Vista Black Screen of Death

[Tesla]

Anybody had experience with a black screen with just the cursor showing on Vista boot in regular or safe mode?

Cannot start task manager or use the "sticky keys Read more" trick as there is no read more link.

Any ideas?

 

[MrUnknown]

last I had this on a client's computer required a reinstall. sorry.

 

[Techie]

Sometimes a Windows update takes quite awhile to complete on a reboot, so I would give it at least 10-15 minutes (depends alot on the CPU/RAM), I've had a black screen on startup as long as 18 minutes on a client's PC, but usually patience works.

That being said, if after 20 minutes, nothing changes, I would reboot (cold reset)
load a Windows 7 system CD, Click Repair and Choose a System Restore.

 

[Bobbing]

Ksod

Try this:

1)Go to recovery mode (press f8 at startup)
2)Choose comand prompt from the list
3)Type in c:
4)Then type in Regedit
5)Click “File>Import”
6)Click show “all files” at the bottom
7)Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\Winevt\logs
8)Delete all event logs one bye one

Close all windows, then click on restart .

Good luck!

 

[Bobbing]

If the above does not work try this one:

Access the registry directory at C:|windows\system32\config\
Rename the “software” file into “software_corrupt” and the “software_previous” to “software”.

Reboot and cross your fingers

 

[iisjman07]

I've seen Chkdsk /r fix this issue sometimes. Maybe try a repair install?

 

[thecoldone06]

Was researching this yesterday as my desktop icons had disappeared. Wasn't the same issue but found this which may help:

http://www.prevx.com/blog/140/Black-Screen-woes-could-affect-millions-on-Windows--Vista-and-XP.html

let me know if that actually fixes the issue.

 

[iisjman07]

^^
Yeah, PrevX thinks it's caused by a malware issue, although i've scanned the computers I've seen but they're never infected

 

[thecoldone06]

^^
Yeah, PrevX thinks it's caused by a malware issue, although i've scanned the computers I've seen but they're never infected

It also says their tool does some registry tweaking as well.

 

[studiot]

We have talked about this before.

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11976

 

[Bobbing]

We have talked about this before.

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11976

And............what did you figure out?

 

[MobileTechie]

And............what did you figure out?

That it is a symptom of various problems rather than a single bug with a single fix. Some are easy to fix. Some require an reinstall.

 

[Tesla]

Unfortunately none of the recommended fixes here have worked and prevx is a no go since Explorer doesn't even load.

Think I will clean install the machine tomorrow.

 

[Tesla]

Reloaded the factory image off of the recovery partition and as expected it's now fine.

One point I will raise is that even after the "clean" install it would hang on a black screen/white cursor for 20-30second or so.

I removed some of the default software from start-up. Still the same.

Ran Mcafee removal tool and it now boots straight in.

Could mcafee be a common factor?

 

[Simmy]

I had a machine with the same problem this week which had mcafee on come to think of it. A system restore did the trick to remove Vista SP1.

I always blame and curse Mcafee/Norton whenever I see it on a machine. I can't hate them though as their shoddy software gives me so much work.

 

[rtorres15]

what causes this issue? and is their a better way to fix it?