Vostro 220s desktop able to boot but monitor screen is always blank

Does anyone have solution? Please? :emotion-6:

It seems the BIOS is using the onboard graphics. The Vostro 220s should look like this. You should have a dedicated graphics card (between the Ethernet and power). Your monitor will be plugged in there.

Next time it happens plug the monitor into the onboard video (which is below the PS2 ports at the top. If you get output then the likely cause is BIOS is reverting to onboard video on the opccasion.

You can try to reseat the graphics card and use dust-off to blow out any dust. It may have a slightly loose connection.

Thanks for reply!

My Vostro 220s does not come with dedicated graphics card and is using the onboard graphics instead. (It only has one VGA port for monitor.)

The last time it happened I simply unplugged and plugged in the VGA cable again. It seems working. I then installed the latest chipset driver from Dell website. Not sure if I need to flash BIOS also.

But, now I receive a new error message from Adobe Photoshop. It says "Photoshop detected graphics hardware that is not officially supported. If you experience problems, please uncheck the Use Graphics Processor checkbox in the Performance panel of the Preferences dialog.".

I also ran Dell PC Diagnostic from Dell website. Everything seems fine except for the Video test which failed the first test (rendering).

Still confused... :emotion-6:

The onboard video is pretty weak. Its probably scraping minimum requirements for photoshop. You could also have a slight issue with the VGA cable, sometimes they flex and the cables become a bit loose which is why unplugging and replugging the cable is working.

I advise running the extended F12 preboot diagnostics opposed to the online ones:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/f12-preboot-diagnostics/

Either way it seems the best thing for you to do is to install a dedicated low profile graphics card in the card slot as you want to use Photoshop and the onboard graphics will be a bottleneck for such a task. You can see this thread for some recommendations although there are probably some better cards out now:

http://en.community.dell.com/what-do-i-buy/for_small__medium_business/f/4513/t/19379432.aspx?pi239031352=2

I have run the preboot diagnostic and got this:

The preboot system assessment was complete. No diagnostic utility partition identified. Please select OK to reboot your system.

What does it mean? :emotion-42:

It means there is no diagnostic partition on the hard drive. This can happen if Windows was manually installed for instance.

Follow the instructions here to make a bootable diagnostics USB and run the diagnostics from it:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/f12-preboot-diagnostics/#older-systems

Yes, I formatted my PC before...... Does the non-existence of diagnostic partition affect the result?

Got this during the quick preboot diagnostic test:

"No problems have been found with this system so far. Do you want to run the remaining memory tests? This will take about 30 minutes or more."

Can I trust the diagnostic result?

It doesn't matter about the diagnostic partition so long as you have the bootable USB.

Run the extended tests as they will have tests for the video.

The simple tests are usually for hard drive, RAM and processor.

Hi, I have run the extended tests, results as below. So it means......?

Its strange that the diagnostics don't run for the onboard graphics. You may try the Dell online diagnostics:

http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/KCS/KcsArticles/ArticleView?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&docid=266616

However it seems the rest of your system is fine and I would recommend just installing dedicated graphics card.

Failing monitor?

Have you tested this monitor on a different PC or a different monitor on this PC?

Intel Q43/Q45/G43/G45 (Eaglelake) Graphics Controller, v.15.15.1.1840 , A01

Vendor 8086 Device 2E22 is the Intel G43.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_graphics_processing_units

The latest Windows 7 64 Bit Driver is 15.17.19.64.2869:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=22167

The latest Windows 7 32 Bit Driver is 15.17.19.64.2869:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=22165

I've run the Dell online diagnostic tools for motherboard, RAM, video etc before I go for F12 preboot diagnostic CD. For video it couldn't complete the first rendering test. The test took about 5-10 minutes to complete but the page always timed out before it could generate a diagnosis report. :emotion-6:

Could it be that wrong driver is installed for Video? I installed this one from Dell:

Intel Q43/Q45/G43/G45 (Eaglelake) Graphics Controller, v.15.15.1.1840 , A01

Not sure if this is the right one.....:emotion-7:

Yes I've tried both. The monitor is working fine.