Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong place, but it seems like the right spot.

My desktop is having some odd issues.

The OS is Windows XP. It had some issues a while back, looked like spyware. I don't remember exactly what happened, this was back in June. I loaded it up again after doing a hard shutdown, everything looked fine. I checked it over with the antivirus program it had on it, and it didn't find anything. I grabbed another freeware antivirus just to be safe, put it on a USB drive and went to boot up the desktop. Everything works fine, up until it's supposed to get to the log in screen. Instead the monitor goes black and shuts off, then never comes back. Me and my brother thought it might have been a video error to start with, because he had just put in a new video card, but it'll load up Seven fine (duelboxing), so I don't think that's it.

Sorry if my vocabulary is a bit off: I learned most of what I know about computers from my brother and have never actually worked with them as far as fixing them goes without his help, so I don't know if most places use his lingo and I've picked it up. I also apologize if my grammar is to fucked up, I'm really tired at the moment. Wouldn't have posted this now if I didn't need it fixed soon, and this is the only forum I frequent where I don't think everyone will try to convince me to get into safe mode and delete system 32.

 

Was the new video card a replacement for a older card?

 

Yeah, I'd have to ask my bro what the old card was, but I know it's several years old. If it wasn't the one that actually came with the computer, then it was one he bought so that Final Fantasy Online would look decent.

New one is an ATI Radeon HD 4650, if that helps any.

 

Um... first of all what do you mean by dual-boxing? I assume you mean dual-booting. (Lol @ WoW term)

Safe mode will help, and your gonna need to be more specific, like post your computer specs, and if you installed anything recently, can you get the OS to boot in safe mode, can your computer even support the new GPU, etc.

 

If Seven works fine,then it's obviously not a hardware problem. Just format your XP partition and reinstall it and it should solve all your problems.

 

It sound like you did not remove all of the drivers for the old video card on xp this will cause problems. the best thing to do is a clean install of win 7 on your computer.
the only other option is to hunt for all the drivers for your old card and delete them.

 

That doesn't make any sense because he had the problem before he swapped the GFX Cards.

Use 7 instead.

 

I'll ask my brother, he has the specs written down somewhere. I was pretty young when we got it, so I don't know them. Didn't install anything recently other then the stuff for the video card, but the video worked fine for about a week until this happened.

Not using 7, we only have it on there because my brother wanted to check it out before he put it on his machine. This is my dad's computer, he finally learned how to use XP with some reliability so he's not interested in updating. I just booted it up to make sure it wasn't a hardware issue.

No, I had an issue with spyware or something before he switched them, but even afterword it was working fine for about a week with no issues. One day it just refused to go past start-up when I selected XP instead of 7.

I still need to get into XP because it has all the files I need on it, which is the main reason I haven't just reformatted. I'm not a huge fan of 7, haven't tried it much yet, and the interface reminds me to much of a mac (which I hate). Thanks, though.

 

There are ways to recover data from a partition - you could try downloading a Linux livecd and using it. It wouldn't affect your existing data, and allow you to make backups of anything you need if you want to reinstall XP.

 

Alright, I'll look into that. Thanks!

Nothing is in 7 aside from the basic stuff, so unless I need to go through a folder or hidden menu I'm unaware of (possible, I haven't checked out the program files area much, though I've fully browsed most of the other places) I can't access anything on the XP side.

I really don't like 7, and though I can use it, I'll mostly stick with XP. I know how to work it better, and it'll play my music.

 

I'd certainly recommend moving to 7, but you don't have to, not yet. Eventually, though, so it might be better to start getting used to something different. A lot of people I know still use XP, and probably will for a while. And yeah, you might be able to see your data from 7, but I've never had a 2-windows dualboot, so I can't say.

 

Most of my friends use 95. Because its what they remember best.
So XP isn't the worst case scenario.
But still pretty bad.

 

I probably will on my next computer, which I'll build myself, but the one in question is a Pentium 4 my dad bought back in 2004. He'll be the one that uses it, and he spent the last six years trying to learn XP. He's finally to the point where he can find the program he wants most of the time, and get it to shut down instead of just restarting. Otherwise he's tech illiterate... As funny as it might be to watch at first, I can't do that to the guy.

 

It's not like he's been working at it daily or anything, but yeah, it's kinda sad. He's a pretty smart guy, but he's in his fifties and hates the whole computer thing because it wasn't what he expected it to be. He's kinda at war with it. I've stopped him from 'reprogramming' it with a hammer twice now. No shit.

 

Most is probably an exaggeration on her part, but I know my maternal grandparents are still on XP, among a bunch of others, and I know at least 3 people who still use 97 because they don't want to move on. Like I said, something I'd advise against, but there are people who do it.

Also, Steve?

 

Err... What? the computer itself is running fine, it's just the screen that stays black... If it was a power supply issue, wouldn't the entire computer shut off? And I didn't install a new power supply, I installed a new graphics card...

 

Well, unless you want to get Vista, XP is the next best option.

On topic:
If it was a hardware (Power supply/Video card) problem, I'm fairly certain that you wouldn't even be able to get to the screen where you choose between Seven and XP, let alone run Seven, but that's just in my experience.

My best guess is that your XP partition files were somehow corrupted. That, or its a driver issue. If you still have it, I suggest trying to run Windows Repair on the partition that XP is installed on, assuming you still have the installation CD.

If that doesn't work, try booting from a LiveCD and see if you can recover some of your files that way, as someone earlier mentioned.