A few months ago I bought a new XP system, but kept my old monitor, and it worked fine. Yesterday I bought a new monitor, and now I have problems.

When I hook up the monitor according to directions, the system boots up okay until it gets to the XP splash screen, then the screen goes black and I get a "NO SIGNAL INPUT" message, and the monitor goes to power save mode.

Worse: when I hook up the old monitor, now the same thing happens. I can't get it boot up properly with either monitor. Or rather, it seems to be booting, but the monitor's not getting the signal.

I'm able to boot into safe mode - and the safe mode desktop appears as it should - but I can't find anything wrong. But then, I don't know what to look for.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Frank

Hi frankmac and Welcome-

That's a strange one. You might try booting into Safe mode again, go to the Power Options in Control Panel. (Performance and maintenance/ Power options), and under the Power Schemes tab set everything to "Never" shut down or hibernate....Then reboot again.

I might say check the Video Card and connections, but the fact that you can get into safe mode suggests, to me at least, that the connections are OK. (Re-check them anyway to be sure everything is snug)

I would also Check your Documentation for the new Monitor (or their Web Site) as it seems some "fancy" new default settings or options for that Monitor may have had something to do with this...That's a long shot.
Did the Monitor come with any Software that you installed?

When you said: "When I hook up the monitor according to directions", were there some unusual directions? Generally, there isn't anything to hooking it up other that hooking up the Video cable and plugging it in.

Off the top of my head, that's it for now...others will be along. I'll be back if something else hits me. (In the head)
:p

I have seen a similar problem just recently on close to a hundred computers I was setting up, and it turned out to be the refresh rate.

Rather than boot into safe mode, when you press F8 try booting into 'VGA Mode' rather than 'Safe Mode' (Dont ask me why but for some reason it can make a difference).
Then at the Desktop properties change the resolution and at the advanced button on that section there should be a option somewhere regarding the refresh rate.
Check what it is set to and compare it to what the monitor is supposed to be able to handle.

This is what I would try...

1) Try and uninstall your video card driver (in safe mode). Now try and restart normally and see what happens. If you get in install the latest drivers for you video card.

2) If that does not work go back to safe mode and uninstall the monitor in the device manager.


Please post if you ANY questions. Also if anything works please post that as well :)



Jason

Wow, you guys are great: you solved the problem. Specifically, you solved it, Jason.

This is what I did:

I wanted to try the easiest things first, so I wanted to avoid dealing with hardware issues. So first I tried changing Power Schemes to "Never," but that was how it was already set. The monitor didn't have anything unusual as far as default settings or options, and the setup procedure was standard. (By "according to directions" I meant merely that I shut down the system before hooking up the monitor.)

Then I booted into VGA Mode, and I was happy when that worked. I found the refresh rate, but I couldn't find a refresh rate in the monitor's documentation. (This is an LCD monitor - does that make a difference?) Then I changed the resolution, and as soon as I clicked "Apply," the monitor lost the signal again. Weird.

So rebooted into Safe Mode and uninstalled the video card driver. And then I rebooted normally - success! Only problem was that the resolution and color were still at the lowestd settings. I decided not to risk anything by trying to change the resolution again, so I immediately connected to the internet and updated the video card drivers. Everything went smoothly, and after the download and installation, I rebooted, and was able to change the resolution and color to the proper settings.

And now everything works fine. Thanks again, Jason. And you too, jabarnutcase and pave_spectre. I really appreciate your help.

Frank