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dell 9300

post #1 of 23
5/17/08 at 12:36am
Thread Starter 
Hi I have a stock dell 9300 and it won't boot into the desktop? It turns to a black screen and nothing happens? I can go into safe mode but can't use system restore from there? Any ideas on fixing this would be great.

Dan
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post #2 of 23
5/17/08 at 2:06am
Safe mode works...that means the hard drive is okay, the video card and screen are okay.

Quite possibly a driver problem.

Divide-and-conquer should work: do a selective boot (using msconfig) and keep enabling program by program, service by service, until you find the magic driver/program/whatever that's hosing your system.

Another way to see what's going on: use the control panel's administrative tools->computer management section to open up your Event Viewer. See if Windows itself has noticed something bad going on and logged what it found to a file.
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post #3 of 23
5/17/08 at 5:40am
If you cant sort it do a dell restore after saving you files from within safe mode or boot from a live cd and then save.
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post #4 of 23
5/17/08 at 10:12am
Thread Starter 
Hi and thank you for helping.

I can boot into vga mode if I change the video setting above the lowest setting 640 it goes black and will not revert back to the 640 setting even though it should. I reinstalled the original drivers but it did not help?


I just replaced the video card still having the same problems

Dan
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post #5 of 23
5/17/08 at 12:23pm
Make sure there isn't any sort of weird IRQ conflicts between your video card and something else--I often see conflicts between the video and sound systems.
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post #6 of 23
5/17/08 at 12:39pm
Thread Starter 
ok I am getting closer? This is not my laptop so I am trying to troubleshoot this laptop. When I add a secondary monitor it works as the primary monitor and the internal monitor only works in safe mode or vga mode? I can't get the monitors to switch I get to the desktop? And I can only get to the real desktop with the external monitor and the internal stays black.
I have 4 listings as monitors in the hardware setup and when i remove and restart the 4 come back?
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post #7 of 23
5/17/08 at 1:14pm
Clean out all the video drivers in your machine (uninstall, reboot, drivercleaner, reboot). Then see if you have display on your main screen (laptop) without installing any drivers. Also, please be sure the external monitor is not connected. If you have display, proceed installing drivers. If not, you could have another issue besides drivers.
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post #8 of 23
5/18/08 at 4:27am
This sounds like the LCD inverter is going out/bad.

If it works fine with an external LCD, leaves me to believe that the drivers for said device is working fine.
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post #9 of 23
5/19/08 at 9:23am
Thread Starter 
Ok I uninstalled drivers and then used drivercleaner in the method above. It boots to the desktop but if I redo the ati drivers it does the same thing all over again a black screen when desktop loads

Dan
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post #10 of 23
5/19/08 at 9:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dan t View Post
Ok I uninstalled drivers and then used drivercleaner in the method above. It boots to the desktop but if I redo the ati drivers it does the same thing all over again a black screen when desktop loads

Dan
I am assuming you have a x300 - what drivers are you using?
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post #11 of 23
5/19/08 at 9:57am
Thread Starter 
It is a x300 I tried the stock dell ones that came on the original cd.
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post #12 of 23
5/19/08 at 10:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dan t View Post
It is a x300 I tried the stock dell ones that came on the original cd.
Those could be pretty old, even for XP SP2...

Try these: http://ftp.us.dell.com/video/R106547.EXE

v.8.162-050803a2-025823C, A04
Release Date:9/14/2005
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post #13 of 23
5/19/08 at 10:45am
Thread Starter 
Ok I just did the new driver above and it is doing it again?

Dan
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post #14 of 23
5/19/08 at 10:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dan t View Post
Ok I just did the new driver above and it is doing it again?

Dan
Sounds like it could be the LCD, since it may have issues with higher resolutions. However it could be the video card, but then external is fine. What resolution does your monitor have?
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post #15 of 23
5/19/08 at 11:09am
Thread Starter 
i changed the video card as i had my original x300 from an earlier upgrade. Without the drivers i can run it at 1024.
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post #16 of 23
5/19/08 at 11:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dan t View Post
i changed the video card as i had my original x300 from an earlier upgrade. Without the drivers i can run it at 1024.
More and more it sounds like an LCD/LCD cable issue. You tried two video cards, as well as multiple drivers. Standard drivers work and from it sounds like regular drivers do as well as long as you use an external LCD. Do you still have warranty on the laptop? Have you ran dell diagnostics yet?
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post #17 of 23
5/19/08 at 3:32pm
Thread Starter 
No warranty left on it and I am trying to fix it for a friend. How do I access Dell diagnostics? This thing is running enough to use it with no drivers but there must be some kind of virus or something going on? I could take the lcd off of my 9300 to test it but that would be a pain.

Dan



Thanks,
Dan
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post #18 of 23
5/19/08 at 4:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dan t View Post
No warranty left on it and I am trying to fix it for a friend. How do I access Dell diagnostics? This thing is running enough to use it with no drivers but there must be some kind of virus or something going on? I could take the lcd off of my 9300 to test it but that would be a pain.

Dan

Thanks,
Dan
Hit F12 during boot to select diag. However to take off the other lcs will not be a pain actually since you will just do the lcd assembly (the whole lid of the laptop) itself and then connect it. No need to do wireless or anything - just the main cable and the 4 screws.
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post #19 of 23
5/20/08 at 11:39am
Thread Starter 
I changed the lcd and did the Dell diagnostics but nothing helped?

Dan
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post #20 of 23
5/20/08 at 11:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dan t View Post
I changed the lcd and did the Dell diagnostics but nothing helped?

Dan
Does the LCD from your friend work on your machine without any issues? If thats the case - the video card could be shot :/


...Sorry to say...
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