Win7 Black screen of death with cursor on all boot modes

Please post exact sfc command you did. (I think it was correct btw). It took many minutes to complete? did it report "no integrity errors found" ?
It doesn't create a logfile because you ran it in recovery environment. To create a logfile:

Code:

set  WINDOWS_TRACING_LOGFILE=C:\CBS.log

after that run the SFC command. When it has finished you have a file C:\CBS.LOG

Hi Kaktussoft, initially I thought you hadnt read my post through, as not only does SFC create a log file, but I attached it to my first post! The file is created in X:\windows\logs\cbs, and is different each time I run SFC.

FYI, the exact SFC command sequence & response is:

Code:

SFC /scannow /offwindir=c:\windows /offbootdir=c:\
Analyzing system. This operation may take some time

Windows resource protection found some damaged files and was able to repair them.
Details are to be found in the file CBS.log

But reading your post I changed the environment variable just in case, and guess what - I get a completely different CBS.log in C:\!

Unfortunately, I looked at it and it doesn't help me solve my problem - I get a million entries, and a certain number of them report something like:

"POQ 18957 starts:
0: Move File: Source = [l:162{81}]"\SystemRoot\WinSxS\Temp\PendingRenames\863b0e2bc4f5ce01525a000010029402.$$.cdf-ms", Destination = [l:80{40}]"\??\C:\Windows\WinSxS\FileMaps\$$.cdf-ms"

Which doesn't make much sensefor me, but I attached the file (zipped) in case it makes some for you.
What I'm sure of is that SFC doesn't actually DO anything, since I get the same report (with different timestamps) each time I run it...

The SFC command DID fix some problems. Can you run it again and recreate and post a logfile?

What do you see when trying to boot to safe mode? Do you see all drivers scrolling over screen? It freezes at CLASSPNP.SYS?

erpol said:

YES absolutely! The safe mode file list stops dead at CLASSPNP.SYS, then I get the black screen.

At some point yesterday I asked for a boot logfile (ntbtlog.txt) for a normal boot, and there classpnp.sys loads normally in the middle of the log somewhere. The last entry is successful, it's srv.sys.

I appended the latest CBS.log, I did 2 reruns.

Thanks for spending time on my problem, I really appreciate it.

CLASSPNP.SYS isn't the culprit, it is just the last driver in the list... .same on this machine.

It looks like sfc command did fix the problems. But why do these problems reoccur???!!!

please run the sfc command again 2 times. Then set the environment variable to create a log file. Then run sfc command again. No reboot in between!! Post the log file created.

I know, it's totally incomprehensible for me as well. From the outside, everything seems to be perfect.

To be fair, it's not correct to say that Windows isn't booting - it does up to a point, then stops somewhere short of the login screen, with no clear reason, and not totally hung either.
And it's consistent over time, I booted perhaps a 100 times with always the same results, even changing the HD location etc. I also ran SFC a fair amount of times, with or without reboots in between.

One other thing that baffles me is why the "repair environment" doesn't find any restore points? I'm fairly sure that there are a number of them, even automatic ones when I update a driver and such (which I didn't do recently, to remove this question)... Isn't there any other way of accessing them?

One other thing I tried as well (scary but not so risky): I renamed the 5 registry files, then replaced them with their saved versions in C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack. The backup was of 2 days prior to the problem. Same results! Put them back.

Now I did exactly as you suggest: I ran SFC twice, then set the environment variable, then ran it again. Didn't reboot, the log is in the zip file. Hope it helps, but I have the impression of performing a magic ritual here!

PS: I'd love to see the bright side of life right now! It's been 4 days and this is my main work rig...

To be fair, it's not correct to say that Windows isn't booting - it does up to a point, than stops somewhere short of the login screen, with no clear reason, and not totally hung either.

Not totally hung??? Please explain.


Restore points are gone .... don't know why. SFC did fix many things, but next run the problems are still there.. very strange.

Did you run an offline virusscan already?

Did you install/uninstall something just before the problems started?