blank screen on HP ZE2308WM - is this a HW or SW problem?

jjflash · Aug 30, 2007, 09:37 PM

This is a truly frustrating story.

I bought the HP ZE2308WM on BF 2005 (day after turkey day) for my daughter to take to college. Once she got accepted in December 2005, we found out she was required to have a high end laptop, so I saved the ZE2308WM for my son going into college the next year, which is just starting now (Fall 2007).

We started the machine for the first time in July 2007. The OS is XP. Video chip set is ATI Radeon Xpress 200M. Very painful and slow start up. I added another 512MB RAM to the native 256MB RAM. This speeded things up to acceptable level. However, the WLAN didn't work.

After many rounds with HP tech support, re-installed the OS and Apps/Drivers from recovery disks. I also updated the BIOS to the latest version (F.27) Now when the machine powers up, I get the HP splash screen, the Windows XP screen, and then the screen goes blank (or black).

I've tried updating the video drivers from the HP website and also directly from ATI, but nothing works. The online HP diagnostics does not find any problem with the hardware. After 2 weeks of frustration, I took this in to an HP authorized repair shop and had to pay them $159 up front.

They first said that it passed all the diagnostics and just needed the SW reinstalled. Took it home, powered it up, black screen again. Took back to shop. Ran more diagnostics, couldn't find anything wrong. Tried more drivers. Still wouldn't work. Shop gave up saying that since they can't find any drivers that work, by process of elimination it must be a problem with the video chipset requiring a new motherboard for $400-$500. This seems strange since the store dignostics and online HP diagnostics didn't find any HW problems at all. There is no documented evidence of a HW problem, yet they are convinced that it what it is and would cost me $400+ to find out.

I'm thinking the ATI Omega drivers might help here, but since there are many of them, I don't know which one(s) to try.

I've got about $600 sunk into this laptop between the purchase cost and the repair bill. Have you run into this problem before? If so, can it be fixed without a new motherboard? If not, I think I'm going to go after HP very hard to give me a new laptop and the repair shop for a worthless repair.

Dyre Straits · Sep 4, 2007, 02:50 AM

Greetings and welcome to DriverHeaven!

(Please forgive the belated reply. I've been out of town for the holiday weekend here.)

Can you boot this laptop into Safemode?

jjflash · Sep 4, 2007, 10:58 PM

Yes. However, the video drivers are not loaded in safe mode, so the screen is using just the native VGA resolution. I recall that I can still see the drivers listed under device manager. So I believe I can still add, edit or delete drivers in safe mode (since that's what it's for), but this hasn't helped to date. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.

Dyre Straits · Sep 4, 2007, 11:11 PM

In many cases, a blank screen indicates that the display monitor is being pushed beyond its capabilities. E.G. Refresh Rates too high. This causes the monitor to lose sync with the video card.

Is it possible to connect an external monitor to this laptop to see if you can get a display that way? If so, make sure the Refresh Rate is set to 60 Hz for better compatibility. Also, make sure the Resolution is not set above 1024x768 for now.

Do you get any error onscreen e.g. No Signal?

jjflash · Sep 5, 2007, 01:17 AM

All good suggestions. I believe both myself and the repair shop have tried all the typical driver setting options (1024x768, 60Hz, 32bit color). I'll double check all the settings myself when I get it back to see if I can reduce the video demands further. The shop told me they thought the driver settings were correct, but that the chipset wasn't capable (i.e., defective). There is a separate video ouput that could be used to check this video chipset out further. There is no error message whatsoever - just a blank (dark) screen. I'm very skeptical of a hardware problem since the display was fine until I started reinstalling the OS and apps/drivers from the recovery disks to correct the WLAN problem. The shop is attempting to roll back the BIOS to an earlier version to see if that has any effect. Thanks again.

cause_of_chaos · Sep 5, 2007, 07:23 PM

I had a similar(ish) problem with my HDTV - After installing drivers, I was greeted by a black screen.
I had to reboot my PC while holding 'F8'. This brought up the 'Safe Mode' menu option. I had a 'VGA Mode' option there, which I selected.
This booted my PC (with GFX drivers) in VGA mode, giving me a picture that I could use (640x480 me thinks).
After, Setting the required resolution was easy...

See if you have this option!

Edit: I think maybe the 'VGA Mode' might be specific to the Omega Drivers.

cause_of_chaos

Dyre Straits · Sep 6, 2007, 02:57 AM

No, VGA Mode is not specific to the Omega Drivers. It's an option you can choose when booting into Safemode.

Aug 30, 2007, 09:37 PM	#1
jjflash DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	blank screen on HP ZE2308WM - is this a HW or SW problem? This is a truly frustrating story. I bought the HP ZE2308WM on BF 2005 (day after turkey day) for my daughter to take to college. Once she got accepted in December 2005, we found out she was required to have a high end laptop, so I saved the ZE2308WM for my son going into college the next year, which is just starting now (Fall 2007). We started the machine for the first time in July 2007. The OS is XP. Video chip set is ATI Radeon Xpress 200M. Very painful and slow start up. I added another 512MB RAM to the native 256MB RAM. This speeded things up to acceptable level. However, the WLAN didn't work. After many rounds with HP tech support, re-installed the OS and Apps/Drivers from recovery disks. I also updated the BIOS to the latest version (F.27) Now when the machine powers up, I get the HP splash screen, the Windows XP screen, and then the screen goes blank (or black). I've tried updating the video drivers from the HP website and also directly from ATI, but nothing works. The online HP diagnostics does not find any problem with the hardware. After 2 weeks of frustration, I took this in to an HP authorized repair shop and had to pay them $159 up front. They first said that it passed all the diagnostics and just needed the SW reinstalled. Took it home, powered it up, black screen again. Took back to shop. Ran more diagnostics, couldn't find anything wrong. Tried more drivers. Still wouldn't work. Shop gave up saying that since they can't find any drivers that work, by process of elimination it must be a problem with the video chipset requiring a new motherboard for $400-$500. This seems strange since the store dignostics and online HP diagnostics didn't find any HW problems at all. There is no documented evidence of a HW problem, yet they are convinced that it what it is and would cost me $400+ to find out. I'm thinking the ATI Omega drivers might help here, but since there are many of them, I don't know which one(s) to try. I've got about $600 sunk into this laptop between the purchase cost and the repair bill. Have you run into this problem before? If so, can it be fixed without a new motherboard? If not, I think I'm going to go after HP very hard to give me a new laptop and the repair shop for a worthless repair.

Sep 5, 2007, 07:23 PM	#6
cause_of_chaos DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: London, United Kingdom Posts: 111 Rep Power: 26 System Specs	I had a similar(ish) problem with my HDTV - After installing drivers, I was greeted by a black screen. I had to reboot my PC while holding 'F8'. This brought up the 'Safe Mode' menu option. I had a 'VGA Mode' option there, which I selected. This booted my PC (with GFX drivers) in VGA mode, giving me a picture that I could use (640x480 me thinks). After, Setting the required resolution was easy... See if you have this option! Edit: I think maybe the 'VGA Mode' might be specific to the Omega Drivers. cause_of_chaos __________________ AMD Phenom [COLOR=Red]9600 Black Edition[/COLOR] @ [COLOR=Red]2.3Ghz[/COLOR] Crucial Ballistix PC2 8500 ~ [COLOR=Red]1066 FSB[/COLOR] Timings [COLOR=Red]5-5-5-15[/COLOR] Asus [COLOR=Red]M3A32-MVP Deluxe[/COLOR] CrossfireX Mobo ~ [COLOR=Red]0801 Bios[/COLOR] MSI [COLOR=Red]ATI RX3870[/COLOR] 512Mb PCI-e 2.0 Graphics Card

Sep 4, 2007, 10:58 PM	#3
jjflash DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	Yes. However, the video drivers are not loaded in safe mode, so the screen is using just the native VGA resolution. I recall that I can still see the drivers listed under device manager. So I believe I can still add, edit or delete drivers in safe mode (since that's what it's for), but this hasn't helped to date. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.

Sep 5, 2007, 01:17 AM	#5
jjflash DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	All good suggestions. I believe both myself and the repair shop have tried all the typical driver setting options (1024x768, 60Hz, 32bit color). I'll double check all the settings myself when I get it back to see if I can reduce the video demands further. The shop told me they thought the driver settings were correct, but that the chipset wasn't capable (i.e., defective). There is a separate video ouput that could be used to check this video chipset out further. There is no error message whatsoever - just a blank (dark) screen. I'm very skeptical of a hardware problem since the display was fine until I started reinstalling the OS and apps/drivers from the recovery disks to correct the WLAN problem. The shop is attempting to roll back the BIOS to an earlier version to see if that has any effect. Thanks again.