8.1, Black screen after login, moveble cursor, no safe mode

Spirax15

Prominent
Mar 18, 2017
2
0
510
Hi all, I have recently been foolish enough to install and use TuneUp Utilities by AVG, in an attempt to 'optimize' my computer and gain disk space. The program recommended I disable certain unnecessary programs that were causing system load, and it said I could save disk space by deleting old system restore points (assuring me that the most recent restore point will NOT be deleted, only older versions)

Well after I had made the recommended changes through the program, I restarted my computer and now whenever I log into windows, my desktop appears for about half a second then goes totally black. My cursor appears and is movable whenever I use the mouse, but disappears again after I stop movement. CTRL+ALT+DEL does not work, I can do nothing to escape the black screen.

I have been trawling through forums and many google searches to find many people with similar, but not identical issues. Most fixes seem to involve booting into safe mode and changing some settings, however the issue persists even in safe mode for me. I am able to access the BIOS and also windows recovery mode without issue, however when I restart in safe mode I get the exact same black screen + moveable cursor.

I decided to just do a system restore, but alas, it turns out the tuneup program DID delete ALL of my restore points, and I am told none are available. I have tried the refresh, repair and restore settings from the windows recovery mode menu and none are available.

I had a feeling it was somehow linked to an AMD (my graphics card manufacturer) program that was disabled by tuneup utilites, although I did use BIOS to force CPU instead of GPU rendering, and connected my monitor to the CPU via a VGA cable instead of the usual HDMI connection that goes directly into the graphics card. Still nothing, I get the same black screen and movable cursor, so I think that rules out the issue being related to only the GPU.

Could anyone shed some light on any fixes worth trying? Or even any ideas as to what may be the cause of the problem?

I think my desktop is loaded and present, as I can see it flash on normally for less than 1 second every time I reboot, but without fail it always gets replaced by a black screen, movable cursor and no inputs seem to respond at all. No CTRL ALT DEL, no safemode, I have tried running sfc and chkdsk commands into the command line, but nothing has worked.

Do I have to take it into a shop? What would they try that I have not? I would prefer to save my data, but at this point I would take anything that just gets me back to a visible desktop!

Thanks in advance,

Dave
 

Spirax15

Prominent
Mar 18, 2017
2
0
510
I ended up downloading a fresh Windows 8.1 installation onto a USB stick using my laptop, I was able then plug this into my problem computer, boot to recovery mode and complete the refresh, which fixed my problem whilst still keeping my files!
A lesson hard learned!