Question Black screen during Windows loading ?

[teoteodore]

After the last minute-long power outage, I had to restart my PC. I have a Dell XPS running Windows10.
The Dell part of the startup ran perfectly, but just when it switched over to the Windows loading process, the screen went black and stayed that way for 15 minutes until I lost patience, and shut down the PC to start again. The same thing again and again.

After more than an hour, I started the PC in Safe Mode. I had disconnected all the USB cables and headsets. In Safe Mode everything was fine. All my programs were open, all the desktop was intact and my internet connection worked. I reconnected my USB and headset with no problems.

Not wanting to stay in Safe Mode forever, I restarted my PC and encountered the same problem. For some reason, during the black screen, I decided to type in my Windows Password sight-unseen. The screen flipped on to the 'pretty picture' and the Windows startup continued. So, what is causing the screen to go black for that interval?

 

[ubuysa]

This is a laptop isn't it? Power outages shouldn't worry a laptop because they have a battery. What are you not telling us here?

In Safe Mode Windows loads a stripped down system with only critical drivers and services loaded, no third-party drivers are loaded either. That it boots OK in Safe Mode does confirm that the problem is unlikely to be hardware related.

The first thing I'd suggest is starting in Safe Mode and then disabling Fast Startup (via power options). With this on, Windows hibernates the kernel and resumes it on cold start. If the hibernate was corrupted then the resume will be too. If you have an SSD as your boot drive you don't need Fast Startup in any case. Shutdown as normal and then try a normal cold boot.

If that doesn't help then try a Clean Boot of Windows. This is subtly different from Safe Mode because it loads the full Windows system, but then doesn't load those services and startup items you have deselected. Try it first with all third-party services and startup items deselected to confirm it will boot OK.

If it does boot then gradually enable services and startup items until you encounter the black screen again.

 

[teoteodore]

This is a laptop isn't it? Power outages shouldn't worry a laptop because they have a battery. What are you not telling us here?

It's a PC: Dell XPS. I don't know what I'm holding back in info.

 

[ubuysa]

I'm missing something here. A laptop has a big battery. If it's was plugged in and the power goes out then the battery powers the laptop. If the battery level gets too low the laptop is shutdown normally.

Can you explain exactly what you were doing when you had this power outage? Was the laptop on mains power? Was the battery inserted? Did the battery have some charge? Did the laptop shutdown by itself, or did it just power off?

Whilst a sudden power loss can be damaging for a desktop (which is why mine is behind a UPS) the battery in a laptop is a built in UPS, so a power outage should not be an issue at all.

 

[teoteodore]

I'm missing something here. A laptop has a big battery. If it's was plugged in and the power goes out then the battery powers the laptop. If the battery level gets too low the laptop is shutdown normally.

Can you explain exactly what you were doing when you had this power outage? Was the laptop on mains power? Was the battery inserted? Did the battery have some charge? Did the laptop shutdown by itself, or did it just power off?

Whilst a sudden power loss can be damaging for a desktop (which is why mine is behind a UPS) the battery in a laptop is a built in UPS, so a power outage should not be an issue at all.

Why do you insist it's a laptop??? I should know what kind of computer I have. It's a Dell XPS TOWER. I was outside planting when the power went out FOR THE WHOLE HOUSE. The computer was probably sleeping; something it likes to do when daddy isn't watching. PS: my problem hasn't recurred --- so I'm happy.