Windows 8.1 blackscreen with cursor

[Draax]

Hello there,
I just got two computers in with Windows 8.1 and both have a black background with cursor after login.
Fail safe works just fine and i can't seem to find any errors in the log.
If i in normal mode running explorer.exe i receive an error:

"The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000142). Click on ok to terminate the application."

What i have tried:
System restore
Removal of antivirus (only one computer had fragments of McAfee left)
Uninstalled and removed all graphic drivers
SFC /SCANNOW
DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Now im stuck like never before, i have tried searching a lot but there's just not that much information out there.

Thanks for all help or input i could get!

 

[katz]

Too bad sfc /scannow didn't do the trick.

I'm not sure if the windows repair tweaking tool will run in safe mode, but if it will I would try that.

http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html

I have had a few win 8/black screen/cursor pc's in the shop and each of them required a different fix, if I recall correctly. I believe I did as instructed here;

Boot past BIOS splash screen, hold down the Shift key and repeatedly hit the F8 key. Doing that will get you to the recovery mode, but it might take several tries to get to the recovery mode, as Win 8 seems to boot past the key sequence, and it is a bit tricky to hit it just right. Keep trying, eventually you will get there.

Once the Recovery screen is displayed, click the "See advanced repair options" button. In the next screen, hit the Troubleshoot button. Or, you could try going through the advanced repairs.

Win 8 is a real beast. In the past I've went through the advanced repairs only to inform me that it failed; I rebooted, the desktop came up and all was well. Very strange, lots of bugs to be sure.

 

[Doc+Com]

Kind of a last resort but have you tried a refresh?
windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

 

[Draax]

katz:
I did a full repair with windows repair, no luck.
Also did a Windows repair as you instructed, no luck.

Windows 8 is a real pain.. As far as i see it its the worst OS Microsoft have done.

Doc+Com:
Yhea, one of my costumers have a lot of settings and special software installed witch would be too much work to install and configure again.
But i'm seriously considering doing it tho, if there's no more way to resolve it.


I will call Microsoft tomorrow for support, ill update this post when i know more.
Thanks for your input!

 

[zoom1200]

had 3 hp laptops in with that last week
we were lucky they had nothing real important and just did a refresh

win 8 sucks

 

[phaZed]

Have seen some common Virus/Antivirus interaction causing this. Can you CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to get Task Manager up? Windows key+R? Sounds like you can.. run D7? Run Antivirus software?

 

[katz]

Try disabling all 3rd party services at startup. If no go, disable all MSoft services, add them back one by on until it starts. I wonder if some update did this - I've had that occur with a couple that I repaired. Although you would hope that sys restore would roll you back past that date...


Can you run ccleaner? Try to clean the registry - it's worth a shot.

 

[Draax]

phaZed:
Finally! They are up and running right now!
I was focusing too hard on that it has to do with the updates from Microsoft.
But when i ran a full scan with Malwarebytes from a command prompt it found about 150 viruses and adware like conduit but also a trojan.
Removed it and after a restart everything was back to normal.

Thanks all of you for the input!

 

[phaZed]

Woot! Congrats!

 

[cypress]

phaZed:
Finally! They are up and running right now!
I was focusing too hard on that it has to do with the updates from Microsoft.
But when i ran a full scan with Malwarebytes from a command prompt it found about 150 viruses and adware like conduit but also a trojan.
Removed it and after a restart everything was back to normal.

Thanks all of you for the input!

Awesome. Filing this away should I run across a similiar issue.

 

[Xander]

It's funny. A lot of the time people describe what clearly is a Windows' issue and they list a dozen AVs they've run when they should probably be focusing on repair vs. disinfection.
This was one of the exceptions, it seems.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I had the same problem as the OP a couple of days ago. Task manager showed no processes running and starting explorer.exe did nothing. Don't recall what I did in between but next time Task Manager showed processes but still no desktop. Ran strui.exe, restored to a few days earlier and Windows started up successfully on restart. Strangely, it said the system restore failed and no changes were made. MBAM found a trojan (porn.dialler) and the normal Conduit, MyWebsearch junk and removed it. ADWCleaner follow-up and never had another problem with start-up after that.

 

[mr m]

The last two PC's I worked on had the same issue. One 7, one 8. Both booted to black screens with a movable cursor.

Did the malware dance and all was well.

 

[djwl29]

I've had about 5 of these in the last week. All win 8 in varying states of decay, erm, I mean updates... likewise solid cleanup knocks it out.

 

[Galdorf]

I have had 8 with that problem , turned out to be buggy updates they pushed in windows updates, i had to remove them manually as system restore did not seem to work.

 

[AlexCa]

A technician friend of mine told me today about an Acer laptop with Windows 8.1 he worked on earlier, that that had the problem of losing sound after about 5 minutes after turn on. It turns out that the problem was caused by some Windows update (from June, i think)...

 

[HankArnold]

phaZed:
Finally! They are up and running right now!
I was focusing too hard on that it has to do with the updates from Microsoft.
But when i ran a full scan with Malwarebytes from a command prompt it found about 150 viruses and adware like conduit but also a trojan.
Removed it and after a restart everything was back to normal.

Thanks all of you for the input!

So Windows 8 wasn't the villain here, eh?

 

[Ken's PC Repair]

Had 2 in yesterday from the same client with this issue. Went in to safe mode and removed the video drivers. Rebooted as normal, ran all the windows updates (including video drivers) and all was well. YMMV

 

[ccritchie]

I had a client's laptop in this week with a similar issue. Although she had some malware on it, that was not the root cause. She got the black screen after upgrading to Windows 8.1. Like Ken's, it turned out to be a video driver issue. After booting into safe mode, I disabled the video driver and then rebooted into normal mode. I downloaded the latest video driver from the manufacturer's website & updated. I then removed the malware & the system was good to go.

So, to summarize, if you get the Windows 8 black screen (in normal mode), it could be: malware, startup items or a device driver issue. Check all three.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I had a client's laptop in this week with a similar issue. Although she had some malware on it, that was not the root cause. She got the black screen after upgrading to Windows 8.1. Like Ken's, it turned out to be a video driver issue. After booting into safe mode, I disabled the video driver and then rebooted into normal mode. I downloaded the latest video driver from the manufacturer's website & updated. I then removed the malware & the system was good to go.

So, to summarize, if you get the Windows 8 black screen (in normal mode), it could be: malware, startup items or a device driver issue. Check all three.

Frankly that is the approach on ANY version of Windows. Don't get trapped into thinking that this is some kind Windows 8 only issue. People keep blaming Windows 8 for what is normal Windows misbehavior.