Solved Black Screen With Cursor

[Apaseall]

@gregrocker. Hi and thanks for the post.
The laptop has no connections to it other than at present the usb stick.
It does have 2 HDDs inside the it. One is the original and boot os drive.
The other is a large storage drive that has only ever contained files, no os has been near it.

If I set the os internal hdd in bios as first boot, then well it boots first.
Since the os on the internal drive does go through a normal boot until the last step or so if I leave it as the first boot device all i will be able to do is look at the black screen with mouse pointer. that would be the issue this thread is about.

hmm I will check the bios boot order shortly to make sure that the other hdd is lower down the boot order, just in case the repair is trying to write to it for some reason. actually i think i will pull the drive completely, does mean getting the screwdriver out, but who knows how the repair program accesses the drives?

As for the repair program seeing an os to repair the answer would be yes and no. Yes because it does appear sometimes in the repair program. i can also cmd cd to the os drive from the repair program.

I have already tried the system restore option but with no luck. the repair program says there are no restore points present, but i can manually cmd cd to the restore point location and something is definitely there as i would expect as i make lots of restore points. i say i what i really mean is that my laptop os does when some programs run.

I will progress through the steps in the links you provided when I resume work on this problem.

I have to say though that I am reluctant to have to do a fresh os install just because of an automated update from ms going wrong. Reluctant, hell I'm fuming.

 

[gregrocker]

Reset the BIOS to defaults first taking note of the SATA controller setting and if this is an EFI BIOS.

Set the HD to boot first in BIOS, then trigger the disk or stick using Dell f12 one-time BIOS Boot menu key.

If it will boot run Dell Diagnostics from F12. Dell Diagnostics Utility - How to Run the .

If not test your HD with maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan followed by Disk Check from installer command line.

Test your RAM with RAM - Test with Memtest86+ for 5-6 passes or overnight.

 

[Apaseall]

@gregrocker.
There is no DELL partition left on this machine.
It was intentionally removed about a year ago.
Therefore there is no none os dell software on the laptop.

 

[gregrocker]

That's why I gave you the other methods to test your hardware. I'd run them now.

You may also have complications caused by encrypting your System partition. It may require wiping the HD with Diskpart Clean Command to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

If you stick with the tools and methods in the tutorial only, then you'll get and keep a perfect install for as long as you do.

 

[Apaseall]

Slightly good news. Pulled the 2nd HDD and successfully booted to usb via f12 despite having hdd set as first in boot order in bios.

 

[gregrocker]

See if HD will boot with other HD unplugged, which was a step I gave you earlier.

If not work through the repair steps now that disk will boot.

 

[Apaseall]

Looks like ms is pulling something from the tuesday update.

 

[Apaseall]

At this point normal boot results in a bcd error. In light of the ms bulletin I am going to make the wild guess that my HDD and Memory are ok. I will now be searching my files for a bcd fix program I used previously in relation with dual booting to repair the bcd issue. I will post back later today once I have made the attempt.

 

[Apaseall]

Yesterday and this morning I was facing this situation;

bios set for hdd to boot first. usb stick with win7 install/repair. press f12 and select usb to boot from usb.
otherwise boot straight to hdd.

booting to hdd gave me this a message about boot bcd 0x000000f.
booting to usb sent me round in circles with no luck.
the circle went something like this;

no os found. whilst attempting to find os i would get a message saying repair had found stuff and would i like to repair and reboot. saying yes got me a message saying that repair was unable to write the files.

reboot usb and no os found nor anything about repair. going to the 2nd page of repair options [the one with cmd option on it] and selecting repair from there just got me the message about not finding anything to repair.

so that was the situation at that time yesterday.


googling black screen with cursor yesterday lead me to;
Microsoft Details Windows 7 KB2823324 Update Blue Screen of Death Bug - Softpedia
and
How to fix 'Black screen of death' on Micrososft Windows
and
MS13-036: Description of the security update for the Windows file system kernel-mode driver (ntfs.sys): April 9, 2013

from those links i summarize that the cause of my woes is the ms update.
why ? because my laptop appears to go through all the stages of booting and login, right up to the point where i would expect to see the login prompt ie where you put in you username and or password.

i tried to recover the last restore point via;
reboot usb. cmd console.
dism /image:c:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions.
but that did not work for me.

i have followed the steps to show me what packages i have which should show me if i have the rogue update kb2823324.
these steps;
reboot usb. cmd console.
dism /image:c:\ /get-packages > pacs.txt
that extra part ie > pacs.txt just send the output of the first part ie dism /image:c:\ /get-packages to a text file.
launch notepad and open the pacs file. search through for 28 and saw that none of them were kb2823324.


today;

i googled the 0x00000f bcd error and got this link;
How To Fix Boot/BCD 0xc000000f Error Windows 7 | Think Like a Computer

basically it said make sure the partition you want to boot to is active and then use bootrec with bcdboot.
here are the steps i took.

boot usb.
cmd console.diskpart. lisk disk. select disk 0 [at this point there is only one hdd present]. list partitions.
select partition 3 [in my case i knew the size of my c: os partition and i had multiboot with ubuntu working fine before this black screen with cursor mess].detail partition.
my details showed that indeed the partition was set to active.
exit out of diskpart.

reboot usb
go to the cmd console again and type bootrec /fixmbr and bootrec /fixboot. reboot to hdd.

at this point i got the bcd 0x00000f message again.

reboot to usb. go to the cmd console. bcdboot c:\windows [as that is where i can see my os ie c: in my case]. got an error message telling me that it failed to copy the bcd file.

googling again found me this;
Failure attempting to copy boot files « How-To Geek Forums

reboot usb. cmd console. bootrec /fixmbr bootrec /fixboot bcdboot c:windows /s c:

reboot hdd. this nicely brought me back to the situation at the beginning of this thread - black screen with cursor.


so the thread so far has basically me trying to fix the black screen with cursor issue.
in trying to do so i broke the bcd and spent most of my time trying to fix the bcd with win install/repair. win install/repair made no progress on fixing the bcd issue at all, your experience may be different.

i also tried to check my hdd with seagate tool but despite burning the tool to cd and it running fine, it said there was no hdd at all.

Currenly boot to hdd gives me black screen with cursor.

going to take a break from this all right now.

 

[Apaseall]

in case you are wondering why i am typing so much,
1 i found no definitive answers on my first googling of this problem, so if anyone else is having the same problem they can follow my steps and see what did or did not work for me. that may help them to solve their own version of this issuse.
2 i want to let anyone helping me know exactly what steps i have taken.
3 its a form of record keeping for myself.

 

[gregrocker]

Since none of all that interacts at all with the steps given in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start which are what work best to fix unbootable Win7, do this now:

Set the Win7 HD first to boot in BIOS setup, trigger the DVD or Repair CD using the one-time BIOS Boot menu key at boot.

Boot into Windows 7 DVD System Recovery Options or Windows 7 System Repair Disk to Mark Win7 or it's 100mb System Reserved Partition (preferred if you have it) Active.

Then run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times until Windows 7 starts and it's boot partition holds the System Active flags.

If this fails when System Reserved partition is marked Active, move the Active flag to Win7 partition itself and then try the 3 repairs again.

 

[Apaseall]

@gregrocker. thank you for continuing to monitor this thread.

Here is a little something that I found out just before I read your last comment.
The pc I have this problem with [black screen with cursor] is a laptop.
It has a function key which when held and some f#'s are also pressed do various things.
Things include turn the speaker on/off, turn the sound up/down, turn the brightness of the laptops screen up/down.
Interestingly enough one option is to change were the display is sent.
It can be used to say have display on laptop screen and an external monitor.

Here is the interesting bit...
When I use these keys to change when the display goes I get a visual.
It shows four options, computer [the laptop] only, duplicate, extend and projector only.
If I select projector only, by using the laptop mouse pad to move the cursor [by cursor I mean mouse pointer, happens to be an arrow at the moment] a windows popup appears.

Microsoft windows
Unable to connect to projector
No projector was detected.

Its even got an ok button.

So I will again make the assumption that windows IS loading. Its just to a black screen rather than the login prompt. Why do I assume this ? because the popup is a windows ie os message.
It is not a laptop message. No messages are generated by the laptop when the keyboard functions are used.

Hence the problem I am having with the idea of following the steps outlined in the "windows fails to start".
I assert that windows IS being loaded. Just not being displayed.

bios is set to internal hdd boot. I am and have been able to boot to usb stick containing windows 7 install/repair disc. The windows partition is set to active. there is no windows system reserve partition.

if i boot usb, after selecting language the program searches for operating systems.
it fails to find any. it does offer via a popup to repair stuff. but when i say please repair stuff it gives me a pop us saying failed to save startup options.

i am going to try marking the first partition that is 101mb in size as active and will post the results here.

 

[Apaseall]

Well this is interesting, something new.
here is what i did.

boot usb. cmd consol. diskpart. list disk. select disk 0. list partition. select partition 1 [100mb]. detail partition.
at that point partition 1 was hidden and not active.
active.
partition 1 now hidden but active.

reboot hdd.

I now have a blue tessellated background with a window called choose and option on it.
it does not say who made this program or give me an indication if its a dell thing or windows thing.

options are, test memory, test system and exit.
i'll give test system a try.

new thing, not a window, but like one without the top bar appears.
goes after a few moments and gives me a new window called main menu
ooo it has my service tag, that means its a dell thing. interesting.

new options are express test, extended test, custom test and symptom tree.
also now i have a cursor [ie the mouse pointer].

going to give the express test a whirl. watch this space lol.

 

[Apaseall]

seems to be a hardware test. it is now doing a hdd test for 'confidence' lol. going to take a while.

 

[gregrocker]

That is Dell hardware Diagnostics running from it's (OEM) partition. It's a good thing to run it.

But more likely now your problem is that the 100mb System Reserved partition was not set Active which is how you tell a partition it is to boot the OS. So the repair regimen is to now run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times.

If this fails move the Active flag back to the Win7 partition (determined by its size in diskpart) to run the same repairs.

We'd be able to see what's going on a lot better if you boot into Partition Wizard bootable CD to post back camera snaps of the maximized window. You can then Modify>Set to Active, then highlight Disk to run Partition Wizard Rebuild MBR - Video Help which may preclude the need to run the repairs.

Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums - Windows 7 Forums

 

[Apaseall]

Encouraging news. The express test passed without error as did the extended test. now running the memory tests.
Once that is complete i intend to reboot usb and try out the repairs as suggested in the last post.
I'm quite surprised there is anything left of the original dell software on this hdd.

 

[Apaseall]

grr it ate my post again.

reboot usb via f12.
select language.
no os appears in box.
popup offers repair and restart.
select repair and restart.
popup advises failed to save startup options.

select use recovery options.
new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

reboot hdd
window appears offering test memory, test system.


The above is what I would expect if the repair does not change which partition is active.

change active partition to where i believe os to be because that is the size windows shows for c drive when windows was booting normally.
change via reboot usb. cmd console.diskpart. list disk. select disk 0. list partition. select partition 2. detail partition. partition hidden:no active:no. active. detail partition. active:yes. exit diskpart.

reboot hdd.
windows boot manager message; windows failed to start. file: \boot\bcd. status: 0xc000000f.

reboot usb via f12.
select language.
no os appears in box.
popup offers repair and restart.
select repair and restart.
popup advises failed to save startup options.

select use recovery options.
new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

new window offers startup repairs.
select startup repair.
popup advises startup cannot repair automatically.
select view advanced options.

reboot hdd.
windows boot manager message; windows failed to start. file: \boot\bcd. status: 0xc000000f.

This is what I would expect if the repair failed to change bcd.
reboot usb via f12.
select language.
no os appears in box.
popup offers repair and restart.
select no.
select use recovery tools.
select command prompt.
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bcdboot c:\windows
message; failure when attempting to copy boot files.
bcdboot c:\windows /s c:
message; boot files successfully created.

reboot hdd
start windows safe mode.
black screen with cursor [mouse pointer, looks like arrow, can move it about]
ctrl+alt+del fails to bring up taskmanager.

This is what I would expect if windows is being loaded properly but failing to display the login prompt.

I suspect that there is something wrong when the display drivers are being loaded.
Either they are being loaded and they are incorrect or they are not being loaded.
I suspect that since I can see the cursor [mouse pointer, looks like arrow, can move it about] that something is being loaded.

btw I have not mentioned this previously, the laptop have 2 graphics cards. the onboard one [intel i think] and the optional nvidia one. the dell tests i ran when the 100mb partition was active did include tests for graphics. i cannot recall specifically if both cards were tested.

 

[gregrocker]

Can you default to onboard graphics in BIOS setup to see if it makes a difference.

It sounds like the Win7 is irreparable.

You can try the few remaining steps in Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start.

Seeing a Partition Wizard CD drive map screenshot might be revealing.

 

[Apaseall]

I have just been chatting with Dell. I had to call them about a different laptop.
Hardware can by checked by;
turning the laptop off.
turn on whilst holding down the fn key.
a dos like hardware check is performed.
both dell and i are happy that hardware is not the issue.

chatted with dell software.
there is charge of approx 70gbp for indepth help.
dell confirmed that there is a known solution for this problem.
however since i am unwilling to pay for a cockup i believe is ms fault i am still here.
lol.

@gregrocker
there is no option to set anything to do with graphics in the bios.

a number of logs are amended each time i try a reboot via hdd.
one of them does show what items are loaded or unable to load.
is it possible to upload files to these posts ?

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, you can attach files using the paper clip icon in reply box.

But what I would do is rescue your files and go ahead with the Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7
which will probably take less time overall and leave you with a perfect install better than 90% of what everyone else has, and it will remain perfect as long as you stick with the tools and methods given.