Windows 8.1 black/blank screen after log in. No cursor

Hey.
I shut down my computer last night. It runs 8.1 and when I shut it down I do not believe it installed updates. I came home this afternoon and tried to boot it. It boots and after I type in my PIN, shows my desktop for a few seconds. Then, my display will either turn black or a blueish grey. There is no cursor. It does this every reboot now. I can not do anything except reset when it happens.

System info:
Two GTX 760's in SLI
Two Asus monitors

Possible culprits:
1 - I have Actual Multiple Monitors trial installed. The freezing/display blanking seems to happen when the trial time left window shows up, but that may be coincidence.
2 - I heard graphics card driver updates and windows updates can clash in some way and cause a similar issue. From what I've read, a cursor is still on screen and task manager can be opened with CTRL SHIFT ESC. Neither of these work for me.
3- Virus? I have avast so I doubt it.

Anyone got any clue what's wrong and how to fix it?

specs: Intel Core i5-4670K, Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 (2-Way SLI), Corsair 400R - current - lillz's Saved Part List - PCPartPicker

With two large graphics cards, the size of the power supply is very important....what is the model number?

What configuration are you running the dual monitors in. Are they both running from one video card, and which ports?

I have a 750watt PSU, which is plenty for two 760's. I've had them both for awhile now. One monitor is on one card and the other on the other. One is display port and one is DVI.

edit: noticed you asked for model #. It is a Corsair CX750M. You can view my full system at the end of the OP.

You need to start eliminating variables by the process of elimination. Disconnect both cards and monitors, then :

Hook up card A to monitor A. Test. Then Card A to monitor B. Test.

Etc etc.

I know it's the not the cards, I can boot into Ubuntu. It is a definite windows system issue.

edit: also I can stay on the log in screen as long as I want. Only when I actually log in does this happen.

Lillz said:

I know it's the not the cards, I can boot into Ubuntu. It is a definite windows system issue.

Click to expand...

It still could be a driver/resource conflict. Can you boot into safe mode? Try booting into safe mode and disabling one of the cards via device manager - then reboot normally with one card - is it normal? If not, reboot into safe mode, disable that one, reenable the other one, and reboot normally again, if neither work, and safe mode works, it's definitely a driver issue. If one works, but not both, again, it's a driver issue, try rolling back to more stable drivers, or updating, if that's what it needs. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding?

The power supply appears to be large enough and probably has the Rail current needed.

Did you put the monitors on the connections suggested in the Nvidia panel? You could try putting them on the same card but that would depend on the Nvidia panel.

Also, are the monitors matched, or at least using the same resolution? What type of configuration are you running them in, like extended Desktop?

I currently run three monitors on two GTX 680s in SLI which works fine in Spanned or individual displays. But of course, you can't span just two monitors.

@lastof - I'll try safe mode now
@saltgrass - I'm not sure what you mean by the connections suggested. One monitor is 16:10 and the other is 16:9. Like I said, I've had this sli setup for awhile now, so I think it's a driver issue...

Update: safe mode works fine, no crash. Uninstalled Actual Multiple Monitors... is there a way I can check nvidia drivers and windows updates in safe mode? A reboot causes the same blank screen. It was grey this time. I forgot to mention earlier that when I had both monitors on (I turned one off), one screen would be grey and the other black. With one on, it is a grey screen.

Update 2: Disabling one of the gpu's works, but now I can't enter nvidia control panel -- It doesn't think I have a display attached to a nvidia gpu.

update 3: Renenabling the disabled one when in normal mode doesn't result in a crash, but if I reboot it crashes again.

Lillz said:

Update: safe mode works fine, no crash. Uninstalled Actual Multiple Monitors... is there a way I can check nvidia drivers and windows updates in safe mode? A reboot causes the same blank screen. It was grey this time. I forgot to mention earlier that when I had both monitors on (I turned one off), one screen would be grey and the other black. With one on, it is a grey screen.

Update 2: Disabling one of the gpu's works, but now I can't enter nvidia control panel -- It doesn't think I have a display attached to a nvidia gpu.

update 3: Renenabling the disabled one when in normal mode doesn't result in a crash, but if I reboot it crashes again.

Click to expand...

What drivers are you using? Did Win Update install them or Nvidia?

EDIT: The first thing I would do is make sure the cards are working properly with Windows before dealing with the Multiple Monitors app; I didn't realize this was a seperate application until right now - and I suspect this is probably the problem - for now, I would uninstall it, and attempt to get the cards working first. Then go from there.

Device manager says the driver was installed on 7/2/14 (for both) and NVidia installed a driver yesterday (for both, presumably).
edit: Not yesterday, sorry, 7/30/14 is when they were installed

Lillz said:

Device manager says the driver was installed on 7/2/14 (for both) and NVidia installed a driver yesterday (for both, presumably).
edit: Not yesterday, sorry, 7/30/14 is when they were installed

Click to expand...

See my edit - uninstall the multiple monitor app., then deal with the cards issue.

Already uninstalled. I just looked and actually my monitors were hooked into the same gpu.. I swear they were on their own gpu. Plugged both into their own gpu. Rebooted, and now only the monitor for the once disabled gpu went blank. The blank color also is correlated to desktop background. I changed mine to the one very blue desktop image and the freeze color is blue. Any ideas?

Lillz said:

Already uninstalled. I just looked and actually my monitors were hooked into the same gpu.. I swear they were on their own gpu. Plugged both into their own gpu. Rebooted, and now only the monitor for the once disabled gpu went blank. The blank color also is correlated to desktop background. I changed mine to the one very blue desktop image and the freeze color is blue. Any ideas?

Click to expand...

Ok, can you give me a recap?

1. Can you boot into normal mode with one card disabled, the other using Nvidia drivers, or Windows default drivers?

Go to Nvidia and check the latest drivers applicable to your system (am not sure if you need some kind of SLI applicable option?)
Also make sure your motherboard/chipset and BIOS drivers are up to date

Go into the Nvidia control panel, and turn off automatic updates - also make sure the ones you download are compat. with win 8.1 (or whatever you have) - if they are the same as the ones you have installed right now, then go back into the driver in device manager and rollback the driver to the one that microsoft installed (ie 7/2). Actually, you can try two things. You can try the next to last release from Nvidia (ie., whatever was available right before the ones you have), and, if those don't work, you can allow/try windows update to install drivers that might not be totally up-to-date, but should be more likely to work.

The driver package should install and enable both cards. After you've veriified that both are working properly, you can then install the multiple monitor app. Make sure your motherboard/chipset/BIOS drivers are all up to date first.

1 - Yes, if I disable the first listed gtx 760 I can boot into normal mode. Again, though, it's not a boot issue. Only after I login to my account does it crash.
2- It must be the new nvidia drivers. I tried rolling the one card back and the next driver is from 5/6 or something. Still crashes with latest nvidia. I do not know how to roll back nvidia updates, though.

Update and solution: Forgot about msi afterburner. Uninstalled it, rebooted and no crash. It must not like the new nvidia update. Yes, I do have both cards enabled, just to make sure .

Lillz said:

1 - Yes, if I disable the first listed gtx 760 I can boot into normal mode. Again, though, it's not a boot issue. Only after I login to my account does it crash.
2- It must be the new nvidia drivers. I tried rolling the one card back and the next driver is from 5/6 or something. Still crashes with latest nvidia. I do not know how to roll back nvidia updates, though.

Click to expand...

So if you disable one card, and boot into normal mode, as soon as you login, you crash? How did you install the cards/drivers in the first place?

Boot into safe mode and remove the nvidia drivers via control panel, be sure not to keep any .inf files if it asks you.
Reboot into normal mode and windows should attempt to load its own drivers (or update). Does that work?

See update to my last post, it has the solution

Lillz said:

See update to my last post, it has the solution

Click to expand...

Glad you found it. Have fun.