Windows 8 Black Screen

[G-ALAN]

Around six months ago I bought a new gaming PC from ebay. It is pretty high spec and came with Windows 8 pre installed. It has worked flawlessly, providing me with hours of entertainment until tonight.

Son and I were playing Minecraft on the machine this afternoon and shut it down when we had finished. Upon starting it up this evening it seems to go through all the motions of starting up but I'm then met with nothing but a black screen and mouse pointer where the Windows 8 desktop page should be :{ I've tried re-booting and unplugging etc but nothing seems to work. Does anyone have the faintest clue as to what could be wrong?

[Keef]

The list is long...

Do the boot-up messages appear when it's starting, or is it in "hibernate" mode?

If it's hibernating, it may need some brute force to persuade it to see things your way. I don't use Win 8 (went swiftly back to Win 7), but try the "shock safe mode" - when it's sitting there showing you a mouse pointer and nothing else, pull the power plug out of the mains (don't tell it to close down).

That will make it very cross when it restarts, but with luck it will offer to start in "safe mode".

If it does the normal startup, press F8 many times while it's doing the first part, and it should offer to start in "safe mode".

Do the "Safe mode with minimal set of drivers" thing, whatever it calls that, and see if it works or if it tells you what's wrong.

If you get to a sensible desktop screen, open the control panel, go to "Administrative Tools" then "Event Viewer" then "Custom Views" and "Administrative Events" and see if there is anything there to indicate what's wrong.

If you did the "pull the mains plug" there will be a message about an unexpected shutdown - that's normal.

The error messages will give some idea of what might be wrong.

[lomapaseo]

Have you tried leaving it on for a much longer time. I've done that and it finally booted all the way once it was satisfied it wasn't going to get fed by me or something it used to be hooked up to

[BEagle]

My always-on Win8.1 back-up computer started sulking the other day, slow to open programs or browsers etc. So I clicked 'restart'...

...the 'restarting' symbol stayed there for ages, then a black screen, then finally it restarted and has been much better than it used to be ever since :confused: But the whole restart sequence must have taken 5-10 minutes in total.

The ways of Win8.1 are weird and less-than-wonderful.

Try just booting it and leaving it for a while to sort itself out.

[Blues&twos]

Hi, my daughter had a problem with her Win 8.1 laptop with the exactly same symptoms. Can't boot into safe mode using F8 key as Win 8.1 boots way too fast...lots of stuff on the internet about this particular irritation.

Sorted it (!) by switching Laptop on using power button, then off using power button (before the black screen with mouse pointer appears) several times in a row. May have been a coincidence that after the third on/off cycle, it booted properly into Windows (with a few grumbles/messages as you'd expect). It has been fine since.

Actually got this suggestion from an IT guy at work who said he thought it might be an old wives tale and had never tried it himself.....it sounds a bit fishy, but whatever, the computer is working again!

[G-ALAN]

Thanks for the replies, I've tried all the suggestions above but none seem to work :( I can't even get the blasted thing to start in safe mode. I'm just hoping it is not some malicious add on my Son has downloaded for Minecraft.

Anyway I have a friend who is a bit of a computer whizz so I'll take it over to his place tomorrow to see what he can do with it. If he can't get it resolved then it's back to the shop with it as it's still under guarantee.

[lomapaseo]

Are you sure that the keyboard works and/or that the screen is working.

Can you bypass the bootup sequence and go into setup? if not;

Have you tried hooking another monitor or keyboard to it?

[Blues&twos]

If the mouse pointer is appearing then the monitor is working, I would think. Sounds like it's trying to start Windows but not able to progress beyond the very early stages.

[G-ALAN]

Both the keyboard and screen work. The screen is my TV, I have the computer hooked up via a HDMI cable to my TV. It did occur to me that it could be the screen or keyboard but I hooked the keyboard up to my laptop earlier and connected the laptop screen via the TV using the same HDMI cable and it works fine.

Guessing it must be Windows 8 as the PC turns on just fine and the brand logo appears on screen after start. The windows icon appears with the little round loading circle and then it switches to black screen at the point where the desktop should appear.

[lomapaseo]

I've had almost the identical same proble when using a hookup to a TV monitor. If everything is OK during the boot it progresses nicely. But if any hardware gets changed etc. the computer tries to send a message during the boot but it doesn't end up on a visible screen even though it is awaiting a user keystroke like F1 before finishing the boot.

Unhook it from the TV and use only the single computer monitor and now see if it boots all the way.