Solved Installed Windows Updates - now black screen after login?!

Hi all,

I am hoping somebody can help me with this issue as I have never had problems with my Acer Aspire V5-571 laptop before running Windows 8.1 - it has always ran perfectly (if a little noisy with the fan)

Anyway yesterday I saw I had a bunch of Windows Updates to install, probably from Update Tuesday or whatever they call it. They were some Windows security updates and the anti-spyware checker for October, from what I recall. I installed them and restarted my laptop when asked.

The reboot took longer than usual and was sat on the Windows loading screen for a long time. Then the lock screen picture came up and I typed in my password, as usual. After thinking about it for a while, Windows then decides to just show me a black screen - I can control-alt-del to Task Manager, but couldn't see anything untoward happening in there - no excessive CPU usage and also ending Explorer.exe and re-loading it did nothing to fix the issue. I restarted, thinking it was a one-off thing, but it happened again - black screen after my password.

I was able to run Control Panel from Task Manager and uninstall the Windows Updates I had just installed, but this did nothing and *still* I had the black screen. It was then I noticed that if I leave it long enough, Windows does sure enough get to the Desktop, but this is far from ideal as it takes about 10 minutes!

I Googled the issue as I have heard about a black screen after login problem before, but there are so many differing answers, it is hard to know where to start - I have tried SFC /SCANNOW which did nothing, I am now running a Windows Defender scan but it seems to be taking forever. I also first thought, "System restore" - as I was aware that Windows always creates restore points before installing Windows Updates. But on checking in there, for some reason my last restore point was months ago! The laptop does seem to be acting up slightly once it has started and got to the desktop since this issue began - for instance, right now my task bar is at the bottom of the screen but completely blank - nothing on it - no Start button, no running apps and no system tray.

I can't say for definite that it was those Windows Updates that caused this issue, but seems too much to be coincidence. I really don't know where to begin, I am at the end of my tether. What could be causing this previously reliable laptop to start acting up like this??

Thanks for any replies!

same here with the Windows 10 update, same day. Next day, my laptop stalled on black screen instead of loading in a minute, like normal. I had to press power button down until shut down. Start up again, which went fine but slowly. Then Windows Modules Installer worked in background to finish install and I'm back to normal.

System Restore should make one if there has been none created in last 7 days. Be sure you have system restore turned on (see this tutorial - http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4690-restore-point-create-windows-8-a.html ) or make one yourself every so often, quickly and easily, by using Brink's tutorial to add to context menu (Restore Point - Add "Create Restore Point" to Context Menu in Windows - Windows 7 Help Forums ). I create my own every couple days or before any app install. Good Luck resolving.

Thanks for the replies.

My system restore app has definitely always been on in Windows 8.1, as it's one of the first things I make sure I do when I get a new system/installation. But I was shocked to see that it doesn't create a system restore point before installing updates.

Anyway, as a side note, the black screen problem appears to have gone away - in one of those bizarre computer anomalies, it took running a CHKDSK /R /F (which took 8 hours in total, sitting on 11% forever with no useful information appearing) and then the system logged in normally with no black screen. It's odd because checking in Event Viewer shows that CHKDSK didn't really find any problems (apart from cleaning up a couple of index entries)

So I have no idea what made the issue go away but thankfully I am able to log in within a reasonable time again.