Vista black screen of death

[CraiGDaniel]

Customer unable to tell me what happened. Says it just restarted and now will not boot into the operating system

BIOS posts > windows loading bar > windows logo > windows vista logon screen > black screen with cursor

no interface at all, ctrl alt del ask nothing responds.

So far ive tried;

• fixmbr
• fixboot
• startup repair
• sfc /scannow (returns "Windows Resource Protecion could not start the repair service)

Hirens / Linux live cd's will run fine. Had it running for an hour with a memtest, just to stress the pc a little. Seems really stable.
Anyone have any advice? Research tell me this is so much easier to just N&P however i have the time and would like to defeat it.

 

[gazza]

Have you tried the Bootrec command or if you access to a ERD disc version 6.0 you could try and do a system restore.

 

[PaulRome]

You should still be able to get into safe mode and check services and msconfig.

Have you tried last known good configuration?

 

[CraiGDaniel]

All safe modes have same problem also last know config.

Bootrec.exe /rebuilbcd just returns that no vista installation were found, even though i selected my vista installation in the repair console.


System restores, none found. :[

 

[Mr.Mike]

I had a similar problem recently on a desktop with vista OS. Turned out to be a nasty rootkit had scrambled the MBR and blocked access to the drive even when slaved to my bench unit. If you suspect this is the problem, try Kaspersky Rescue CD. If it's not a rootkit, try Dr.Web boot cd and try to repair it with tools from there.

 

[CraiGDaniel]

I had a similar problem recently on a desktop with vista OS. Turned out to be a nasty rootkit had scrambled the MBR and blocked access to the drive even when slaved to my bench unit. If you suspect this is the problem, try Kaspersky Rescue CD. If it's not a rootkit, try Dr.Web boot cd and try to repair it with tools from there.

I did check the MBR and it was an absolute mess with unknown characters etc. I'm not too clued up on how an MBR should look but it didn't look right.

That's the only thing i'm yet to try, virus scanning it.

I'm assuming the MBR fix i did in the console would of replaced the bad MBR if that was the case though ?

 

[Mr.Mike]

I did check the MBR and it was an absolute mess with unknown characters etc. I'm not too clued up on how an MBR should look but it didn't look right.

That's the only thing i'm yet to try, virus scanning it.

I'm assuming the MBR fix i did in the console would of replaced the bad MBR if that was the case though ?

Not necessarily, if there is a rootkit, it will just keep scrambling the MBR until its removed. That's what happened in my case.

 

[CraiGDaniel]

Almost done downloading Kaspersky AV CD. Will update on progress, fingers crossed.

 

[tf76]

chkdsk /r from recovery console

Has fixed that issue for me 70% of the time

Regards,

 

[TLE]

This can be caused by a variety of things, and there are lots of different things you can try to resolve it.

However, I have found all too often that the only route it to start from scratch and reinstall.

Hard drive diagnostics
SFC / Scannow
chkdsk C: /R

Ctrl Alt Del - Once the cursor starts to open Task Manager and start explorer.exe

Check the following registry entry;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
And the value is shell="explorer.exe"

System Restore - ERD Commander

 

[CraiGDaniel]

This can be caused by a variety of things, and there are lots of different things you can try to resolve it.

However, I have found all too often that the only route it to start from scratch and reinstall.

Hard drive diagnostics
SFC / Scannow
chkdsk C: /R

Ctrl Alt Del - Once the cursor starts to open Task Manager and start explorer.exe

Check the following registry entry;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
And the value is shell="explorer.exe"

System Restore - ERD Commander

Thank but had tried all of that. Stubborn one. Tried about 10 methods i found via google and tried a few things myself, no luck.

Explained to the customer and he agreed to a N&P.

Thanks anyway everyone good effort

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Thank but had tried all of that. Stubborn one. Tried about 10 methods i found via google and tried a few things myself, no luck.

Explained to the customer and he agreed to a N&P.

Thanks anyway everyone good effort

It helps if you list what you tried so we don't waste time listing things you already did.

 

[CraiGDaniel]

It helps if you list what you tried so we don't waste time listing things you already did.

I listed everything the OP

 

[Cornfed]

I had this same problem this week on a dell laptop. Chkdsk and all the rest didn't help boot it up. Turned out to have a faulty hard drive with a load of read errors.

 

[IITS]

Hi Craig

I would save yourself a ton of time and get the data off and do a clean install.
The Vista Black Screen of Death! Nightmare!

I once had 4 machines within a week all with VBSOD and I only managed to recover 1 of them. The rest would not play ball and I spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for solutions. Google "Roundup of Vista's Black Screen of Death"
Top result web site will give you about 10 things to try. I tried them all and a lot more on all PCs and they didn't work. I think the one I recovered was the corrupt event log file, but the other PCs just laughed at me while I tried a million different things.

If I get one now I tend to tell the customer straight away it will need a clean re-install and in some cases offer a windows 7 upgrade.

Good Luck