Windows 7 - I can hear it boot but monitors go blank with "no signal"

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sjpeer

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Sep 14, 2010
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Problem:
1. My computer will boot up to the windows logo, then the monitors go blank and show "no signal."
2. After the "no signal" I can hear windows continue to boot. I think I was actually even able to login to my user account by guessing at the keyboard keys to push.
3. I can boot into safe mode with no problem.
4. During one of the first reboots, Windows ran a disk check. It fixed several file problems and ran completely. I didn't track them and it hasn't run since after many reboots.

Possible causes:
1. We've had two power outages in the last week. It also looks like there was a system update at some point during that time frame. Maybe an outage occurred during an update?

What I've tried
1. I've tried two system restores (there were only two restore points). One gave me a registry error and didn't complete (I didn't get the error). Then that restore point disappeared so I can't duplicate it. The other restore point gives me a BSOD starting with the following error codes "0x000000f4, 0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA800BD85060, 0xFFFFFA800BD85340, 0xFFFFF8004394270.
2. I've adjusted the monitor resolution settings to their lowest and rebooted. Didn't work.
3. I installed an older version of the graphics driver. Nothing changed.

What I think it is
1. After hours of research, I suspect it's a graphics problem because I can hear windows boot. However it will still work in safe mode and I've successfully tested both monitors in safe mode.

Please help.
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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Dec 10, 2012
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There is probably an error in either Windows or a driver file (it may or may not be graphics related).

Possible fix #1 - boot to safe mode and remove your drivers for GPU and install new ones from the manufacturer's site. (assuming graphics card drivers - and it appears you have done this).

Possible fix #2 - If you can boot with your Windows DVD and try the "repair windows" function, you may be able to fix the problem. From your description, it looks like several files have been corrupted on the hard drive - either from the power issues and/or the hard drive encountering a problem.

Windows in safe mode doesn't load 100% of the operating system....that is why you can boot there.
 
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sjpeer

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Sep 14, 2010
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Thanks ronintexas.

1) I uninstalled the display driver and rebooted. Windows booted up (I think automatically into safe mode) and did an auto install of the driver (it auto detected it and just started on its own). When I restarted I got the exact same thing.
2) I tried the repair windows and it didn't detect any problems.

So there's no noticeable change from before. Any other thoughts or ideas?
 
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sjpeer

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Sep 14, 2010
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18,510
Small but substantial update. It turns out after I uninstalled the video driver it restarted into regular mode, it just looked the same as safe mode but without the "safe mode" in the corners. So the solution worked and it looks like the problem was the video driver. However, that still leaves me with a problem. When Windows auto installs the Nvidia driver, I get the same problem again.

What I'm going to try
I just did another cycle of uninstalling the driver but when I started back up windows installed the new driver again and I didn't see an option to stop it. So I'm uninstalling it and reinstalling a new drive I downloaded from nvidia's site. I'm not rebooting between uninstalling and installing so I don't know if that's a problem, but if I reboot without the driver it will just auto update again so I don't know what other option I have. Anyway, I'll let yo know how it goes.
 
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sjpeer

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Sep 14, 2010
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No luck. I'm still stuck. I just tried uninstalling all the audio drivers because I'd read somewhere that might affect things but it didn't work. HELP!!!!!
 
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sjpeer

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Sep 14, 2010
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UPDATE
I never found a solution that worked. Here are a couple additional things I tried:
-I ran DDU, a device driver uninstaller that succeeded in uninstalling the geforce driver completely enough that it couldn't be detected by windows to automatically install. Instead Windows installed a generic VGA driver which then allowed me to consistently log in to normal windows (vs the safe mode).
-I tried swapping my graphics card with my wife's. After windows installed her drivers (it was the same manufacturer but a different model and different drivers), it acted exactly like my graphics card. This told me that the problem is separate from the card or the drivers. Maybe a driver conflict?

I ended up doing a re-install of windows (upgrade install, not custom install) and it worked. Something must have been corrupted. I did notice that the last thing that happened in the upgrade was that it said it had to repair the .NET framework. This is not something I troubleshot so maybe it was the source of the problem and a solution that may work for others. I don't know but after many many hours, I'm finally up and running.
 
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