Blank Screen with Win 98 running

Strange thing happened today after turning on my Win 98 SE computer.
The computer turns on, the bios test runs, the windows 98 splash
screen shows up and then after the message "Windows 98 is starting"
the screen goes blank. I could still hear the computer running and
all starts fine. But I can't see anything. I have to click the
shutdown sequence buttons by memory.

I started in safe mode, and all is fine. But if I start normally,
the screen goes blank again.

Any ideas??

It sounds like a display problem (Duh, I know). In Safe Mode, you are using
standard VGA drivers at 640x480, rather than the specific drivers from the maker of
your display adapter. This is IIRC the same mode as the splash screen. So, the
problem seems to occur when the display switches modes (or tries to).

You can try this from Safe Mode:
Click StartRun, type msconfig and Click OK.
On the General tab, click the Advanced button.
Put a check in the box for "VGA 640x480x16", and click OK all the way out, then
restart in normal mode.

See if Windows now starts, with those ugly 16 colours and low resolution. That
would at least confirm that the problem likely lies with the video mode or corrupted
video drivers themselves. In that case I would try reinstalling the video drivers.

I did recently run across a similar problem when working on someone's very old Win95
system, with an even older monitor. The same thing would occur, but in this case it
was the monitor that was failing when attempting to switch modes. Replacing the
monitor worked in that situation.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Sierras" wrote in message
...
Strange thing happened today after turning on my Win 98 SE computer.
The computer turns on, the bios test runs, the windows 98 splash
screen shows up and then after the message "Windows 98 is starting"
the screen goes blank. I could still hear the computer running and
all starts fine. But I can't see anything. I have to click the
shutdown sequence buttons by memory.

I started in safe mode, and all is fine. But if I start normally,
the screen goes blank again.

Any ideas??

Thanks for the suggestion. Looks like it might be a monitor problem
here as well. And it looks like it's getting worse. Sometimes it
goes blank right from the start. And sometimes it comes back if I
power off and start up again. I did the msconfig thing, but still
can't get it to boot normally. I updated the drivers in safe mode,
but now I can't even get into safe mode anymore. It's a hit and miss
situation. Once it came back by just un-plugging the cable from the
video card and sticking it back in. Not sure what to try next. I
don't have an extra monitor lying around.. Looks like this old
machine has finally kicked the bucket. Not bad for an almost 9 year
machine. Thanks again for your help and feel free to give me any
other ideas if you think of any.



On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 21:00:29 -0500, "glee"
wrote:

It sounds like a display problem (Duh, I know). In Safe Mode, you are using
standard VGA drivers at 640x480, rather than the specific drivers from the maker of
your display adapter. This is IIRC the same mode as the splash screen. So, the
problem seems to occur when the display switches modes (or tries to).

You can try this from Safe Mode:
Click StartRun, type msconfig and Click OK.
On the General tab, click the Advanced button.
Put a check in the box for "VGA 640x480x16", and click OK all the way out, then
restart in normal mode.

See if Windows now starts, with those ugly 16 colours and low resolution. That
would at least confirm that the problem likely lies with the video mode or corrupted
video drivers themselves. In that case I would try reinstalling the video drivers.

I did recently run across a similar problem when working on someone's very old Win95
system, with an even older monitor. The same thing would occur, but in this case it
was the monitor that was failing when attempting to switch modes. Replacing the
monitor worked in that situation.

Well, it seems to be either the monitor or the video card (unless it has
"integrated" video built into the motherboard). The usual procedure is to swap out
with known good units to test. Can you try connecting the monitor to another
working computer to see if it happens there?
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Sierras" wrote in message
news
Thanks for the suggestion. Looks like it might be a monitor problem
here as well. And it looks like it's getting worse. Sometimes it
goes blank right from the start. And sometimes it comes back if I
power off and start up again. I did the msconfig thing, but still
can't get it to boot normally. I updated the drivers in safe mode,
but now I can't even get into safe mode anymore. It's a hit and miss
situation. Once it came back by just un-plugging the cable from the
video card and sticking it back in. Not sure what to try next. I
don't have an extra monitor lying around.. Looks like this old
machine has finally kicked the bucket. Not bad for an almost 9 year
machine. Thanks again for your help and feel free to give me any
other ideas if you think of any.



On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 21:00:29 -0500, "glee"
wrote:

It sounds like a display problem (Duh, I know). In Safe Mode, you are using
standard VGA drivers at 640x480, rather than the specific drivers from the maker
of
your display adapter. This is IIRC the same mode as the splash screen. So, the
problem seems to occur when the display switches modes (or tries to).

You can try this from Safe Mode:
Click StartRun, type msconfig and Click OK.
On the General tab, click the Advanced button.
Put a check in the box for "VGA 640x480x16", and click OK all the way out, then
restart in normal mode.

See if Windows now starts, with those ugly 16 colours and low resolution. That
would at least confirm that the problem likely lies with the video mode or
corrupted
video drivers themselves. In that case I would try reinstalling the video
drivers.

I did recently run across a similar problem when working on someone's very old
Win95
system, with an even older monitor. The same thing would occur, but in this case
it
was the monitor that was failing when attempting to switch modes. Replacing the
monitor worked in that situation.

OK so I used a different hard drive which had Windows ME on it and it
did the same thing. That is, after the splash screen, the screen went
blank but Windows kept on working.

I then used my laptop and plugged it into the back and pressed the CRT
button and the monitor showed up fine. I guess it's not the monitor.
So by process of elimination, it looks like the video card is on it's
last legs. Now the job of finding an ancient video card that fits
this machine may be a bit of headache.

Thanks again for the help..

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 07:44:53 -0500, "glee"
wrote:

Well, it seems to be either the monitor or the video card (unless it has
"integrated" video built into the motherboard). The usual procedure is to swap out
with known good units to test. Can you try connecting the monitor to another
working computer to see if it happens there?

I had similar problem, could not use fail safe, got same blue screen. I
reinstalled Win 98 again in a different folder windows1 and it now works.
The old windows folder is there, but computer goes to windows1 on start up.
The screen resolution is less with the new installation. It will not work if
you reinstall to same folder (windows). I pulled hard drive prior and used
a usb drive to copy to cd disks the programs and files I wanted in case I had
to format. The programs will not show up on new windows, but you can go to
windows explorer and find them and short cut on desk top to them.

Sierras wrote:
Strange thing happened today after turning on my Win 98 SE computer.
The computer turns on, the bios test runs, the windows 98 splash
screen shows up and then after the message "Windows 98 is starting"
the screen goes blank. I could still hear the computer running and
all starts fine. But I can't see anything. I have to click the
shutdown sequence buttons by memory.

I started in safe mode, and all is fine. But if I start normally,
the screen goes blank again.

Any ideas??