I have a similar problem with a 9100

when the machine is cold it will boot to a whitish, pinkish colored screen

After rebooting several times it finally works correctly but a get an error in XP that says system recovered from a serious error.

I just got this machine last week, think I am going to return it.

very curious about the 9100, does it occur after the XP splash screen? if so can you boot into safe mode?

Message Edited by ch1as on 05-07-2004 09:33 PM

--> very curious about the 9100, does it occur after the XP splash screen? if so can you boot into safe mode?


yes this is true, it will boot to safe mode, however booting into safe mode does not effect the problem. I thought for awhile that booting into safe mode fixed the problem but it doesn't. Sometimes after safe mode it still goes to the pinkish screen.

any idea what could be causing this?

Any ideas about my inspiron 2650.... I downloaded the latest nvidia driver...but the problem still persists. Dont know what to do.... At times when the screen is white... I can even see pinkish lines and sometimes there is a thick vertical black line to the right....

Its acting wierd. It happens each time i restart the computer or after ive shut it down improperly. Could some one please let me know what to do ?

 

9100- so your screen even goes pink in safe mode at times? definitly hook up an external monitor to the system when doing this. The symptoms sound like its a timing issue on the video card when it loads the drivers though in safe mode, drivers shouldnt be loading so this seems a little stranger. I would try removing all the inf's for the card that could be possibly loading any of the drivers first then uninstal the card and reboot normally. see if you can get back in normal mode. Then reload the video drivers from the CD or websight and update the Bios on the card (websight) and see if that makes a difference, if not call DELL because it will most likely be hardware failure.

1. Boot to safe mode. remove inf's in safe mode= click start- run- open: cmd   Go to command prompt, cd \ (takes you to the root of "c")

2. Browse to windows\inf folder (C:\CD Windows\inf )

3. try removing any files associated with ATI,  C:\Windows\inf >del ati*.*  

4. try the same for the oems C:\Windows\inf-del oem*.*  “enter”  (**Note when this is done, any third party drivers associated with oem will work fine, but if uninstalled, you will have to have the driver for the device, or you can browse to the folder itself, open each oem.inf itself and try finding the one associated with the ati card if there is one.)

(if theres any read only, remove the attribute. it will let you nknow when trying to delete. to do this type attrib -r ati*.*  or the same for the oem files and then try deleting the oem files again)

5. when thats done, close out of command prompt, click start - "right click" my computer -  "left click" manage - click on device manager - to the righ side, click plus sign next to display adapters. right click on the ati display adapter and uninstall the display adapter.

6. reboot the system and no drivers should load at all when booting normally.

7. try reloading the drivers for the video card when the system comes up. you may also want to get the bios driver update from the web sight for the video card. go to the downloads section search for R75495.EXE

2650- Can you log in safe mode? as well have you tried an external monitor if possible? If you can load into safe mode, id try the same as above except instead of removing ati*.*, try nv*.* in the windows\inf folder.

Also depending on your driver you have, you can try downloading the latest one from the websight  NX2K4482.EXE

http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems/ins2600/en/sm_en/remove.htm#1103387 has documentation on removing parts for the 2650. TYpically, you should just have to remove the keyboard and the lcd conector is located below the keyboard. Id try reseeding it if it is lcd. Be sure to have everything disconnected and battery out before doing so.

If it does this from the beginning of post, and you cannot get into safe mode, then try the external. if external fails, then its bad video. If externals fine, then bad LCD. if it shows to be bad LCD, id try reseeding the lcd connector to the motherboard.

Let me clarify, when booted into safe mode it ALWAYS works but even after booting into safe mode when I restart sometimes it still gives me the whitish pinkish screen.

What I was trying to say was that booting into safe mode does not keep the machine from messing up the next time it is booted without safe mode.

another note is that the system reboots automatically when this problem happens

again this morning I had this problem, 4 reboots until it finally worked.

seems to only happen when the machine is cold. for instance I could reboot now with no problem but if i wait a few hours leaving the laptop powered off the problem will resume.

also it doesnt matter if I put it in standby or hibernation, the same problem occurs

maybe the ATI chip only works when warm?

white screen on boot. again, either video failure or LCD failure. hard to determine until you try an external monitor (Try this first, if you get a screen on external, then try reseeding lcd). try this, see what happens but in your case it looks like a failure on either LCD or video.

 

One last step as well is you can try removing all devices except memory (hard drive, cd drive\floppy, modem if possible (not sure on this model where the modems located, and any other periphrials attached you can get at) and boot the system and see if you get the same symptoms.

ooh. ok. that case, still try the external monitor trick and see what happens. Can you see any background at all? any mouse movement with the colored screen or is it a solid color that fills the screen? If its solid and no movement AND you can not go to an external mon. then the system is locked mos likely video card timings on boot.  Id at least determine which is the cause first (video or lcd). Typically id say pinkish and whitish tints maybe you just have to reseed the lcd but your case seems a little different since its only at a specific time. worth a shot though to try both. reload and reseed.

Id probably call dell at this point. if its doing this on cold boot, definitly hardware issue and probably something i wouldnt want to rely on for longevity.

well my problem with the 2650 isnt resolving either... As soon as the computer power ups the whole screen is filled with a solid white colour and i just cant see anythingg....not mous emovements no nothing... But this only happens if its being restarted or wasnt shut down properly. However if i turn it on after waiting for around half an hour...then it boots up fine...

Any other ideas..... i still have to try it with an external monitor.??

What do u reckon this is though ?

Thankss

 

ooh. ok. that case, still try the external monitor trick and see what happens. Can you see any background at all? any mouse movement with the colored screen or is it a solid color that fills the screen? Id at least determine which is the cause first (video or lcd). Typically id say pinkish and whitish tints maybe you just have to reseed the lcd but your case seems a little different since its only at a specific time. worth a shot though to try both. reload and reseed.

Id probably call dell at this point. if its doing this on cold boot, definitly hardware issue and probably something i wouldnt want to rely on for longevity.

ooh. ok. that case, still try the external monitor trick and see what happens. Can you see any background at all? any mouse movement with the colored screen or is it a solid color that fills the screen? Id at least determine which is the cause first (video or lcd). Typically id say pinkish and whitish tints maybe you just have to reseed the lcd but your case seems a little different since its only at a specific time. worth a shot though to try both. reload and reseed.

Id probably call dell at this point. if its doing this on cold boot, definitly hardware issue and probably something i wouldnt want to rely on for longevity. for

 woops. sorry about the double post. think i was editing (accident). not sure how that happened, I only hit submit one time!

 

Ok, after i hit submit on this post, another post came in on my last post. who'd figure id have technical issues with posting!

Message Edited by ch1as on 05-08-2004 02:36 PM