Black screen of death during login; nothing seems to help

ChrisERAU · 20 Jun 2014

I was customizing some windows login bmp's, and when I put the computer to sleep and woke it back up to test the login screen, I got the black screen of death. I'm not sure why this happened, because I've modified this and other bmp's without any problem. By the way, the bitmap in question is one of the user tile pictures. It seems like windows freaks out if just one bmp is "invalid". I've tried restarting and got the same black screen, even though the computer boots right to the desktop after restarting (automatic login, without showing the user tile).

I've read tons of posts regarding similar issues, but I haven't been able to resolve my issue. Here's what I've tried:

All configurations of safe mode (i.e., networking, command prompt, etc.)
System restore
Startup repair
Sfc \scannow

None of these worked. I've done successful system restores in the past, but those restore points are not available anymore, and the two that I have now didn't work.

Again, task manager is NOT available, and safe mode also goes to the black screen.

I don't have all my files backed up. Ironically, I was looking for external hard drives earlier, but I haven't bought one yet. The copy of windows that I have was a LEGAL downloaded copy, so no recovery discs or flash drives.

The worst part about this is that I know exactly what file is causing the issue, but I just can't access it. All I need is to be able to access my files in order to solve this issue.

Any help is appreciated!

ICIT2LOL · 20 Jun 2014

Chris ome you didn't metion was chdsk try it
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html< if necessary include the /f switch in the command line as per Option2

Now I know you probably have but have you checked in restore for the "other" restore points?

Have you doen any malware scans too if not try these (you may already have but I don't know that)

http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

ADW download frombleeping computer delete any rubbish found with the malware scans

ChrisERAU · 21 Jun 2014

I gave up on restore points and ended up dual booting into Linux thru my android phone (using an app called Drivedroid). I knew which file had gone bad, so I replaced it with the original that I had backed up. After that, I booted up windows and I finally got it working.

ICIT2LOL · 21 Jun 2014

No probs Chris and if you like theLinux stuff here is one way of getting soemthing I use from time to time esepcially with dead drives

BOOTABLE UBUNTU

Make a bootable Ubuntu disk http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Set the BIOS to boot from theoptical when the machine boots it will show you a screen with TRY or INSTALL> select TRYnot INSTALL

When it is finished - it takes verylittle time you will get a screen like in the pic .

Open the drive you want > Userand dig down until you get to the data / settings you may be able to copy /paste the material you want to an external source or other installed drive doingthis.

I am not sure if it will but I haverecovered tons of data etc using this method both on "dead" or justplain drives that you cannot get data from using Windows.