Black screen after signing in (cursor visible) on Windows 10

[SadDuck]

Hello, all. I'm new to this forum/community, but a friend of mine recommended it highly.

 

It seems that I've encountered a problem on my Windows 10 Lenovo laptop. I'm able to sign in, but the desktop will not load. I've tried many methods to fix this... But to no avail. I'm not the tech-iest of people, so I'm a bit clueless as to what I should try.

 

Important notes and peculiarities:

• I've tried taking the battery out, holding the power button for a few seconds, putting the battery back in, and starting again. Sadly, that didn't seem to change anything.
• I am able to run Task Manager. (Through Task Manager, I'm able to run Command Prompt, and then I can run Chrome through there. And that's how I'm posting this. It's a layered process.)
• I can't seem to run Explorer.exe, nor does it appear to be already running.
• I've heard some people say that pressing the Windows key + P can sometimes fix this issue, but it didn't for me.
• I tried updating my NVIDIA driver and restating, then I tried disabling it and restarting, neither worked.
• I tried entering Safe Mode, but it has the same problem! Black screen with only the cursor showing.
• While trying to troubleshoot, I learned that my computer isn't able to go back to a previous version.
• Startup Repair didn't work.
• The Windows 10 Update Troubleshooter didn't seem to work.
• The login page for Windows seems... Zoomed in slightly? Maybe I'm wrong, but all of the text looks slightly larger. And Task Manager looks like it's in a lower resolution... Maybe it's zoomed in. This seems like it's hinting at something, but I don't know what.

I really don't want to have to reinstall Windows. It'd mean I'd lose all of my programs, which already happened to me earlier this year.

 

Thanks for reading. Please, please send any advice you may have.

[Jack Dvorak]

2 minutes ago, SadDuck said:

Hello, all. I'm new to this forum/community, but a friend of mine recommended it highly.

 

It seems that I've encountered a problem on my Windows 10 Lenovo laptop. I'm able to sign in, but the desktop will not load. I've tried many methods to fix this... But to no avail. I'm not the tech-iest of people, so I'm a bit clueless as to what I should try.

 

Important notes and peculiarities:

• I've tried taking the battery out, holding the power button for a few seconds, putting the battery back in, and starting again. Sadly, that didn't seem to change anything.
• I am able to run Task Manager. (Through Task Manager, I'm able to run Command Prompt, and then I can run Chrome through there. And that's how I'm posting this. It's a layered process.)
• I can't seem to run Explorer.exe, nor does it appear to be already running.
• I've heard some people say that pressing the Windows key + P can sometimes fix this issue, but it didn't for me.
• I tried updating my NVIDIA driver and restating, then I tried disabling it and restarting, neither worked.
• I tried entering Safe Mode, but it has the same problem! Black screen with only the cursor showing.
• While trying to troubleshoot, I learned that my computer isn't able to go back to a previous version.
• Startup Repair didn't work.
• The Windows 10 Update Troubleshooter didn't seem to work.
• The login page for Windows seems... Zoomed in slightly? Maybe I'm wrong, but all of the text looks slightly larger. And Task Manager looks like it's in a lower resolution... Maybe it's zoomed in. This seems like it's hinting at something, but I don't know what.

I really don't want to have to reinstall Windows. It'd mean I'd lose all of my programs, which already happened to me earlier this year.

 

Thanks for reading. Please, please send any advice you may have.

Same thing happened to me... but on my old toshiba laptop. It kept occuring a lot, but I do believe it was just that the laptop was slow. Give it time. Plug it in for like a long time and see what happens after a while. Give it more than 15 mins but less than 2 hours.

[SadDuck]

1 minute ago, Jack Dvorak said:

Same thing happened to me... but on my old toshiba laptop. It kept occuring a lot, but I do believe it was just that the laptop was slow. Give it time. Plug it in for like a long time and see what happens after a while. Give it more than 15 mins but less than 2 hours.

I think my computer has been on for a long while now, but nothing seems to be changing.

[Jack Dvorak]

Just now, SadDuck said:

I think my computer has been on for a long while now, but nothing seems to be changing.

I do believe that mine took 5 hours but It was a reallly realllly reallllllly old laptop.

[Jack Dvorak]

1 minute ago, SadDuck said:

I think my computer has been on for a long while now, but nothing seems to be changing.

Let it sit overnight. Come back tmrw, and we will be here.

[SadDuck]

3 minutes ago, Jack Dvorak said:

I do believe that mine took 5 hours but It was a reallly realllly reallllllly old laptop.

My computer is only a few years old.

 

There've been times where my computer has been slow to set up, but this is different. In the past, I've never been able to run programs before the desktop has appeared. I don't think waiting is a viable solution. Sorry.

[homeap5]

If you see black screen - hold power for 5 seconds (instant turnoff without closing system) then turn it on again after 10 seconds. If needed - repeat this.

[SadDuck]

7 hours ago, homeap5 said:

If you see black screen - hold power for 5 seconds (instant turnoff without closing system) then turn it on again after 10 seconds. If needed - repeat this.

I didn't think this would work, but I figured I'd give it a couple shots. Not working for me. 

[homeap5]

2 hours ago, SadDuck said:

I didn't think this would work, but I figured I'd give it a couple shots. Not working for me. 

It's just kind of forcing Windows to repair itself. I had black screen with one of my remote computers I work with (and which was not updated over a year!). After 2 restarts (good that I can restart computer remotely without any GUI) everything was ok. Bad that is not working in your case.

Also - forcing shutdown prevents fast boot from work.