Black Screen of Death

My computer has the black screen of death. It's Dell-Windows XP home version.

It loads to users, and I have anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute before it goes to black screen. I almost had it to safe mode but then it froze.

I am using my 98 Compaq Presario that has been dropped, kicked, and a ton of coffee spilt on and the darn things still works But I'd like to have our newer computer up and running. Is the computer done for or can a computer come back from the black death? I think there is local Geek busters that I can call to come to the house but if the computer is toast, I won't waste their time and the little money I have. Any help would be appreciated. I have already resigned myself to losing some important files and photos so I am ready for any instructions or suggestions to get it back to operating normal again.

Please help if you can. This has been a week from hell for us so this could be one bright spot for us. J:cry

 

A little more info would be helpful. What exactly do you mean by the 'black screen of death'? So it boots up to the list of Windows users, and then goes completely black? Does the PC shut off? Does it restart? Is it only the picture that goes out? Does the light on the monitor change colors? Is it a laptop or tower? Using on-board video or a video card? PC model?

 

The computer will (sometimes) get up until the list of users and menu before the monitor goes black. I hear the tower running but there is nothing on the monitor and I can't get it back unless I reboot but it only lasts up to about a minute before the screen goes black again.

Once it lasted long enough to get it into safe mode but then it froze.

The last thing updated was XP service pack 3. That could be the problem but I am only guessing and there is no way to remove it since I cannot get the screen to stay on long enough to work with the mouse. I don't know what other info that you need. It is not a laptop.

 

From what you say the probability is either the monitor itself, or the graphics card. Graphics cards can overheat, which could give this problem, so disconnect the power, take the lid off and use a very soft artist's brush to clean any dust off the graphics card. If it has an attached fan try to do the same with that, but be gentle!

If it's an oldish comp, and you haven't ever given it a spring clean before, this would be a good time to do so. Check and clean all fans and air vents particularly. You can use a vac too, but don't get the nozzle too close to any fans.

As you can hear the tower running I would be very hopeful everything datawise will still be OK.

EDIT - while you've got the case off it would also be useful to check that the fans are actually working, particularly on the graphics card. Take care.

 

plug the monitor into the laptop and test it on that. if it works fine then the issue is definitely with the PC and probably the hardware. It could be just a driver issue . How far does the pc post ? does it get to the windows logo screen and then fail ? or does it fail before that.

It would help to know exactly what is on the screen before it goes black.

 

It's a Dell tower and no, I don't think it has ever been cleaned. I did take apart my old Compaq tower and did cleaning in that no problem. I have never taken the case off of a Dell tower so can anyone tell me about where I start to take the cover off. The Compaq tower slid from front to back-very easy.

Right now the Black screen is frozen and it reads:

Multi(0)disk(0)rdisk)0)partition(1)Windows/system32/ntoskrnl.exe
TRAP 00000006=============EXCEPTION============
tr=028 cr0=80000011 cr200000000 cr30003000
gdt limit=03ff ...this goes on forever about the same digits and letters...

PS I am a computer novice but I have been very diligent on taking care of and learning about computers but this is really weird and may be way above me to understand...so if you tell me to try something, please explain in simple terms. Thanks

 

I shouldn't start taking anything apart if I were you. I don't think that you have a hardware problem (unless the hard drive controller board has gone)its more likely a software one.
Your PC is appears to be trying to boot from a partition that either isn't active or doesn't contain a valid boot sector .
It could be due to a boot sector virus.

If you have any important files on the drive I would advise you stop making things worse and give it to someone who knows how to hook it up to their PC as a slave and take your files off.
Then format partition and re-install from scratch. It will save time in the end. Reading the first part of this might help you to understand what is happening when your PC boots
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/140418

 

I can get the computer into safemode after several attempts. I have tried to recover but it stops at "serial system corrupt" Do you know what that means? If I start the computer in normal, I lost the screen to black almost immediately.

If this is too technical, I'll have to make some calls. I hear the hard drive but maybe that is not what I hear? If the hard drive is gone, what would the symptoms be? Thanks for the help.

 

I would take the previous advice to get it slaved just as soon as possible. My previous advice to clean it was based on what I understood was a completely black screen, but these error messages indicate more serious problems.

 

exactly what you have ! did you read the boot guide I gave a link to yesterday ? it explains what happens when a computer boots (starts up)

Every time you start your computer up you are doing further damage to the boot sector files and making it ever more unlikely anyone is going to be able to recover your important files.

I would suggest that you take it to a IT tech and not a well meaning 'friend' who will 'fiddle with it' for a couple of hours for free and do even more damage.

If you don't need to recover any files just go ahead and put your Windows install disk in and do a fresh install. You'll need your driver set which should have come with the pc on disk. If not you will need to download them from the net.

 

The problem was the hard drive. It couldn't run the restore cd. I took it to the local shop. The computer has a new hard drive with 160 g and it's running great. Of course there was a lot of dust inside the case, which didn't help the situation. All is good now. Thanks for the help.