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Computer help

Opps!!

20:17 / 21.11.04

I have recently been getting this problem with my Dell Inspiron 2500 laptop, which is just over 3 years old and running Windows Me.

When I start-up it displays the Dell Start-up screen and sometimes the 'Windows Me' screen and then the screen goes dark. The laptop is still starting up and if you tilt the screen you can faintly see whats on the screen but looks like the screen has gone dead. It will then continue to start-up.

This problem starting infrequently but is now occuring most of the time.

However, when I can get the laptop to start in safe mode it will load fine with a perfectly visable screen. I have tried scanning disc, Norton, etc and restoring my system to an earlier date but no luck.

Many thanks

Grey Area

20:22 / 21.11.04

Sounds like a piece of software is lowering the brightness of the screen. Do you have one of those laptops with some keys assigned special functions? (usually accessed by holding down a 'Fn' key and pressing the appropriately marked key) If so, try raising the brightness using that. Or boot up in safe mode and see what, if any, display controllers are being loaded up on startup. If there isn't one, it could be something hard-wired into the laptop that's acting up. Not sure if you can flash a laptop's bios and controllers...have you checked Dell's site to see if this is a known issue?

luminocity

11:56 / 22.11.04

The fact that it starts up with the screen working but it goes dark as Windows boots suggests that it could be a problem with the display driver. Try downloading and installing the appropriate latest version driver while in safe mode. Also as a useful test you could try sending the display to a TV or spare monitor and seeing what happens.

Francine I

12:21 / 22.11.04

You can get to Safe Mode during a boot by pressing 'F5' during the first few seconds of the screen that says "Starting Windows ME..." (if I recall the verbiage correctly). Sometimes it helps to mash that button down repeatedly and with prejudice. Should you require Safe Mode w/ Network Support, you'll want to press 'F8' instead of 'F5', and you'll then need to select the appropriate option from the menu presented.

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