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[Solved] Windows 8.1 Installation ends in black screen of nothingness

Anonymous
2014-01-15T19:24:51+00:00

I have an HP Envy Touchsmart 14t.

I was on Windows 8.1 for about 3 months and recently my nvidia drivers started acting up. After numerous attempts of fixing it and running numerous tests on the graphics card to ensure it was a software problem, then installing, reinstalling, clean installilng different versions of Nvidia drivers, I gave up and clean installed HP's factory image back to 8.

From 8 I attempted to update to 8.1, updated all my drivers and ran Windows update multiple times, but after Windows 8 reboots to try to install Windows 8.1, I would end up in this black screen with nothing on it. The computer is on because I go through the hp logo and the spinning circles but after that nothing will display. My keyboard lights are on but they don't seem to register either. I can only get anywhere by doing a hard reboot and going into UEFI.

This usually ends up with it going back to Windows 8 and displaying this error:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_install/error-0xc1900101-0x40017-when-installing-windows/8c893ae6-0e9b-4b7d-a647-b9065099efd6

I read through this thread, and while I don't have the most current drivers because I couldn't install them, only the most current one's from HP's website, which are like a months old, I believe I have done the best I can to update to latest drivers. Which is frustrating because I used to be able to use the most current drivers intel and nvidia put out, not the 3 month old ones hp pushes out. But these drivers did say they were compatible with 8.1 so I doubt that they are the issue, although possible.

I have update the BIOS to its most current version and everything else I could possibly suspect a PC having to the most current version of the drivers.

My latest attempt including calling Microsoft Support and having one of their technicians remote control my computer to try to upgrade. She ran a number of fixits and then proceeded to upgrade my computer, resulting of course, in a black screen and a running machine, or so I initially thought. She never called me back to check on the state of my computer, whether or not it proceeded with the upgrade, and worst of all, it happens to have reformated, or repartitioned my hard drive during the upgrade, so it not only corrupted Windows 8, Windows 8.1, but also my recovery partition on the same hard drive!

So now I'm forced to pay $64 to order a usb recovery stick from HP and I have an expensive paperweight sitting on my desk. Even after I get that recovery disk, it will load Windows 8 onto my computer, and I will still have no idea wtf is causing these black screens, how to fix them, and ultimatly, how to get 8.1 back up and running on the computer.

Very annoying two days and the Microsoft support team didn't really help in anyway either. Thanks for ruining my computer, by the way.

STATUS UPDATE:

I have Windows 8 currently running. I did a clean install so no bloatware.

I have tried the clean boot method, doesn't work.

I have tried rolling back display drivers to Basic VGA, did not fix the problem.

I have noticed that my computer never gets past "Getting Devices Ready 49%" and then it reboots. I'd like to know what it was trying to install but I guess there is no way to do that. My next move will be to ditch HP drivers and force install Intel Drivers.

I'll keep you guys posted on how this goes.

Update 2: Didn't work. Still black screened at 49%.....

My mouse and keyboard are freezing, I'll take a look into that, maybe that's the problem.

Just to clarify, I do not have Ralink wifi chips.

Solution:

Follow this word for word. If it doesn't tell you to reboot, don't.

Update all drivers and run windows update at least twice.

Reboot.

Uninstall all video devices. Uninstall and delete driver software. Wait. It should try to reinstall. Uninstall + Delete again. Repeat this until you see no screen flickering and no "display adapter" menu in Device Manager. DO NOT REBOOT IN THIS PROCESS NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES IT TELLS YOU TO.

Run Windows 8.1 Update.

Welcome to 8.1

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Install and upgrade

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2014-01-19T04:38:39+00:00

Was having a similar problem awhile back.

I did not encounter any issues when first time upgrading my laptop, a Sony Vaio SVS 15126PG

running windows 8 pro with switchable nvidia/intel graphics, to 8.1 in November. While

doing a windows update on 25 Dec, got a total black screen and system hang. The update

appears to be an optional one - graphics adapter wddm1.2 graphics adapter wddm1.3 - intel

(r) hd graphics 4000 but not sure it's the cause of the problem. Had to roll back to

windows 8 factory setting as both refresh and system restore didn't work.

Having read through many postings on this site and taking recommended steps such as clean boot,

installing latest drivers etc, and COUNTLESS attempts after, still stuck with a black

screen while 'Getting devices ready x%' during the installation process and then reverting to

8 with several error codes at one time or another e.g. 0xc1900101 0x40019, 0xc1900101

0x4000D, 0xc1900101-0x30018.

I then came across a posting that suggested uninstalling and deleting all graphics drivers

but with NO REBOOT. The steps I took in 2 attempts are listed below.

First attempt (unsuccessful)

-- start by reverting back to windows 8 factory setting

-- done update from vender (sony in my case)

-- done all important updates from windows, leaving out all optional updates

-- uninstalled plus deleted both intel/nvidia graphics drivers but with NO REBOOT

-- downloaded 8.1 installer from window store and started installation process

-- upon restart, it got to 'Getting devices ready x%', failed again and reverted back to 8

Second attempt (successful)

-- uninstalled plus deleted both intel/nvidia graphics drivers but with NO REBOOT

-- started download 8.1 installer from window store and it went straight into installation

-- this time after restart, the installation process went right to the end with 8.1 successfully

installed

The above steps seemed to have fixed the problem for me (still don't know why it took 2

attempts), and I'm not sure it's helpful to anyone but hope Microsoft come up with real

solution soon.

Good luck.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-16T17:38:06+00:00

    The screen is actually black, as the screen seems to not be lit up at all.

    That's unfortunate.  It probably means that the driver is broken at least for that stage of the boot.   Can you boot in VGA mode?   If so, as I hinted in the post I linked to, it is a surprisingly functional option, if it works.

    When this happened during the W8 Preview users were reporting several innovative workarounds even without being able to see anything.  For example, depending on the state of the boot, and what other Human Interface Devices (HID) were working (e.g. mouse and keyboard) some were able to either just plunge ahead imagining what might be there (e.g. inputting their password in the Lock screen) or better find a way to activate Narrator so it could at least give them some hints about what was happening.  Two other intriguing options were installing in a VM and connecting to the problem machine via Remote Desktop.  Unfortunately no details were given about how the latter was accomplished.  

    I'll try to find a reference for the VM solution because it actually involved an early model of HP Envy...

    http://answers.microsoft.com/message/4ae24327-fb11-40da-967b-5fd3001f5855?threadId=c7a2f670-a44c-4c45-b87a-7ebcb9d3eff0 

    FYI

    Robert

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-16T05:58:23+00:00

    The screen is actually black, as the screen seems to not be lit up at all.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-16T05:57:23+00:00

    Blank Screen, no cursor.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-01-16T05:51:27+00:00

    no idea wtf is causing these black screens, how to fix them, and ultimatly, how to get 8.1 back up and running on the computer.

    Please give more details about your symptom.   E.g. is the screen really "black" or just "blank", in particular if there is a text cursor at the top or if the mouse pointer can be seen I would call it "blank", not black, and there may be some workarounds that you could try--which seem to be seen and needed mostly by nVidia users.

    C.f.

    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/b90995f8-55ef-4acb-bf43-d962ba342c1d/black-screen-on-startup?forum=w8itprogeneral#1255235f-3d33-471a-81b7-190e0f406734 

    HTH

    Robert Aldwinckle

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