Screen black, blinking; possible video issue?

Main Issue: Screen goes black after normal boot; blinks on occasion in
safe mode.

Good day,

Our computer just started having a problem soon after booting, the
screen goes black (except I can see and move the curser). Otherwise
the system has been rendered useless. In order to reboot I need to do
a hard shutdown but then when it reboots, it goes directly to the
black screen again, with no desktop at all. I am able to start in safe
mode and restore to a few [days] ago*, but as soon as the desktop
loads successfully in normal mode it goes yet again to the black
screen.

We have a new HP running Windows XP Pro, dual core processor, 250 GB
hard drive, 1+ GB memory, RADEON X300 Series video card, and a
Princeton flat panel monitor.

Some notes which might help:

Our son had been successfully using something called xFire (and even
more recently "Steam") for about a week in order to play his new game,
Counter Strike Source.

This all began Tuesday morning when after using the computer for work
I shut it down normally. I needed to print something in a hurry and
so turned it back on and being in a rush wanted to close xFire and
Steam which my son set to load and search at boot. That is when it
started, which come to think about it looked as though it was about to
load the game Counter Strike Source (which forces a black screen
before the games starts). I tried to cancel the initial xFire log-on,
and at the same time attempted to close Steam, at which time the
system first went black.

I attempted to uninstall xFire while in safe mode both before and
after performing a restore, but xFire still attempted to log on as
soon as I've booted in normal mode.

Interestingly enough, while moving the mouse in front of the black
screen I discovered that I could manipulate what I assume were the
items on the desktop (as though it loaded successfully but had a black
curtain over), and by mirroring keyboard shortcuts from my laptop to
the PC, I was able to at least shut down the PC successfully without
having to force a shutdown. It leads me to wonder if it may have
something to do with the video settings.

Safe mode is fine, both with and without networking, other than
briefly blinking to black every five minutes or so.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance, with hope that you may be able to help.

* oops, no more restore points...

FYI Results of a safe mode NAV scan are clear. A cursory review of a
HiJackThis scan run in safe mode shows nothing suspicious. I wonder
if it may have something to do with video card or settings, however I
don't know how that would have happened.

I look forward to your help.

Jeanne

In case anyone comes across this message in need of similar help, the
problem has been solved (thanks to some thoughtful advice in
"help_and_support," see message: "Please-- help me with uninstall and
reinstall of video drivers," in that group).

It was a case of conflict between my ATI Catalyst Control Center (used
to configure all of my ATI graphics accelerator settings), my RADEON
card, and an unplanned installation of the NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder.

Uninstalled recentlyinstalled NVIDIA software (2 instances) and
everything went back to normal.

-------------


Jeanne wrote:
Main Issue: Screen goes black after normal boot; blinks on occasion in
safe mode.

Good day,

Our computer just started having a problem soon after booting, the
screen goes black (except I can see and move the curser). Otherwise
the system has been rendered useless. In order to reboot I need to do
a hard shutdown but then when it reboots, it goes directly to the
black screen again, with no desktop at all. I am able to start in safe
mode and restore to a few [days] ago*, but as soon as the desktop
loads successfully in normal mode it goes yet again to the black
screen.

We have a new HP running Windows XP Pro, dual core processor, 250 GB
hard drive, 1+ GB memory, RADEON X300 Series video card, and a
Princeton flat panel monitor.

Some notes which might help:

Our son had been successfully using something called xFire (and even
more recently "Steam") for about a week in order to play his new game,
Counter Strike Source.

This all began Tuesday morning when after using the computer for work
I shut it down normally. I needed to print something in a hurry and
so turned it back on and being in a rush wanted to close xFire and
Steam which my son set to load and search at boot. That is when it
started, which come to think about it looked as though it was about to
load the game Counter Strike Source (which forces a black screen
before the games starts). I tried to cancel the initial xFire log-on,
and at the same time attempted to close Steam, at which time the
system first went black.

I attempted to uninstall xFire while in safe mode both before and
after performing a restore, but xFire still attempted to log on as
soon as I've booted in normal mode.

Interestingly enough, while moving the mouse in front of the black
screen I discovered that I could manipulate what I assume were the
items on the desktop (as though it loaded successfully but had a black
curtain over), and by mirroring keyboard shortcuts from my laptop to
the PC, I was able to at least shut down the PC successfully without
having to force a shutdown. It leads me to wonder if it may have
something to do with the video settings.

Safe mode is fine, both with and without networking, other than
briefly blinking to black every five minutes or so.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance, with hope that you may be able to help.

* oops, no more restore points...

FYI Results of a safe mode NAV scan are clear. A cursory review of a
HiJackThis scan run in safe mode shows nothing suspicious. I wonder
if it may have something to do with video card or settings, however I
don't know how that would have happened.

I look forward to your help.

Jeanne