Input Not Supported

[Moira]

Hi

On a new install of XP Pro I'm getting the message "Input Not Supported" when I try to boot into it. Windows starts, but it never gets as far as the desktop. At the point where it briefly recognises the floppy disk, the screen goes a bit jagged for a second or so, followed by the above message and a black screen. It was up and running nicely for quite some time before it began doing this.

The only significant change to the hardware has been a different graphics card. I'm wondering if this has caused the problem or is something else to blame?

[nihil]

Not as far as I know Moira,

That is it: "input not supported" which simply means that the video card is defaulting to an unsupported refresh rate and resolution combination.

Solution:

Reboot and hit F8 as it is doing so, then select "VGA" mode, which should get you a poxy Windows screen of 16 colours and something like 480x600 @ 60Hz

Change your desktop settings to 800x600 @ 75Hz and 16Mb colours............. then work your way up from there.

Cheers,

John

[morganlefay]

wow I just had this error the first time the other day....moving a server to a kvm

Nihils suggestion worked...has to do with monitor drivers.....which I generally never install...

but some people do

lucky they have me to fix stuff

MLF

[Moira]

I'm afraid none of it has worked for me not a scrap of difference. I downloaded the latest nvidia drivers and they didn't work either. What's more, I can't understand why the system should run perfectly for a week, then behave like this!

The only thing I can do now is to try a repair install, tomorrow. And if that fails, then I could put the better graphics card in, but I'm starting to really, really resent the amount of lost hours sleep both this and my Dad's old computer have cost me. It's not realistically very easy to sort out two entire computers while on crutches and while my arthritis is bad. If either of them were going to be mine, or I was getting paid, it wouldn't be so bad - but they're both for other people (update on my other disaster in the relevant thread).

[morganlefay]

It wasnt video card driver...it was a monitor driver

Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time with it...

I thought you were gonna lie down for 6 weeks and read books..

MLF

[Moira]

But I wouln't have thought you could even choose drivers for bog standard 15" TFT screens! I can test it with my 22" widescreen here and if it works, tell Helen she'd have to acquire a monitor ... but that's all I can think of doing!

[Ouroboros]

Try this...

Shut the system down. Unplug all of the USB devices, and restart the computer. After it loads, plug the devices back in. If that works, search for drivers for the devices that you unplugged.

We had the same problem on a couple of our computers at work that are running XP Pro on the company network.

Good luck.

O

[nihil]

Hi Moira,

If the boot into VGA mode doesn't work then I would try the following:

1. Power up the screen not connected to an active computer. You should get either a diagnostics display or a "no signal received" message

2. Try a different lead.

3. Check that the screen works with another computer.

4. Try a different screen

That should pretty much prove that the screen is OK.

5. Try a different video card and that card in a different machine.

6. Check that onboard video is not enabled in the BIOS (assuming you can get into setup)

For most people and certainly in a business office environment the default drivers are OK. However you often find that if you load the specific drivers for the display unit you have a greater choice of resolution/refresh rate combinations.

Incidentally, will it boot into safe mode?

[Moira]

Sorry .... yes it would boot into safe mode, but not safe mode with VGA - that caused it just to come up immediately with the error message.

However, I got this sorted out relatively quickly after trying the USB port advice and finding it did nothing. I briefly fitted a much more powerful graphics card and the PC worked, booting into Windows as normal. Thinking it would be a shame to pass this much more worthy piece of equipment on to someone who wouldn't get any advantage of it, I fitted the original graphics card again. To my surprise, it worked! The only strange thing was it seemed to have lost all the motherboard drivers, so the LAN port wasn't enabled and the graphics were awful. But after reinstalling from the mobo CD and downloading the latest grapics card drivers, it has continued to work and I'm now handling it as though it were a fragile piece of glass and have got it switched off!

[Ouroboros]

CMOS battery, perhaps? MOBO drivers don't just disappear for no reason...

Any odd behavior after it gets windows up and running?

These kinds of problems are what makes things interesting.

O