Black Screen With Mouse- urgent

[MichaelsComputerServices]

I am working on an Acer Slim desktop and it is receiving a black screen with a moving mouse after post, it isn't loading the desktop. If you hit control alt del nothing happens and you get the same with any versions of safemode. System restore doesn't work and gives an error. I have tested the hard drive and that passed. I have ran fixboot, fixmbr, and rebuild bcd. I have also restored the registry from the backup folder with no change. Startup repair says it is a bad driver...? I was working on this until 12:30 last night and finally had to give up. Anyone have any other ideas? Nuke and pave really isn't an option, it is the principal of my former high school's work computer.

 

[IITS]

Is the machine running Vista?

 

[MichaelsComputerServices]

Sorry, forgot to mention that. It is running Windows 7.

 

[IITS]

I've had the black screen of death on vista many times, but not on Win 7. Google "vista black screen of death solutions" (sorry can't post links) and the top result gives you a long list of possible fixes. Many (if not all) will relate to Win7.

I once got lucky and pressing F8 on boot and doing Last Known Good Configuration did the trick. Only worked once though. Renaming the event logs has also worked for me in the past. Also do a chkdsk c: /f

If I get any like that now I try one of 2 popular fixes and if that fails I backup the data and clean install. It's just not worth wasting time on it when the chances of a fix are slim to none. And I hate having to do clean installs.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[MichaelsComputerServices]

Yea, I've searched any and everything out there yesterday. I have tried chkdsk /r , but not /f. Any Advanced Boot Menu options do not work. I really need to fix this as opposed to doing a wipe.

 

[MichaelsComputerServices]

Chkdsk /f ran without errors. It did say it couldn't transfer to the event log with status error 50.

 

[lcoughey]

The very first thing you should be doing is getting a full sector-by-sector backup of the drive and never run a chkdsk on a drive that isn't 100% backed up.

Edit:
I should add that at this point, you have no idea if the hard drive is healthy. Priority one is to always protect the user's data. After that, the next priority is to determine the source of the problem before trying to fix the symptoms.

 

[MichaelsComputerServices]

Thank you, I've done a image backup.

 

[IITS]

Have you tried an offline SFC from another PC?

sfc /scannow /windir=c:\windows /offbootdir=c:

I would prepare yourself for a reinstall though. When I first came across this problem I spent way too long trying to fix it.
I hate fresh installs as well, but sometimes it just gotta be done.

 

[MichaelsComputerServices]

I am working on running a sfc now. I have in the back of my mind that a reinstall is a fix, but I want to know that it can't be fixed using other methods before I have to make that decision.

 

[ell]

I am working on an Acer Slim desktop and it is receiving a black screen with a moving mouse after post, it isn't loading the desktop. If you hit control alt del nothing happens and you get the same with any versions of safemode. System restore doesn't work and gives an error. I have tested the hard drive and that passed. I have ran fixboot, fixmbr, and rebuild bcd. I have also restored the registry from the backup folder with no change. Startup repair says it is a bad driver...? I was working on this until 12:30 last night and finally had to give up. Anyone have any other ideas? Nuke and pave really isn't an option, it is the principal of my former high school's work computer.

I would check that the windows partition is marked as active with easeus boot cd or something. I've seen viruses do this, easeus can recover the partition too if its messed with. Also look for any suspicious partitions.

 

[MichaelsComputerServices]

Yes, I've done that already.

 

[ell]

did you run thorough offline virus scans? and checked all the drivers?

 

[Go-To Gordon]

last black screen I had was caused by avast and I had to do a clean install.

 

[MichaelsComputerServices]

did you run thorough offline virus scans? and checked all the drivers?

I am about to run Hitman Pro Kickstart on it. How would I check the drivers? According to startup repair it is a driver problem, but must be a system driver since it isn't disabled is safemode. I believe this is due to a bad or failed Windows Update according to the recent restore points.

 

[mr m]

I bet Hitman finds a rootkit. I had the same symptom a while back.

 

[ell]

I am about to run Hitman Pro Kickstart on it. How would I check the drivers? According to startup repair it is a driver problem, but must be a system driver since it isn't disabled is safemode. I believe this is due to a bad or failed Windows Update according to the recent restore points.

I've seen this many times the result of a rootkit. Run malwarebytes rootkit from d7 on a usb boot stick and drivers can be verified with d7 too.

 

[MichaelsComputerServices]

I can't get HitMan Pro Kickstart to run. It keeps loading the Windows Recovery when ran. I'll have to do scans from a bench computer.

 

[MichaelsComputerServices]

I've seen this many times the result of a rootkit. Run malwarebytes rootkit from d7 on a usb boot stick and drivers can be verified with d7 too.

Can you run d7 on an offline system?

 

[Go-To Gordon]

d7 has an offline feature.

edit: don't think malwarebytes (either one) works in offline.