No Windows Welcome Screen & Vertical Lines on Screen
I turned on the computer one morning, and it will turn on, and go through the boot screen and the windows loading screen, but then I just get a black screen and the Welcome screen never shows up. Oddly noted that there are vertical lines every 3/4" or so on the screen. So then I decided to reinstall windows. After install - says "Loading Windows" or something similar and then reboots. There are still vertical lines (which points to hardware issue?)
I know it's not the monitor - I tried different monitors and had the same problem. And suggestions? Thanks!
-Kyle
And here's the computer specs: http://support.gateway.com/support/srt/docs.asp?sn=0025775861
I know it's not the monitor - I tried different monitors and had the same problem. And suggestions? Thanks!
-Kyle
And here's the computer specs: http://support.gateway.com/support/srt/docs.asp?sn=0025775861
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
I'm still puzzled - I had it working perfectly (current driver installed fine) except something was messed up with the MBR I believe (It wouldn't boot to anything, unless I inserted a GParted CD and told it to boot partition 1), so I tried to repair the installation with the windows CD, which completely messed it up even more, so then I re-imaged the drive again and did all the same stuff, but it hangs on a black screen when it should be the welcome screen.
The weird part is - there are now blue lines on the gateway slash screen at the beginning of boot. And sometimes there are what look to be dead pixels randomly on the screen. So it appears to be a hardware issue - am I correct?
Do you think a new video card would fix all this?
In my mind, a new video card would work, but it doesn't really explain why it hangs when the welcome screen should show up... Any thoughts? Thank you!!!!
-Kyle
The weird part is - there are now blue lines on the gateway slash screen at the beginning of boot. And sometimes there are what look to be dead pixels randomly on the screen. So it appears to be a hardware issue - am I correct?
Do you think a new video card would fix all this?
In my mind, a new video card would work, but it doesn't really explain why it hangs when the welcome screen should show up... Any thoughts? Thank you!!!!
-Kyle
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
So now I have it all working perfectly again - except for the boot. When I realized that something was wrong, I quickly imaged the drive for backup. Long story short, the drive got messed up while trying to get it working again, so I copied the image back onto the drive - now it doesn't know what to boot to (I get the little motherboard intel thing trying to find DHCP :) Any idea how to tell it what to boot to.
In the time being, I am using that GParted cd and specifically telling it to boot to partition 1 of the hard drive.
Anyway, you guys answered what I asked, so I will award points! Thank you! Let me know if you have any ideas how to fix the boot. Thanks!
In the time being, I am using that GParted cd and specifically telling it to boot to partition 1 of the hard drive.
Anyway, you guys answered what I asked, so I will award points! Thank you! Let me know if you have any ideas how to fix the boot. Thanks!
ASKER
Oh and I tried doing
fixmbr
fixboot C:
fixmbr
from the recovery console - no luck.
fixmbr
fixboot C:
fixmbr
from the recovery console - no luck.
ASKER
AHHHHH I spoke too soon! I just booted up again, and the stripes are back (even on the gateway splash screen), and it hangs instead of showing the windows welcome screen. Any thoughts?
I may have to lay the culprit on the graphics card. If you're getting lines on the gateway startup screen, you have the most recent drivers and you tried another monitor, the GPU or the power supply are the only two to blame at this point IMO.
I think your problems booting are a seperate problem though... Aside from the anomolies on your screen.
I think your problems booting are a seperate problem though... Aside from the anomolies on your screen.
ASKER