Windows Died

[PattayaParent]

I’m using Windows XP Home Edition on a Dell notebook.

All was fine on shut down in the morning but on booting in the afternoon there’s no desktop, the screen is completely black except for the mouse pointer.

Booting in Safe Mode gives a black screen with Safe Mode in each corner.

Booting to last good configuration gives a black screen too.

I’m sure it’s not the screen as it works fine during the boot process with the Windows start up but it’s only when it should show the desktop that it’s a problem.

The hard disc has been scanned and there’s no virus reported on the drive.

Anyone got any ideas what has happened and how to recover please.

Thanks

[Bartman]

Sound like our Windows installation is corrupt. If you have the original Windows install CD's they you can try "repairing your windows installation", this option should come up if you boot the windows CD.

Failing that, back up all the data/documents on you Hard Drive and reinstall windows again

[Supernova]

This is a tough one.

Just last week, one of my co-workers brought in a machine with the same symptoms you described. I tried everything, but couldn't get it to work -- stuck with a black screen and mouse cursor (no Desktop). We ended up reinstalling from scratch.

How-to repair Windows XP

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

If all else fails, get hold of a bootable LiveCD (BartPE, UBCD4Win, or Ubuntu). << Use it to backup your data then reformat and reinstall.

[PattayaParent]

Thanks guys.

That's basically what my IT guy at work says but I didn't want to try the reformat option until I'd gotten some other ideas.

Windows came facory installed so no original install CD available and the IT guy reckons I won't get a XP Home edition CD anywhere.

[PattayaParent]

Just reading quickly through some of the links from Supernova there's a mention of hardware causes.

How can I check if it's really a hardware issue?

[opalhort]

I have this happening on a PC about once every two months. black screen with movable cursor.

Then I let the PC go through all the loading (from sound response I know WIN XP is loading correctly), once finished I use the power button to do a shut-down then unplug the power cord and leave it alone for an hour.

Then plug in power and boot again and all is back to normal.

No idea what the reason is but it works for me.

In a Notebook try to take the battery out for some time?

opalhort

[chevyinasia]

It's really unlikely to be a hardware issue. The desktop just isn't initializing. Try hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delete to get into the task manager, click "New Task", then type "explorer.exe" -- this program is both the desktop manager with taskbar and icons, as well as the file browser. If the desktop comes up, that may have cleared some crud out of temp files and application data, and fix your problem. If not, a reinstall may be in order.

[opalhort]

When I asked my computershop about it they said it is probably a RAM or motherboard issue since the desktop appears to be there but is hidden behind a black screen. When I move the cursor to where I have short-cut icons it changes to a hand and even CTRL+ALT+DEL appears to pop up but behind a black screen.

Have not yet done anything about it since the workaround I described above is okay for now.

opalhort

[PattayaParent]

Thanks,

I'll try all those suggestions.

Just taken the battery out so I'll see how it goes when I get home, will try a start up with no battery in.

Keep 'em coming.

[Supernova]

Just reading quickly through some of the links from Supernova there's a mention of hardware causes.

How can I check if it's really a hardware issue?

There's a distinct possibility it could be a hardware issue. However, I think it's more like a case of registry corruption or damaged user profile. Your best solution is to reformat and reinstall. If this problem occurs again, then test the hardware for defects.

Memtest86+

Windows Memory Diagnostic

Prime95 CPU stress test 32-bit | 64-bit (Windows)

[PattayaParent]

When I asked my computershop about it they said it is probably a RAM or motherboard issue since the desktop appears to be there but is hidden behind a black screen. When I move the cursor to where I have short-cut icons it changes to a hand and even CTRL+ALT+DEL appears to pop up but behind a black screen.

Have not yet done anything about it since the workaround I described above is okay for now.

opalhort

I've had a similar problem with another notebook (Acer) and it was the backlight that had gone. But once gone it was gone for good and a workaround you describe wouldn't solve it.

I'm still not home to check whether there's anything to be seen behind the blackness so will report back tomorrow.

[PattayaParent]

I found a Dell Diagnostics programme in BIOS and ran it and got the following.

The first test it did was:-

Pre-Boot System Assessment

DST Short Status Test

Error 1000-0146

Unit 0: DST log contains previous error

Error 1000-0141

Message: No hard drive detected

Then there was a diagnostics for checking the whole system or partial testing so I chose the option

Cannot Boot the OS

It passed all the memory testing which had a RAM icon so I’m assuming no problems with the RAM but it performed what looked like a surface scan of the hard drive and came up with

SATA Disc Read Test

Error code 0F00:0244

Message: Block 78713197 uncorrectable data error or media write protected.

SATA Disc Verify Test

Error code 0F00:1A44

Message: Block 78713197 uncorrectable data error or media write protected

It’s all technical stuff that I don’t understand so I’m hoping someone can decipher it for me. Thanks

[Supernova]

Those results do look suspicious and may indicate the presence of bad sectors on the drive.

Get hold of a Windows XP cd, start the Recovery Console.

Type chkdsk /f /r

This will search and try to fix any errors on your hard disk.

[endure]

And if you have a modern hard drive that's showing errors get it replaced asap.

[PattayaParent]

Thanks again Supernova.

At the moment the data is being backed up and I'm in the process of culling all the info from your links to print out and read through to have a go at a fix rather than a full format first.

[TallTravel]

A month ago I had precisely the same thing happen on my HP laptop. The only difference between my symptoms and yours seem to be that mine showed a cursor (movable) on the black screen. Safe mode did precisely the same thing as yours.

I am still fighting with mine. Luckily for me I have a Dell desktop as well, so I can work on the HP Laptop. I decided very early that the only solution is to re install Windows XP. Then, during the re install, the system keeps shutting down in the middle of the reinstall.

I will watch this thread to see if anything might work for me....good luck with yours.

[Gary A]

I know it doesn't help you right now, but I went through several Seagate hard drives since I have been in Thailand. There are a number of free small hard drive monitors available. When the drive shows weak and likely to fail, I buy a new hard drive.

Anyways, I unplug the old hard drive and bag it in the same wrappings that the new hard drive came in and stick it away. I always do a clean install and use my backups to place the data back on the new drive.

In case of any serious problems, I dig out the old hard drive and plug it back in. If it works, I know the hardware is Okay.

I have also gone to a Western Digital main hard drive. It runs about 5 degrees C cooler than the Seagates were running. I particularly like the little program called HDD Health.

[PattayaParent]

A month ago I had precisely the same thing happen on my HP laptop. The only difference between my symptoms and yours seem to be that mine showed a cursor (movable) on the black screen. Safe mode did precisely the same thing as yours.

I am still fighting with mine. Luckily for me I have a Dell desktop as well, so I can work on the HP Laptop. I decided very early that the only solution is to re install Windows XP. Then, during the re install, the system keeps shutting down in the middle of the reinstall.

I will watch this thread to see if anything might work for me....good luck with yours.

I do have a moveable cursor also.

What I found out from Supernova's links.

You can download a programme from Windows to boot from a floppy. I thought this might be a solution as I don't have an original bootable Windows XP disc but do have a 'local' version of XP. However when I dug out all my old floppies they could not be formatted!! Too old I guess.

As I don't have a bootable XP disc then I can't use the repair install option.

DELL apparently has a 'secret' partition on the HDD which you can use to restore the computer to the factory settings. ie. the software as it came out of the box.

As all the data has been backed up and I have a list of the software installed on it then this looks like the only option I have which I'm going to try tonight.

If that fails I'll bring it in to our company IT guy to format and install XP from scratch, and then reinstall all the other software as and when needed.

So fingers crossed for tonight but with my luck with computers I'm sure it won't work.

Oh and another option is to buy a genuine version of XP and try a repair install from that.

[PattayaParent]

Well I got lucky with the computer at last.

I switched on and pressed F8 during the start up process and the options screen appeared with an option

Directory Services Restore Mode (Windows domain controllers only)

So I chose that option and it booted into Safe Mmode WITH a visible desktop (the Safe Mode option itself didn't work) AND gave me the option to restore to a previous retore point.

So I chose a restore point well before the problem started and it rebooted and worked fine. I shut down and rebooted a couple of times just to make sure and it's A.O.K. No reformatting and no loss of data.

So I hope this solution will work for someone else too.

Good luck.

Edit: I still don't know the cause of the problem though.