If Safe Mode won't work, it sounds like the video card may have been
destroyed. You may need to try replacing the video card.

--
DaveW



"Powerbook" wrote in message
...
This morning, my eight-year-old son started our Windows 98 computer and
stupidly attempted to change the display properties. Whatever he did
hosed the display more than anything I've ever seen.

This is a Windows 98 computer, normally displaying at 1024x768, 24-bit
color. Maybe - not sure - it can go up to 1152xwhatever, but we
normally keep it at 1024x768. Certainly, beyond that, there would be
problems.

By using the monitor's built-in adjustments, I can get the menu for
those to display (brightness, horizontal, vertical, geometry, display
timing, etc.). So the monitor still works.

And if I unplug the monitor cable from the back of the computer, the
monitor displays an appropriate error message.

BUT...

Otherwise, NOTHING displays on the computer. NOTHING! The kids have
messed with the computer before and I could always at least get the Dell
screen when turning the thing on. Not now. I've always been able to
launch safe mode. Not now.

I have tried starting the computer from the MS-DOS 3.5 inch boot disk.
I hear the 3.5 inch drive klunking, but nothing displays.

I have tried putting the Windows 98 CD in the CD drive. It sounds like
the drive is recognized, but I don't get any results.

Normally, when I turn the computer on, within ten seconds or so of being
turned on, it beeps at me. Now it seems to take much longer to do
anything. I *do* eventually hear the musical flourish that you normally
get when Windows 98 launches.

With no working display, there is nothing I can do on that computer to
troubleshoot it. It there a way to, without a working display, force
the display back to something that will work?