Lappy screen goes black during XP install

[Tekk]

Im trying to install XP Pro on my dads laptop and the copying of files and format and such goes just fine and dandy. The computer reboots and the colorful setup screen appears and it starts detecting the different devices. The status bar gets to about 3/4 of the way and when it seemingly checks the display (ya know when the screen flickers for a second then comes back) the screen just goes dark. I've tried it several times and it does the same thing every time. Its like it cant find the correct drivers or whatever when it is detecting the display device (whether its crapping out on the actual monitor portion or on the display drivers it trying to install I dont know).

Anyone know why it would do this. The SAME exact thing happened when I originally tried to put Win2k Pro on the machine. The monitor just turned off when it was initializing the different devices during setup.

The lappy is kinda old but works fine. Its a Dell Inspiron 7000. PII300 w/ 192MB RAM. 10GB hdd.

Any ideas why this would happen?

[eagle1]

Did you just let it run to see if it finish installing?
Then this way since the machine reboots you could try Safe Mode.
Or does it locks up completely?

[Tekk]

even if I did try to let it run....there is a portion right after it detects the devices that I have to click on stuff (such as the clock setup and input the CD-KEY).

Also it just sounds as if the computer has gone into sleep mode...I've tried going into safe mode but it says setup cannot be run in safe mode. Press ok to reboot and continue setup....

[Dax_Brandy]

when the monitor goes black, did you notice any activity in the HDD?

[eminem_rh25]

i dont know what is goin on when it does that...mine just flickers off then on. you might also want to try hooking a monitor to the VGA in the back. and go into the BIOS and turn the power mangment off.

[Tekk]

no activity in the HDD. Like I said it looks like it goes straight to sleep mode. the power light stays on but no real action goes on.

I was reading in the Microsoft knowledge base and could it possibly be a hardware incompatibility? An article mentions a special HAL setting or something that I can use to possibly work around this problem when installing...anyone know more about this "Hardware Abstract Layer"?

[cadetstimp]

Does the laptop have SVGA output? See if an external monitor yeilds the same result.

[Tekk]

Thats the next step I suppose. *sigh* Im guessing tho that if the external monitor works then the lappy screen "should" work after the setup is finished. I'll post results later