Just a black screen and a cursor after 8.1 update

[Morbeas]

I never hit SHIFT. Just F8.

 

[arion02]

Thank god I found this thread! Having the exact same issue as everyone on the Samsung Series 7 Chronos after Windows 8.1 update and I also cannot boot into safe mode, tried f8, tried shift + f8 but no luck. I just get the samsung logo then a black screen and when I move my trackpad I can see the mouse briefly before it disappears.

Any help would be much appreciated.

As soon as you hit restart, keep the F8 button held down.

I wonder what the right method is then. It did take me many reboots to get to the safe mode menu. I didn't try holding f8 down, but hopefully it works for someone. Seems difficult to get to this menu.

 

[AtroxAmbitus]

For everyone having trouble getting to safe mode, the issue is that it has to be hit before the bio logo. So what i did was i went to the bios menu (f2) which can be hit on the logo. Then exited and there was just enough delay for shift-f8 to work, hope that helps and everyone with a different model pc, id guess the graphics drivers are the issue for you guys too, so the same steps might work.

 

[Peelee]

My wife has the same Samsung Series 7 Chronos, and after following every instruction everyone here has posted, I have yet to make any headway on her laptop.

We are able to enter Safe Mode, and when we disable the AMD graphics card and reboot everything works fine. The problem is as soon as I re-enable the graphics card and reboot, we revert straight back to the black screen. We tried disabling the HD 4000, but again hit a wall with the black screen on reboot. All graphics drivers are now updated, and we can't get any farther than booting in Safe Mode or booting normally but without the graphics card. Is there anything else we can try, short of a complete reinstall of Windows 8?

 

[AtroxAmbitus]

My wife has the same Samsung Series 7 Chronos, and after following every instruction everyone here has posted, I have yet to make any headway on her laptop.

We are able to enter Safe Mode, and when we disable the AMD graphics card and reboot everything works fine. The problem is as soon as I re-enable the graphics card and reboot, we revert straight back to the black screen. We tried disabling the HD 4000, but again hit a wall with the black screen on reboot. All graphics drivers are now updated, and we can't get any farther than booting in Safe Mode or booting normally but without the graphics card. Is there anything else we can try, short of a complete reinstall of Windows 8?

Thats odd. You said you updated the drivers to the beta AMD drivers and updated the intel drivers as well, right? You didnt let the site auto pick them for you did you? Cause i dont think it would auto pick the beta ones.

 

[Peelee]

Thats odd. You said you updated the drivers to the beta AMD drivers and updated the intel drivers as well, right? You didnt let the site auto pick them for you did you? Cause i dont think it would auto pick the beta ones.

No, we made sure to pick the beta drivers. Every thing was looking promising, as we were able to perform every step of the instructions; it just failed to fix the problem in the end.

 

[DArt]

I don't suppose you have are using anything like Lucid Logic or other gpu load balancing software?

 

[Peelee]

I don't suppose you have are using anything like Lucid Logic or other gpu load balancing software?

Definitely not.

 

[thirdeyechai]

Hi all. It took me quite a while and many reboots to get into the rubbish + f8 menu. You literally have to press it as fast as you can while constantly holding the shift key. I think once you see the little spinner under the samsung logo, then it is not going to work. Keep trying. I was thinking the same thing (shift+f8 doesnt work) when I was trying it. It finally worked for me though. I hope it works for you all.

You're a lifesaver! Worked like a charm. For other people having issues getting this to work what I ended up doing was holding down the right shift key with one hand, keeping the other hand poised over the f8 key, then with the same hand holding shift press the power button and instantly start mashing f8 as fast as I could.

 

[BarneyRubble]

I'm having the black screen issues with my Asrock N7AD-SLI board and Nvidia 9800GT card. Windows 8.1 (and 8) forces the latest driver release upon you which causes the conflict.

By using this little application:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/550192/?comment=3974730
I can delete the latest driver 327.23 and hopefully all its registry entries.

Upon re-boot I'm left with Microsoft basic display driver which works but obviously nowhere near as good as the proper drivers.

To boot in safe mode, at the start screen where you type in your password, hold down the shift key and restart from the little icon in the bottom right hand corner.

I still have the black screen problem after installing the latest driver even with the network cable out and installing in safe mode. I'm going to try an earlier version driver to see if that helps.

 

[laloindublin]

Thank you to everyone here - I had the exact same nightmare today, and after calling Samsung (who was useless) I was left to find my own answers. As others have pointed out that updating both the Intel display drivers, and Radeon drivers to 8.1 more or less solves the problem. But - now I have a new one. I can't adjust the brightness???? The function keys display the purple adjust slider, but nothing happens. If I try to use any of the various control panel locations in Windows 8 (including the charm bar) - nothing happens. I can only assume this is driver related, can anyone help please???

 

[laloindublin]

Ok so I figured out what caused my brightness control to disappear, it would seem the latest Intel 4000 drivers (remember this thing has 2 graphics cards - good times huh?) are not compatible with ACPI brightness controls. You do have to update the latest AMD Catalyst drivers, which appear to be the reason why you hit a black / flickering login screen.

I installed the beta driver 13.11
AMD Catalyst? Display Driver

Here's all of the steps for anyone that's reaching the black-screen of death on Chronos 7 Windows 8.1 upgrade:

Restart and HOLD shift-f8 to get into safe mode.. How To Boot Into Safe Mode On Windows 8 (The Easy Way)
Choose Safemode+Network support so you can download the Radeon 13.11 drivers above
Install these while in safe mode, you should be set.
Restart the computer - Windows Login screen should be fine.
Now do a BIOS update if you can - this doesn't seem to work in safemode.

If you've already installed the newest Intel-4000HD drivers, or had to in order to get 8.1 kicking - and want rid of them so brightness controls work this can be done inside "SW Update" from samsung, there's a secret menu of sorts in there:

Lower left corner: "Find Model" - choose NP780 or whatever you have..
click Windows 8
A strange sort of Export tool appears, Uncheck All by using the checkbox at the top
Scroll down and choose "Graphics Driver 64" - this is not AMD driver, don't select that

Next you'll be prompted to save this to your desktop.. the tool will basically download the old HD4000 driver you need. Once on your desktop, browse to the folder and install it. Brightness controls will be restored correctly.

 

[anipilot]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to solving this issue after Win 8.1. I am still having the blurry text issue, having updated the intel HD4000 driver & complete rebooting (shutting down) hasn't helped so far.

 

[arion02]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to solving this issue after Win 8.1. I am still having the blurry text issue, having updated the intel HD4000 driver & complete rebooting (shutting down) hasn't helped so far.

the only thing I didn't mention that I did before I completely shut down the computer (solving my blurry screen) was that I downloaded and re-installed the amd graphics driver again. I'm not sure if that actually did anything but it's worth a shot...

 

[arion02]

Ok so I figured out what caused my brightness control to disappear, it would seem the latest Intel 4000 drivers (remember this thing has 2 graphics cards - good times huh?) are not compatible with ACPI brightness controls. You do have to update the latest AMD Catalyst drivers, which appear to be the reason why you hit a black / flickering login screen.

I installed the beta driver 13.11
AMD Catalyst? Display Driver

Here's all of the steps for anyone that's reaching the black-screen of death on Chronos 7 Windows 8.1 upgrade:

Restart and HOLD shift-f8 to get into safe mode.. How To Boot Into Safe Mode On Windows 8 (The Easy Way)
Choose Safemode+Network support so you can download the Radeon 13.11 drivers above
Install these while in safe mode, you should be set.
Restart the computer - Windows Login screen should be fine.
Now do a BIOS update if you can - this doesn't seem to work in safemode.

If you've already installed the newest Intel-4000HD drivers, or had to in order to get 8.1 kicking - and want rid of them so brightness controls work this can be done inside "SW Update" from samsung, there's a secret menu of sorts in there:

Lower left corner: "Find Model" - choose NP780 or whatever you have..
click Windows 8
A strange sort of Export tool appears, Uncheck All by using the checkbox at the top
Scroll down and choose "Graphics Driver 64" - this is not AMD driver, don't select that

Next you'll be prompted to save this to your desktop.. the tool will basically download the old HD4000 driver you need. Once on your desktop, browse to the folder and install it. Brightness controls will be restored correctly.

I will have to try your steps for getting the brightness control back. I thought maybe I was just unlucky and had some other issue with brightness control. Thanks.

 

[z3120]

Just got done emailing my uncle and this is how we got mine to work.

1. Enter Safe mode with networking
2. Go to AMD website and download the newest beta driver released on 10/10/13.
3. Go to your device manger, disable your AMD graphics card.
4. Restart. It'll load in normally.
5. Run the installer.
6. Restart.

Hopefully that'll work for you too. AMD just apparently hasn't updated their mobile drivers for windows 8.1 yet.

Only thing now is the display is kind of dim. Im trying to figure out how to fix that now though.

Thanks. That help me solved the issue that I have.
To enter the safe mode, that the most difficult part for me.
Keep on pressing F8 and Shift+F8 did not work.

How I managed to go into the safe mode :
1. Whenever the boot screen disappear and screen goes blank (Windows starting), I pressed the power button until computer went off (Forcing Shutdown)
2. Turn on the computer
3. Repeat step 1

after few times, Windows automatically restarted in Advance Startup Option because It detect that something wrong with the Windows because it cannot start up properly.

From there, just select Troubleshoot - Advance Setting - Startup setting, then the computer will be restarted in Safe Mode.

Btw, my computer is Samsung 7 Chronos - NP770Z5E

 

[z3120]

Ok so I figured out what caused my brightness control to disappear, it would seem the latest Intel 4000 drivers (remember this thing has 2 graphics cards - good times huh?) are not compatible with ACPI brightness controls. You do have to update the latest AMD Catalyst drivers, which appear to be the reason why you hit a black / flickering login screen.

I installed the beta driver 13.11
AMD Catalyst? Display Driver

Here's all of the steps for anyone that's reaching the black-screen of death on Chronos 7 Windows 8.1 upgrade:

Restart and HOLD shift-f8 to get into safe mode.. How To Boot Into Safe Mode On Windows 8 (The Easy Way)
Choose Safemode+Network support so you can download the Radeon 13.11 drivers above
Install these while in safe mode, you should be set.
Restart the computer - Windows Login screen should be fine.
Now do a BIOS update if you can - this doesn't seem to work in safemode.

If you've already installed the newest Intel-4000HD drivers, or had to in order to get 8.1 kicking - and want rid of them so brightness controls work this can be done inside "SW Update" from samsung, there's a secret menu of sorts in there:

Lower left corner: "Find Model" - choose NP780 or whatever you have..
click Windows 8
A strange sort of Export tool appears, Uncheck All by using the checkbox at the top
Scroll down and choose "Graphics Driver 64" - this is not AMD driver, don't select that

Next you'll be prompted to save this to your desktop.. the tool will basically download the old HD4000 driver you need. Once on your desktop, browse to the folder and install it. Brightness controls will be restored correctly.

It works

 

[richyg]

Hi all, i'm haing the exact same problems....only problem being that it has been made slightly more spicy in that when i try to install the new catalyst 13.11 drivers i get the error "failed to load detection driver" and the install fails. I tried installing 13.9 and got the same errors? any ideas because at the moment i'm coming up blank! thanks MS.

 

[Morbeas]

Install these while in safe mode, you should be set.

How exactly are you guys installing/uninstalling stuff while in safe mode? It refuses for me, saying something like the installer service blah blah blah.

 

[richyg]

Success! I managed to get it working by downloading and reinstallling the Intel HD4000 drivers as per laloindublin's instructions above BEFORE the catalyst AMD drivers. This then allowed me to reboot in normal mode, and then install the catalyst drivers (had the driver detection error in safe mode).