should come up, it goes black.
Safemode is viewed normal on both my laptop screen and the Ext monitor.

 

[Jorsoft]

The piece of card board may have been referring to a recovery partition, a lot of laptops have those. If you press like F10 or F8 when booting the console will come up and ask if you want to restore. Otherwise you can legally download a copy of Windows XP (with whatever service pack your authentication sticker specifies, probly sp2) since you don't have one handy and just reinstall from that, get drivers from Dell website. Just use your own serial (which would be on that sticker, located on the underside of your laptop) and you're gravy.