black screen death sad story

Alright everybody get ready for a sad one. I, GhandoTang, have made a large mistake. I upgraded my Windows XP Media Edition to Vista 5384. Enter: Black Screen Of Death. Installation went somewhat smoothly (I believe there was one stutter step) all the way up to the first full boot. I am running a pretty new dell system with 1gig of ram and a Geforce 6 series gaphics card. I have no OS discs (dell does not send them with computers anymore) and no boot discs of any kind. I get no further than the black desktop with the Windows build 5384 text in the bottom right corner. Just to make this completely clear, my computer is worhtless in its present state. I cant change drivers, I cant reload windows, I cant boot from disc (only external usb cd rom or floppy (i know it makes no sense but thats what it says)) I cant do anything that requires the computer to do anything. I have done everything I can possibly think of from disecting the computer removing everything I could and starting it up (even running it without the video card, navigating the menus from memory) to changing all of the settings in the initial setup screen. i have tried every available option on my boot screens and nothing works. When I attempt the "load previous version of windows" option I get a black screen wiht a gray bar across the bottom and a big old freeze. Please refrain from leaving comments that advice to wait, load drivers, clean install Vista, or any other ideas that have been tried, tested, and proved lacking. Please help me as soon as possible, my computer is by best friend and I am lonesome without her! -GhandoTang
p.s. Is anybody else wondering where all the Windows people are. I must have read over 30 posts on the black screen of death and yet nobody has come forth wiht anything remotely resembling a definate answer. Windows people out there, please help. It is us, the beta testers of the world, that help you to realize problems that will occur in the real world. Without us your product would be released on the hope that people are going to use it exactly as you intended, and we all now that that is not so. We are real people, these are real problems, and we could use some real solutions.

I can't help with the black screen but call Dell, ask for Support and ask them to send you the cd of the OS that came with your system. They don't automatically ship it with the unit but they sent me one, my niece, my friend one, all after we/they received the machine. Call Dell for that much anyway, at least you'll have 'something'. You'll need some #s from your machine when you call........
I maybe would try a different video card too but that's just a guess and you probably tried that already. katy
"GhandoTang" wrote in message

Alright everybody get ready for a sad one. I, GhandoTang, have made a large mistake. I upgraded my Windows XP Media Edition to Vista 5384. Enter: Black Screen Of Death. Installation went somewhat smoothly (I believe there was one stutter step) all the way up to the first full boot. I am running a pretty new dell system with 1gig of ram and a Geforce 6 series gaphics card. I have no OS discs (dell does not send them with computers anymore) and no boot discs of any kind. I get no further than the black desktop with the Windows build 5384 text in the bottom right corner. Just to make this completely clear, my computer is worhtless in its present state. I cant change drivers, I cant reload windows, I cant boot from disc (only external usb cd rom or floppy (i know it makes no sense but thats what it says)) I cant do anything that requires the computer to do anything. I have done everything I can possibly think of from disecting the computer removing everything I could and starting it up (even running it without the video card, navigating the menus from memory) to changing all of the settings in the initial setup screen. i have tried every available option on my boot screens and nothing works. When I attempt the "load previous version of windows" option I get a black screen wiht a gray bar across the bottom and a big old freeze. Please refrain from leaving comments that advice to wait, load drivers, clean install Vista, or any other ideas that have been tried, tested, and proved lacking. Please help me as soon as possible, my computer is by best friend and I am lonesome without her! -GhandoTang
p.s. Is anybody else wondering where all the Windows people are. I must have read over 30 posts on the black screen of death and yet nobody has come forth wiht anything remotely resembling a definate answer. Windows people out there, please help. It is us, the beta testers of the world, that help you to realize problems that will occur in the real world. Without us your product would be released on the hope that people are going to use it exactly as you intended, and we all now that that is not so. We are real people, these are real problems, and we could use some real solutions.

Thanks Katy, I will definately call dell and get my OS disc from them. They really never should have stoped sending them with the systems anyways. As for right now, Its looking like my best bet is a external floppy boot. Im gonna try that and then I will make sure to let you guys now how it went. Thanks for all the help -Ghandotang
"GhandoTang" wrote:

Alright everybody get ready for a sad one. I, GhandoTang, have made a large mistake. I upgraded my Windows XP Media Edition to Vista 5384. Enter: Black Screen Of Death. Installation went somewhat smoothly (I believe there was one stutter step) all the way up to the first full boot. I am running a pretty new dell system with 1gig of ram and a Geforce 6 series gaphics card. I have no OS discs (dell does not send them with computers anymore) and no boot discs of any kind. I get no further than the black desktop with the Windows build 5384 text in the bottom right corner. Just to make this completely clear, my computer is worhtless in its present state. I cant change drivers, I cant reload windows, I cant boot from disc (only external usb cd rom or floppy (i know it makes no sense but thats what it says)) I cant do anything that requires the computer to do anything. I have done everything I can possibly think of from disecting the computer removing everything I could and starting it up (even running it without the video card, navigating the menus from memory) to changing all of the settings in the initial setup screen. i have tried every available option on my boot screens and nothing works. When I attempt the "load previous version of windows" option I get a black screen wiht a gray bar across the bottom and a big old freeze. Please refrain from leaving comments that advice to wait, load drivers, clean install Vista, or any other ideas that have been tried, tested, and proved lacking. Please help me as soon as possible, my computer is by best friend and I am lonesome without her! -GhandoTang
p.s. Is anybody else wondering where all the Windows people are. I must have read over 30 posts on the black screen of death and yet nobody has come forth wiht anything remotely resembling a definate answer. Windows people out there, please help. It is us, the beta testers of the world, that help you to realize problems that will occur in the real world. Without us your product would be released on the hope that people are going to use it exactly as you intended, and we all now that that is not so. We are real people, these are real problems, and we could use some real solutions.

You probably have a recovery partition (hidden). It is supposed to work off of F11, if I remember right, but Vista would have mashed it. Dell has a fix.
"GhandoTang" wrote in message

Thanks Katy, I will definately call dell and get my OS disc from them. They really never should have stoped sending them with the systems anyways. As for right now, Its looking like my best bet is a external floppy boot. Im gonna try that and then I will make sure to let you guys now how it went. Thanks for all the help -Ghandotang
"GhandoTang" wrote:
Alright everybody get ready for a sad one. I, GhandoTang, have made a large mistake. I upgraded my Windows XP Media Edition to Vista 5384. Enter: Black Screen Of Death. Installation went somewhat smoothly (I believe there was one stutter step) all the way up to the first full boot. I am running a pretty new dell system with 1gig of ram and a Geforce 6 series gaphics card. I have no OS discs (dell does not send them with computers anymore) and no boot discs of any kind. I get no further than the black desktop with the Windows build 5384 text in the bottom right corner. Just to make this completely clear, my computer is worhtless in its present state. I cant change drivers, I cant reload windows, I cant boot from disc (only external usb cd rom or floppy (i know it makes no sense but thats what it says)) I cant do anything that requires the computer to do anything. I have done everything I can possibly think of from disecting the computer removing everything I could and starting it up (even running it without the video card, navigating the menus from memory) to changing all of the settings in the initial setup screen. i have tried every available option on my boot screens and nothing works. When I attempt the "load previous version of windows" option I get a black screen wiht a gray bar across the bottom and a big old freeze. Please refrain from leaving comments that advice to wait, load drivers, clean install Vista, or any other ideas that have been tried, tested, and proved lacking. Please help me as soon as possible, my computer is by best friend and I am lonesome without her! -GhandoTang
p.s. Is anybody else wondering where all the Windows people are. I must have read over 30 posts on the black screen of death and yet nobody has come forth wiht anything remotely resembling a definate answer. Windows people out there, please help. It is us, the beta testers of the world, that help you to realize problems that will occur in the real world. Without us your product would be released on the hope that people are going to use it exactly as you intended, and we all now that that is not so. We are real people, these are real problems, and we could use some real solutions.

I just got a Dell XPS 400 and I paid $10 for the OS disk. In the future, you might consider paying for the CD's. I know, I know... they used to be included but nothing's really free anyway. When I was first looking at the XPS 400, the OS CD's were included in the price. The price for the XPS 400 dropped $10 and, voila, there was a $10 charge for the OS CD's... like I said, nothing's really free. Next time, buy the OS CD's. Less hassle in the long run...
"GhandoTang" wrote in message

Thanks Katy, I will definately call dell and get my OS disc from them. They really never should have stoped sending them with the systems anyways. As for right now, Its looking like my best bet is a external floppy boot. Im gonna try that and then I will make sure to let you guys now how it went. Thanks for all the help -Ghandotang
"GhandoTang" wrote:
Alright everybody get ready for a sad one. I, GhandoTang, have made a large mistake. I upgraded my Windows XP Media Edition to Vista 5384. Enter: Black Screen Of Death. Installation went somewhat smoothly (I believe there was one stutter step) all the way up to the first full boot. I am running a pretty new dell system with 1gig of ram and a Geforce 6 series gaphics card. I have no OS discs (dell does not send them with computers anymore) and no boot discs of any kind. I get no further than the black desktop with the Windows build 5384 text in the bottom right corner. Just to make this completely clear, my computer is worhtless in its present state. I cant change drivers, I cant reload windows, I cant boot from disc (only external usb cd rom or floppy (i know it makes no sense but thats what it says)) I cant do anything that requires the computer to do anything. I have done everything I can possibly think of from disecting the computer removing everything I could and starting it up (even running it without the video card, navigating the menus from memory) to changing all of the settings in the initial setup screen. i have tried every available option on my boot screens and nothing works. When I attempt the "load previous version of windows" option I get a black screen wiht a gray bar across the bottom and a big old freeze. Please refrain from leaving comments that advice to wait, load drivers, clean install Vista, or any other ideas that have been tried, tested, and proved lacking. Please help me as soon as possible, my computer is by best friend and I am lonesome without her! -GhandoTang
p.s. Is anybody else wondering where all the Windows people are. I must have read over 30 posts on the black screen of death and yet nobody has come forth wiht anything remotely resembling a definate answer. Windows people out there, please help. It is us, the beta testers of the world, that help you to realize problems that will occur in the real world. Without us your product would be released on the hope that people are going to use it exactly as you intended, and we all now that that is not so. We are real people, these are real problems, and we could use some real solutions.

When I odered mine they gace me an option to have either the Restore or OS disc (for $10 extra) I chose the OS disc.
I also have a CD with drivers
With the OS disc I wqas able to reformat and get RID of all of Dell's preinstalled crap.
"GhandoTang" wrote in message

Alright everybody get ready for a sad one. I, GhandoTang, have made a large mistake. I upgraded my Windows XP Media Edition to Vista 5384. Enter: Black Screen Of Death. Installation went somewhat smoothly (I believe there was one stutter step) all the way up to the first full boot. I am running a pretty new dell system with 1gig of ram and a Geforce 6 series gaphics card. I have no OS discs (dell does not send them with computers anymore) and no boot discs of any kind. I get no further than the black desktop with the Windows build 5384 text in the bottom right corner. Just to make this completely clear, my computer is worhtless in its present state. I cant change drivers, I cant reload windows, I cant boot from disc (only external usb cd rom or floppy (i know it makes no sense but thats what it says)) I cant do anything that requires the computer to do anything. I have done everything I can possibly think of from disecting the computer removing everything I could and starting it up (even running it without the video card, navigating the menus from memory) to changing all of the settings in the initial setup screen. i have tried every available option on my boot screens and nothing works. When I attempt the "load previous version of windows" option I get a black screen wiht a gray bar across the bottom and a big old freeze. Please refrain from leaving comments that advice to wait, load drivers, clean install Vista, or any other ideas that have been tried, tested, and proved lacking. Please help me as soon as possible, my computer is by best friend and I am lonesome without her! -GhandoTang
p.s. Is anybody else wondering where all the Windows people are. I must have read over 30 posts on the black screen of death and yet nobody has come forth wiht anything remotely resembling a definate answer. Windows people out there, please help. It is us, the beta testers of the world, that help you to realize problems that will occur in the real world. Without us your product would be released on the hope that people are going to use it exactly as you intended, and we all now that that is not so. We are real people, these are real problems, and we could use some real solutions.

Alright evrybody, I am about to tell you a very sad story, about a very foolish man. I , GhandoTang, loaded vista onto my un-partitioned hard drive. I know, I know, Stupid but sometimes these things happen. I am now leaving for Alaska in 4 days and am confronted by the infamous black screen of death. My options are slim. I am running a new dell that when purchased came with a piece of paper instead of an operating disc, I have no boot disc. I cannot get anywhere with my computer except for the black screen. My computer does not seem to have an option to boot from my dvd/rom inside the computer, only a external usb cd drive or a floppy drive, neither of which I have. My computer seems to offer a "rollback" option to start on the previous version of windows, but when I attempt it I get nothing but a grey bar across the bottom and a massive freeze. Safe mode freezes, dos mode freezes, diagnostic says everythng is peachy. I attempted to boot sans video card only top realize that no video card = no monitor. I am in full breakdown. Please, Please help me as I am near the breaking point and love my computer very much. -GhandoTang

First, boot to the Dell logo and try both CTRL+F11 and/or F12 and see if you can get to the restore facility to restore your machine to factory fresh. If not, Vista hosed the boot, but the partition should still be there.
Then go to this page:
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm
Download the DSRFix program and put it on a bootable floppy. You can download a bootable floppy from www.bootdisk.com
If you do not have a floppy drive, then you are going to go spend $30 to buy a USB one. That's the cost of this mistake.
Boot to the floppy and run DSRFix.
Remove the floppy drive and boot. When you see the Dell logo, press CTRL+F11 or F12.
Follow the instructions to restore your PC.
You WILL WIPE OUT YOUR HARD DRIVE.
That's the cost of the mistake you made, so just restore your backups when you get your machine back.
Tom
"GhandoTang" wrote in message

Alright evrybody, I am about to tell you a very sad story, about a very foolish man. I , GhandoTang, loaded vista onto my un-partitioned hard drive. I know, I know, Stupid but sometimes these things happen. I am now leaving for Alaska in 4 days and am confronted by the infamous black screen of death. My options are slim. I am running a new dell that when purchased came with a piece of paper instead of an operating disc, I have no boot disc. I cannot get anywhere with my computer except for the black screen. My computer does not seem to have an option to boot from my dvd/rom inside the computer, only a external usb cd drive or a floppy drive, neither of which I have. My computer seems to offer a "rollback" option to start on the previous version of windows, but when I attempt it I get nothing but a grey bar across the bottom and a massive freeze. Safe mode freezes, dos mode freezes, diagnostic says everythng is peachy. I attempted to boot sans video card only top realize that no video card = no monitor. I am in full breakdown. Please, Please help me as I am near the breaking point and love my computer very much. -GhandoTang

Thank you very much Tom, I am attempting what I can now, hopefully it will work out but if not I'll grab the floppy drive (maybe radio shack, even though there cheapskates) when I can. Is there any chance on me resolving the problem thats occuring with Vista? I'm sure that if I could just get it up once, I could solve all of my problems. Either way, I really appreciate the immediate response, good looking out. -GhandoTang
"Tom Scales" wrote:

First, boot to the Dell logo and try both CTRL+F11 and/or F12 and see if you can get to the restore facility to restore your machine to factory fresh. If not, Vista hosed the boot, but the partition should still be there.
Then go to this page:
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm
Download the DSRFix program and put it on a bootable floppy. You can download a bootable floppy from www.bootdisk.com
If you do not have a floppy drive, then you are going to go spend $30 to buy a USB one. That's the cost of this mistake.
Boot to the floppy and run DSRFix.
Remove the floppy drive and boot. When you see the Dell logo, press CTRL+F11 or F12.
Follow the instructions to restore your PC.
You WILL WIPE OUT YOUR HARD DRIVE.
That's the cost of the mistake you made, so just restore your backups when you get your machine back.
Tom
"GhandoTang" wrote in message Alright evrybody, I am about to tell you a very sad story, about a very foolish man. I , GhandoTang, loaded vista onto my un-partitioned hard drive. I know, I know, Stupid but sometimes these things happen. I am now leaving for Alaska in 4 days and am confronted by the infamous black screen of death. My options are slim. I am running a new dell that when purchased came with a piece of paper instead of an operating disc, I have no boot disc. I cannot get anywhere with my computer except for the black screen. My computer does not seem to have an option to boot from my dvd/rom inside the computer, only a external usb cd drive or a floppy drive, neither of which I have. My computer seems to offer a "rollback" option to start on the previous version of windows, but when I attempt it I get nothing but a grey bar across the bottom and a massive freeze. Safe mode freezes, dos mode freezes, diagnostic says everythng is peachy. I attempted to boot sans video card only top realize that no video card = no monitor. I am in full breakdown. Please, Please help me as I am near the breaking point and love my computer very much. -GhandoTang