reinstall xp

[bentaxle]

had a try at reinstalling windows on old pc .I fully formated but at the ending of the install I didn't get the welcome screen I expected ,now it only works in safe mode .it will not start normaly gets as far as the windows sign with the little dots running beneath .then screen doesn't display anything but pc is still running

[ChuckFickens]

there is a possibility it is simply setting the graphics resolution to one that the monitor can't display.

start in safe mode, right click anywhere on the desktop and select properties, then click on the settings tab and move the screen resolution slider all the way to the left, click OK a couple of times and then try restarting.

[bentaxle]

No luck Chuck ,but could you tell me if my problem was self inflicted as when I tried to fire it up after three yrs under the desk the reason it displayed was bios wrong and battery low ,so removed it to check type and left it out for 24 hrs while I got replacement
all the best

[ChuckFickens]

all removing the BIOS battery will do is lose the time and date and reset the BIOS back to default settings, although the default settings may not be ideal they wouldn't normally stop the computer working (and if it did it would be due to it not knowing the hard drive is there so it wouldn't get as far as yours is)

I'm still convinced that this will be a graphics problem.

go into safe mode again, bring up the device manager and uninstall the graphics card and then do a restart and see what happens.

[bentaxle]

I had a look in device manager and the closest I could get to a graphics card was a Radeon 7000 under display not sure if thats a graphics card .so I left it ,if you think thats the card ,I will uninstall it tomorrow ,and have another go ,cant do any harm it didn't work when I started
all the best and thanks for your time

[ChuckFickens]

yep thats the one :)

Sorry if I get the exact terms wrong, I use XP so much at work that I don't really look at what things actually say anymore and I've not got windows here at home to check :)

uninstall the ATI radeon 7000 and then restart

[ChuckFickens]

oh and you may as well download these too

http://support.amd.co...adeon-prer300-xp.aspx

That's the proper drivers for that card, if the computer boots up ok after uninstalling the card then install these.

[bentaxle]

Chuck it worked a treat ,how do you keep all that stuff in your head
Thanks again and all the best
alan