windows xp install gone bad

so something happened to my gaming pc and it basically went kaput. I dunno what happened to it.

So anyways, I was trying to install win xp on it and basically after it installed, it asks you to reboot. after i did this, it rebooted but the screen stays blank. just a black screen. I have no idea why, and I have wrestled with trying to fix this pc for almost a year now.

does anyone know why this would happen? I was thinking that maybe its because I have an awesome ati radeon video card that my monitor plugs into from the back of the pc tower and maybe after i installed xp I no longer had the driver or whatever software it takes for my pc to run that card. thats just my guess..im at a loss as to what the hells wrong.

any ideas, tips, advice, nuggets of wisdoms? haha.

seriously, its the most frustrating thing ever. ive put good money into that pc and it kills me to watch it sit there not working, especially when I have no idea why it wont work.

oh yeah, also i tried switching out the hard drive for another one and that didnt do anything at all. I dont know if thats relevant or not..

It sounds like you're on the right trail. Does your computer still have the onboard video?

You don't have any image, don't you see the BIOS or the post ?
If not I'll say as killerweed420 there must be an onbard video card and the signal may come from it instead for the AGP or PCI express slot...

sounds like you removed hardware and did'nt re-install properly, plz re-check all cable connections inside pc all the them!! and make sure all cards are properly seated,winXP will install a basic driver so you have video but if the cables are not connected proper you will get nothing, when you do a re-install of win xp your first move is too go into your BIOS and set the bootup tab too boot from cd first,then do a new install(not upgrade) and format the drive using the option in winXP setup upon finishing install XP will reboot, at this point you have too go back into the BIOS and set the bootup too boot from hardrive first or it'll keep booting from cd and you'll get know where, I just did this last weekend on my friends pc and it was driving me nutz as i forgot too change the bootfirst back too hardrive grrrrr lol.. so recheck all connections and get into BIOS then let us know how your progress is going ..ok? rgr that:thumbsup:

Firstly, I'd do everything Veggi said as far as your cables, cards and making sure they're in correctly.

But, did you delete the partition or reformat the hard drive before you re-installed XP? Installing XP ontop of another OS could be causing your problems.

After I made sure everything is connected properly. I'd try a clean install of XP. When you setip XP, it'll show you the partitions you have available, if there is a partition with windows on it...DELETE IT...do not continue until you're sure you've deleted the partition. Windows makes your reconfirm this like twice. Once you do that....you'll format the new partition and continue installing XP.

Firstly, are you working from a Manufacturers restore disk or from a genuine winxp cd? Do you get to see the Windows boot logo and then it goes off? If that is the case, then try loading the OS in safe mode (after bios screen keep hitting F8 to get load options) and set the resolution down to 640x480 or something low, then restart the machine and see if that works.

Good advice from veggii if the above is not the issue, checking all connections inside if you have tinkered with anything in there, if not, it still won't harm making sure all of your cards and cables are seated correctly. Also, make sure you will not be voiding any warranties you have with your machine before delving inside.

Do you get to see your BIOS screen when the machine starts up? If not, check your graphics card is seated firmly in place and check your monitor cable connection. If everything is seated nice and snug, see if you can get a hold of another card and try that. If you have onboard, give that a whirl as well. if you still can't see anything, possible mobo issue.

If you can see the bios screen, does your machine then hang after this? If so then it would seem that your machines partitions could have a problem. Go in to your bios and set your first boot device to CD-ROM. You can leave this as the first boot device as if there is not a bootable disk your drive, your machine will try the next device in your list, generally hard disk. Even if there is a bootable disk in your drive such as a windows cd, just let it skip past the screen saying press any key to boot from cd.

If you are using a manufacturers boot disk, you should just be able to let it work away setting everything back to factory settings. If you are using a genuine bootable windows disk, run through the installation procedure again and as ThaRaven mentions, delete the windows XP partitions and follow the on screen prompts to create a new partition and install windows on the new partition.

Hope this helps a bit and let us know as much info if you need any more info.

Cheers.

Im not sure if there is an onboard video card, im not very versed in pc tinkering.

all the cables and everything were plugged in snug and according to the diagram. the wires were labeled and everything so I know they got plugged back into the right places.

i dont know how i would get around to messing with the bios while installing xp though. how can you do that while its installing? and i cant do it after it installs, because it asked me to reboot and thats what i did. now i have no picture, so i dont even know how i would be able to get into my bios, since the screen is black.

but yes i deleted the partition and installed fresh. it was a genuine disc, not a manufacturers copy or anything.

i want to try to figure it out again but ive just tried so many times, like i said its been a year dealing with that pc, and now that the screen just shows up blank i dont even know where to start or what to do. i cant get anything to show up no matter what i do.

Is there a second plugin on the back of the computer for a monitor?
I have also seen where a bad video card toasts a monitor.

keep in mind depending on what type of monitor that you are using the onboard video (if you have it) might use a different connector, eg db15 or dvi? it should be located by the cluster of ports on the motherboard on the back of the case, near where the mouse/keyboard plug in, usb/firewire etc. it won't be near where the expansion cards are installed.

-shake

Vid cards should load with the generic drivers, but untill you get the real ones installed shit will just react slow usually. Like someone said, check to make sure all cables are properly connected as well as hardware (especially the graphics card, make sure that is properly seated)


Had simmular problems in the past. Once when I replaced a video card it was just coming up black screen after a fresh install, checked the card, and yup, I fucked up, didn't properly get that sucker in there. Another time it had been my CPU that went boom, same crap, fresh install, and black screen, possibly a alert sound going off too. Hard to remember the specifics of two situations, and which one sounded an alarm or not heh..

Keep hitting your delete key like a chicken eating scratch while booting,this should get you into the bios. check if you have a section called hardware monitor,go there and check your voltages. 12v,3v,and 5v should be close to spec. sounds like you have a power problem.

who installed the vid card? was there a extra wire attached to it,make sure it's attached.

could also be the IDE cable is not plugged in right,make sure all plugs in the case are secure.

you can also try hitting your insert key while booting,this will load default bios settings on boot.

before going into your case shut the power and hit the boot button once to expel any remaining power.