T60 x1400 win 8.1 x64 - black screen after boot

[ssnookeer]

Hi,

my config - T60 with ati x1400, I use win 8 x64 and it works fine for me.

But I'd like to jump up to 8.1.

I was working on win 8.1 x64 before, but I decided to downgrade due to one very annoying problem.

After shut down system and boot again the screen was completely black(not even cursor) but i can hear that the system is running in the background. It helped to put my laptop to sleep/hibernate and wake up again. Black screen doesn't appear if i use sleep/hibernate but only if turn off pc by shut down the system.

I install ati drivers for vista from lenovo T60 support page, avoiding "setup.exe" and ccc, only pure graphics driver, installed through graphic card properties.

On win 8 x64 this method works great, on 8.1 looks the same, but then this problem with black screen appeared.

Maybe i have to stay on win 8 forever...

I wonder if someone had familiar problem and maybe found way to solve it?

Thanks for any help.

[AtliJarl Guru]

Don't use the installer for the Ati drivers, it is not written with Windows 7/8 support so it has a tendency to mess things up. You have to install the drivers manually through Device Manager.

Remove all the Ati drivers and programs you have now, go to device manager and uninstall

the Ati display adapter, checking delete drivers on the next pop up screen and reboot. Then

you should have the Microsoft Basic Display Driver fallback running.

Get the Vista driver for your machine here: Ati X1400 driver Vista (32bit/64bit)

Run the setup to extract the files, but cancel the Ati installation.

To manually install the drivers, you go to Device Manager -> Open the Display Adapter section and right click the Microsoft Basic Display Driver and select Update Driver Software. There you choose Browse my computer for driver software. Then you point it to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\VIDEO and tick to also search subfolders. That will install the driver.

Have done this on many T60's and my T60p (which has the FireGL V5250), all running Win8.1 beautifully.

[ssnookeer]

Maybe I didn't describe this properly, cause my english is very poor.

The line:

---

I install ati drivers for vista from lenovo T60 support page, avoiding "setup.exe" and ccc, only pure graphics driver, installed through graphic card properties.

---

basically means the same as Your description.

The problem still exists.

Thanks anyway.

[AtliJarl Guru]

Ah, sorry about that. But are you running Win 8.1 now and thus encountering the black screen issue?

[ssnookeer]

No, I returned to win 8 x64.

This version is nice. Only "problem" with win 8 is that when return from sleep/hibernate, wifi sometimes doesn't connect automatically. But that's change of major topic.

I could stay on win 8, this is no problem for me. I just found some topics where people have problems installing drivers for their older ATI cards, and thought that maybe someone shared my problem but eventually found solution.

[AtliJarl Guru]

Yes, that WiFi problem is very familiar to me, it even does that occasionally on my W520. This is a

Windows problem, and it has not been fixed completely now in Win8.1 Update 1, but it's not happening

as often now as it did after the initial ugrade to 8.1.  NB. When you upgrade to 8.1 now, you'll upgrade

straight to 8.1.1, so your machine will be current after that update.

What you could do is revert back to the Microsoft Basic Display driver, upgrade to 8.1 and then do

the manual install dance of the Ati driver after the upgrade is finished. That should eliminate the

black screen issue during the upgrade process.

[ssnookeer]

Oh, so i'm not alone with the wifi issue. That's comforting.

I will wait to see if there's someone with same graphics problem.

But I must admit that your idea is interesting. Can't wait to try it, cause I'm pretty sure that the last time I didn't upgrade with basic windows drivers onboard.

[AtliJarl Guru]

Yes, some might have encountered this, but as I said, I got a 100% working T60 and T60p on Windows 8.1.1 x64. The T60 I upgraded to 8.1 after the manual Ati Driver install, but I did a rather messy compatibility install of the full Ati suite on the T60p for the FireGL V5250, and I've got it running the CCC and full HW acceleration now with zero issues.

[ssnookeer · Accepted solution]

I'm working on win 8.1 right now.

After upgrading, the black screen problem appeard again, but this time with mouse pointer visible.

I had to disable "fast boot" option in power manager.

I think that I read about this solution somewhere, a long time ago, but had no faith in it.

Anyway, the problem had gone, and I'm a happy windows 8.1 user. For long, I hope.

Thanks for help AtliJarl.

Best regards from Poland.