Help! Windows 7 64-bit black screen with cursor on boot up

Inf^Shini

Inf^Shini

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Right now I'm running the laptop on safe mode and it's ok, googled around and only see people that have this problem across the board (they have the same issue even in Safe mode).

Just wondering if anyone else has ever run into, knows of, or can solve this issue.

Long story short - Browsing, it froze, hard shut down (held power button til it turned off). Rebooted and Windows tried to run a scandisk but failed because of some corrupted files. The log in screen doesn't pop up, only a black screen and the cursor.

Only option was to boot up in safe mode and that's where I'm at now, log in screen and everything works in safe mode.

Some pop ups showed the names of some corrupted files, but I didn't get to write them down before the pop up vanished.

Also, I checked system recovery and it turns out it was never on, so no previous restore points were ever created -.-''

I do however, have an image back up across 3 dvd's, but that's like a last LAST resort since I have over 400GB worth of data on this thing I really can't afford to lose and no place to back it up to (my external HDD is already filled to the brim and no moola for another one atm :/).
 
Another thing, I cannot do ctl+alt+del at the black screen, and I know I'm not a victim of the missing/corrupt explorer.exe file, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do this ^_^
 
I had nothing plugged in on boot up

I think this might be more serious than I thought, I'm getting a lot of errors through chkdsk, and I can't even delete files, I get "Disk structure is corrupted and unreadable"
 
More than likely your drive is failing.


Hopefully you have an OS Disk to repair windows by booting to the disk and selecting Repair Windows. If not, try this command:

sfc /scannow

The command will only ask for the disk if it cannot find the files it needs in your cache. That may allow you to get to your normal windows partition, at which point you can try creating a system image (Control Panel -> System & Security -> Backup and Restore [Left Side])


Though you'll likely just need to buy a new hard drive and put a new installation of Windows on it. Then put your old HDD in as a secondary/slave drive and pull data off. It's not too bad to do, assuming you have a disk to install windows. If you bought it via manufacturer, you can call their support and usually order a restore disk at a low price.
 
I dont think his drive is failing. It is very probably that this is what happened when you hard-cycled your machine - files got corrupted... Thats why you should always shut down whenever possible...or at least wait until the HDD light turns off if your PC has crashed before cycling... It is easy to corrupt files that way.

What I would do:

Pop the Windows 7 install disc in the dvd drive and boot your PC from the windows 7 dvd...
When the disc boots, you should be presented with a menu and be able to select a repair option... Let the windows 7 disc attempt to automatically repair your installation. This may work for you and prevent you from having to do a full reinstallation.

This may help: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/startup-repair
Along with: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Startup-Repair-frequently-asked-questions

...or google Windows 7 Startup Repair.

If that does not work and system files are still corrupted, take buddy's advice above: reboot your PC. You should hit F8 when your PC boots (just keep hitting it when you turn it on, before the windows loading screen appears) and when you get the option screen to select how Windows will boot, select the option to boot to a command prompt. After drivers load and you reach the command prompt (should look something like "C:\>" or "C:\Windows\>"), type "sfc /scannow" and press [Enter]. Let it do its thing and reboot, booting the PC normally...

That should solve your issue and replace the damaged files. Best of luck.


EDIT:
Another thing, I cannot do ctl+alt+del at the black screen, and I know I'm not a victim of the missing/corrupt explorer.exe file, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do this ^_^
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, just because you can/cant bring up the task-manager doesnt really mean shit about Explorer. It could still very well be corrupted. Task-manger and explorer are 2 different things (task-manager is just a program (taskman.exe in the Windows folder, or something like that) and explorer.exe is the GUI shell for the Windows OS). Explorer.exe is vital to the OS and taskman.exe is not. If explorer is corrupted, Windows will NOT run properly and may very well result in your black screen on Windows start.
 
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He can chance it if he wants once he gets into Normal Windows again (if he does). Though he should backup his data one way or another. Things like this are why I have a 1.5TB internal HDD and 2TB external HDD.


There's also the option of your HDD manufacturers check disk utility, which I usually just grab from Ultimate Boot Disk and run from there when booting to that disk. May have a bit more luck at repairing bad sectors with it as opposed to a generic windows chkdsk.
 
[quote name='Draekon']He can chance it if he wants once he gets into Normal Windows again (if he does). Though he should backup his data one way or another. Things like this are why I have a 1.5TB internal HDD and 2TB external HDD.


There's also the option of your HDD manufacturers check disk utility, which I usually just grab from Ultimate Boot Disk and run from there when booting to that disk. May have a bit more luck at repairing bad sectors with it as opposed to a generic windows chkdsk.[/QUOTE]

Since he stated in the OP that he hard-cycled without shutting down, and from experience, I am fairly certain it has to do with corrupted files...possibly explorer. Whenever I have had an issue like this, it is 90% of the time a corrupt file from improper shutdown (hard-cycling the machine w/o shutting down). I can count the number of times I have had a HDD failure in the last 15 years on 1 hand (maybe 4 times tops running RAID arrays in web servers - usually due to heat issues)...

Regardless, he should do what I recommended. He clearly is not a power user, therefore I think the best initial course of action would be to use the windows 7 disc to do a startup recovery. That may solve his issue right off, and it is very easy for anyone to do. Just pop a disc in and click buttons (recent PC's are usually set to boot off the disc drive if a cd/dvd is inserted, so he shouldnt have to change any BIOS settings either). You also have the option of doing a system restore from the repair menu if needed. Thats why MS put it there ;-)

Ultimately if it is HDD failure then he should see some warning signs such as windows crashing a lot, weird sounds possibly coming from the HDD when it is reading/writing, windows taking excessively long times to load programs and/or files, windows taking excessively long times to load on startup, and data loss in general (windows having issues opening user files and possibly crashing)... If you get it working again, it may be a good idea to back up vital information and pay attention to how your PC is acting to determine what the true cause is. If I were physically there I could tell him exactly what the issue is.

If you *cant* get windows to boot normally by any means described, I would boot it into safe mode and try to back up all the files you want to keep and then reinstall Windows (do a fresh install, formatting the drive during the install - that is why I said to back up your files before this!). If a reinstall of Windows does not work, and you still have data loss and corruption issues, then it is possible you could have a bad drive on your hands.


EDIT:

1 last idea (although I am pretty positive it is a corrupted file and you should use the startup repair tool or sfc /scannow): Could any programs that start-up with Windows be causing Windows to hang? To find out, you could boot to safe mode, click the start menu and type "msconfig" in the "Run" bar and press [Enter]. When the System Configuration tool opens, select the "Diagnostic Startup" option. Then click [OK] and restart the computer normally. This will bare-bones boot Windows 7 normally with minimum devices & services. If Windows then boots, you know it is a startup program or service hanging the system, and you can use process of elimination to figure out what the culprit is. This is a longer method and is only effective if the problem is caused by a service or program starting and hanging windows at startup.
 
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if you want to verify the HD, Seatools is a free program that, when burnt to a CD, will boot and do a full sector check on the HD.

Another potential issue is startup programs. In Safe Mode, Windows + R (run prompt), type "msconfig" (System Configuration), click the startup tab and "Disable All." The only things that should be rechecked are the antivirus program, and any automatic backup software you use (Carbonite, WD Mio, etc), everything else does not need to run with the start.

I've seen a couple instances where a program loads a 3rd party addon, and the version isn't Win 7 compatable and causes hangups on normal boot. Older versions of Quickbooks, which load older versions of Google Desktop, are notorius for this. (new versions of GD are compatable)
 
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