Solved Black screen ( not blue ) after boot logo

Lukamo

Member
Member
Messages
28
Hello all,

I have a problem (obviously) with my computer.. This computer is a new rig and even though i've been having Blue screens of Death at the beginning ( fixed through forum troubleshooting ), everything's been running perfectly.

Here are the specs to my computer running Windows 8 Pro

MOBO : Asus p8z77-V PRO
CPU : Intel i-5 3570k
RAM : 1x4gb cl8 12800 Gskill Ripjaw ( i had 2 but one of them was faulty so it was removed )
SSD : Samsung 840 250gb (OS : Windows 8 pro x64 )
HDD : WD Caviar Black 1tb
Heatsink : Noctua NH-D14
PSU : Antec HCP 850 gold
GPU : MSI Radeon 6950 Twin FROZR ( i have a spare GeForce 9600 GT which i will get into details later )

My monitor is a Xstar 27" 1440p. It has been running on overclock from 60hz to 100hz, without any problems.

Now to the problem :

I've been having MAJOR problems with my WiFi. The wifi adapter is the intergrated one from the Mobo, WiFi Go, which only has 2.4 ghz. So i was trying to find out how i could make my computer compatible with 5ghz. I moved the case ( and i think the Dual DVI cable on the graphic card might have pulled just a bit ), and i see a popup on my monitor at the bottom right corner saying " Display Driver has failed but recovered " or something very similar.

Next thing i know, my peripherals dont work anymore. Screen seems frozen ( but i dont know for SURE that it was frozen, might be just my peripherals that stopped working because i can't remember if there was an animated image still moving or not in one of the opened windows.. it's all very blurry at this point )

From what I know and what I can see ( with verifications made later on ), i don't think any updates have been done, and no drivers were updated.

So I hard reset my computer and whadda ya know.. Windows logo shows and right after ( when i'm supposed to get the logon screen ), the monitor just turns black.... So i reset a couple of times, and every time is the exact same problem. The screen just goes black after the boot sequence.

Heres what i tried :

- Tried restoring from a restore point. Didn't work
- Tried in safe mode. Computer boots up and works.
- - Tried uninstalling graphics drivers. OK
- - Tried reinstalling the drivers, but the card was not recognized and the only way to get the drivers for my card is with an auto-detect from AMD. So that didn't work.
- - When reebooting the computer, screen goes black again

- Tried reseating my card. Didn't work
- Tried the second DVI slot on my card. Didn't work
- Tried taking out the card and plugging a second monitor (1080p, because the korean one was not compatible with the iGPU ) to the intergrated gpu. The computer boots up fine.

- I call ASUS customer support. I explain the situation and the guy tells me to RMA my graphics card. Which i do, and I send it away.

Now.. I could've stopped there, but since i JUST got into my 3 weeks vacation from work, and wanted to use a bit of that time to play a few games on the computer, I tried running them with the iGPU. As expected, it ... it was barely acceptable for a low-end graphics game.

I then remembered I had another GPU ( GeForce 9600 GT ) in an older computer I gave to my girlfriend for her work. Knowing it wasnt gonna be much improvement, I still decided to try it out. So i plug it in, connect my 1080p monitor to it... And then that's when I realized that the GPU i sent back for RMA was NOT the problem. Because it did the exact same thing for this GPU.

So i tried reinstalling the drivers for the Gefore ( which this time, the install worked because it's not an autodetect ), but the problem was not solved. Still a black screen. I try to look around in forums some more, and I can't seem to find anything that is like my situation.

I read somewhere that it was recommended to run Chkdsk /f /r or something. When I did that in Safe Mode with networking, it said it couldnt do it right away. So it prompted me to ask if I wanted to schedule it on next startup. To which I said yes.

Good god, I inflicted myself another 5 hours and an overnight of troubleshooting. I was not able to reboot my computer and cancel the chkdsk because it was stuck at 28%. I rebooted, trying to cancel PRIOR the chkdsk started, but as soon as the windows logo came on, it said " you have 0 seconds to press any key to cancel the operation " or something. So i couldnt cancel it in any way. Anyways, after a while I just gave up and went to sleep. When I come back, i could boot up the computer just fine with my monitor plugged in to the intergrated mobo gpu.

I am now here, short of options and solutions, after trying to troubleshoot by myself and with extensive research, asking for your help on how to finally solve this, or at LEAST find the problem so I can possibly RMA if anything is wrong.

Thank you for taking your time to read and I can't wait to hear from someone.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro
From my experience, a black screen (right before entering windows) usually points to a graphics issue. Things to try:

Reset BIOS to defaults
Make sure BIOS graphics is set to use PCI-e (not onboard or integrated)
(The above assumes your monitor is connected to the PCI-e card)
If no good, move the monitor cable to the onboard/integrated graphics port (if available) on the mobo and set BIOS accordingly
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I had a similar problem

Black screen.

It would boot in Safe Mode.

Sorry to say, it took a refresh to fix it.
It took me 6 hours to reinstall lost programs & 55 windows updates. :(
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
@Justatest: I manually set my bios to go to the on-board graphics of the moto to actually be able to use my computer. When bios set to default and on pci express graphics, screen turns black. Monitor is on (not standby) because it detects a source, but there's just nothing coming through

@david bailey : I'm really hoping not to get there :(
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro
So it works with integrated; yes?

Boot into safe mode
Uninstall PCI-e drivers
Move monitor connection back to PCI-e card
Reboot (Win 8 will now try to use default VGA driver)

If OK, PCI-e card is probably OK, try reinstalling the latest drivers
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
One other thought while you're working through my latest recommendations (I hope). Any chance you forgot to make all auxiliary power connections to the PCI-e card (if/as required)?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
How do I uninstall PCI express drivers ?
When I go into Device Manager, under System Devices, i see these 2
PCI standard PCI to PCI bridge
PCI Express Root Complex
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro
One other thought while you're working through my latest recommendations (I hope). Any chance you forgot to make all auxiliary power connections to the PCI-e card (if/as required)?

Uhm... you mean the 6 pin power coming from the power supply ? Yes I had it connected on my Radeon 6950 ( because it was always connected ) and when i tried with the Gefore 9600, at first I did forget, but then after 2 minutes I realized i needed to plug in the power. So yeah
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro
Go to Device Manager> Display Adapters> Uninstall PCI-e graphics entry. If not present, you may have to try and boot into safe mode with PCI-e cable connected. If that doesn't work, the mobo or slot may be damaged (you did say something moved but I'm not going back to read all that again). This is my final suggestion. If it doesn't work, maybe David Bailey can help you do a reinstall but I don't think that is the issue. Right now, the problem has been isolated to the PCI-e slot, chipset, driver or installation issue. Good luck.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Yes i did say that the Dual DVI cable might have pulled just a little bit on the back of the Radeon 6950's slots.

One thing I forgot to mention, is that I don't think it's that particular PCIe slot because on my mobo, I have 2 slots ( one 2.0 and one 3.0 ). My radeon was connected to the 3.0, and now, I tried the Geforce with the 2.0 slot.
I did not try it on the 3.0 slot because since then I had to go buy and install an AC network band card on a PCIe 1x slot, keeping me from using the 3.0 16x PCIe slot because theyre too close to eachother.

Anyways, trying to figure out what you're saying. By "Uninstall PCI-e graphics entry", do you mean the corresponding graphic card connected by PCIe ? Because in Device manager under display adapters, I have the onboard Intel(R) HD graphics 4000, and I have NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT. If you're talking about the latter, i've already proceeded with the uninstall of the drivers and no change was made.

I'll try again, but just to make sure, what do you mean by "boot in safe mode with PCIe cable connected "... PCIe cable ? you mean the graphic card connected ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro
UPDATE

I proceeded with more tests.


I wanted to try to boot windows from another system to this computer to see if it worked. I can confirm that the problem seems to be windows based.


I took my girlfriend's HDD in her computer and added it in my system. I then booted from that HDD, using the monitor on the GPU (geforce) and it worked. I could boot normally into windows. ( peripherals didn't work but who cares, I saw the logon screen ).


From here. Is there anything you can help me with to prevent a full reinstall of windows ? a way to find the corrupted file or to repair whatever needs to be repaired ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro
Double post ** sorry

Have you tried sfc /scannow & Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

In that order.
Rebooting after DISM & running sfc again.

Your problem sounds complex.
These scans may or may not help.
They are worth trying though. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
Hey again, I'm unfamiliar with those commands. I'm guessing I have to use the admin CMD to input these. I've tried sfc /scannow but it immediatly says : Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.

I tried in safe mode, does the same thing.

For Dism, i tried runnig the full command line and it ran until 20%, then it jumped to 100% saying " an illegal character was encountered. For a multi-byte character set this includes a lead byte without a succeeding trail byte. For the unicode character set, this includes the characters 0xffff and 0xfffe .
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro
Hey again, I'm unfamiliar with those commands. I'm guessing I have to use the admin CMD to input these. I've tried sfc /scannow but it immediatly says : Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.

I tried in safe mode, does the same thing.

For Dism, i tried runnig the full command line and it ran until 20%, then it jumped to 100% saying " an illegal character was encountered. For a multi-byte character set this includes a lead byte without a succeeding trail byte. For the unicode character set, this includes the characters 0xffff and 0xfffe .

Yes Administrator command prompt is needed.
Sounds like you entered the commands wrong.

View attachment 25448
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
Using original HD and integrated graphics:

Go to device manager
Select Show Hidden Profiles (View Menu)
Expand Display Adapters
Delete/Uninstall All Profiles that are greyed-out (should be recognizable*)

*If no PCI-e profiles were shown, end procedure

If old PCI-e profies were present and deleted, proceed as follows:
Change BIOS and Graphics Connection back to PCI-e
Reboot and enter Windows using default VGA driver
Update driver
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro Windows 8.1 Preview
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Did not work.

A piece of information that might be relevant ( but apparently isn't the cause after disabling it )

My computer was running in Test Mode to be able to overclock my 1440p monitor. It showed Windows 8 pro Test mode, build 9200 at the bottom right corner of the screen. Like stated in the OP, i OC'ed from 60 to 100hz. I disabled with a command line in CMD :
bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions ENABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING OFF

The Test mode watermark does not appear anymore at the corner of the screen, therefore i dont think it was because of that...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 pro
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