Laptop Screen is blank until after windows xp loads the desktop

chrisholt8138

Honorable
Jul 10, 2013
2
0
10,510
I have a dell vostro 1700 laptop running Windows XP.
When its first switched on the screen is blank (black). If i wait until it boots up and then blindly logon to windows, the screen, mostly, comes back on.
Occasionally it doesn't, if I then connect an external monitor the windows desktop shows fine on the external monitor. I can then mess about with the dual monitor settings and can get my laptop display to work, by re-setting it ss the default monitor. (seems my laptop monitor is not always being recognised)
This then works until I next switch off or reboot.
Things I have already tried:
1. Reload windows Xp from scratch
2. Update NVDIA GeForce 8600M GT drivers
3. Run laptop diagnostics at boot (F12) and monitor works fine through all the graphics tests!!

Any help and advise would be much appreciated, have had this problem for over a year and exhausted all my efforts on internet research into this issue.

Cheers
Chris M.C.S.A.
 
Solution
If thE laptop a few years old could be a weak CMOS battery and it not saving your settings. I would also check in the laptop bios to see what set for primary video output, the bios setting going overrule at post the function key video settings.
If thE laptop a few years old could be a weak CMOS battery and it not saving your settings. I would also check in the laptop bios to see what set for primary video output, the bios setting going overrule at post the function key video settings.
 
Solution


HI, Thanks for replying so quickly. I thought the CMOS battery was a good possibility, but I have replaced it now and unfortunately it hasn't helped. Have also checked the BIOS but there is no setting for the primary display, so I reset to factory defaults, again though no difference. Thanks again for your suggestions