Black screen of death

[Frozenguy]

So a computer of mine is acting up. Boots up fine, goes to Windows Loading or whatever with the segmented green bar going across.. Then it goes to black screen, white mouse pointer shows up and it stops there.

Keyboard is unresponsive. I have tried alt-ctrl-del, I have tried hitting shift ten times or holding it for ten seconds. I have tried smooshing them all at once.

Booting up in safe mode will ONLY change the size of the mouse pointer. Keyboard is still unresponsive, screen is still black.

I tried starting up in last known good configuration three times. Nothing.

I tried system restore/repair whatever (chose from list after holding f8 during boot). BTW, keyboard is only responsive before black screen of death. I CAN go to bios, I can manipulate boot to give me boot options..


I have tried booting from a windows vista cd. But it only brings me to that aurora borealis looking wallpaper with a mouse pointer LOL Its just a pretty screen of death haha..

Anyways, I'm about to bring the hard drive over to another computer so I can pull some data off of it. I have to assume I can do this. The defective machine boots up past checks and and all that. Goes to windows loading and THEN black screen. I'm assuming RAM, vid card, cpu, psu, mobo are all ok. I'm thinking its a corrupted software issue in windows.

Anyone have any ideas? It seems as if I can't even reformat it..

[brantly04]

Tried moving the video card back in and out? I had a loose video card do this one time

[G1500]

Tried moving the video card back in and out? I had a loose video card do this one time

It has a pointer and shows the progress bar. Video card is working.

[Laser Sailor]

Have you completely unplugged the computer, let it sit for a while and try again? Sometimes a charge builds up in the circuts somewhere causing this kind of fault.

[MaHoTex]

Have you completely unplugged the computer, let it sit for a while and try again? Sometimes a charge builds up in the circuts somewhere causing this kind of fault.

Are you serious Clark? EDIT: I did not notice the "Ryan Clark Photo" until just now... How funny...

Try installing any old harddrive and see if you can re-install Windows... Just not Vista... See if that works...

[Frozenguy]

Thanks for all your responses guys.

Tried moving the video card back in and out? I had a loose video card do this one time

The first thing I did when I approached the situation was to take the tower to the garage and dust it with compressed air. Then I refit various components/cables.

Have you completely unplugged the computer, let it sit for a while and try again? Sometimes a charge builds up in the circuts somewhere causing this kind of fault.

Yeah I tried that..

Are you serious Clark?

Try installing any old harddrive and see if you can re-install Windows... Just not Vista... See if that works...

Problem is I can't find my xp cd and she can't find her vista cd.. I think my ex stole mine..

I'm thinking I may pick up a copy of windows 7 OEM and a new HD. Either way it wont go to waste because I'm doing a new build in a month or two..

[MaHoTex]

I would bet it is one of two things:

1) Computer overheating (possibly the video card), or
2) Jacked up windows

My bet would be that installing a new OS on a new HD will fix it.

[G1500]

I would bet it is one of two things:

1) Computer overheating (possibly the video card), or
2) Jacked up windows

My bet would be that installing a new OS on a new HD will fix it.

I vote this. Clean out your CPU cooler, and everything else, just go around with a CAN of compressed air and make sure all the dust is gone. Some MOBOs don't like when stuff is hot.

[rdmmdr]

had same problem last year it turned out to be the builtin nic card. Dissabled in the bios and every thing worked fine. 10$ for a new nic card working great
rick

[xmustanguyx]

Deja vu! I got a computer in yesterday it's doing the exact same thing! I reseated Video Card, Removed Ram & changed positions, Checked power supply. Went to BIOS all ok and HD detected. Booted Win7 from DVD and voila everything seems normal. Had to leave for work so just removed the HD and backed up to my other system. I assume it's malware but what get's me is that right after POST it goes dead with just a Flashing Underscore in the upper left hand corner. Usually the malware at least let's you boot into windows.

Will post back later today after I install OS. BTW, current OS is WinXP PRO SP3.

Let us know how it works out for you...

Cass.

[ke6guj]

I had a Windows 7 box do the same thing last week after I did some Windows Updates on it. The built-in Repair option couldn't fix it, but by booting off of a Windows install disc, I was able to do a System Restore from before the Updates and got it running. Then, I was able to re-do the updates and it was still fine.

[xmustanguyx]

Ok, just had a chance to look at the system. I just put it all back together again. Loaded my XPSP2 disc, loaded it and selected the option to REPAIR USING RECOVERY CONSOLE, then Logged on to number 1 (C:\WINDOWS) enter, no password enter, at the C:\ prompt I just ran fixboot and fixmbr to write a new master boot record.
Typed Exit and restarted. Computer booted right!

I know Win7 has repair options on the disc but if you don't have it not sure how else to do it as I have never had to do this with Win7.

[JDay]

Ok, just had a chance to look at the system. I just put it all back together again. Loaded my XPSP2 disc, loaded it and selected the option to REPAIR USING RECOVERY CONSOLE, then Logged on to number 1 (C:\WINDOWS) enter, no password enter, at the C:\ prompt I just ran fixboot and fixmbr to write a new master boot record.
Typed Exit and restarted. Computer booted right!

I know Win7 has repair options on the disc but if you don't have it not sure how else to do it as I have never had to do this with Win7.

There is an option in Windows 7, "Create System Repair Disc", that will burn you a bootable repair disc.

[xmustanguyx]

There is an option in Windows 7, "Create System Repair Disc", that will burn you a bootable repair disc.

Good to know, thanks for the tip. I almost never repair anymore, just reinstall and be done with it. The systems I have come in are rarely maintained and backups are done quickly. I used to spend a significant amount of time to troubleshoot boot problems then just went the route of backup/restore or re-install. Saves time and a good clean install is always nice.

Thanks again for the tip I'll definitely give that a shot next time I encounter some issues and see how it works out.

Cass.

[G1500]

Good to know, thanks for the tip. I almost never repair anymore, just reinstall and be done with it. The systems I have come in are rarely maintained and backups are done quickly. I used to spend a significant amount of time to troubleshoot boot problems then just went the route of backup/restore or re-install. Saves time and a good clean install is always nice.

Thanks again for the tip I'll definitely give that a shot next time I encounter some issues and see how it works out.

Cass.

I used to format/reinstall just to do it every 6 months or so. Keeps everything clean and in working order.