Author Topic: Black screen  (Read 10078 times)

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Offline BoCat

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Black screen
« on: March 17, 2015, 09:37:07 am »
Good Day, Happy People
MSI-7058, 32bit, Windows 7 Professional//Pentiium 4 530//4GB RAM//59GB MEM//64GB SSD ATA//NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT.  All FREE: AVG/SPYWAREBLASTER/REVO 1.95/CCLEANER/MALWAREBYTES 2.0/Security Essentials. Yes, old but venerable and up to a few days ago had progressed well with the running restoration (a learning process) and educating myself, but obviously not well enough in this instance.  I have made what appears to be a major faux pax and do not know what to do....
Won't belabor everyone with the particulars of this story, unless there is some interest and a response to this posting, which has a four day time line and lots of progressively bad, and some strange (to me) stuff.  Simple Tweaking & tips (all 4, but no use of ClearMem), Registry backup, and the main Tweaking program are involved.  Doesn't matter how I load it, simply put, the end result of my problem is a black screen after Sys32 load, with an active mouse and no blinking cursor.  Have I sent my Byzantine coffee pot to byte heaven?   Do I now need an abacus and slide rule?    :confused:
« Last Edit: March 17, 2015, 09:47:01 am by BoCat »

Offline Boggin

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2015, 10:09:58 am »
I think I got the gist of that  :smiley:

Not having the big white cursor on the black screen doesn't bode too well but are you able to boot up into the Advanced Boot options to try Last Known Good Config or select Repair your Computer to navigate to the Recovery Environment to use Startup Repair.

As it's an old machine I assume you have upgraded to Win 7 and have an install disk ?

Booting up with that you could try the Bootrec commands to see if you are able to repair the MBR. http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/927392

Offline Shane

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2015, 11:16:37 am »
When you get to the mouse cursor are you able to hit ctrl + alt + del and open the task manager? Are you also able to get into safe mode?

Shane

Offline BoCat

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2015, 08:24:05 am »
Thank you Shane.  Thank you Boggin.  Your inputs are most appreciated.  Yes, Windows 7-32bit. No, I am not in possession of the original Window disc.  The computer was given to my wife in an unusable condition and it was my project.  I approached these upgrades with a lot of caution, mostly because of the time and effort already spent in the running restoration, a total learning for me.  When I took on AVG Internet on a trial basis I decided that now was the time to proceed with SimpleTweaking and Tweaking.com.  I eliminated several programs I felt were superfluous, possible conflict, or unused.  I scanned and cleaned consistently over a 4 day period, including CheckDisc and File, each time after eliminating or changing I would scan again, with everything.  All came up clean. Considered everything I did and approached it with a meticulous mind-set.  When I applied SimpleTweaking it became immediately apparent that the utility had done a fine job, absolutely no doubt about it.  I decided to proceed with the main Tweaking.  I did not go into this totally blind.  If I didn't know what was being done I researched it and based my decision(s) in part on that research and partly what I had accumulated knowledge-wise and if there was any doubt stayed with the defaults.  I did (through Registry Backup) two registry backup, then two file, and 4 restore points.  At points along the way in running the utility I was flagged for missing or corrupt files, my hard drive was almost full, SOL(?) file missing, losing Homegroup, sporadic Internet (I'm wireless. Cable, but broadcast inside house and was now getting connections to weaker signals when before I had a solid '5-bye-5', no ability to update anything, and a BUNCH of other flags that came and went too quickly to write them down. If any connection to Internet was made it was SLOW and usually would not take any redirection.  Toward THE END I found that AVG had done something to my firewall and had a death grip on everything.  The Wdo's settings for the firewall were correct, but AVG would not let go, even when disabled.  I finally uninstalled AVG, but did not get firewall back or stable connection to the Internet.  The offline performance continued to deteriorate until I was left with nothing but a forced shut-down.  After restarting, which took inordinately long, I went into Safe Mode (no Internet) and again ran all scans and checks.  Nothing showed up. Tried, progressively older, 3 restore points.  Made it worse.  Then I made probably my final misstep and tried a registry restore.  That did it.  After (now always) a forced shut-down I have tried successively to boot in Safe/Safe with networking/cmd/normal.  After the Pentium logo it goes to loading Sys32 files, hesitates, then blackscreen with an active mouse and no cursor, although the cursor does appear momentarily in the upper left.  I have tried all that you suggested (and more) at different times in the boot process and the only thing that produces anything is ctrl+alt+del, which takes me back to the Pentium logo and we start all over again.  Ooops.  Looks like I'm gonna need a bigger boat....

Offline Boggin

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2015, 11:30:07 am »
Even when AVG users have used its Uninstaller (not Windows Add/Uninstall), it has still screwed up Windows Firewall.

As you have a working machine, download and create a Paragon Rescue Disk http://www.paragon-software.com/home/rk-free/download.html

It has its own burner so you just need a DVD.

When I created mine, it e-mailed me a free activation key, don't why they do that - they just do.

You should still be able to change the Boot order by tapping (usually) F12 as you switch on - select the ODD as first Boot order, stick the disk in and press enter and work your way through the repair options.

An alternative is the Kaspersky Rescue Disk. http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/rescuedisk

I had to use that as a last resort on this machine as for some reason I couldn't get the repair menu up for the Paragon disk.

Kaspersky's scan took a little over 9hrs and when it completed I clicked on Shutdown, went to make another cup of coffee and found it running a chkdsk which fixed whatever was wrong.

I'd done a power shutdown when a restore point was hanging and I ended up with just a black screen with a big white cursor arrow.

I don't think I had to change the Boot order for to boot up with that, but I could be mistaken.

Offline Shane

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2015, 12:25:19 pm »
Honestly it sounds like you would be far better off reinstalling Windows since it wasnt in good shape when you got it.

If you need a windows disk you can grab the image of it here
https://sites.google.com/site/linuxlablibrary/windows-iso

Then use a program like imgburn to burn the iso image back to a dvd-r. Or you can use a iso to usb tool to make a usb thumb drive bootable and have the windows 7 setup on it.

If you have a sticker with the windows 7 keycode on the case then you can just use the iso. The key on the sticker will work for both 32 and 64bit versions of Windows, so if the system has more than 3GB of ram you may want to put 64 bit on it so you can use memory above 3GB :-)

Shane

Offline BoCat

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2015, 03:38:58 pm »
Again, my THANKS!, Shane and Boggin.  I had considered that the boot was taking place only with the registry backup, and that it simply could go no further because nothing was there to go to, but did not have a clue about where to go next. That may be an over simplification of what happened and not quite correct, but information and experience speaks for a lot, and my lack of both coupled with the age of the machine may have done me in. Being a Master Mechanic for 50 years, first and foremost taught me mistakes are how we learn.  I will dive into what you have given me tomorrow, educate myself, and go at it again. This was a time and toy project and I was under no illusions that sooner or later I might come up against the 'oops' factor.  I will post ya'll on the results as soon as I have some.  Talk to you soonest.      :smiley:

Offline Boggin

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #7 on: March 18, 2015, 05:08:28 pm »
Before undertaking any major surgery it's always best to create a full system image onto external media such as DVDs or better - an external HDD and then you have something to fall back on to start again.

@ Shane - MS has pulled all of the usual Win 7 ISOs and they will only release the download when it has accepted a valid retail key and it doesn't always accept those - COA Sticker or vendor generic keys are not accepted.

Offline Shane

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #8 on: March 18, 2015, 06:18:20 pm »
Quote
COA Sticker or vendor generic keys are not accepted.

Yes they are, I do it almost daily when I reinstall customers machines :-)

The trick is when installing Windows and it asks for the key you can skip it, they dont force you to enter a key, then once installed you go to activate Windows and then put in your key and you are good to go.

Shane

Offline Boggin

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #9 on: March 18, 2015, 06:32:52 pm »
That's okay if you already have a bootable ISO but most links now take you to http://microsofthup.com/hupus/error404.html and clicking on Windows Downloads takes you to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery

That is where I ended up after clicking on the Win 7 x64 in your link and the same on the Win7forums site.

Give that a go with a COA Sticker key or even a valid retail key and see if it will verify it.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2015, 06:34:54 pm by Boggin »

Offline Shane

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #10 on: March 18, 2015, 06:35:08 pm »
Those are not the ISO images I point people to though :-)

I have no problem helping people get a copy of the ISO they need, I just wont help anyone pirate or hack Windows. Person owns their copy of Windows then I see no problem with helping them get a untouched/unmodified windows setup image :artist:

Shane

Offline Boggin

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2015, 06:39:38 pm »
The point I was making is that a COA Sticker key will not validate to authorise the download, but may activate an existing ISO.

Offline Shane

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Re: Black screen
« Reply #12 on: March 18, 2015, 06:56:24 pm »
Quote
The point I was making is that a COA Sticker key will not validate to authorise the download, but may activate an existing ISO.

Correct, most likely wont work on their site but will work on the ISOs, as MS doesn't update them very much and they are still the original. :wink:

Shane