Last night when i turned my computer on my screen wouldn't show Windows....
The screen shows all the loading screens (black with white text) and the Windows XP loading bar. Bu when it gets to where the loggin screen is the monitor goes to standby.
Its not a problem with the monitor becuase i then plugged that into my laptop and it was fine.
Anyone any ideas what the problem is or how i could fix it?

Maybe you have set XP to a resoloution / refresh rate your monitor can't handle, I would start XP in VGA mode (F8 I think, can't be certain though), and then change the res / refresh to something that any monitor can handle and try it again.

Dan,

I had a problem like you described once, it turned out to be RAM gone bad. Maybe you could try to replace your memory cards with other ones if you have them. Or remove one of them if you have more than one in your pc? Just to see if that might be the problem.

First things first is to boot into safe mode, do this by repeated tapping F8 when the machine first boots up (passing any keyboard error reported), just keep tapping F8 until you get a boot menu (it actually needs pressing only once, but at a certain point - far easier to get you to press it repeatedly).

Once you get the boot menu, select safe mode. You should now go into the diagnostic mode of Windows. From here, there's one excellent suggestion above, change your monitor display resolution (and refresh rate in the advanced settings if it's not auto) by opening up the display control panel. Then reboot.

If this does not fix the problem return to safe mode and goto start, programs, accessories, system tools, system restore - and choose a restore point from a date when the computer worked. This will overcome any configuration issues by restoring the system settings to a time when the machine worked.

If this still fails try another monitor on the same computer - it could be a graphics card problem.

If you cannot get into safe mode because of the same problem (unlikely but possible) this would also suggest a graphics card problem.

If its a resolution problem, rather than a refresh rate issue, then you have more of a problem - the resolution in safe mode does not correspond to the "native" resolution; thus changing it in safe mode usually doesnt help. In these situations its normally quicker to uninstall all graphics drivers, and take the opportunity to upgrade them to the latest version.

i haven't changed the resolution on that computer in over a year.... i'll try the safe mode idea when i get home. thanks guys

Ok i went into safe mode and rolled back to last week and its fine now...
come to think of it the last thing i did was install windows updates before i turned it off the other day.
maybe that had something to do with it....
anyway all is good! LFS is back... ahhhh

hmmmm, how do i find the "default" resolution and refresh rate for my monitor?

EDIT - After spelling Iilyama right, google told me that my E431S has a maximum refresh rate of 75 hertz, which is what it's set to, should it be lower, ie 60?

Quote from Jakg :

hmmmm, how do i find the "default" resolution and refresh rate for my monitor?

EDIT - After spelling Iilyama right, google told me that my E431S has a maximum refresh rate of 75 hertz, which is what it's set to, should it be lower, ie 60?

In the manual it lists all display modes it is capable of... All of those are default.

Default refreshrates are for videocards, not monitors. All monitors should be able to display 800x600@60Hz, which is the XVGA default (and what you get when booting in Safe Mode).

One thing about changing the resolution in Safe Mode... You need to actually CHANGE it for it to work. Just opening the tab and clicking ok won't do, because that is the XVGA default (svga on pre-2000) for safe mode. It needs a trigger to update the Windows settings.

Distinguishing between LCD and CRT monitors, in this case, is important. Cathod Ray Tube monitors have to support rates higher than 60 Hertz at the chosen resolution to avoid flickering, which is unpleasant to see and could strain the eyes.
LCD monitors don't have this problem because the technology is different, so 60 Hz is good: some monitors don't even support higher refresh rates (for instance, some Acer models). Normally there's no need to use a higher refresh rate with an LCD monitor.
Monitors reported as Plug and Play generally communicate the supported frequency range at any given resolution to the PC, but there are several exceptions (and even ways to circumvent that screwing up the screen ). Downloading and installing the correct drivers, if available, reduces the possibility to choose a wrong refresh rate/display resolution. These two parameters are generally combined in CRT monitors: the higher the chosen resolution, the lower the available refresh rate will be. For a longer and better description see the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refresh_rate