Help Please?

[Munchkin]

I am new to Linux and completely lost!

When my PC broke, a friend of mine installed Madriva 7 on it. When it boots up it goes through what resembles a dos check then goes to a black screen and does nothing more. I brought it up in safe mode but don't know any of the appropriate commands to revive it. It tested ok at my friends house but now I get the infamous "black screen". Can anyone help me please? I don't know what to do from here and will accept any "beginner" jokes in exchange for learning what to do.

Thanks!
Munchkin

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Did you change the Monitor?

[Munchkin]

Thanks so much for your response! Yes, there was a different monitor used when they set it up. The monitor I'm hooking it up to is a View Sonic G810. However, I'm not sure what monitor they used when they installed the OS. What should I do?

[devils casper]

When screen goes black, press Alt+Ctrl+F1. it will drop you at command line login prompt. log in and execute this

su
XFree86 -configure

[Munchkin]

I tried entering the string as you suggested at the command prompt but it says the login is incorrect. The prompt I get is:

localhost login:

I am entering:
su (enter)

then

Password:

XFree86 -configure (enter)

Am I doing something incorrectly? I presume su is the local host login and XFree is the password. I tried entering the text as listed above and also as one string of text in case of syntax but it won't accept the login. Operator error???

[bigtomrodney]

Yes you must log in with your own details first. The commands that were posted above are for after you log in.