Blank Screen, System Restore, and You!
 

Okay, so!

The other day I tracked down a copy of Secret Weapons Over Normandy. It installed and played fine. But when I exited the game, the desktop was all wrong. It was displaying itself so large that I had to scroll around to see it all. I tried changing the resolution, but all resolutions were too big -- even the smallest setting.

I turned the computer off hoping that the problem would fix itself upon start up. Oh, how wrong I was. Now the monitor doesn't display anything. In fact, it gives me its default "No Input" message. All connections are secure, so it's not just a loose wire.

I haven't tested a different monitor yet because, long story short, it's a tremendous pain in the ass to get the other monitor from where it is to my computer and then another tremendous pain in the ass to put it back. And I'm 95% sure it's not the monitor anyway.

So! How can you help? Simple! Kinda!

I need two things. 1: step-by-step instructions to do a system restore with nothing but the keyboard. Whether by navigating the Start menu and windows or by jumping straight to the DOS prompt. Don't really care which so long as you don't leave out a single key press and remember that I will be doing this blind, so using the mouse is impossible and the precision of your instructions is paramount.

I'm running Windows XP (Pro, SP2 if it matters but I doubt it) and I'd like to go back to the most recent system restore.

The second thing I need, and not necessarily from the person who fulfills the first request, is to be told what to do so that this doesn't happen the next time I play Secret Weapons Over Normandy :B

Whomsoever can do this for me, I thank you!

Do you have a spare hard drive w/ windows on it? Doesn't sound, to me, like a software problem.

I'll be back in a couple of hours to give the instructions.

And Preturbed, it sounds exactly like a software problem. Possibly a video driver issue. Hopefully System Restore will help.

Yeah, it sounds like either the video card drivers decided to turn themselves inside out, or the video card itself decided "Okay, that game was fun, I can die happy now."

If the system restore doesn't work, I'd try seeing if you could borrow a video card from another computer and see if that resolves the problem, or if it too is doomed to a black screen of annoyance.

Also, what the fuck are you people doing to your computers? I swear a topic like this, where the computer is, for all intents and purposes, unusable, pops up about once a week now.

Well if the monitor has no signal during startup, boot, and Windows it certainly sounds like a hardware issue. If this is just a problem when Windows is running then yeah, that's software. Trading out video cards is a bit easier than moving monitors (If you know what you're doing) and it'd be a good thing to run before Sys Restores, cause some games just cause binary diarrhea when it comes to video card software due to conflict.

I'mma let Eltargrim take care of this one because I'm a bit over my head.

Depending on how new the game is, it might have actually overheated your video card. This could mean two things.

1. Your card is fried.
2. Your card is simply loose.

Try opening up the case and pushing the card in tight. Sometimes certain cards will be worked loose by the expansion and contraction of the connection. If you get a beep code during POST (power-on self test), it's probably this.

Otherwise, it may be a BIOS issue. If you need to flash it, you'll need to find someone else to tell you how, since that isn't my area of expertise. But to put it this way, if it's not in your BIOS, it's invisible to your computer.



More info would be helpful. If you have no monitor, you're going to have to rely on beep codes. Monitor beep code should be (God I feel silly saying this):

beeee be-beep!


If you have that code, it means POST found something wrong with your video card, provided you don't have any other video active. If you have onboard video in addition, I can't say whether you'll get a code or not, but you should try removing your card and seeing if that will work if pushing the card in harder doesn't.





Now, just to say this, but it's probably not a driver issue. Most monitors are Plug and Play, so unless that was damaged, it's probably not drivers. If your PnP drivers WERE damaged, you're going to have a lot more problems than just fixing your monitor. And if something is damaging your drivers, you should probably re-evaluate what programs you're running and where you're getting them from.

That's why I said what I said, Eltar, but it probably would be best to make certain before buying new stuff.

Geh, this is what I get for posting right after waking up. lrn2read plz Eltar.

In any event, if there's no POST code, then it's either an a) monitor issue, or b) Video card driver issue. When I say drivers, this is what I refer to :p

I'll still post the system restore instructions, but I have to run right now. Try what Blue instructed and see if it helps.

The game is five years old, so I doubt it made my system overheat. I don't think the card is loose as that doesn't explain the weird over-sized resolution.

If the card was broken it would explain all that. When you fiddled with your resolution did you have all the usual options, or a reduced list?