Dead Dimension 2400

Thanks for the help, I tried doing that and still the same results, just shows the Windows graphic then goes blank, what can I do now?

Depends on what you got when you tried to go back to a previous configuration.  Did the screen work for you in Windows safe mode?  If you can still get to safe mode, go back again and open the Device Manager.  This is Start, right click on My Computer, click Hardware tab, click Device Manager button.  On the list of devices, locate the Intel Extreme Graphics; this should be found in Display Adapters.  Sometimes if there is a problem, Windows will recognize the fact and give you a yellow warning triangle with exclamation point inside of it.  Clicking on the device will bring up a box of suggestions, a common suggestion being the reloading of an appropriate driver.  If you don't have the triangle, double click on the Intel Graphics box to bring up its properties and select "Uninstall".  Once you have done this, restart the computer and see if Windows will reinstall the Intel graphics.  Doing this cures quite a few problems.  You can also go to the Drivers and Downloads page for the D2400, download the video driver from there, and reinstall it.  My own D2400 seemed to like the Springdale driver the best when I was using the onboard graphics, but it was bought in the fall of 2003.  If you have a later model you might have better luck with the 845 G/GL/GE/PE/GV generic driver.

If that hasn't helped, I'm afraid I've about reached the limit.  The problem is nearly certain to be a registry settings problem and the registry is very complex and difficult to correctly edit.  The only way I would get past this is to perform a reinstallation of the operating system.  I would suggest a repair install, but since you are probably running Windows XP with at least Service Pack 2, this can be problematic with the D2400.  The Dell reinstallation disk that shipped with mine included Service Pack 1a, which will not repair a Service Pack 2 installation.

I'm new here, but just want to contribute my 2 cents worth...what he's describing is what my Dimension 2100 goes through when I try to display anything above 24-bit graphics.

Thanks for the info, but I don't think that the Intel graphics supports anything above 24 bits.  That might be a good reason to have a problem.

Unfortunately I can't try, I can't get past the blank screen even after trying to switch to the various safe modes. Now all I get after hitting f8 and running it any setting is, "STOP: c000021a {Fatatl System Error} The Session Manager Initialization system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc000034 (0x00000000 0x00000000). The system had been shut down. Also I just got another re-install disc (XP Professional Service Pack 2) and that won't load either.

You must boot from the CD in order to use it.  Do this either by using the one time boot menu (F12 at the Dell screen on system start, choose CD ROM as the boot device) or by going to setup (F2 at the Dell screen on system start), moving the CD ROM drive to number 1 in the boot order, and restarting the computer with the Dell Windows XP reinstallation CD in the CD drive.  Choose to install Windows; if you accept the first "R" that you come to you will start the repair console.  After getting past the license agreement you should be offered an opportunity to repair the existing windows installation.  After this is done you should go to Windows updates and reinstall the available updates.

If you have troubles with updating Windows following the repair, see if this helps:  Windows Update after Repair Install

I try that but all I get is "strike f1 to reboot" and when I do it just appears on the next line "strike f1 to reboot", what do I do now?

Are you sure you're booting from the CD?  I don't do this too often, but I seem to recall that on one or both of the methods to boot from the CD you get a message asking you to strike a key to boot from the CD.  If you don't strike the key, the machine continues to attempt a hard drive boot.  If there is nothing on the hard drive to boot from you will get the message that you report.

I'm pretty sure I'm booting from the CD. I've tried different CD's, different drives and even without the CD but still the same results. Either it goes completely blank after showing the microsoft windows logo or it tells me that I have to hit F1 to launch the CD continuosly.

If you still have your Dell Resource CD, try booting from that and running the diagnostics to see what errors you get.  The request to hit F1 to continue to boot still suggests to me that you are not truly booting the CD.  This message generally appears when the computer has failed to detect a bootable disk and gives you the option of trying again.  I've often seen it when the operating system has become corrupted, or the hard drive has failed.

One other suggestion I've not mentioned is that if you have two optical drives you might try using the second drive.  Only the master will boot.  Unless you have installed a second drive, however, you won't have this problem since you only have one drive to try.  I mention this only to try to be complete since I can't see what you are looking at.

Ok so I got the disk to load on the second drive which starts windows 98 and it takes me to menu where I can run various diagnostics (Graphic Adapter/32 bit/3com nic configuration), create SATA Raid driver, open a Dos session or reboot the system what do I do?

Run all diagnostics; I believe there is a menu that allows you to perform a complete check of the computer.  You should be especially interested in the graphics check ( the onboard graphics is the Intel Extreme Graphics Adapter ) and the test on the hard drive.