Can only boot into Safe Mode (Win7 Pro 64bit)

osaddictosaddict London, UK
edited May 2011 in Science & Tech
A colleagues PC which had been off for a while prompted for startup repair when booted, this was cancelled and a restart attempted.

This just resulted in a black screen.

The PC will boot in safe mode, however, if you restart and boot normally you get the 'welcome to windows 7' logo with the black screen they the monitor just states 'entering power save mode' and switches off.

Safe mode exhibits no such problems and will stay on for ages.

I've tried the Dell utility partition and the associated testing apps like memory and system etc - all seem to be okay.

The machine is a Vostro 460 with 4gb RAM and an i7 processor. Usually after this long I'd give up and reformat the PC, however, being a developers PC it's full of apps which would take a while to install and configure again so it's more of a pain.

Any thoughts people?!

Thanks!

Comments

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    edited May 2011
    Boot and use a restore point from the Windows DVD?
  • osaddictosaddict London, UK
    edited May 2011
    I tried a system restore from some time in March (the most recent it had) which didn't seem to make much difference. I did this from the Dell utility partition rather than using the Dell disk, I'd not have though this would make any difference though?
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited May 2011
    Try doing a video driver reinstall. I assume you actually went through the automatic start up repair.
  • osaddictosaddict London, UK
    edited May 2011
    Yeah, it was cancelled first off but then I did try it again, it went all the way through saying it had finished etc :/

    Can I install those drivers from safe mode?
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited May 2011
    You should be able to, but at least you can try removing old ones and letting windows boot normally to see if it gets in using basic drivers.
  • osaddictosaddict London, UK
    edited May 2011
    That worked a treat Tushon, booted into safe mode, uninstalled ATI drivers and rebooted into normal mode and it worked okay. I had the drivers downloaded onto a memory stick and installed them right away, seems to work fine now :)

    Thanks :D
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited May 2011
    Glad to be of service.
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