Vista - Black screen on bootup after scrolling bar

Hello,

*Intel CORE2 Quad Q9450
*ASUS P5Q Pro (BIOS 0506)
*US Robotics Wireless MAXg PCI card installed myself
*5 USB devices plugged in
*MSI Radeon R4870 OC Edition (installed Catalyst Software Suite (64 Bit) v8.8)
*Windows Vista Business x64 SP1

Above some of the hardware or software that in my opinion could cause the problem below.

On a cold boot my computer always gives a black screen just after the scrolling bar disappears. I don't see a mouse cursor nor do I see the Vista startup logo.

When I press the reset button on my computer it boots normally. Sometimes I have to reset several times before the computer shows the Vista login screen. Once I see the login screen I have no further problems.

The Processor is overclocked but the problem was also there before the overclock...

Can someone help me with this?

Kind regards,

EvaQ8

Hi EvaQ8 ... welcome to the forums!

you say your CPU is overclocked what about you RAM...?
under volted RAM can cause the system to hang unpredictably

if its not that the 8.8 drivers are brand new & are causing a few issues at the moment.
you might try an earlier driver to rule it out as a possibility

also you might try & run the system without this installed
US Robotics Wireless MAXg PCI card
PCI cards can also cause issues.

what PSU are you using ...?
you said the system runs fine once it boots ...have you stress tested it..?

* I added a signature with my sytem specs

* I have DDR2 PC6400 ValueRam which is running @ 801 Mhz (DRAM is 1:1 with FSB which is at 400Mhz)

* I will try the driver from the MSI website (maybe because I have the OC edition of the R4870 the ATI driver has problems with my graphics card?). Or it might just be the new ATI driver that has some issues.

* would be weird if the PCI card caused the problem. I'll take it out when nothing alse works.

* PSU is a Corsair HX620 (=620W)

* The system is stress tested for 12h with Prime95 v25.6 and the temps stay below 60 °C on all cores using a TjMax of 100 °C (monitoring both with RealTemp 2.7 and CoreTemp 0.99.2). CPU Voltage set in the BIOS is 1.2V.

--> personally I don't think the overclock has anything to do with the problem

ok.....

the corsair PSU is superb..& the rig is 12hrs stable

try the 8.7 or 8.6 catalysts see if that helps....

ok

I don't know if I'll have the time today, but I'll let you know as soon as possible.

Do I first uninstall the v8.8 driver, lower my screen resolution, reboot and then install the new one? Or do I just install it on top of the current one?

On the MSI website they have the following driver ... ok to install this one?

R4870-T2D512-OC
ATI Radeon Series Graphic Card Driver 8.501 Windows Vista 32/64bit (110156KB)

"Special Note:
The Drivers provided here are exclusively for MSI products only. MSI takes no responsibility for any damage resulted from improper usage or lack of technical expertise."

yes.... you must uninstall 8.8 reboot & try 8.5 & then reboot again

if this works you don't wanna be on these drivers for long ....
they are quite old & will do your shiny 4870 no justice
try & find links for 8.6 & 8.7


there is also a later bios out for your board....1004 BIOS P5Q

ok, I will keep you posted how this evolves

I will try one thing at a time: first graphics card driver update and if the doesn't work I'll update the bios

Meanwhile thanks for the help

First I want to say that it's not always when cold starting that the problem occurs. Last time is started cold and there was no problem...

I tried to instal the v8.501 drivers, but Vista said that I had to install the correct drivers for my video card ... weird

I tried the Catalyst v8.7 drivers and for the moment everything works fine. No black screens ... so far

Installed the v8.7 drivers, worked for a while but now again the same problem! Computer won't boot till the startup screen after pushing the reset button for 3 times in a row. Also pushing the power button for a few seconds and restarting this way does not help...

The only thing I did before shutting down yesterday evening was installing Acrobat Reader 8.1.2 and surfing the I'net. I also played Company Of Heroes and installed a Windows update for Outlook, but restarting after playing COH and the update posed no problem.

The power led is also not functioning, while the cable seems to be plugged in correctly. Can this be related to my problems?

Any suggestions? Running some diagnostic tool?

This is very frustrating

Thnx in advance,

E.