Black Screen on Windows Logon.

Deonilin

Deonilin

Deonilin

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12 Sep 2005
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Bristol-ish
Currently have an issue on the machine and want some advise on the next diagnostic steps. The machine shows an image on the monitor up until the point where the window logo stops flashing and the screen would normally go blue and window starts 9windows 7 64bit). The machine will boot into safe mode and work functionally and will also boot into windows when the graphics drivers are all removed. I have tried multiple connections from the graphics card and multiple monitors all of which failed to work.

I'm currently running an MSI twin frozr III 6970 graphics card on a corsair 650watt power supply which has been running fine for about 3 years.

The graphics card has coloured LEDs on the back however I cannot find reference to the diagnostic codes. I have noted previous comments on this forum state that there should be 4 red LEDs indicating power phase but currently on my card LED 13 is not lighting up.
 
1. No the cursor does not show. The windows boot sequence does not complete either as I dont hear the start sound and the lighting for the mouse does not change meaning the control software has not loaded.

2. I have tested 2 display ports and 1 DVI all of which have the same result. I have not tested the HDMI as I have not got a HDMI handy (will test once I can get hold of one). I tested the DVI on another monitor using a DVI to VGA connector.
 
Deonilin said:
1. No the cursor does not show. The windows boot sequence does not complete either as I dont hear the start sound and the lighting for the mouse does not change meaning the control software has not loaded.

2. I have tested 2 display ports and 1 DVI all of which have the same result. I have not tested the HDMI as I have not got a HDMI handy (will test once I can get hold of one). I tested the DVI on another monitor using a DVI to VGA connector.
Click to expand...

if you need a HDMI cable and you have sky or virgin they normally have one for their boxes. maybe pinch one of them for testing.

have you tried different power cables from the PSU to the GPU or do you have a spare PSU to try at all to make sure its supplying enough power to the GPU
 
1. I will try a HDMI cable tonight. At the time they were all being used by others watching the TV.

2. I dont have a spare PSU with enough power for the system and by current PSU only has 2 PCI connectors both of which are required by the card. Is it possible to test this with a multi-meter?

3. I will try another keyboard tonight. Am I just looking to find out if the machine is getting into windows by testing the caps lock?
 
I've had a similar issue and it was down to the OS trying to use the onboard GPU rather than the dedicated one.

Try uninstalling the on board drivers if you can.
 
Wrong GPU or bad resolution probably. My monitor does this fairly often but that's different since it's a fault that's developed with the monitor and is fixed by power cycling it.
 
I had this on a mates PC and turned out it his HD5870 just really didn't like his TV. Every time I took it home it worked fine, his house would be lucky to boot. Even with the DVI to HDMI cable I was using at home. Plug in my Samsung monitor on exactly the same cable and no issues at all.

Another mate suggested that a dodgy DVD drive can also cause the same.
 
I have seen this before and @Ayahuasca has listed the most likely cause. Wrong resolution is the next most likely.

Have you tried turning off the onboard GPU in the BIOS?
 
Thanks for the help. As noted previously however I have not got on board graphics.

I have just installed an old graphics card and the system is booting fine. The resolution is native to the monitor and had been running fine previously for 3 years. In the interim I tried to install a fresh install of windows 8 on a spare SSD but it crashes out as soon as it starts to install system drivers.

As previous comments I have tried the alternative keyboard but no caps lock key lights up when I try to boot.
 
Ok I have now tried the graphics card in another system and it has the same problem. I assume that its defiantly the graphics card. Is there anything that could be done bar a replacement card?
 
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