I stopped the display in windows and now I get a blank screen

[fearmydesign]

Hi, I accidentally stopped the screen display on my laptop (thinkpad). I went to desktop, properties and then display settings, advanced and turned something off. Now windows xp starts and you can hear the windows sound, but the screen will not turn on. I tried changing a few things on the BIOS for the VGA display, but none of the settings I tried solved the problem.

Can someone please help me? Thank you

 

[fearmydesign]

yes, thank you

Yes, I forgot to mention that I did hook up an external monitor, but it's also blank. I also tried F8 starting it safemode, but it didn't do anything. It's just blank

 

[NickCat11]

Did you try enabling VGA mode?

 

[fearmydesign]

yes

Yes, it is enabled under BIOS, because otherwise I can't see anything in windows. Everything was enabled on the BIOS system for the VGA display, but I would think is windows where I would have to restart that display, it's just that I can't see anything. Any other suggestions?

thank you for your help

 

[NickCat11]

Try booting from a live cd?

 

[fearmydesign]

not there

you know, the problem is that it doesn't have an internal CD-ROM, I have an external USB one, and I tried to setup Bios to boot from it first, but it will not work either. It's driving me crazy

 

[NickCat11]

Hmmm, not sure what else to try especially if you can't boot from a cd....

 

[fearmydesign]

thank you

Thank you for your help, I may just have to take it to them. Thanks

 

[NickCat11]

You can probably take it down to your local tech shop, they may have a better go at it seeing it face to face.

That's always the best option

 

[cebutech]

reset bios defaults?.. enable vga mode?... i think the shop is still the best option.

 

[K007]

Back in the days of NT 4 and when I was not very experienced (not many tools available at that time either), I had the same problem.
What I did, was:
I went to a working computer and wrote down the order in which I did "restore last good known configuration". What keys I pressed, etc.

Then, blindly have repeated that on the broken computer. It worked.

 

[forge]

What's the make and model

That may help some of us to diagnose it for you.

 

[Rider]

Yes, it is enabled under BIOS, because otherwise I can't see anything in windows. Everything was enabled on the BIOS system for the VGA display, but I would think is windows where I would have to restart that display, it's just that I can't see anything. Any other suggestions?

thank you for your help

I think he's referring to booting in VGA mode. You have that option in the same menu that you select safe mode from (F8, Enable VGA Mode).

At what point do you lose your display? Right after POST? Do you see the splash screen?

I'm not familiar with the thinkpad but check your keyboard for some sort of display hot key.

It's a stretch but you can also try the "Last Known Good Configuration" option, also available at F8.

Rider