Author Topic: Laptop Display Problem (Read 3941 times)

renshaw8 · « **on:** January 16, 2006, 04:44 »

I hope somebody can help me out with this. I have a 5 year old Satellite Toshiba laptop and lately when I first boot up, the Tosiba logo comes on and then the screen turns dark. It might take a split second to a couple of seconds. I received a pop up message about a month ago sayin something about a bad display driver. So, I went online to Toshiba and downloaded a new driver. I installed it and it was OK for a while and now it seems worst then ever. It took me 2 hours today to get it to come on. I had to reinstall the driver twice before I got the screen to come on when I booted up. I'm afraid to shut it off. Does this sound familiar to anybody or does someone know what the problem might be??

sam · « **Reply #1 on:** January 16, 2006, 08:42 »

thats an odd one. I have heard of viruses that could mimic this but I doubt it very much. Do you, or have you, often connected this laptop to an external monitor?

renshaw8 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 16, 2006, 09:53 »

Thanks Sam for your reply. I run an antivirus regularly. (Antivir). I've never connected a external monitor to my laptop. It seems that if I try to boot with the power cord unplugged, (Just on battery), I'll have a better chance of getting the screen to startup. It may just seem that way though.

sam · « **Reply #3 on:** January 16, 2006, 11:46 »

well i couldnt understand that might be a factor if it was the other way around... can you tell the type of display / graphics driver?

renshaw8 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 16, 2006, 18:25 »

I have a Toshiba Satellite 1805-S203 laptop with a Trident Cyberblade Ai1 AGP (22) Driver.

sam · « **Reply #5 on:** January 18, 2006, 09:52 »

umm ok. I'm not sure what could cause this. Does your screen always come on to display the POST / enter BIOS screen?

renshaw8 · « **Reply #6 on:** January 18, 2006, 17:18 »

I really don't know what all that means, Sam

sam · « **Reply #7 on:** January 18, 2006, 17:44 »

ok... when your computer turns on, assuming you can see the screen what does it show?

renshaw8 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 18, 2006, 19:13 »

When I turn on my computer it starts normally first showing a Toshiba logo for a couple of seconds and then a Windows ME logo before starting. Now it will go black (Screen goes out) a second after the Toshiba logo comes on. It just flashes on and then the screen goes black. I've been leaving my computer on lately but restarting it and it seems if I restart it's OK but if I leave it off all night it will act up in the morning.

sam · « **Reply #9 on:** January 19, 2006, 02:23 »

umm thats rather odd.

So on every boot up you see the windows me logo?

Have you updated to the lastest windows me? Also are you sure you have the right driver for your hardware? I have seen cases when the latest driver, downloaded from the windows update site, has actually messed up the driver by trying to install the lastest version. Do you have a cd with the original driver on?

renshaw8 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 19, 2006, 07:07 »

Yes, the ME logo comes up on every boot. I've received a couple of updates from Windows but not a newer version of ME. I got the new display driver from the Toshiba website. No, I don't have the Windows ME CD.

sam · « **Reply #11 on:** January 19, 2006, 12:44 »

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Yes, the ME logo comes up on every boot.

so then this would seriously indicate that the driver is at fault or some other windows graphical issue.

Quote

No, I don't have the Windows ME CD.

I didn't mean the Windows ME disc, I meant the driver disc for the graphics card - or is this a pc world brought laptop? If so, then you might not have one, but a recovery cd instead?

Clive · « **Reply #12 on:** January 19, 2006, 17:07 »

I'm not sure that Win Me is still supported by MS. But the Me logo does come up at every boot Sam. At least it used to when I was using it.

renshaw8 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 19, 2006, 19:01 »

The Me logo has always come on before startup.

sam · « **Reply #14 on:** January 20, 2006, 00:17 »

So it must be at some point after windows takes control over the graphics device. This strongly suggests to me that there is some graphics driver error. Do you have the original disk around? If not might be worth trying to roll back the driver, actually can you do that in ME, if not use an older version of the driver.