I have a major problem with both of my Windows machines. I rebooted my laptop, signed in and was presented with a black screen which did not change after several minutes. When I restarted my desktop I got the same thing, just a black screen. Restoring an image from Sunday night allows me into Windows. I've tried uninstalling BlackFog Privacy after a restore as BF had an update. No joy, still reboots to a black screen. I've tried uninstalling VoodooShield, same result. Both machines are running Windows Defender. I've tried multiple times to troubleshoot by restoring the images on both machines but there appears to be something updating which breaks my computers. I shall uninstall OSA next, just in case.
Krusty, What happens if you turn off your modem to permanently disconnect from the internet and then restore an even older image than your Sunday image? MBR or UEFI system? Check your BIOS Boot Priority list on the non booting computers. Is the first item correct? Can you boot Windows from the Boot Menu?
Both x 2 machines Don't know yet. Windows boots up to the sign in screen but then goes to a black screen x 2 machines. What ever the issue is it also corrupts Windows Live Mail leaving without me being able to open any emails and deleting all contacts. Related? https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/macrium-reflect.356309/page-349#post-2976961 I would hope not as I only connected that mouse / keyboard combo into one machine.
If I restore without internet both machines seem fine, although some programs complain about not having connection.
Heres my bright (?) idea... Run a live Linux distro to access necessary log files ps: Sorry if this is a dumb answer... I might be misunderstanding
Do you have Windows Fast Startup disabled on your computers? Not BIOS Fast Start. https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/ucf/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=427
Disabling Windows Fast Startup is one of the first things I disable after a fresh install of Windows, which I'm suspecting might be required here x 2 machines. I have my desktop PC running and restarts just fine without internet.
Sorry Krusty, this is probably where you should ask someone more knowlegable than me, but im thinking if you can find the eventlogs maybe you could find whats hapening. I think Sysinternals has a tool to open them.
Here is the path for event logs %SystemRoot%\System32\Winevt\Logs\ If you can copy them to an external drive or cloud you could view them on a working machine using something like this... https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/full_event_log_view.html edit:This one says it can import logs... https://eventlogxp.com/ and there are others https://listoffreeware.com/best-free-event-log-viewer-software-windows/ good luck
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I think I need to stop for now and perhaps... ... that may help. I used to not worry about clean installing the OS once, but there are so many tweaks in the OS and each browser, not including dealing with software licensing issues, that it just does not appeal anymore.
It can be a huge undertaking getting everything back to where you want it so I understand the hesitation. Your current trials and tribulations aside.......... Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!
I tried disabling Windows Updates in case that was involved. I installed Norton in case a bad update to Windows Defender might be the problem. Sooner or later another restart on two machines results in a black desktop after entering my password. Each trial was after restoring again. I suspect that what ever is updating I will still get back to a black screen after entering my password. Thanks.
Sorry to hear about your issue. I'm sure it's not the Xmas gift you wanted I recall you had a Macrium error when restoring from your bad new keyboard and mouse issue. Do you actually get anything on the black screen if you do ctrl-alt-delete? (or ctrl-shift-escape.) Do you get the troubleshoot option if you do a hard shutdown 3 times before sign-in appears ? Have you tried all the things here? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...n-errors-79bcd941-5c32-5da9-9a99-9ed1a53b0d94
Hi Krusty. If your issue is being caused by an update, perhaps it is one of those (supposedly) Optional updates that Microsoft is offering Windows 10 users. This are the updates that Windows doesn't update immediately but can be found in Settings>Windows update>Optional updates. I said "supposedly optional" because in my case, twice already, they have installed on their own without me doing anything. After they got installed, I couldn't find how to uninstall or what was updated. After the second time, I decided to start hiding every update that shows up under Optional. I am not taking anymore chances with them. This updates all look to me as being old, even older than my computer. Luckily I was already familiar with the Show hide updates tool from Microsoft (I use it for hiding a driver update that was constantly trying to update automatically even though I already have it). It works great, and nothing installs. You just run it, and hide or unhide what you want. It looks like this after you hide updates (look below). Hopefully you ll find a way to run the tool after boot before WU runs. Get it from here. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...t-a-windows-update-from-reinstalling-in-windo Bo
OK guys, on Brian's advice I went back to an earlier image. This one was taken just before using Simple Windows Hardening and Firewall Harding. The only other thing I noticed was that WD Controlled Folders hadn't been enabled yet either. A couple of restarts and so far my machine appears to be playing nicely. The image was a few weeks old and was about as far back as I was interested in going. There comes a point that I'd be updating so many programs I might as well just do the clean install. Lucky (fingers crossed) it doesn't look like I have to go down that path yet. Mind you, I've only gone this path with my desktop PC so far. Still have my laptop to do. Thanks @Brian K ! You might just have saved me pulling my hair out. Happy Holidays and the very best for the New Year to all.
Yep @stapp , that would bring up a window but for example, clicking on Task Manager wouldn't show me Task Manager, even if it was running in the background.
Krusty, I had a similar situation a month ago on one computer. One day it started into a BSOD and black screens thereafter. I restored recent images which didn't help. A one month old image was restored and all was OK. Recent images were again restored and all was still OK. I can't explain it.
Glad you got it sorted, Krusty. I had this same scenario on my laptop several months ago, and it was a result of not having all necessary rules in place with my anti-malware software, which blocked some critical processes required for startup. I had the login screen, like you, but only a black screen with a mouse pointer after entering my credentials. An image restore bailed me out too.
