Video Card- Black Screen

[mmochtroid]

I got a pny verto GeForce 8400 GS 512Mb PCI gfx card and when I put it into my Dimension 3000 computer, insert the monitor cord and boot it shows the bootup to the Windows XP screen then goes to a black screen. How to avert this?

[123456]

Do you see your cursor or just a black screen? Right after your PC finishes POST, (after the beep), immediately press F8 and go into "Enable VGA mode" or something similar. Then install your drivers that came with the card. Is the card PCI or PCI-e?

[mmochtroid]

I see just a black screen, my card is pci without an E, and i'll follow your advice after my sister gets off the computer.

[mmochtroid]

Curse you, 123456. Your instructions are no help at all and my monitor shows nothing no matter what hole I plug it into. Are you out to get me or something? You ungrateful slime of a being.

[mjc]

Insulting those who are trying to help you is a sure way to be shown a quick exit.

The question asked is a pretty standard troubleshooting step...since none of us can actually sit down in front of your machine and go through the simple diagnostic steps, we have to ask you to do them...

[califuberalles]

Good Morning,

I have the same exact problem... same machine... but not the same bad attitude as the poster (found the issue searching Google). It's Saturday... so I won't get any help at PNY.

I went through the steps in the book to include entering Bios... actually left it on "automatic" as opposed to the only other choice of "onboard". While in Windows XP, drivers etc. loaded fine (even said "they're already installed" when I retried - w/ monitor connect to onboard).

Once I hook the monitor to the new card/port...
When the computer restarts I can see everything until the Windows logo... then blank for good with the exception of a little blinking dash at the top left corner of the screen.

Thank you very much for any assistance.

Ken

[saphalline]

Curse you, 123456. Your instructions are no help at all and my monitor shows nothing no matter what hole I plug it into. Are you out to get me or something? You ungrateful slime of a being.Hahahaa! :D

I'm sorry, I can't help but laugh at this! It brings to mind a cartoon villain shouting about revenge at the end of an episode! ".. if it weren't for you meddling kids!" Haha! :D


Anyway, if I were going to even posit a guess at what might make a Dimension 3000 take a PCI vid card, it would be to uninstall the onboard video drivers in Safe Mode, shut down, install the PCI vid card, reboot, and see what happens! Those cheapie Dell systems aren't known for their upgradeability. :rolleyes:

[Paul Komski]

@califuberalles

Hi and Welcome to the forums.

when I retried - w/ monitor connect to onboard
It's not quite clear which options you have selected but it sounds like you have on-board chosen in the BIOS and the VGA adapter attached to the card's socket and not the on-board socket.

Ensure the VGA is attached to the card and ensure the BIOS is either set to autotdetect or disable the on-board option. Then try a restart. If you still get Windows logo and then nothing it is most likely to be a drivers related problem.

You could then try using the onboard setup to get into windows and from device manager uninstall the video adapter. Then turn off, change over to run from the PCI cards hardware and BIOS options and see if Windows will let you in - probably in standard VGA mode - but you would then be in a position to install the relevant video drivers.

There are other hacks involving editing the registry or doing repair installations but lets leave them as fall back options to try.

[califuberalles]

:) Yes, that worked. Thank you very much.