# My computer won't boot!  Ideas?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-wont-boot-ideas/393316>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 23, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-wont-boot-ideas/393316 "2007-02-23T02:19:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-wont-boot-ideas/393316/1 "2007-02-23T02:19:19Z")

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So, tonight when I got home from work I turned on my computer. Everything seemed to go fine. The GRUB loaded, and I chose to boot under XP. After I made that selection, I got a dark screen. This repeated a number of times.

I booted into SUSE Linux. Same thing.

I booted into Linux just using the command line; it works fine.

Actually, I think I’m going to see what happens if I plug my monitor into the onboard graphics port as opposed to the one I put in myself. Does this sound like it might be a graphics issue? I get no weird noises or anything out of the ordinary until I choose which OS to run, and the screen goes black.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-wont-boot-ideas/393316/2 "2007-02-23T02:39:25Z")

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Sounds like some graphics modes aren’t operating; could be that the card is kaput, or maybe it just needs reseating. Or I wonder if it could be the monitor that’s at fault - do you have access to another one you could try?

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**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-computer-wont-boot-ideas/393316/3 "2007-02-23T15:45:45Z")

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[QUOTE=Mangetout]  
Sounds like some graphics modes aren’t operating; could be that the card is kaput, or maybe it just needs reseating. Or I wonder if it could be the monitor that’s at fault - do you have access to another one you could try?  
[/QUOTE]

Yeah. I thought I had an onboard graphic card I could try, but I don’t.

If it were the monitor I’d still be able to hear the music that Linux makes when it boots up; whatever the issue is, it is definitely hanging the system.

This evening I’m going to try to reseat the video card, but I’m not optimistic.

IIRC, I had this same issue a few years ago with a video card that crapped out on me. And, I just bought this one four months ago. _sigh_