Black screen after load up

[muayguy]

Hello all,

I was wondering if someone out there could help me as im at my wits end. I have a Acer Aspire laptop which i have owned for approximatly 15 months so is out of warranty. One day when i tried to start my computer up i got a black screen after i put my password in. It looks like its going to load up properly but comes up with a small arrow cursor which can be moved around but nothing else. I have tried reconfiguring my computer to a earlier date but to no avail. Can anyone help?

 

[Rollin' Rog]

How did you "reconfigure" your computer to an "earlier date" if you cannot boot the system? Are you referring to the use of "system restore"?

Were you able to start in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with command prompt to do that?

If you can boot at all -- try creating a new user account with administrative rights and testing that.

Also try "clean boot" troubleshooting if you can.

CLEAN BOOT TROUBLESHOOTING technique

First, restart in Safe Mode if necessary -- (tap the f8 key promptly on startup and choose the Safe Mode option from the boot menu) or Normal mode

Then:

Run msconfig and select the "Services" tab. Check "Hide Microsoft Services" and then disable the rest. Also uncheck "load startup group" on the general page.


Now restart and test the issue at hand

If no problems, run msconfig and recheck half the disabled items on the Services tab. Test again. If the problem recurs, UNcheck half the items you just checked to narrow down the culprit.

If the problem didn't occur, check the other half, so all the Services are enabled -- proceed to do this on the startup tab as well.

Get the idea? You want to isolate the problem to a specific startup if possible.

Note: if you already have items unchecked under msconfig > startups and are in “selective” startup mode – you should note what these are before beginning. They will need to be de-selected again.


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135 << written for Vista but apples equally to XP

 

[muayguy]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, unfortunatally i cant run the msconfig.exe as when i boot up my computer in any mode all i get is a black screen. I can run command promt if i go into "repair your computer" but when i try and run msconifig.exe it says its not recognised as a internal or external command. ? stressed, am i doing something wrong. You will have to excuse me, im not very computer orientated.

 

[Rollin' Rog]

Well you are evidently in the wrong forum -- since "repair" is a Vista option -- and I will move the thread to Vista

Can you run "Startup repair"? What does it report?

Will chdksk /r run from the command prompt?

I would also try the options available in the Bootrec environment:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

 

[muayguy]

Hi,

I wasnt aware i was in the wrong forum. Appologies.

I have run the start up repair and it is stating that there are no problems detected with the computer.

Also when i type chdksk/r into the command promt it states that "it is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file"

Im not sure if the options in the bootrec enviroment will work as i dont have the windows vista disk to run at the moment. Allthough i will have to see if it was supplied with laptop when i bought it.

Regards Muayguy

 

[Rollin' Rog]

My bad, a typo -- the command is chkdsk /r with a space before the slash -- doing it otherwise would result in the error.

Also if you can get to the recovery/repair environment as you have -- you do not need the Windows disk. Bootrec.exe is already there and meant to be run from that command prompt in the recovery environment.

 

[muayguy]

Hi

when i try and run chkdsk /r it states "chksdk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (y/n)

 

[cornelp]

Hi there,

First, for your problem: when you run the command prompt under repair, it will start under X:\windows\system32. You have to change to c:\windows\system32 and it will work.
I just left the office after 3 hours of trying to solve this problem... still no valid answer. One thing is if you try to run msconfig from this cmd (under repair) it will try and get you a message saying insufficient rights. Runas does not work, changing user is the same...
The guy with this computer was trying to open a file, the computer froze, hit power and got to the black screen o'death... ctrl+alt+del or any other combination won't work, restore gets the same result.
I have also tried some other solutions from the web: renaming event logs, changing shell to explorer.exe in regedit, permissions to rpc... I am now waiting for new ideas...
Sorry for intruding in your thread, but I lost all hope...

Cornel

 

[vicks]

Hi

when i try and run chkdsk /r it states "chksdk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (y/n)

When that message comes up click on yes and go ahead and reboot the computer. It will take a bit of time because this will look for bad spots on the drive.
vicks

 

[Rollin' Rog]

Hi

when i try and run chkdsk /r it states "chksdk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (y/n)

Yes that's the typical message you get with chkdsk and you just need to reboot and let it do its thing.

In Vista the log for chkdsk will be available after it has completed and rebooted in the Event Viewer (run: eventvwr.msc) > Applications log > Wininit entry.

You may have to filter to see the latest Wininit entry -- you can see what I am pointing at in this attachment.

If chkdsk does not resolve the problem -- try the procedure in the Bootrec.exe article -- that may be your last best hope.