Windows 7 Black Screen when booting up

Question

I am getting the "Black Screen of Death" when booting up, it started a couple of days ago with no change in hardware configuration, no new software was installed, and I don't believe there was a Windows Update. The Black Screen happens after the Windows Logo appears, right before the login screen. I was able to go into Safe Mode and disable the display adapter which then let me restart and boot up normally (no black screen, although the resolution is not good).

After disabling the Display Adapter I booted up normally and then tried System Restore, first going back a few days and then as far as a month.

I also tried uninstalling the Graphics Card Driver and reinstalling with the latest Intel HD Graphics Card driver, and then tried installing the previous Driver to see if that was it.

My computer is an ASUS CG5275-AR003 running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and the graphic card is the Intel HD Graphics Card.

Right now I am able to login normally if I disable the Display Adpater or if I use the 'Standard VGA Display Adapter'.

How can I get my Intel HD Graphics Card to work again? Please help...

Answer 1

Hi,

Why is my screen black when I start Windows 7?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/why-is-my-screen-black-when-i-start-windows-7

References to Vista also apply to Windows 7.

Saving any needed data and re-installing Windows 7 might be the best option though here are a

few others.

You can save your files by putting the drive in another computer or an external drive case and then

backing them up. Do so using several methods in a redundant manner. Of course a real computer

shop or your System maker can help recover the files.

---

Can you access Safe Mode? Repeatedly tap F8 as you boot? If so you can try Control Panel

• Device Manager - Display Adapter - Double Click on - Driver tab - click UPDATE driver -

then Right Click on Device and UNINSTALL - REBOOT.

Another method to try to access the desktop (try in both regular Windows and Safe Mode)

is to CTRL + ALT + DEL and on Process Tab find EXPLORER.exe and END PROCESS on it -

then on Applications Tab - lower right - New Task - type in EXPLORER.exe . Safe Mode is

reached by repeatedly tapping F8 as you boot up.

First check this thread in case its a simple one and if not come back to this thread.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistaprograms/thread/50247d5e-0ae0-446c-a1bd-11287fd1478a

Black screen issues are extremely tough to repair and any fix is usually on a hit or miss

basis. That there is no information on a black screen like there is on a blue screen just

adds to the difficulty. Often using a restore point nor startup repair will have any effect.

You can try a google to see suggested repairs some of which have worked however these

cover a wide field of efforts.

Here is a video of one fix.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=black+screen+of+death+vista&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1

Here is another fix

http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2008/12/the\_mysterious\_black\_screen\_of.php

Do you have a Window 7 Disk? You can try System Restore from it. If you do not have the

disks your system maker will sell them cheap. Or try from Safe Mode if you can get

there.

How to Do a System Restore in Windows 7

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

You can create a Recovery Disk or use someone else's same version (to do the System Restore

it only has to be bootable).

How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html

---

These require the correct Vista Disks since you can't boot to Safe Mode.

Try Startup Repair -

What are the system recovery options in Windows 7?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/What-are-the-system-recovery-options-in-Windows-7

How to Boot to the System Recovery Options in Windows 7

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

Try StartUp Repair from Recovery Options or a Windows 7 boot disk

How to Run a Startup Repair in Windows 7

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

---

Here are Google searches where several have found different solutions :

Vista Black Screen - check this one 1st

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=vista+black+screen&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10

Vista Black Screen Solution

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=vista+black+screen+solution&aq=f&oq=&aqi

Vista Black Screen Fix

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=vista+black+screen+fix&aq=f&oq=&aqi

---

If needed and you can access regular Windows at all.

If nothing works you can do a repair installation.

How to Boot to the System Recovery Options in Windows 7

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

How to Do a Repair Install to Fix Windows 7

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

---

Another method that sometimes works : In the Command Prompt of a Vista boot disk type :

(type one line or copy and paste one line at a time and then hit enter - do not type parenthesis or BOLD)

c:

cd\

cd c:\Windows\System32\winevt        (there is a space between cd and C: )

ren Logs LogsOLD                             (there are spaces between ren and Logs and Logsold) 

REBOOT to Windows

Hope this helps.

---

Rob Brown - MS MVP - Windows Desktop Experience : Bicycle - Mark Twain said it right.

Answer 2

Same problem here.

No changes in the the hardware configuration, no new devices.

It happens after the last windows update: black screen of death after the win 7 boot logo and i'm not able to start in safe mode, because the system freeze.

My PC:

Mobo: Asrock Conroe 1333 e-sata2 (sound card and net adapter onboard)

4 GB Ram ddr2

HD WD Caviar Green 1 Tera

Video Card: ATI HD 3850

SO: Windows 7 Home premium

There other devices (printer, iphone, camera, webcam, etc) but everything worked fine before the latest Win7 update.

My pc is not new and win 7 usually installs the proper driver without any problem from window update service.

Answer 3

Same problem here on 2 Windows 7 64 bit machines, neither have recent hardware changes, one has the latest updates from microsoft and one doesn't. Pretty frustrating after all these years of wasting time trying to fix problems like this with microsoft OSs. I'm am so frustrated that I would like to get my money back for both copies of 7 but I know that isn't going to happen.

Answer 4

I have been extremely busy at work and haven't had much time to try to troubleshoot this, although i did get something to work.

As mentioned before I was able to avoid the black screen only by logging-in in Safe Mode or by logging-in in Normal mode with the Graphics Card disabled (with very low resolution). Up to this point my monitor has always been connected to the graphics card using an HDMI cable.

So, I thought I would try a different approach. My monitor was connected to the graphics card using an HDMI cable. So I disconnected the HDMI cable and tried using a DVI cable. Now that I am using the DVI cable I am able to login with the Intel HD Graphics card enabled and with the latest driver installed for the graphics card. 

Again, not much time to really investigate this, but it seems that maybe there might be a problem with the HDMI port on the graphics card not outputting a signal when the graphics card is enabled?

Answer 5


last night i put my computer into sleep mode and when i got up this morning it went to the safe mode screen and said windows had not shut down properly. so i decided to take the safe route and went into safe mode thinking it would boot up. instead my computer went to this black screen we are all having problems with. i can move the mouse around the screen but nothing else works. i tried restarting normally. ctrl alt del. and f8 none of which did anything. im not really good with computers so i dont have any idea what i should do. my laptop came with windows 7 already installed so i didnt have to upgrade from vista so im not sure what the problem is. if anyone could give me a sort of dummies guide to fix this it would be great. thanks so much :)