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Screen is black when starting up

1K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Miandre 
#1 ·
Hi, I have an XPS M1330 computer running Vista (but not service pack 1) which is about eight months old.

From the very beginning, the computer had problems. When you turn it on, it loads normally until the log on page, where the screen is just black. (But the music still plays.) However, after a few tries it finally loads the log on page and you can use it. It was annoying (especially since I sometimes had to turn it on and off over ten times before it would load), but it still worked.

Unfortunately now, when I press the on button the screen is just black. I'm not sure if the computer actually loads because it never plays the music. Though for some reason, when I close the lid for about 3 seconds straight after I've turned it on, then open it again, the screen that asks whether you want to load windows normally or load in safe mode appears. (The one that appears when you haven't shut your computer down correctly.) If I choose 'load windows normally' the same thing as before happens: it loads up until the log on screen then goes blank. Except now, no matter how many times I try, it won't load.

The computer works in safe mode, and I've been trying to find a solution but so far haven't found anything. My dad thinks that it's a problem with the display, so I tried changing the display resolution to standard VGA, and I tried booting in low resolution video but neither made any difference. I also tried following the advice here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946400/en-us but I was unable to locate the displace device .inf file.

I am definitely not an expert at computers and I have absolutely no idea what to do next. I'm not even sure what the problem is. =/

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
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#2 ·
This sounds as though you have a graphics card driver problem. You indicate that the display is ok in safe mode, so apparently the display screen (LCD) is working. I would uninstall the display adapter and then reboot and let Windows pick up the hardware and install it again. If you can identify the display adapter,(Control Panel, Device Manager) there may be a driver update on the Dell website for that model. A quick check of the Dell website shows that there are several updates to various devices/software for that model. If your laptop is "about eight months old", there may be updates that you need to install. I would recommend that you put SP1 on Vista also.
 
#3 ·
I tried uninstalling the display adaptor and after I turned it on again it loaded properly (though it said there was an error in c:\windows\system32\NVMCTRAY.dll and that 'the specified module could not be found'), which I THOUGHT meant that it worked, but unfortunately not. It installed the software but after I restarted it will only load in safe mode again. =/

I also installed all the updates and there has been no change. I could try putting service pack 1 on it but I read somewhere that it isn't advisable while in safe mode?
 
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