Save me please!!! I have a Dell Inspiron 9100, with a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 video card. Back around the time I installed service pack 2, I also began having this problem and have been ignoring it ever since. When my computer boots-up, I see the Window Xp page, however it goes blank after that. I can hear the windows chime and it seems to boot up normally only the screen is blank. If the computer is plugged into another monitor it also works fine. I have been getting around the problem by booting up in safe mode and disabling the adaptor in the device manager. I have installed the newest drivers from Dell and it still doesn’t work. Any suggestions?

Uninstall SP2. SP2 might have done this.

Thanks for the quick help. Well, I unistalled spq2 but I'm still haveing the same problem. Any other suggestions? Is it ok to reinstall or system restore?

Ah, i would try using system restore to a point before the problems started.

Is the ATI card an add on? Does that Dell have onboard video? Did you disable it in BIOS if so? If you replaced a video card with the ATI, did you remove the drivers for the original one?

Please elaborate somewhat on the sequence of events that led up to the problem.

Uh Ted, its a laptop. ATI MOBILITY .

I've only seen external cards on DIY laptops.

:o :o :o

For once I didn't Google the model# and look what it made me do..

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/Matted_Prints/MP_421996.jpg

LOL, great picture!

Thank for so much interest guys.

Well lets see the video card is the original card that the laptop came with. I’ve never opened it up or made any upgrades.

To be honest I’m not sure if the video card ever worked. I purchased the computer for school and first noticed the problem about a month latter. Sometime in August. So it has been a while and I don’t completely remember the sequence of events. I had a bunch of problems all at once, this is the only one that wasn’t resolved. As I recall, during the week the problem started, I installed Diablo II and expansion, Novell Client Manager and SP2. I have since uninstalled all three programs and still have the problem.

It is still under warranty and I have the option to send it back to Dell but I would really rather not send it back.

Well, if this is a hardware problem, I would backup your data and send it back. That may be the only way to resolve this if this is a hardware problem because the vid cards in laptops are intergrated (except in DIY). In my opinion, Dell isn't a good company. Heres a link to a rant about Dell and their customer service: http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=37043

Thanks guys for all the help. Today I received the box to send my computer back to dell. Cross your fingures for luck. :)