Nvidia Blank Screen / No Signal & No Boot Issue

[ironside]

Hi guys

I'll try and keep this short...

I'm running Win XP 64 bit with a Geforce GS7300 video card installed.

Now all of a sudden the pc refuses to boot into windows and freezes just before it logs into windows itself, Also the monitor is going on and off with the monitor message "no signal".

The only way i can get windows to boot up normally is to boot into safe mode and unistall the Nvidia drivers and reboot normally.

Even if i reinstall the Nvidia drivers and reboot i get the same problem again so the only way round this is to uninstall the Nvidia drivers in safe mode and use the standard VGA video controller driver to get the system up and running again.

I've tried the latest drivers from Nvidia and reinstalled windows xp 64 again but as soon as i install the Nvidia drivers again it will no longer boot into windows.

Has anyone else come across this problem ? Could it be down to one of the recent hotfixes ? or something else ?

Thanks for any help you can give

Edited December 22, 2007 by ironside

[eyeball]

hmm that is strange, it must be the drivers though, can you find an older version of them? maybe on the installation cd? and in the mean time email their tech support and ask them if they have a fix for the problem

[ironside]

According to the Nvidia forums this may well be a common issue with blank/no signal monitor and boot problems.

But unfortunately they does'nt seem to be a definitive answer to the issue.

Nor do Nvidia seem intrested in resoving it any time soon.

It all seems to be down to which driver you are using as some drivers work for some people and not for others and vice versa. So it looks like a matter of trial and error and trying to find a driver which works for me.

Having said the driver i was using worked flawlessly since august 2007 until now, so go figure ???

I've managed to find the original cd with a couple of sets of xp x64 drivers on it so i shall use them and hope for the best

If you think of anything else please do let me know

Thanks for your help, Much appreciated

[ironside]

Well those older original drivers i found did'nt work either

Even reinstalling windows (xp 64 and 32 bit) still did'nt fix the problem.

Just to recap:

When the Nvidia video card drivers are installed and pc rebooted the system will freeze just before login, Booting to safe mode and unistalling the Nvidia drivers and rebooting back into normal mode all is ok.

I've got no idea what the problem is now, Any suggestions please ?

Thanks

[eyeball]

there must be a conflict or something, do you have any additional devices you can remove from the pc whilst you try that driver?. or have you tried a fresh install with no AV or firewall and just that driver? maybe one of them is conflicting?

if not i suggesst dumping the memory and uploading it so someone can look at whats going on

[ironside]

I've tried installing the drivers on a clean install of windows (64 & 32 bit) with no peripherals attached, and i get the same issue with it lockking up as soon as i have rebooted.

This is really odd as it was all working fine until it all locked up.

I've had a look at the Nvidia forums and their pages are littered with threads of a similar nature and nobody there knows a possible fix apart from installing other driver versions but thats not always reliable , As one drer set works for one person it probbably wont work for another.

It also seemsit is not video card specific (all models) and the same with vista as well as XP (32 & 64 bit).

So i dont know what else to try, If i could any driver set to work i be happy.

Thanks for yur help.

.

[eyeball]

i dont know what to suggest then, other than getting hold of every driver you can and testing one by one....

[chrisinsocalif]

I had this same issue as you. What happened I was playing a graphic intensive game and it kept crashing. I took off the side of my case and realized my Video card was overheating. Kept the side of my case off and tried to play the game again hoping it would stay cooler. While in the game I moved my case door out of the way knocking my computer lightly causing my computer to act up. When I restarted my computer, it gets to the Windows welcome screen and its blank yet the hard drives are still loading. Same problem.

Of course you cant get into windows at all (not even safe mode or command prompt) all the options didn't work when trying to start up Windows alternatively. Also I tried different BIOS options with no success. I can still see the boot process but I thought I ruined my video card so I took my video card out and switched it out with another Nvidia card (I have a 6800 Gt and tried the TNT2 from an old computer) and had the same issue. So I ended up reinstalling windows hoping it would fix the problem. I installed windows around 3 times (not reformat) trying to get it to work, but ended up having the same issue of the blank boot after each Windows installation. So I decided to take a break and get something to eat leaving the computer on. I came back upstairs and saw that windows did boot up. If you leave the computer on at the blank boot, it will eventually load into windows after a long wait (at least with my problem.)

What I ended up doing when I got into Windows was uninstalling all Nvidia drivers and programs I could find. Then I ran registry and other cleaners on my computer to try and rid as much as I could without reformatting (I needed to buy another HD before I reformat to back up my data). I reinstalled older Nvidia drivers and still had the same boot blank screen problem and had to wait a long time for windows to start up. While in windows I played some music and realized my rear speakers on my surround sound were not sounding right(like static almost and really low). So I plugged in my sound cords in tighter on the sound card to cause my computer to have issues again, needing another restart. I just turned off the computer. Since my video card over heating, I decided to take it out again and blow the dust out with my compressor before restarting again. I put the video card back into my computer and made sure my other cards were in correctly and cords were all tight and booted up my computer again.

To my surprise the computer booted up into windows normally. I think (not positive) I know what caused my problem....

When I opened my computer case, I hit the cables on my sound card (SB Audigy 2) either causing the cables to be loose or knocking the sound card just enough to cause issues. Since I tried another Video card, I know it was seated correctly and not the problem.

or.......it was from blowing out the dust from my Video card(which I don't think it was.)

Also reading from another forum, a user took out all of his cards uninstalling and then putting all his cards back in, re-installing all his drivers for his components. Which worked for him.

I am not sure this will fix every issue but it fixed mine. What I would suggest...

Make sure all your cards and cords are seated correctly. Even take them put and re-seat them all to ensure proper fit.

Make sure all your cords are in tight and correctly.

Maybe your power supply isn't strong enough for your video card (if you bought it new and had this issue or you knocked other components installing it)

If your computer is not clean, try to blow out all the dust.

For my issue it was hardware and not software. Hope this helps people.....