Hey all. Last week I noticed that when my Dell 8600 posted, the screen remained blank/black until Windows started up, making it impossible to access the BIOS (in fact the screen remained blank while in the BIOS as well, if I was in fact in there). Other than that, it was working like a champ. I figured that it might have been due to an out-of-date driver, so I upgraded to the most recent BIOS from the Dell website, but it was still staying blank until Windows fired up. So, as it was still not working, I went back to the Dell site and downloaded the latest video drivers for it (I should have gotten them from nVidia like I usually do, but I got lax). After I installed them, things got even worse to the point that after Windows boots, the screen goes blank the second the desktop icons finish rendering. I'm stumped; Safe Mode isn't visible, nor is rebooting to the last known working configuration. If I boot into VGA Mode, it starts Windows as usual, goes blank for two seconds after the desktop icons render then comes back on for a couple of seconds with a popup balloon saying that the resolution and color depth are set too low. The actions that it makes are consistent, so it doesn't strike me as a loose cable or the like. Also, it can run like this for hours, doesn't crash, and can be accessed through my network. I'm thinking that rolling the video drivers back to a prior version is the fix that I need, but how do I go about it? I was thinking that if I could boot my Win XP disk, I could use it's repair function, but I have the boot sequence in the CMOS set up to only boot up the hard drive and nothing else when I power on. So that's my dilemma - if any of you out there have any insight on how to go about correcting this issue, I'd love to hear from you. Dell 8600 SXGA Display 64mb nVidia Go 5200 512mb XP Pro (SP1) Thanks, garnoman

Not familiar with this particular model, but it seems likely that it is set to silent post mode. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "in fact the screen remained blank while in the BIOS as well, if I was in fact in there". Did you actually enter into BIOS settings with the F2-key, or whatever key, and it you still couldn't see anything? Before Windows starts the nVidia drivers won't be used, so it's unlikely that is the original cause of your problem.

Hi Psycho, thanks for replying. Yeah, when I booted it up, hit F2 and entered the BIOS, the screen was black/blank. There was no video, so I couldn't tell if I was in there, but I presume that I was because Windows never booted when I did that. I realize that the video card drivers aren't used until Windows actually boots, but it just seems odd that it took a nose-dive right after I installed them. It doesn't make sense to me either, but I'm grasping at straws here. How do I go about rectifying this "Silent POST Mode" that you speak of? Another suggestion that I got from the Dell forums is that the backlight on my LCD has burned out, so maybe there are some underlying hardware issues that I have to deal with. The problem that I have with that is that last week, prior to it breaking, it in essence worked excellently even though the screen remained blank through posting (I saw no Dell splashscreen or F2/F8 option) until Windows booted. So I'm still a bit mystified. My next goal is to get my hands on a monitor to see if it works when connected to that. If you have anymore insight given the information that I've left, I'd appreciate the input. Thanks, garnoman

Silent post means that nothing will be shown on the screen until Windows loads, i.e. you won't see when the drivers are being loaded. You should however see the "Press F2 for setup..." on the screen before that. Usually there is a setting once you have entered BIOS for this silent mode. Seems to be something else wrong eith your comp, though. Trying with another monitor seems like a good idea. Good luck! /SP

Hi-- Did you recently hook up to a video projector? The same problem with the black post screen started happening to my Dell Inspiron 8600 a while back. It seemed to start after I actually did have an inverter bulb problem in my LCD. Here's what happened: Arrived at client site after traveling. Plugged in laptop to LCD projector, then booted. Laptop screen was completely black, but projector worked fine. Since I didn't boot before connecting to the projector, I don't know if I someone broke the bulb while traveling, or if the projector blew the bulb, or if the bulb just died. After removing from projector, I could not get the screen back. Hooked up to external monitor, found a hidden function key with hardware diagnostics, came up with "broken inverter bulb" or something like that. Called Dell. Tried to troubleshoot, no avail. They arranged for a technician to come by. He showed up while I was teaching a class, so I couldn't go talk to him, but I saw him at one point with the screen disassembled... I'm assuming he replaced it or replaced the inverter bulb. When I got my laptop back, it was working. But I then noticed that it had a black screen during boot. I figured he changed the POST setting and I would fix it later. About six months later, it got annoying enough that I tried to change the POST setting. That's when I realized I couldn't get into my BIOS. It's almost like the screen text is set to black... just like you, I can hit "F2" and the computer stops booting, but you can't see the BIOS. Doing a Google search, I found another person who reported a similar problem after hooking up to an LCD projector. No solution. In Dell support, they suggest that you can get this black screen if the computer is trying to boot to a USB device (for certain Dell desktops, anyway). Maybe the technician used a USB device and booted to it during his troubleshooting. The fix is to go into the BIOS and change the USB emulation setting to "No Boot" or something like that. But, since we can't get into the BIOS, that's not going to work. Or, well, we can't see the BIOS. Maybe someone with an 8600 could post the exact keys to press and we could change our settings "blind," but that sortof scares me. ;) Anyone know how to get the BIOS to reset to original parameters (without getting into the BIOS)? Or want to post the exact key sequences to get into the USB emulation setting and change it to "No Boot" and the Post setting and change it to Post? Thanks! --SMS

One more quick thought. When I first started trying to fix this problem, I saw a post where someone recommended that the person check their "activator switch" that shuts off the computer when you close the laptop's lid. I thought that didn't sound like it could be the problem at all, and my activator switch didn't look stuck. I just found this post: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_bios&message.id=27861&query.id=2497#M27861 explaining that the same symtpoms actually happened to someone who had a stuck activator switch. So I checked mine. It doesn't look stuck, but I noticed nothing happened when I push on it. So I closed the lid, and nothing happened. (I normally have it set this way in the Power options control panel, so I switched the control panel to hibernate when the lid is closed, and it doesn't hibernate). So this very well may be the problem. Since it doesn't seem stuck, it might be time to call Dell and get it repaired. Please let us know if this turns out to be the answer to your problem, too. Good luck! --SMS