Posts: Computers and Technology / Windows 7 Black Screen

As of yesterday morning, my desktop has not been able to start up Windows 7 properly (or at all rather). The night before this, the computer was running fine. I did a manual shut down (via Windows, not pressing the physical button) and went to bed. I didn't notice if there were any new updates or not.

The issue started with bootup. It said Starting Windows, acts like it's about to boot the Windows user login screen, but teases me and hangs with a black screen and a moveable cursor. Nothing else works (CTRL ALT DLT or Windows key do nothing). Safe Mode, Low Resolution Mode, Normal Mode, Safe Mode with Command Prompt... all of these things lead to the same black screen with a movable cursor.

After 10 hours of research and tampering since then, the issue is still unresolved. I am trying to avoid reformatting as there is some sensitive stuff on there I haven't back up and, usually, I am quite good at solving these issues and I don't remember being stumped before. This time is different. Nearly 80% of Windows 7 "Black Screen of Death" (BSoD) issues seem to have been fixed by using the Windows 7 built in start-up repair function that is presented on bootup after a bad shut down. This repair does nothing for me, actually saying there are no errors found.

During this 10 hour crap fest, somewhere along the lines my drives were seemingly renamed. My primary C:\ became E:\. I noticed this when I was loading the Windows 7 CD to try and load a video driver and was browsing the computers files. No idea how that is even possible. After I noticed this, it started telling my BOOT DISC ERROR on start up, so now I couldn't get get to the BSoD. To remedy this, I deleted my extra partition (used for downloading stuff to) and the 100MB drive that was named C. This didn't do the trick somehow, so I rerouted the SATA cables to different ports on the motherboard until I got the HDD on SATA 1 (primary SATA I guess). This didn't work, at first. But, after a while of messing with the BIOS, it somehow eventually started working... not even sure what triggered it to work.

So, now I am back to the original error with the BSoD hangup after startup (no Windows login screen).

Oh, I should also mention I tried putting in my old video card (GeForce 8600) and it didn't show any difference from my current video card (nVidia 250 series).

Suggestions will be happily received. Though, I'm writing this mainly so I can post the solution if I find one.

not sure if  its the same issue or not since this is from a while back

but check out



http://www.idiotechnica.com/news/1337/How-To-Fix-The-Windows-Black-Screen-Of-Death.html

CTRL ALT DLT doesn't work in my version of BSoD, sadly.

In other news, my C drive magically reverted back to E drive... and my extra partition that I deleted earlier today (~36gb of data was on it) demoniacally came back from the dead... with the data still on it.

Thinking, at this point, I have a pretty bad virus. I don't usually attribute computer flaws to virus' like the majority of people do, but I can't think of any reason for my computer to act like it is. Reformat may sadly be in order.

Had to reformat last night. Nothing was working, and I tried a lot... lot. Even had to jump the CMOS to get it to read my USB CD/DVD drive, for whatever reason. Pain in the ass, that was.

What anti-virus software do you all use? I've never used any before because I was always good at avoiding it in the first place, but I guess one can't be too careful.

kyle: What anti-virus software do you all use? I've never used any before because I was always good at avoiding it in the first place, but I guess one can't be too careful.

malwarebytes



khris turned me on to it a couple of years ago. i swear by it now.

spazdaq:




malwarebytes



khris turned me on to it a couple of years ago. i swear by it now.

Free or full version?

I still use AVG, even though it can be a terrible resource hog. 

kyle: Free or full version?

the only difference between the 2 is the full version auto updates the database and has a scheduler for running timed scans..



the free version just requires that you click a button to update the database and click a button to start the scan.

Dylan:


I still use AVG, even though it can be a terrible resource hog.