Windows 8.1 Black Screen

[mooman27]

Today my computer crashed and when I tried to restart it I got to the login screen as normal. When I logged in all I see is a black screen and my mouse. I can open the control alt delete screen and open task manager and also got myself into safe mode, which works fine. Does anyone know a solution to this? A clean install is not an option for me.

[Decon]

Today my computer crashed and when I tried to restart it I got to the login screen as normal. When I logged in all I see is a black screen and my mouse. I can open the control alt delete screen and open task manager and also got myself into safe mode, which works fine. Does anyone know a solution to this? A clean install is not an option for me.

Live boot w/linux, copy yo stuff, new install 

[mooman27]

Could I copy my files to a partition on my hard drive( it is 1 tb) an still do a clean install or would I need a big flash drive or second hard drive?

[RossMadness]

When is task manager, does explorer.exe show it's running? 

I've seen an issue with an older version of the Conduit malware that would render explorer.exe unable to open and the results were exactly as you described.

 

If this is the result of Conduit (also called Search Protect) then the simplest way is to load the Malwarebytes install .exe onto a flash drive and use the Task Manager's "Start New Task" option to launch and run MBAM. It finds everything, then restart and it should be good.

Again, this is IF this is the result of Search Protect. Check and see if you see Conduit or Search Protect listed in the running processes list.

[killers993]

Try this. It helped fix my computer when I had this issue. 

 

[mooman27]

When is task manager, does explorer.exe show it's running? 

I've seen an issue with an older version of the Conduit malware that would render explorer.exe unable to open and the results were exactly as you described.

 

If this is the result of Conduit (also called Search Protect) then the simplest way is to load the Malwarebytes install .exe onto a flash drive and use the Task Manager's "Start New Task" option to launch and run MBAM. It finds everything, then restart and it should be good.

Again, this is IF this is the result of Search Protect. Check and see if you see Conduit or Search Protect listed in the running processes list.

Explorer.exe is not running in task manager, but neither is anything suspicious. Is there a way to manually start explorer?

[RossMadness]

Open Task Manager and click File then "New Task". It works the same way as "Run". Type in the file location and name. In this case just type "explorer.exe" and see what happens.

[mooman27]

It opens a new one in task manager but it has no visual effect. It also restarted itself when I

Open Task Manager and click File then "New Task". It works the same way as "Run". Type in the file location and name. In this case just type "explorer.exe" and see what happens.

It opens a new one in task manager but there is still no visual effect.

[RossMadness]

Then try what @killers993 posted. Use the "New Task" option to run SFC /SCANNOW and see if it finds and corrects any files that have errors.

 

Also, just to make sure, I would also do what I mentioned earlier. Download the installer for Malwarebytes, copy the installer onto a flash drive and run it. Maybe it will find a few things.

[mooman27]

There is a task called windows modules installer worker. It is using the most resources out of everything currently running in the backround. I would normally ignore this but when I organize the programs by name it doesn't appear at the bottom wih the rest of the windows tasks. Should I be worried about this?

[RossMadness]

There is a task called windows modules installer worker. It is using the most resources out of everything currently running in the backround. I would normally ignore this but when I organize the programs by name it doesn't appear at the bottom wih the rest of the windows tasks. Should I be worried about this?

 

That could be Windows Updates trying to download and install updates. It could be a lot of things, honestly. Have you tried performing the aforementioned suggestions of SFC and/or Malwarebytes?

[mooman27]

Try this. It helped fix my computer when I had this issue. 

 

This didn't solve the problem, but it helped me remember something. When I try to log in now it asks for my password, not the pin I set p an have been using.

[RossMadness]

This didn't solve the problem, but it helped me remember something. When I try to log in now it asks for my password, not the pin I set p an have been using.

What was the results? Did it say "No issues were found"? Did it say "found some issues but unable to repair"?

[mooman27]

That could be Windows Updates trying to download and install updates. It could be a lot of things, honestly. Have you tried performing the aforementioned suggestions of SFC and/or Malwarebytes?

I am trying to do the malwarebytes scan now, but how can I run the installer and the program without windows explorer.

[mooman27]

What was the results? Did it say "No issues were found"? Did it say "found some issues but unable to repair"?

It said unable to repair. Should I try again but put the windows disk in the drive?

[RossMadness]

I am trying to do the malwarebytes scan now, but how can I run the installer and the program without windows explorer.

You open Task Manager, use the "Start New Task" option, then type in the location. For instance, if your flash drives typically show up in My Computer as drive E:, then it would E:\[name of file] .

 

 

It said unable to repair. Should I try again but put the windows disk in the drive?

Windows 8.1 should have made a recovery partition, so the Windows disk shouldn't be necessary at this time. SFC can return the "Unable to repair" option quite often. It depends on what files it couldn't repair, so we can leave that for now. 

Go ahead and try the Malwarebytes program. If it doesn't find anything, or if it DOES find something but the issue isn't fixed, then there is another scan we can run using CMD that is similar to the SFC scan you did earlier, but I would really like to rule out malware first. Because if it IS malware, then the next file system scan won't help.

[mooman27]

You open Task Manager, use the "Start New Task" option, then type in the location. For instance, if your flash drives typically show up in My Computer as drive E:, then it would E:\[name of file] .

 

 

Windows 8.1 should have made a recovery partition, so the Windows disk shouldn't be necessary at this time. SFC can return the "Unable to repair" option quite often. It depends on what files it couldn't repair, so we can leave that for now. 

Go ahead and try the Malwarebytes program. If it doesn't find anything, or if it DOES find something but the issue isn't fixed, then there is another scan we can run using CMD that is similar to the SFC scan you did earlier, but I would really like to rule out malware first. Because if it IS malware, then the next file system scan won't help.

Would it be at all useful to run a scan in safe mode, or does it have to be in normal mode to be useful?

[RossMadness]

Either one. Whatever is easier for you to navigate. Just make sure it's "Safe Mode w/ networking" so that MBAM can get its latest updates.

[mooman27]

Either one. Whatever is easier for you to navigate. Just make sure it's "Safe Mode w/ networking" so that MBAM can get its latest updates.

It found one thing which did install on its own with something else I got. Once I saw it I uninstalled both the programs, but I must have been to late.I going to do another scan before a restart.

[RossMadness]

That's promising, at least. Do you remember what it was called? 

[mooman27]

That's promising, at least. Do you remember what it was called? 

Something close to Tapika

[mooman27]

Second scan complete, nothing else detected.

[RossMadness]

Awesome. Restart it and see if the black screen is gone.

[RossMadness]

Just in case it didn't work, I'm about to start driving home so I may not see a response for a while (DARN YOU TRAFFIC!) so I'm going to post my next suggestion below. (Although I really hoped MBAM got it to work, but oh well.)

 

Open a new CMD window (either using the Task Manager as before, or using Safe Mode w/ Command Prompt) and type in the following:

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

 

Then post the results here. Hopefully it will find and repair other files.

[mooman27]

 

Just in case it didn't work, I'm about to start driving home so I may not see a response for a while (DARN YOU TRAFFIC!) so I'm going to post my next suggestion below. (Although I really hoped MBAM got it to work, but oh well.)

 

Open a new CMD window (either using the Task Manager as before, or using Safe Mode w/ Command Prompt) and type in the following:

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

 

Then post the results here. Hopefully it will find and repair other files.

 

Black screen still here, but the new scan in cmd has been started.