6625WD: Screen fails to boot

Another one of those funny Zepto-Problems:
My notebook started to boot (back from hibernation), and then while booting, the screen went completely black and never on again.
When it still didn't show anything after 5 minutes, I just pressed the i/o button to let it power down smoothly again (no hard-off of course!)
Then again, it got to the screen where it says "continuing windows" or "resuming windows" or whatever. and right after that screen, it went off. Not only black, just off. Harddisk loading stuff all the time...

If I didn't come to the creative idea like "oh, let's try standby and then turn it on, then every device gets a new kick off", I wouldn't be writing this, because then the screen would still be black. I also remembered that some other problems here could be solved by going into standby and back on.
So I pressed "fn-Standby". all lights went off, again "fn-Standby" and yay, there was the logon-screen I missed so much! Okay, my colour profile wasn't set, because if there's no screen, a profile couldn't be set. Just started "mcw" and everything was fine again.
(just a note for everyone who also has this blueish colours that should originally be "grey": look here - that's a general problem with notebooks, not related to Zepto
)

Don't even think about what hassle I'd have been going through if I didn't find this "trick"

Notice: Just before, I installed the new nvidia driver from the Zepto FTP site:
167.59_8600M

Is there a known problem with this and hibernation?

You should publish a driver/firmware list for zepto which goes like this:

Bios:
rev08 resolves:

• breaks:
  • 
    rev11 resolves:
    • breaks:
      • 
        
        Graphic drivers:
        v.167.59 resolves:
        • breaks:
          • 
            
            So you can chose what you'll be going to sacrifice for a new feature (you won't even notice).
            But I really liked the new interface and option of the nvidia drivers.
            So I even could live with the booting problem.
            
            Look at it in a positive way: It's like an extra security-layer!
            Who will ever know that you have to fn-Standy 2 times to even get to the logon-screen?

 

I actully had this same wierd bug, but I logged in normally and used the windows key to get to the menu and shut it down.

Iv only had this broblem once, and I think it has to do with
a)the sensor that checks if lid is closed or open.
b)Windows Vistas fading of screens (The screen turned on when I log on, when the windows logo came and when the desktop came but instantly faded to black again).

I have a beta bios and im running 170.40 (i think) from LTV2G

 

Hm. I hope that bug doesn't strike again. I'm always so relieved when I see the Vista logo shining out from the dark everytime, because you never know what happens on the next reboot or wakeup from hibernation! It's always very exciting, not necessarily in a positive way.

This time, I updated the WiFi driver via Windows Update (optional updates). I selected "REMIND me in 4 hours".
4 hours later flash (I was working on a flash game) asked me wether to save the file, I thought "huh?!" and hit "yes". Because I do that all the time anyway. And in a hurry, about 5 seconds, the whole system restarted.
I thought "okay. this is how the REMINDER looks like"
After rebooting, again black screen for a long time (this time not off, just black) and I lost patience after 4 or 5 minutes without getting any message and without harddisk activity. So I did a hard-off and restarted again "start windows normally" and everything seemed fine again.

You can believe me, every new reboot of this machine is thrilling like a horror movie. You never know if you make it to the desktop.

 

Have you upgraded Vista to SP1? I recall that there were issues with Vista and black screens on resume from hibernation.

John

 

Thanks for the advice, John! I just have downloaded and installed SP1 and hope that the bug won't come back (had this same issue today again)

 

Keep us posted. I'm not promising that it is the bix but in my experience SP1 doesn't create many new problems and fixes many old ones.

John

 

NinaMaya, I used to have the same issue... all I did was close the lid then open the lid again which will wake the screen up for me..

At the end I think it was the nvidia drivers playing up for me, as ever since I upgraded to 16x.x series and now 174.74 I no longer experience that problem..

I am currently on Windows Ultimate 64bits edition, latest bios, realtek 1.88, chipset driver latest from intel and set the power profile in windows to not do anything when the lid is closed, and it wakes up every time

 

The problem still persists! Vista SP1 didn't help.

I also think it's the video drivers.

But this happened AFTER I updated. Now I have currently installed 167.59 which is the newest available on the zepto FTP.
Or should I get one from NVidia directly?

 

i think it's got to do with every other drivers as well... since during the reinitialisation from hibernation/suspend the computer would probably need to wake each device up, a failed one could affect the other one and so on..

I'd update all of the drivers first.. as I remember no longer having such issues beyond 16x.x series nvidia drivers..

 

Zepto drivers are outdated

Nvidia states latest whql drivers are 174.53

Before latest whql ones were 174.16

I am using 174.16 for vista 64 bit from laptopvideo2go without any problems, all functions intact and increased performance in games. Of course newer 174.XX series may work, but they are in beta and I recommend sticking with whql ones.

Read this to understand how to install them, that is after you have removed previous drivers properly

You may want to disable TMM if you don't use an external monitor as by default its enabled and its another reason for the 5 sec wait during boot.


Vista and xp usually generate a report of what went wrong if system restarts / shutdowns unexpectedly. This report contains useful info about what crashed, which driver malfunctioned and thus can help pinpoint the problem so its easier to fix. ( type in "event viewer" in the start menu search box, once open navigate to windows logs >> system. Check what is causing errors)


Also a new and improved bios is out for 6625wd

 

I have a similar issue with my 6214W. Description follows:

A couple of weeks ago I I told the computer to shut down and went to bed. When I woke up, the led lights were still on and the fans were still running, even if the screen was turned off. The computer was completely locked up and nothing I did made it react, so I held the power button for four seconds and performed a hard shutdown. When I turned it on again, everything seemed to boot as normal except that the screen never turned on. It didn't even show me the POST, it was just completely dead from start to finish. I attached an external monitor to the vga port, and it worked perfectly. The built in screen though was completely dead, it wasn't even in the device manager. Eventually I just shut the computer off and went to do other things. When I came back maybe five hours later and turned it on, the screen suddenly worked again. The only thing I had done with it in the mean time was to put it in my backpack and carry it around a little.

The screen worked for about a week, before it again went dead. This time it happened after I closed the lid, something which normally puts my computer in sleep mode. This time though, the hard drive worked for a few seconds and then nothing happened. When I opened the lid the computer was completely responseless again and I had to do hard hard shut down. Just like the last time, starting the computer now made everything boot normally except that the screen was dead.

My feeble attempts at solving the issue:

The first time:
Turning the computer on and off completely.

Setting it to sleep mode and then waking it again

Setting it to sleep mode and then doing a hard shut down.

Reinstalling different display driver versions.

Using the fn+f3 (I believe) hotkeys to change the active monitor.

Booting up with and without an external monitor attached.

The second time I made the additional attempts of:
Trying to locate the sensor that turns off the screen when the lid is closed. (Unsuccessfully)

Putting the computer in my backpack and walking around with it for a few hours, to my girlfriend's great amusement.

Booting into Fedora 8 with and without an external monitor.

Removing power supply, batteri and bios battery to make the bios reset completely.

All to no avail.

Preliminary conclusions:
Since the monitor does not turn on at all, not even during boot, it seems unlikely that this is caused by drivers or some other software issue. This has led me to believe that the problem is one of the following:

The contact between the graphics card and the screen is dead, perhaps due to wires being broken or something.

The sensor mechanism turning the screen off when the lid is closed has been jammed, or perhaps simply broken.

The screen is simply dead and needs to be replaced.

FYI, I have the newest 6214W bios installed, 1.25 I believe it is. I bought my Zepto september 2006, and it has a GeForce Go7600 graphics card. I run a dual boot config with Windows Vista Business 32bit and Fedora 8. I also use Ultramonitor for multi monitor management, and I have of course tried disabling this and rebooting. As I said though I doubt the problem lies with the software.

Wow long post, well if any of you have any ideas or similar experiences, let me know. I hope you get your problem fixed NinaMaya!


Update:
I sent Zepto a mail regarding this issue on the 23. of May, and today I got a nice mail back saying that it sounded like a contact issue, and that they would send a UPS courier to pick it up at my house for repairs (I live in Norway, bought the 6214W from Netshop.no who used to take care of Zeptos here). All in all I'm very happy with the service so far. Now it only remains to see how long it takes before I get it back.

 

I have the exact problem as the original poster, and it is getting worse, possibly since i installed SP1 and updated drivers. Black screens on resume or start up, and then if i close the lid and open it everything is fine. When the black screen is up if i click around (blindly) i can hear stuff happening in the background.

I also live in hope of seeing the vista symbol each time, and this is happening less and less frequently, in fact never now.

I have a 6625wd with vista 32 bit.

 

For me, the newest nvidia drivers from http://laptopvideo2go.com/ helped a lot there (currently 174.74)

 

thank you very much Nina, i will give that a go

 

Ah, and I forgot: I don't close the lid while going into hibernation. I close it only when the computer is off.