Blank Screen after Booting to SafeMode

[Mental]

Using Windows repair to fx a slow Windows 7 machine; Lenovo Thnkstation C20,  booted into Safe Mode as per instructions. The PC made all of the signs of rebootng but the screen has stayed blank ever since.

This means I don't know if the reboot has worked, where to click to go to the next phase, or how to get out of Safe Mode. There s NOTHING on screen.

What do I do to recover from this?

(Sorry about mssing "I"s in post, using old laptop with sticky key)

[Boggin]

You will need to do a power shutdown and then remove all power sources then hold the power button in for ~30secs and then restart to see if it boots up normally.

Can you then shut it down and tap F8 or whatever key combo Lenovo uses to get into the advanced boot options to check to see if all of the options are available and manually try Safe Mode and then Safe Mode with Networking.

If any are missing such as Repair your Computer, then it will need a factory reset.

I don't think it will be the onboard VGA graphics chip that has failed - but you never know.

Win 7 machines are getting a bit long in the tooth now so you could expect some component failure.

[Mental]

Thanks, I'll gve it a try.

[Mental]

Nope. Tried 3 times, no luck. Maybe it IS the vga chip ...

[Boggin]

There's only one way to find out and that is to take it into a repair shop.

However, can you go into Device Manager by going Start - type devmgmt.msc and press enter.

Click on View/Show hidden devices.

Expand Non-Plug and Play Drivers or System Devices and right click on each item and select Update Driver Software if they have that option.

Use the default search online to see if any have updates available - most will probably say that you have the latest driver, but there may be one or two that get them.

This could be resolved by a chipset driver update, unless it is physical.

[Mental]

 can't go into anything - no signal to screen, other than telling me it has no sgnal, it's showing nothing. Repair shop here I come

[Boggin]

So it isn't even booting up normally now ?

It could be the motherboard.

[Mental]

It sounds normal. The hard dsk can be heard dong what it normally does during bootup but no signal to screen.

[Boggin]

Definitely sounds like a job for a tech - it's gone from no pic in Safe Mode to nothing in normal mode.

[Mental]

Did my own tecking! I don't believe in coincidence, which is why I didn't try this for 24 hours - This old Lenovo was probably a server or maybe a graphics system before I acquired it; 2 cpu's, 12 GB RAM and 2 graphics cards, set up to operate up to 4 monitors. The coincidence occurred when I rebooted into safe mode; the graphics card my monitor was hooked up to chose that moment to fail. I switched the connector across to the other card and everything is now hunky dory! Who needs 4 monitors anyway?

PROBLEM SOLVED. Thanks for all the help, guys.

[Boggin]

I suppose it's handy to have a spare built in graphics card - but glad you found the cause.