Nothing on the screen before Windows does, what is it? [gigabyte 6wmm7] [ibm g70]
Q: Okay, I built this computer for my grandfather. It worked fine on my apartment on a much older monitor.
He has an IBM G70 I think the model, a 17 “, about 3 years old I think. Anyway, when I turn it on I get a blank screen until I Windows desktop. I can not go into the BIOS, because I can not see, I do not get WinXP boot screen, I get nothing before the desktop comes. Any ideas on what could be the reason?
the video board at one gigabyte 6wmm7 ( http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/products/ga6wmm7.htm)
Thanks
Best Answer: Sounds like a classic case of a crashing hard drive. The ticking you are hearing is the head that reads the data from the hard disk crashing into the disk itself. This crashing damages the disk and the data stored in those locations. this is why you cannot get past the loading screen as the boot files have most likely been corrupted by this.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your data may be lost forever and you will definately need to buy a new hard drive. I like Hitachi HDDs myself.
A slim chance of saving your data would be to take out your hard drive and put it into a friends computer. have him try to copy the files you want to keep the most onto his hard drive. this may or may not work, but its worth a shot.
I have also heard that there are companies that will retrieve data from damaged hard drives, but I also heard that it's extremely expensive.
Re:Same problem here on an fairly old hp. (pII 266 somethingsomething) with a matrox millenium.
I have an old isa (!) card in the machine if I need to see something in the bios…. (I switch the monitor cable)
Windows automaticaly chooses the matrox when it's destop time.
A better solution is very welcome.
Re:Wait, is it posting? Do you see the memory count and IDE detectio nand all that, or do you see nothing? Is power being fed to the computer? Are fans running?
Do you hear any beeps coming from the computer? If so, go here to see the problem. Beep codes (http://{$MySite}/beep.htm)
Re:That was my guess ( a "non-multi sync" monitor). Actually, I would try the system on a different monitor rather than vice versa (to see the start up stuff), but either way should help you figure it out.
Re:some monitors (usually higher-end oem monitors) only support certain resolutions… this probably isnt your problem, but try the monitor on another system to check
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Tags: gigabyte 6wmm7, ibm g70