Dell precision m60

[Guest]

Hello, my dell will only start in safe mode and screen stays black if i try starting it normally can you tell me what the cause of this is?
Dan

 

[floton]

Hello, my dell will only start in safe mode and screen stays black if i try starting it normally can you tell me what the cause of this is?
Dan

Hello,
My Dell M60 started unexpectedlly to have the same symptom. It works only in safe mode. Shortly after being turned on, but before the OS is booted, random vertical flickering bars prevent me to see any menu,and I have to power on/off many times to manage to enter either F2 or F12. Intrieguingly, the Express test service shows no hardware malfunction. Did it happen you found the cause and the solution for your Dell problem? It would be appreciated any feedback.

 

[hang-the-9]

Sounds like the video card fried, try to use an external monitor see is the same flickering happens. It works in save mode because the drivers are not loaded and the video card is hardly doing any work.

If you want to rule out any Windows issues you can try to do a "Repair" setup of Windows, or a full re-installation, just make sure you back up your files and settings.

If a new Windows setup has the same issues once you updated the drivers, the only real option you have is to swap out the video card to see if that fixes it. That model should have a swappable video card.

 

[floton]

Thank you for your feedback. As you suggested, I tried with an external monitor and the flickering remained, so badly that I worked more intuitively to pick the Safe Mode from the menu. When I finally entered the safe mode, the image stays still and perfectlly readable, a fact that challanges my logical thinking. I have expected that if the video card is fried, nothing else would work visually, even in safe mode, which I believe addresses to the same video card to display images. As you explained, no video drivers are loaded in safe mode, and therefore safe mode removes the video disturbance caused by the video drivers that strive to address the complete functions of the video card. In my understanding, if the hardware(video card) is phisically faulty, there is no mean to make the card work through the software(the drivers), and even in safe mode would be not possible to access any video display. I would greatly appreciate if I could explain, in case you know, how the assumed burned video card could still display video images in safe mode. I lack at this moment such understanding!

 

[hang-the-9]

If the whole video card was bad, you'd get no image. If some components were bad, or it overheated very fast, some memory was damaged, you'd see what you are seeing.