Black screen + cursor instead of login screen

[Llama8]

I've got a problem with my Win 7 install. I recently bought a copy of Win 7 Pro & installed the 64-bit version (as I intend to get more ram at some point fairly soon). I installed it last weekend & for a few days it's been running fine. Then ~2 days ago when I start it up instead of a login screen all I have is a black screen with a cursor, if I wait until the screensaver kicks in & then move the mouse (or press a key, etc) then I can see the login screen (& log in with no problems), if I wait until the HD activity finishes & then type in my password I can login fine. Safe mode starts fine & if I log in to normal mode then everything runs fine & I don't get any other black screens.

At no point am I getting any errors.
I've run my usual AV (Avira free version) & MalwareBytes Antimalware & neither of them have come up with any issues.
Windows seems to be booting up fine until it gets to the login screen (after the swirly windows screen) & it's obviously doing something as there's a normal amount of HD activity.
I've tried the Startup repair on the install disk to no avail.
I've tried post #8 from this thread, but things went a bit pear-shaped around the "taking ownership" bit, though I've not had any errors afterwards.
I've tried enabling the OEM default background registry edit (since it seemed straight forward enough) to no avail.
I've even tried changing the background colours via the registry switch (Hkey users\default\control panel\colours\Background) from 0 0 0 (black) to 255 255 255 (white).

The login screen is still there, since I can enter my password & get into windows, it's just black on black on black, which is somewhat annoying.

So I'm stumped, since the vast majority of what google returns for combinations of "win 7 login screen black" are issues where Windows goes black after loging in, which isn't my problem.

I've also uploaded my ntbtlog, though nothing really jumped out to my non-professional (I'm an accountant & probably know just enough to really screw up windows ) eyes.

Any ideas? Or am I going to have to re-install windows a mere ~7 days after installing it for the first time (though at least I do have everything I'd need to install afterwards saved)?

And finally (& probably unrelated), I seem to have mislaid the Search button/thing on the start menu...

Any help with the blakc login screen would be much appreciated.

 

[Llama8]

Avira, no idea why it's showing as AVG, I've not had that installed in several years (& several re-installs including a reformat)...

Edit: Though googling avgntflt.sys says that it's part of Avira.

 

[zigzag3143]

Sorry was just pulling my post when you replied. It is there in the folder but DID NOT load. Still a minor problem.

Other thought is to try a video driver re-install. sometimes a slightly different driver can cause something like this and it is easy to un-install/re-install it.

 

[Llama8]

Re-installing the (same) graphics drivers fixed it, thanks for solution & sorry for bothering you with such a trivial problem.

 

[zigzag3143]

Re-installing the (same) graphics drivers fixed it, thanks for solution & sorry for bothering you with such a trivial problem.

Dont worry about it, you get fixed and we add to our knowledge. A win-win for us both.


Let us know if you need help


Ken

 

[Llama8]

Dont worry about it, you get fixed

Apparently not...

I turned my PC on this morning to run the AV while I have breakfast/etc & all was well. The AV turned my PC off after it was finished as per usual & when I booted my machine up to check my mail the login screen was black again...

Windows hadn't installed any updates overnight & the only thing that had happened was the AV being run (which didn't come up with any issues). About the only thing I can think of is that the AV is somehow borking the gfx drivers...

Edit: I wonder whether it's possible to exclude the gfx drivers from the AV's scan, but I'm not sure which files/folders to exclude without excluding too much (ie, the entire windows folder).

 

[Llama8]

I tried excluding Windows from my AV but I'm still getting the black login screen...

I'll try the latest drivers for my gfx card, as I notice that there's some new ones.

 

[fimble]

Definitely sounds graphics related to me, but from searching the web it usually appears to be nVidia related.

There were some problems with the ATI/AMD v11.4 drivers I believe. The latest version is 11.5a which suggests that there may have been issues with the v11.5 as well.

If at the black screen with mouse cursor, does pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del bring up the Task Manager options screen? If it does, does pressing Cancel let you see the correct LogIn or Desktop?

 

[Llama8]

Yeah, I was using 11.4 & I've just installed 11.5. Interestingly, when installing 11.4 at the end of the install I'd get a black screen along with an error about the installer, though either hitting Enter or removing & replacing the monitor cable would get the screen working properly. This didn't happen with 11.5, so it'll be interesting to see if the login screen works properly after an AV scan.

When I get the black login screen, Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't do anything, but waiting till the screensaver kicks in & then moving the mouse gets the login screen back. I've never had a problem with black screens anywhere else other than in the last few days on the login screen.

 

[fimble]

Fingers crossed!!

 

[Llama8]

####, new drivers didn't work...

Edit: Isn't there an install option that lets you re-install windows while keeping your currently installed programs/etc?

 

[fimble]

Yes. It's the repair install option. You do it from inside your open Windows 7 system. Then insert disc etc. etc. This explains it better than I, plus less typing!!

How to Do a Repair Install to Fix Windows 7​

 

[Llama8]

Is there any way to make the Win7 folder smaller (after install), as I've only got ~19.4 GB space on my C: drive (which is old & small), of the ~18 GB I've got on that drive ~15 GB is Win7, the rest is mostly in the MSOCache folder (~0.5 GB).

 

[fimble]

Personally I wouldn't slim Win 7 down, although it can be done with a 3rd party app. (RT7 Lite) that you use to make a lightweight installation ISO file that you then burn to DVD.

In your situation I would be tempted to:
a) Make at least a 50gb partition, preferably closer to 100gb, on your Maxtor HDD for your "C:" drive. (40gb recommended minimum disc size for 7) and use your PATA drive for "Your Documents". That is if your Maxtor isn't full!
OR
b) Replace/add a new larger drive for your C: partition.

Things you can also do is to remove all the foreign language folders that are not relevant to you and remove the non-Latin fonts if you don't use them for a start. That's not really going to give you much space back though, maybe ½gb.