[Geoff]

Hope this is the right place for this question so here goes

I tried installing BC 3.1 on the PC side in W7 and after a very long dl and running the file, the PC side basically goes through the startup with the opening screen, then the little startup music and then - nothing! Screen goes black and I can find no way to get it to do anything other than power down to get my machine back

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to recover from this? Do I need to reformat and reinstall W7? Is there something obvious here that I am missing? Does anyone know the keystroke command to intercept the startup sequence on the W7 side so I can pick another boot up option?

Sorry for the many questions but I go to PC only to use my flight sim and it has been a very long time since I actually did anything with the PC side my limited memory for tricks is failing me

Thanks so much for any help that can be offered

It is appreciated

Geoff

[Big Mac]

Okay, I've seen two different problems that are similar to what you're describing with Windows 7. I've seen a black screen with the exception of the mouse arrow when the login screen should be displayed instead. I've also seen a black screen after login.

Which one of those are you experiencing? If it's the former, I experienced that once after a software installation requiring a restart that was cured by another restart. If it's the latter (black screen after login), I was perplexed when I experienced that on my MBP until I found that the screen had been dimmed all the way to being off, and the dimming setting only applied after login. If you're on a Mac laptop, have you tried the brightness up key?

[Geoff]

Thanks Big Mac. I am on a Mac Pro Tower and I get only to the 'Starting Windows' screen then it goes black. I have not seen any mouse pointer and I do not get to the login screen at all. I get the little music bit that normally plays as the desktop picture normally displayed before but now is just black.

Needless to say there have been several restarts since this occurred with no change in results.

The only minor change from norm is I use a Matrox Triple Header to drive the three screen display and have booted is single screen mode and three screen mode with no change. The PC side always boots to a single screen mode until the desktop picture came up before anyway

Not sure if I have to restart whether I try to reinstall W7 or reformat that partition or what right now

Thanks again

Geoff

[Big Mac]

I see. Windows 7 is really temperamental with hardware changes and can get confused with multiple monitors. I don't think you necessarily have to reinstall the OS because I assume based on what you've written that there isn't anything actually wrong with the current installation. It's just that it's in a display mode that is incorrect. I've run into such problems on my i7 PC, and it's been helpful having a CMOS Reset button on the back of my tower.

Have you tried Safe Mode?

[Geoff]

You may be on to something here because in the past when I changed display resolution mode sometimes it would not display but a reboot then would cause it to default to a display mode that was visible.

The tower is in a tight cabinet space so getting to a reset button might be a challenge. Do you know what keystrokes you use to cause to s/w to go into Safe mode on bootup? I have been trying to track those down without successs

Thanks again Big Mac

Geoff

[Geoff]

The problem is in the screen res config on the Matrox Triple Header box for 3 screens

Now that I think of it I did use a custom res to get the 3 working under Boot Camp. I got it working with a poor res, now I just have to figure out what the 'good; res was. Hope Time Machine will help

Thanks again

Much appreciate your help

Geoff