Computer help for a friend

[pcjunkie429]

Hey y'all. Just thought that before giving up, I'd ask the opinions of the resident geeks/nerds (of which I am one, so no offense :lol: ) for some help for a friend.

He went to turn his computer (custom build that I actually did everything for except buy the parts, and this was about 2 years ago) on, and it gets to the Windows 7 start-up/splash screen, then blacks out. I've asked him to try everything I can think of, and Googled for myself the things I couldn't think of (which was useless, as most of the results I found were for laptops <_<), and still no luck. We've (well, me telling him) tried resetting the bios via the I/O CMOS button on the mobo, tried going into safe mode to get new video card drivers (got a "can't complete installation in safe mode" error), and tried to boot from the Windows install disk (which the computer completely freaking ignored for some odd reason, even when he changed the boot order to cd drive first), all to no avail.

HALP!!

 

[airdeano]

F5 optimize sometimes works outside the BIOS, F8 boot manager, remove dedicated
GPU and use integrated graphics, switch GPU PCIe slot..
sounds like graphics driver or a driver load crash. since it wont tolerate safe mode,
pull OS drive, slave another drive to launch OS re-install to verify driver library.
the BIOS could be foul subbing wrong device path.

 

[pcjunkie429]

F5 optimize sometimes works outside the BIOS, F8 boot manager, remove dedicated
GPU and use integrated graphics, switch GPU PCIe slot..
sounds like graphics driver or a driver load crash. since it wont tolerate safe mode,
pull OS drive, slave another drive to launch OS re-install to verify driver library.
the BIOS could be foul subbing wrong device path.

Thanks for the reply Deano.

I feel kinda embarrassed/ashamed (I'm an IT major, after all. I could blame it on the fact I specialized in Networking, but I won't .) to say I don't know what "F5 optimize" means... :wacko: :blush:

His mobo (Asus Crosshair II or III, can't remember which exact one, but they're pretty similar) doesn't have onboard graphics, so that's a no-go. I'll ask him to try moving the card to a different PCIe slot when he gets home. I'm not sure if he has another HDD lying around to use to install Windows onto. I definitely think (and since it was one of your suggestions, I feel confident) that it is a GPU driver problem, but like I said I don't know for sure if he has another spare HDD lying around to install Windows onto to get new drivers/repair the old ones.

 

[airdeano]

kinda like the clear BIOS/CMOS switch/jumper, but software driven. usually
when in the BIOS, by pressing the F5 key it loads current hardware profile and re-posts
with that new info. and sometime that key works outside of the BIOS.

 

[Deejeta]

it just the screen going blank after the flash screen or is the system hanging or restarting.
i would run a linux live cd and troubleshoot from there. backup etc.
run tests on the hdd (long test), ram (memtest)
re-install windows.
has the mentioned system got the os installed on an ocz ssd by any chance?

 

[pcjunkie429]

it just the screen going blank after the flash screen or is the system hanging or restarting.
i would run a linux live cd and troubleshoot from there. backup etc.
run tests on the hdd (long test), ram (memtest)
re-install windows.
has the mentioned system got the os installed on an ocz ssd by any chance?

It's just sitting there with a black screen. And the system doesn't have a SSD in it, just an HDD. This was back before SSDs became popular/affordable.

 

[alienware]

The couple of times I've seen this was due to a dead video card. It will work in safe mode or bios but as soon as you load the driver it will just fall on its face.

When my GTX 280 died I would get the splash screen with logo. I could also boot it into safe mode, but, try and let the drivers load and the screen would immediately go blank. After a while of rebooting I would get red, pink,blue single coloured blank screens but that was about it.

 

[pcjunkie429]

The couple of times I've seen this was due to a dead video card. It will work in safe mode or bios but as soon as you load the driver it will just fall on its face.

When my GTX 280 died I would get the splash screen with logo. I could also boot it into safe mode, but, try and let the drivers load and the screen would immediately go blank. After a while of rebooting I would get red, pink,blue single coloured blank screens but that was about it.

Yeah, he's not getting past the Windows splash screen. It goes black after that. We tried going into safe mode but it causes an error message. Probably just gonna end up getting a new hard drive and re-installing Windows on it.

 

[alienware]

Yeah could be bad sectors around the boot partition.