Radified Community Forums - Black Screen of Death

c_j_holt

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Black Screen of Death
Jan 17^th, 2008 at 5:57pm

Hi, I only post here when I have a problem. I guess that makes me a bit of a leach. must try harder in future Embarrassed

I just upgraded my system with a Gigabyte ga-m61p-s3 mobo, an Athlon 64 X2 4000+ cpu and 2Gb DDR2 RAM in dual channel mode. First of all I tried installing XP 32-bit but got the Black Screen of Death after the reboot at the end of the installation. The screen was completely blank and the USB keyboard was dead, no CTRL-ALT-DEL or even NUMLOCK / CAPSLOCK lights.

I tried booting in Safe Mode and changing the display settings, tried enabling VGA mode, but it still won't boot

I know my copy of XP 32-bit works because I had it installed on my previous system (Sempron 2400+). So then I installed Win2k and it works fine. Its what I'm using now.
Then I tried Mandriva Linux and that works too. So no probs with my hardware.

Last night I installed Server 2003 32-bit and XP 64-bit and both times got the B.S.O.D. although sometimes I did get something on screen (see attached). This evening I tried installing Vista Ultimate 32-bit but the installation failed, it couldn't copy some files, but I used the same DVD to install it on my previous system. Same happened with Vista 64-bit (which I haven't had chance to try elsewhere due to not having the necessary hardware)

I took an image of my Server 2003 installation so if anyone has a fix I can restore the image and apply the recommended medicine

thanks in advance

ChrisH

IMGP0659.JPG (Attachment deleted)

Chris H&&Manchester, UK

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Amish.

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	Re: Black Screen of Death Reply #1 - Jan 17^th, 2008 at 8:43pm you are doing a clean/fresh install after the hardware upgrade? .. or using the same install configured from/with previous hardware?
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c_j_holt

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	Re: Black Screen of Death Reply #2 - Jan 18^th, 2008 at 2:16am Amish. wrote on Jan 17^th, 2008 at 8:43pm: you are doing a clean/fresh install after the hardware upgrade? .. or using the same install configured from/with previous hardware? Hi Amish, thanks for the quick response, I'm doing a clean/fresh install from slipstreamed CDs I made which worked on my previous hardware
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nbree

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Re: Black Screen of Death
Reply #3 - Jan 18^th, 2008 at 3:58am

If you haven't already (it's the first thing I do after building a new PC) I'd suggest that you fire up memtest86 - the difference between the operating systems that boot and the ones that don't could easily be some critical data landing in spot of suspect memory. Not that there aren't plenty of other things that could be wrong, but that's an easy one to test.

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MrMagoo

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Re: Black Screen of Death
Reply #4 - Jan 18^th, 2008 at 1:28pm

I think nbree is on point with a possible memory issue.

Based on your screen-shot, I also wonder about the graphics card. Another big difference between the OS's you say work and the one's that don't is the graphics drivers used by the default configuration. XP and Vista both try to be prettier. NT was sorta no frills and Linux uses basic drivers to insure better compatibility.

What graphics card are you using? Is it new as well? Is it on-board or an add-on? Those newer boards usually come with PCI-e, so an older graphics card could cause issues.

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c_j_holt

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Re: Black Screen of Death
Reply #5 - Jan 18^th, 2008 at 2:08pm

Quote:

If you haven't already (it's the first thing I do after building a new PC) I'd suggest that you fire up memtest86

nbree, I ran memtest86 version 1.7 from Hiren's Boot CD, no errors

MrMagoo wrote on Jan 18^th, 2008 at 1:28pm:

What graphics card are you using? Is it new as well? Is it on-board or an add-on?

MrMagoo, my ga-m61p-s3 has onboard graphics, it has a GeForce 6150se chip. there is a PCI-e x16 slot but I only have AGP cards in my box of bits.

Do you think slipstreaming the display adapter drivers into my XP ISO would help?

Chris H&&Manchester, UK

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MrMagoo

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Re: Black Screen of Death
Reply #6 - Jan 18^th, 2008 at 3:48pm

I wonder if the slipstreaming itself is causing issues. Do you have a factory disk you can try? I know its a lot of work to install all the service packs and drivers afterwards, but if it works you'll have a working baseline. Then you can install service packs and drivers one at a time and test for stability. You might be able to narrow down the issue.

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Amish.

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	Re: Black Screen of Death Reply #7 - Jan 18^th, 2008 at 4:07pm That would give you a data-point, which would be helpful troubleshooting the problem .. trying to determine when it occurs and when it DOESN'T.
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Rad

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	Re: Black Screen of Death Reply #8 - Jan 18^th, 2008 at 4:11pm Gotta admit: "Black Screen of Death" sounds more ominous than "Blue screen..."
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c_j_holt

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Re: Black Screen of Death
Reply #9 - Jan 19^th, 2008 at 9:22am

that was a good idea MrMagoo, installing XP straight out the box without any service packs, unfortunately though it didn't work, same result as before

in Win2k the device manager lists my graphics chip as an NVIDIA GeForce 6150se but according to the Gigabyte website my ga-m61p-s3 has a GeForce 6100 chip.

incidentally, the Win2k device manager also lists an "other PCI bridge device" with a big yellow question mark. I'm not sure what it is, could that be the problem?

tia

Chris H&&Manchester, UK

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MrMagoo

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	Re: Black Screen of Death Reply #10 - Jan 19^th, 2008 at 3:47pm No, that just sounds like Win2k doesn't have your chipset drivers installed. The same thing will probably happen in XP once you get it to boot. Not a problem if it boots... Do you have a copy of BartPE you could try to boot? Would give us one more datapoint...
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P0stalTek

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Re: Black Screen of Death
Reply #11 - Jan 21^st, 2008 at 8:28am

Hello folks. I have a very similar situation with the same motherboard. I've been using my new system that I custom built for about 3 monthes now.

System Stats:
Windows XP Home
GA-M61P-S3 Mobo
Athlon X2 6000+ (3ghzx2) ((stock cooler))
2 GB OCZ HPC Reaper Dual Channel Memory
500 GB SATA Western Digital HDD
ThermalTake ToughPower 650w Modular
eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB PCI-E video card
Creative x-Fi Extreme Audio
Linksys Wireless-N PCI card

I have the onboard graphics disabled in BIOS, along with the onboard sound.

Now, my machine ran just fine for about the first 2 1/2 monthes. Every driver was installed, all was well. Then last week or so, I went to fresh boot it and right after you get BIOS splash screen, and it goes to boot into Windows, you get a black screen. I never see the Windows splash screen at all. I then booted into Safe Mode and that worked just fine. I pulled all my cards with exception to the video card, and that was no help. I noticed in safe mode that I was now showing a screwed up driver (Other PCI Bridge Device).

At this point, I say forget it, tried a Repair install which hung during the installing section. I formatted completely and reloaded XP. No problems for a week.

This morning I wake up and went to boot the machine. Same thing. I boot into Safe Mode, and low and behold, there is the "Other PCI Bridge Device" again. I went to Nvidia's website and got the newest nForce430 drivers and installed them.. and still this device lists in Device Manager. I'm convinced this driver is somehow the culprit.

Any advice would be great, I don't mind resinstalling again, but I don't want this to be a weekly event.

EDIT: Keep in mind, I have already removed every card from the system. Also, I noticed that when I tried to run msconfig, I got an illegal operation error.

EDIT2: I might have found something here. I believe the offending driver is the:

NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator
Manufacturer NVIDIA
Location PCI bus 0, device 7, function 0

Because my "Other PCI Bridge Device" is listed with PCI bus 0, device 7, function 0.

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MrMagoo

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	Re: Black Screen of Death Reply #12 - Jan 21^st, 2008 at 1:47pm Sounds to me like you have some bad hardware. Possibly the motherboard or the memory. Is you system well-cooled? Heat always causes weird issues in computers, and home-built systems occasionally have bad/nonexistent airflow in the case.
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c_j_holt

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Re: Black Screen of Death
Reply #13 - Jan 21^st, 2008 at 4:35pm

MrMagoo wrote on Jan 19^th, 2008 at 3:47pm:

Do you have a copy of BartPE you could try to boot?

MrMagoo, its a bit of a chicken & egg situation. I have PEbuilder and a source CD but don't have a working XP partition to build my BartPE. So I'm gonna have to get someone elses build off a torrent site

Quote:

Keep in mind, I have already removed every card from the system.

Hi P0stalTek, this is a stupid question. Did you remember to go into the BIOS and re-enable the onboard VGA and sound after pulling your cards?

Incidentally, I now have Vista working. The DVD i used last time was burned using Nero and there was a problem copying some files during the install, this time I used Magic ISO Maker to burn the image and the install was perfect.

Chris H&&Manchester, UK

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