Black Screen Old Man says drivers maybe

hi i am a happy member and Old Man has helped me throughtsopme interesting things … Here is the dillemma I have a HP Media Cenet Tower Computer with XP HOME on it all of a sudden it started up but the screen remained black nothing i swapped out the screen with another one twice and still same results then i started it yesterday and it came on …. so then i left it on …why not … here comes UPDATES and i was away from the unit and it auto restarted the machine and same problem ….blcak screen nothing…. the unit was working great for the two days i had it on … OLD MAN, one of your posse, told me to seek the answer here and stated that it may be drivers??? and did not sound like malware …. i have HJT and Malware remover and they seemed to be pretty clean …also i use AVAST which updates everyday …. can you suggest a cure or even a way to work on this unit … i have some irepplacable software on it and i hope not to erase the hard drive putting in new stuff ….. thanks for your assistance topband

Based on the fact that you NEVER see anything on the screen when you turn the computer on, NO it is not a driver issue.

The only other question would be if the machine is actually starting up normally, although you can't see anything on the screen, or if the machine just simply isn't starting up at all.

I'm going to go with the latter, and suggest you probably have a bad connection inside the case, and most likely with your memory or video card.

Read here: http://forums.whatthetech.com/How_Test_Mem…ms_t103823.html

Read to the bottom about how to reseat your memory to see if you can get the machine to turn on, then run the memory tests recommended in the article checking for bad connections.

Here is a good instructional video on reseating various components of your computer, although he offers no precautionary advice.


You also want to take a look for bad capacitors on your motherboard which is common on many computers even newer ones:

a-dity thnx for thaking my inquiry …. first off the unit is back on and i aint turning it off …but i know some things dont last forever ….you know from memory the thing you said about not starting up correctly may be plausible ….this HP is generally pretty quiet but it seemed that when it was black screen it was still running with more audible mechanic sound ie. fan, etc unknown …. i will read and test the information you sent as time lets me soon… and get back to you with the details or observations much appreciated topband