Black Screen when graphics card enabled

Hello all,

I just tried to connect my laptop to my TV via HDMI cable. I have done this many times before so expected no problems. However, it didn't work and nothing was displayed on the TV. I decided to check the nvidia control panel and it said I don't have an nvidia graphics card. As it turns out, I can only see my graphics card when I boot in safe mode. However, if I enable my graphics card from there, I can log in, my desktop shows for a moment, then the screen goes black. I have to turn off my m11x by holding the power button. I have no idea what's going on but would really love my computer to be normal again... any help is always greatly appreciated! Thank you!

As a side note, I am not technologically inclined so do not know the finer details of troubleshooting a computer.

 

Hi, no worries, I'll guide you through the troubleshooting;
First of all I can recommend you to do a system restore to a previous date, you can do a system restore by going to "Start" and typing "System Restore" on the search bar, select a date before the issue started and try again.
If this does not help you can load the BIOS defaults, to do this you will need to Power on the computer and as soon as your power it on you will need to press F2 several times, when you get in the BIOS press F9 to load the BIOS defaults, select Yes and hit ENTER, then hit F10 to save the changes and exit.
If the issue continues to be the same you will need to do a factory reset, here's how.
If after doing that the issue continues you may need to reinstall Windows manually.
If after all this you still have the same problem we may need to replace a hardware part on the machine so please send us an e-mail to [email protected] for assistance, please include your service tag and phone number so that we can reach you, after the resolution post here what was the outcome so that the community is aware of what happened and of course what was the actual fix.

 

Thank you for the information. The system restore point available was unsuccessful and I am concerned it was simply not old enough. I also loaded the BIOS defaults as suggested but the graphics card is still not found. I followed the link to try a system restore but the link on that page, leading me to the instructions page is a broken link. Do you perhaps have a more up to date one?

And, unfortunately, due to the fact the my computer was purchased through an employee purchase program, through a company I no longer work for, my service tag isn't recognized when I call in for assistance =/ I imagine it may be the same if I were to e-mail it.

 

Go to the BIOS and change the hybrid graphics function to disabled and the integrated video card as well disabled, after doing that boot into safe mode and delete all the video drivers from the control panel and run a program called driver sweeper to delete all registry entries for the nVidia card. After you do this, go again into Regular Windows Mode (should work fine) go to dell.com and look for the latest video drivers for your video card, download the drivers, install them and restart the computer. If none of this works you might need to reinstall windows manually from the link on the post above.

 

R1, R2, R3? I might have missed it but make sure you have the right drivers for your model. Diagnostics differ for R1 also.

 

I have an R1.

Sorry for my delaying in replying. I ended up doing a factory restore on my computer which does now, more or less, allow the video card to be recognized. However, since doing the restore my system performance has tanked. Everything is much slower and I am receiving an error code when attempting to install windows updates (FFFFFFFE). When investigating that code it says it has to do with a virus or something of the sort. I don't see how that's possible when I just did a complete restore of the system. As well, when I went to play Counter-Strike on Steam yesterday it said it didn't recognize my video card. A reset of the computer fixed this.

Perhaps the most troubling, though, is the fact that if I don't completely shut down my computer and either close the lid or leave it be for awhile, 9 times out of 10 when I come back it will say Windows did not shut down properly and give me the option for a restart with startup fixes - which fails every time or a normal restart- which fails occasionally.

I'm starting to wonder if perhaps there is just an issue with how Windows is installed on here.

 

I would do that, maybe it will fix all issues at once, here is how.

 

Strange, I thought I had reposted. I don't believe I have the Windows disc specifically for my m11x - I don't know if one came with it. Based on getting it through a company employee purchase program, would that have affected it or should I have the disc lying in a dusty corner somewhere? I may have the Windows reinstall disc that came with another dell I have access to. However, I don't know of any CD/access key for Windows on this computer. Is there a way to figure that out? As well, I don't have an external cd-rom drive myself but think my mom may have one. Hopefully I can Frankenstein my way out of this mess!

Thank you guys so much for your help!

-Hayley

 

If you have the disc somewhere you can use that external drive. If you don't have the disc you may need to contact support or create a bootable USB and boot from it to get the Windows Recovery Environment and enter the CMD. Have you tried the rest of the steps first?

 

The last link posted leads to a page that seems to no longer be available. Are those the steps you're referring to? Since I did a factory reset previously, I didn't try any of the other first steps you listed. Shall I?