blank screen after installing wrong graphics driver

[bobbitybob]

Have been updating an older machine that has not been used for some time (VAIO VGX-XL202, XP, NVIDIA Geforce 7600GT). Updates went fine until I installed the updated graphics drivers (from NVIDIA site that automatically detected card and offered updated drivers). On reboot I have a blank screen. I do not have recovery discs, and pressing F10 repeatedly after switching on still leaves the screen blank. Any advice would be appreciated!

[Blencogo]

Ho bobbitybob and welcome.

Can you boot into safe mode by tapping F8 during boot at the Sony Logo.

Safe Mode uses a generic VGA video driver which will allow you to see enough to roll back the video driver or install a correct one. Things will just look a bit big on-screen!

[bobbitybob]

The screen remains blank throughout, there is no Sony Logo or any other image or flicker. F8 was my first choice as I have used this before on other computers to get into safe mode. I have tried pressing F8 once, and again repeatedly during switch on. Have also tried F10 as suggested in the online help. It is possible that I am not hitting F8/F10 at the right time, but with no image on the screen it is difficult to know when to try.

Thanks for your interest in this, and apologies for posting this thread in the wrong forum (notebooks). I am not sure where I missed the option on which forum to post this problem.

[Blencogo]

I think you may have to borrow a XP Pro installation disc and try to boot into the Recovery Console to try and repair the problem.

I confess that I am not quite sure what is causing this problem. Have you tries to see if there is an image using s-video or AV out?

If you like, I can move this thread to Digital Home you may get a better response there - I will wait until you say OK or you may not find it again.

[bobbitybob]

Tried the AV1 and AV2 connections (audio L/R plus video)despite both being labeled as input. My monitor displays 'no signal' when using these. I do not have an svideo lead. However, the two svideo options are again labeled input so I do not have any confidence on that route. The only obvious video output on my machine appears to be the HDMI route, which is the one I was using with no problem until installing the video driver.

The only other observations I have made are:
After switching on there is a short period of busy disc activity which settles down to the 'disc busy' light flashing very regularly at 1 sec intervals. Every few minutes the monitor will briefly display 'no signal'. Perhaps the 'boot up' has got caught in some closed loop.

Will see if I can borrow XP Pro.

Would very much appreciate this thread being moved to Digital Home. Thanks for that offer.

[Chaffboz]

Tried the AV1 and AV2 connections (audio L/R plus video)despite both being labeled as input. My monitor displays 'no signal' when using these. I do not have an svideo lead. However, the two svideo options are again labeled input so I do not have any confidence on that route. The only obvious video output on my machine appears to be the HDMI route, which is the one I was using with no problem until installing the video driver.

The only other observations I have made are:
After switching on there is a short period of busy disc activity which settles down to the 'disc busy' light flashing very regularly at 1 sec intervals. Every few minutes the monitor will briefly display 'no signal'. Perhaps the 'boot up' has got caught in some closed loop.

Will see if I can borrow XP Pro.

Would very much appreciate this thread being moved to Digital Home. Thanks for that offer.

I had the same problem with my XL-302 when I installed a new video driver. I had mine hooked up to my Panasonic PZ70 via HDMI. The only way I could see the screen was to remove the HDMI into the TV, use a HDMI-DVI adaptor a plug back into the TV DVI port. From new, when re-booting my XL-302 with HDMI-HDMI I never saw any logo's or start-up information, the TV only came alive when the main Vista logo appeared. I have now changed to the MSI8500GT and never looked back since....

Hope that helps

[ChalkyWhite71]

Hi Chaffboz, i'm interested in the MSI 8500GT for my XL201 running XP. do you run XP? I see there is an XP driver off the MSI website, so guess it should work.

Did you need to modify the contents of your Vaio to fit the card in the PCI slot?

It's really useful if ClubVaio members can place their kit details in their signature, which then saves asking too many off-topic questions 😛

Cheers, Tony

[Chaffboz]

Hi ChalkyWhite71,

Theres no reason why the MSI will not work with XP. See this thread - it runs though fitting this card - a hacksaw is required though!!

http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/GB/en/forum/viewthread?thread=47994&offset=20

Isn't as hard at it looks...

Cheers

[bobbitybob]

I had the same problem with my XL-302 when I installed a new video driver. I had mine hooked up to my Panasonic PZ70 via HDMI. The only way I could see the screen was to remove the HDMI into the TV, use a HDMI-DVI adaptor a plug back into the TV DVI port. From new, when re-booting my XL-302 with HDMI-HDMI I never saw any logo's or start-up information, the TV only came alive when the main Vista logo appeared.

Whilst still using the original card, did you stick with the HDMI to DVI route, continuing to use the NVIDIA sourced driver, or did you have to roll back to a previous driver configuration and return to the HDMI to HDMI route? I am keen to try out the DVI route in the first instance - HDMI to DVI adaptors are about £7.

Searching for MSI8500GT brings up two models with the same name. The cheaper one does not have a HDMI connector. The more expensive appears to have a lower profile, and has a HDMI output. I assume you upgraded with the lower profile/HDMI one.

Thanks for your advice - e-support from Sony has been desperately slow and generally unhelpful. Six e-mails in a row simply say use F2, F8, or F10 after the Sony logo comes up! My statement that the screen remains blank throughout must get translated into something obscure in their mother tongue.

[Chaffboz]

Whilst still using the original card, did you stick with the HDMI to DVI route, continuing to use the NVIDIA sourced driver, or did you have to roll back to a previous driver configuration and return to the HDMI to HDMI route? I am keen to try out the DVI route in the first instance - HDMI to DVI adaptors are about £7.

Searching for MSI8500GT brings up two models with the same name. The cheaper one does not have a HDMI connector. The more expensive appears to have a lower profile, and has a HDMI output. I assume you upgraded with the lower profile/HDMI one.

Thanks for your advice - e-support from Sony has been desperately slow and generally unhelpful. Six e-mails in a row simply say use F2, F8, or F10 after the Sony logo comes up! My statement that the screen remains blank throughout must get translated into something obscure in their mother tongue.

'

With the original card I had to stick to the HDMI route as I had to take the TV off the wall to use the DVI connection and it stuck out too far to re-install on the wall..I didn't have any issues once I installed any up-dated NVIDIA drivers. I just used the DVI route to investigate why I had a blank screen after up-dating the NVIDIA driver.

The MSI card I installed (thanks to this forum) was the NX8500GT-MTD256EH/D2 which has both DVI and HDMI outputs. Strangely though, even if I connected it HDMI-HDMI I could see the VAIO logo, which I couldn't with the previously installed 7600. The main reason for changing the graphics card was HDMI hand-shanking with the TV after bringing the VAIO out of S3 standby - I could never get it to work and was for ever re-booting the VAIO. Now I have no issue

By the way, my Vaio came with a HDMI-DVI adaptor...

I've had a few problems with setting up my Vaio and the best place to rectify any issue is these forums or Google...I don't even bother with Sony technical support.