Dell Dimension 3000 - boots to black screen on XP startup

patrickman

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Dec 20, 2013
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10,510
Dell Dimension 3000 -
- Recently did a hardrive wipe and windows reinstall (computer was having major problems).
- Can start Windows Xp Safe Mode but CANNOT start Xp normally.
- When I start Xp normally, it boots to a black screen with no cursor. It doesn't even reach the user login screen when booting xp normally.
- Tried installing graphics drivers in XP safe mode. Installed successfully, rebooted windows in normal mode, no success still black screen
 
Solution
Yes I probably didn't pay much attention to "recent" because profile corruption has nothing to do with time, but that doesn't matter now that a new account doesn't help. Check the threads, many cases of the same problem and different solutions, one may coincide with your problem. Your last comment about it being a common problem for Dell Dimension 3000 upon reinstall, is probably due to lack of the appropriate drivers or a BIOS setting not coinciding with the default Windows video setting. Many of the problems commented in the following threads were those BIOS and Windows settings not coinciding. If any of the two threads doesn't have the answer, check from the 2.5 million results in a google search... that said, the issue can be due to...

Not sure how this would help, considering when I boot up XP normally user accounts options to log in with don't even show, but still willing to give it a fair shot.

Btw, thanks for the reply. Always good to see someone's willing to help.

Edit: No dice. User log in screen still doesn't show when booting up XP normally. Remember: It does show in safe mode. also Remember: When I boot XP normally, I get black screen BEFORE user login shows.


 



What I meant is: logon in Safe Mode and create a new user account. If you logged on and installed a driver, then you can probably create a new user account... next set that account for automatic logon according to instructions in the article and Tom's Hardware thread, next logoff and see if you can now logon automatically in normal mode with the new user account. If you already have a second user account (which I doubt), use that one instead to use it for auto logon. If the problem is corrupted user account you should be able to logon.

If you suspect it's the graphics card, first try the Safe Mode options and use the VGA Mode, or change the BIOS settings to use the integrated onbloard graphics or the GPU depending which is the default card.

If you're using the onboard video only, try a different video port with an adapter, if you have a vga only monitor, or an appropirate video cable if you have a digital monitor. The BIOS is supposed to deetect the video type and switch between digital and vga but it also may depend on your motherboard's age... The BIOS may be set for one type of video and Windows for another... so try different video outputs.

Auto-logon for primary user...
http://www.updatexp.com/tip14.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/23606-45-auto-logon-primary-user
 
What I meant is: logon in Safe Mode and create a new user account. If you logged on and installed a driver, then you can probably create a new user account... next set that account for automatic logon according to instructions in the article and Tom's Hardware thread, next logoff and see if you can now logon automatically in normal mode with the new user account. If you already have a second user account (which I doubt), use that one instead to use it for auto logon. If the problem is corrupted user account you should be able to logon.

If you suspect it's the graphics card, first try the Safe Mode options and use the VGA Mode, or change the BIOS settings to use the integrated onbloard graphics or the GPU depending which is the default card.

If you're using the onboard video only, try a different video port with an adapter, if you have a vga only monitor, or an appropirate video cable if you have a digital monitor. The BIOS is supposed to deetect the video type and switch between digital and vga but it also may depend on your motherboard's age... The BIOS may be set for one type of video and Windows for another... so try different video outputs.

The thing is, the problem isn't a corrupted account. Did you not read I reinstalled windows? I still tried creating a new account anyways but it didn't have an effect because as I suspected this has nothing to do with the user accounts, as this is a fresh Xp install. (Followed the auto-login step you provided)

Because I can go into safe mode without problems. The problem when I log into normal mode, is the screen going black (before user log in prompt apears). So i understand why you may think it was the account login process or the user account itself that was at fault, however this is false.

When I get a spair graphics card to plug and try I'll give it a shot. I already made sure both the OS and the bios were set to use onboard graphics but I will double and triple check.

What I find interesting is if you google around this is a common problem for Dell Dimension 3000 upon windows reinstall.
 
Yes I probably didn't pay much attention to "recent" because profile corruption has nothing to do with time, but that doesn't matter now that a new account doesn't help. Check the threads, many cases of the same problem and different solutions, one may coincide with your problem. Your last comment about it being a common problem for Dell Dimension 3000 upon reinstall, is probably due to lack of the appropriate drivers or a BIOS setting not coinciding with the default Windows video setting. Many of the problems commented in the following threads were those BIOS and Windows settings not coinciding. If any of the two threads doesn't have the answer, check from the 2.5 million results in a google search... that said, the issue can be due to one of many causes, but since you have video before the logon screen, it's probably due to Windows display settings.

Monitor goes black at Windows log in screen (Solved: bad monitor)
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277870-33-monitor-black-windows-screen

Screen goes Blank after starting windows [Solved/Closed]
http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-22454-screen-goes-blank-after-starting-windows

Windows xp display goes blank before the logon screen
https://www.google.com.mx/?gws_rd=cr&ei=ONu3Ur33FsfhoAT-lIHwDw#q=windows+xp+display+goes+blank+before+the+logon+screen
 
Solution