Accidentally disabled Laptop Display

[KenWright]

Friend of mine has just bought a laptop and tried to install WinXP. he couldn't get more than a few colours so started playing with settings

From the sound of it, he appears to have changed a setting that said 'do not use this device (disable)' whilst he was looking at settings for his display whilst in the 'Default Monitor Properties' section of DISPLAY / SETTINGS / ADVANCED / MONITOR / PROPERTIES.

Now when he boots it it runs through the start up screen but then goes blank, although he can hear it running in the background. Anyone know how he can enable this device if he can't see anything??

Cheers
Ken.........

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[gx3]

Try safe mode. Just keep hitting F8 when booting up.

 

[KenWright]

Sorry should have said - Been there, first thing I tried for him, but although it flips to the options that allow you to boot in a number of modes, safe mode being one of them, when you select it and it runs, you get a few pages of what look like old DOS commands and then it just hangs there.

Funnily enough, had reason to try and boot my own machine in safe mode tonight, and got exactly the same, pages of commands and then just hung?

Regards
Ken.............

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[NX01]

Have you tried ALT-F4?

In the future everything will work...

 

[Beowulf005]

I would try to boot using the xp cd and selecting the windows repair option.

 

[tauris]

How about hooking up an external monitor?

 

[linney]

While at the Safe Mode Boot Options screen did you try the VGA Mode: This option starts Windows in 640 x 480 mode, using the current video driver (not Vga.sys). This mode is useful if the display is configured for a setting that the monitor cannot display.

Checking the Laptop's manufacturer for drivers may be worthwhile as many Laptops need special drivers that might not be included on a retail CD.

Put a blindfold on and experiment with this procedure (if your game)

1- Right+Click on the desktop
2- Press Up-Arrow (once)
3- Enter Shift+Tab
4- Press Right-Arrow (3) times
5- Press Tab
6- Press Up-Arrow (4) times
7- Press Down-Arrow (once)
8- Press Enter

You'll have to restore your settings after that if it works. No cheating allowed!

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP (Q307654)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp

An easy to follow recovery console description when unable to start computer due to corrupt registry.

http://www.digitalwebcast.com/2002/03_mar/tutorials/cw_boot_toot.htm

This is a layman's version of Q307545 in simple language.

 

[KenWright]

Cheers guys, I'll pass these on.

Had my own nightmare last night after installing the latest update for Zone Alarm Pro. Machine seeemd to hang, and went on a complete go slow. No icons visible, and it took me 2 hours of messing about to eventaully get my icons back, and then get it to a state where I could actually use the damn icons.

System restore would no longer work, could not get into safe mode and was not a happy bunny. Eventually managed to turn off ZA though and all seemed fine. Then managed to run ZA again and turned OFF the new antispyware and antivirus options and everything was fine again.

Regards
Ken...........

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Momozone]

Both your machine and your friends machine seem to hang alot.......

Time to get a new PC

MoMoZoNe

 

[Rick998]

Just a thought... I don't supposed he's been into the BIOS? The Tosh laptops we use at work have settings for internal display. external display and simultaneous.

Also, there's usually a function key switch, e.g. 'Fn + F5' that allows swapping between the display modes. (It's how some of our users keep disabling the laptop's internal display when they're trying to output to a projector.)