"Black screen of Death"

Viper_7

Done a quick search and didn't find anything.

The other weekend my Laptop running VISTA SP2 would not boot up properly. I was left with nothing but my mouse cursor. Could not bring up task manager, nothing responded. Apart from the "sticky keys" Beep when Shift was repeatedly hit.

Could boot up in Safe mode. Perform system restores to as far back as I could go succesfully, and nadda.

Checked graphics drivers/removed them/reinstalled... nadda

Then I see this on the news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8388253.stm


Trouble is, I've given up. The help line didn't help, loads of people seem to have similar problems and got nowhere.
I've now purchased a new device as time was limited as I need it for work.

and I bet, I have no come back at all, for an issue that apparently Microsoft have caused.

gjchester

http://www.logicitc.com/blog/?p=102

Is what worked on one laptop I had to fix.

No guarantee it will resolve yours though, it appears many issues can cause the problem.

Viper_7

I saw that - I don't get that far.
After boot up, I don't see the windows logo - or my user "icon"
Just a blank screen with operable mouse, but nothing else.
Tried clicking in the "Start" area etc, but see no disk activity at all.

Tried the "fix" from safe mode, but no joy.

Colleague at work had a similar issue, but his just keeps rebooting, and won't even boot up in safe mode.

Literally was after about 5 windows updates.


I contemplated re-installing, but it's a real ball ache, and the lappy was a good 4 years old, and I tend to upgrade fairly frequently anyway.
Really annoyed though that it is looking like an update that has caused this, and I bet many just gave up, and forked out good money on new equipment.

Marty_J

Viper_7 wrote: »

Done a quick search and didn't find anything.

It must have been a very quick search.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2118579

Viper_7

and that post was full of people taking the pith!

busenbust

OP: Have you tried a System Restore (SR) - ('Restore Windows to an earlier point in time' is the option you want)? Press the F8 key on your keyboard after the BIOS information clears from your screen until you see the Windows startup menu.

sunshine54

it seems it's malaware not microsoft updates causing the BSOD, so an update and scan with malawarebytes is worth it

GazH

Hi All,

Got the dreaded BSOD last night (running XP).

After eventually getting into the OS (normally it just black screens after XP logo) tried to do a retore point but didn't restart properly so gonna try again tonight.

Gonna try to boot from the installation disk and roll back to a restore point of more than a month ago (noted in the Vista article linked by gjchester) and see how I get on....

Really annoting thing is that I've been trying to do a backup for the last few days (had files with errors and then the backup drive filled up before the backup finished....although acronis said it would fit fine) and this happended before i eventuallt got to do it....:mad:

Anyway if anyone has fixed XP with this problem (or I managed to mystically find something) then let me know please..

Cheers

Gaz

Viper_7

Gave up.

As said System restore back to even the earliest point made no difference.
I removed all the graphics drivers and tried standard VGA and nothing.
Nothing was found by virus scans or malware scans.

Formated drive and re-installed.

I'm on my 4th night of installing ruddy updates!