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Welcome screen hang, log on hang, black screen crash, and more!
Hello, I have recently (within the last week or so) started experiencing several problems with Windows 7 professional (64bit build 7601), (dual boot with Ubuntu) on my Dell XPS L502X (Intel i5 2430M). This post - Unprompted registry update, system restore and clock change refers to the first problems I noticed.
After that settled down, Windows worked well for all of half a day, then upon restarting got stuck at the welcome screen. I had no option but to reset with the power button. I started it in safe mode and all was fine, checked my drivers are up to date, then I ran check disk which found a few errors and fixed them. After a fresh restart, all looked promising - Windows loaded quickly etc, but when I tried to open anything (start menu, Firefox, Avast!... all tried on seperate restarts) the computer gets stuck - the little 'working' circle turns but nothing else happens. I have left it for an hour like this with no progress. Ctrl-alt-del also doesn't work.
Sometimes, instead of loading up Windows after I enter my password I just get a black screen with cursor and nothing else, which remains indefinitely. Once, I was logged in successfully any everything seemed fine, then the black screen appeared and nothing else happened.
Back in safe mode, I did scans with Avast Internet Security, MSE, Malwarebytes, all returned clean, back to normal mode, same problem. SO returned to safe mode, tried a system restore, which didn't work. Same problems. Tried another restore to a point before, still no change. I cannot get normal mode to work at all - hangs or crashes every time (no BSoD, just the black screen).
I have read that these problems may be down to a Windows update, which could explain why restore didn't help (am I right in thinking system restore won't change Windows update downloads?). I am at a loss now. As Ubuntu works fine I am fairly sure it is not a hardware problem. I have looked at the event log but as I am not (yet!) very technically adept they don't mean much... and I can't work out how to attach them here?
Sorry this is so long, I know these problems are discussed elsewhere but my problem seems to change every time I start up... I would really appreciate any help here!