Black screen of death with cursor AFTER login

[liberty610]

Hey guys,

I'm having an odd issue after restoring my SSD with a cloned back up. Here is my setup:

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/BqHhP6

First off, I'm waiting on parts to get my new Threadripper build finished. Because it's so new, and I do production work, I figured cloning my current Windows 10 pro drive was a good idea in case something goes wrong with the Threadripper build. This way, I can go back to my current set up so I'm not without a working system and I wouldn't have to reinstall all my programs and settings.

So, I cloned my c drive to an external USB drive, and ended up having issues booting back into Windows afterwards. Kept getting a blue screen that says my pc needed repaired. My boot drive which is still pretty new is a Samsung Evo pro 950 I believe - M.2 drive. So I was able to restore my system on top that SSD from that cloned back up.

After the restore, evening was fine. I was rendering video, playing games, there was no issues whatsoever. Then I shut down the PC. The next day when I went to boot it, everything is working fine and it loads to the login screen. As soon as I put in my password to load in, it takes quite a while longer to load up, and then I get nothing but a black screen with the cursor. No tasks manager using ctrl/alt/delete or anything.

I have looked all over on the Internet, and have tried to fix this. When I get the black screen, all I can do is move the mouse. I can boot into safe mode just fine, and I've even tried to delete and uninstall my graphics card drivers from inside safe mode l, as it was suggested to me to do before. I do not have any onboard graphics to turn off as that was another suggestion I read about.

Uninstalling the graphics driver in safe mode did not work, but I can log into my wife's account without any issues whatsoever. I even went back and reinstalled the clone drive back to my SSD several times, and I was able to boot up into Windows right afterwards without ANY issues. As soon as I shut down, and try to reboot, I get the black screen with only a mouse cursor. It seems right now the only way to fix it is to keep restoring my C drive from the backed up clone drive. Every single time I do this, everything works flawlessly until my next shutdown. As soon as I shut down and then reboot, I get this issue.

Any thoughts?? I'll stumped...

 

[mcnumpty23]

usually when you get that black screen as long as you have a cursor its doing something in the back ground

might be a large update

how long you leave it at that black screen?

and did you look at the hdd led on the case to see if it was writing a load of stuff to the drive?

 

[ThomasLeong]

I agree with mcnumpty23. You do know that Windows 10 calls home often depending on your privacy settings.

Also, next time you restore and get a bootup with no problem, hit the Windows key, and type Task Scheduler. Windows 10 has an unusual high number of Tasks automatically scheduled vs Windows 7. Check for all Tasks ready to run especially on login of user. Right-click on a Task to disable. Highlight a Task and you can change various parameters of the Task in the lower panel. Hopefully, you will find the culprit.

 

[liberty610]

I've rebooted into the black screen again. The hard drive light blinks a lot at first, then goes into blinking once or twice every 2 to 3 seconds. Been doing it for 15 minuets now, nothing on screen has changed.

I do know Windows 10 'calls home' a lot. But I have Windows 10 pro (creator update was installed with all latest updates) but I turned off a lot of the privacy settings. Prior to doing the clone, I was already updated.

The only thing that's weird that happens when I reinstall the clone is, the clock on the desktop is off, and I get a pop up that says my Windows mail settings need updated, which I don't even use their mail app anyways. And my user account, I removed the online poison a while ago, so it is an offline account now. I have the clock set to automatically adjust for eastern time, but it's always off a good hour or so and I have to fix it. The click on my motherboard bios is correct, so for some reason, the Windows clock is off.

I'm going to try loading the clone again and trying the scheduled rask thing, but I think this is something else that had to do with the clone.

Does cloning Windows from a dynamic drive do anything different? For some reason, my SSD that had Windows on it was a dynamic drive, and I had to go with a different program to make the clone because the bootable acronis true image 2107 I have worldly clone a dynamic drive. I use acronis true image 2107 to load the clone from the external to the ssd, but there was another program I used to make it (can't remember the name right now) and when it was done I had issues losing back into windows.

 

[ThomasLeong]

"The hard drive light blinks a lot at first, then goes into blinking once or twice every 2 to 3 seconds. Been doing it for 15 minutes now, nothing on screen has changed."

'Blinking a lot at first' is normal considering the high numbe of hard-drives you have in your system.
'...goes into blinking once or twice...' means drives are loaded, and so is Windows Explorer and your Desktop. Unfortunately, monitor is black.

Your 1080 must have more than one output. The Desktop is usually on the Primary (Main) monitor, unless otherwise assigned. So:
1. Try another output, one by one give it a few secs to detect. Hopefully Desktop comes up on one of them; or
2. Connect another monitor (making it dual mon), and see if the desktop comes up on the other.

As for cloning, I have not cloned Win10 before. Have done many times with Win 7, usually using the freeware Partition Wizard, and have not had any problems. Then again, all my disks are Basic. However, I doubt if cloning a dynamic disk is any different especially if it is a single disk, and not multiples as in a RAID. You could try converting the Dynamic to Basic, and clone again to another external USB, keeping your current clone as a backup till you sort this out.

Then again, it could be procedure. You said you used another program to make the clone, and use Acronis to re-install the clone onto the M.2. Usually, rather than 're-install the clone', one would clone the clone to the M.2. Which do you mean? If cloning the clone to the M.2, you would have to use that program 'you cannot remember the name of' since you had problems using Acronis to clone in the first place.

Question: Do you disconnect the clone in the external USB drive before you boot up from the M.2?

 

[mcnumpty23]

have cloned windows 10 loads of times

single drives,raid,dynamic

no problems

i use macrium reflect free version

the fact it loads your clone and works ok until the next day

suggests its something thats occurring after your clone is loaded

thats why i suggested its downloaded some sort of update and is trying to apply it

 

[liberty610]

I tried both display port and Hdmi separately, as well as connecting two monitors at once. Nothing pulled it out of the black screen situation. I have projects I have to get to this weekend, so I simply did what I was trying to avoid in the first place with the clone.... a Windows Re-Install.

Thanks for the attempt to help guys. Sometimes the reset switch is the best option I suppose.

 

[mcnumpty23]

sometimes its just the fastest option to do a clean re-install

 

[liberty610]

sometimes its just the fastest option to do a clean re-install

Indeed. Back up and running with almost all my stuff installed.... just to tear this whole thing down again on Monday when the rest of my Threadripper build gets here ha. Life of a tech geek

 

[mcnumpty23]

sometimes its just the fastest option to do a clean re-install

Indeed. Back up and running with almost all my stuff installed.... just to tear this whole thing down again on Monday when the rest of my Threadripper build gets here ha. Life of a tech geek

lol yeah been there done that

enjoy your threadripper its great to see amd back after so many years and putting a bit of hurt on intel

 

[liberty610]

sometimes its just the fastest option to do a clean re-install

Indeed. Back up and running with almost all my stuff installed.... just to tear this whole thing down again on Monday when the rest of my Threadripper build gets here ha. Life of a tech geek

lol yeah been there done that

enjoy your threadripper its great to see amd back after so many years and putting a bit of hurt on intel

I am hoping to enjoy it Monday if all my stuff gets here ha. And it is great to see AMD back at it again, I agree!

 

[mcnumpty23]

sometimes its just the fastest option to do a clean re-install

Indeed. Back up and running with almost all my stuff installed.... just to tear this whole thing down again on Monday when the rest of my Threadripper build gets here ha. Life of a tech geek

lol yeah been there done that

enjoy your threadripper its great to see amd back after so many years and putting a bit of hurt on intel

I am hoping to enjoy it Monday if all my stuff gets here ha. And it is great to see AMD back at it again, I agree!

nothing quite like waiting for the courier to arrive with a lot of new goodies

shame i recently just got a 7700k that threadripper keeps calling my name lol

 

[liberty610]

sometimes its just the fastest option to do a clean re-install

Indeed. Back up and running with almost all my stuff installed.... just to tear this whole thing down again on Monday when the rest of my Threadripper build gets here ha. Life of a tech geek

lol yeah been there done that

enjoy your threadripper its great to see amd back after so many years and putting a bit of hurt on intel

I am hoping to enjoy it Monday if all my stuff gets here ha. And it is great to see AMD back at it again, I agree!

nothing quite like waiting for the courier to arrive with a lot of new goodies

shame i recently just got a 7700k that threadripper keeps calling my name lol

Well... the killer of this situation is, I didn't really have to wait. I had everything I needed yesterday. 3 weeks ago before I even thought about buying threadripper, I decided to order a Corsair h115i AIO cooler for my current Intel 6800k. When i decided on Threadripper, AMD's site said my cooler was fine to use with it, and Threadripper included a bracket for mounting it.

Well, this Corsair unit was my first liquid cooler, so I didn't know much about them. When i got my threadripper board out and installed the CPU, I could not see how my cooler was going to mount to it because it had a bracket on the pump already. I called Corsair and told them what I was doing, and none of them could tell me anything because they had no real details on threadripper yet. What they failed to tell me was, the bracket on the cooler was removable so I could use the included AMD one to mount on threadripper. I didn't know any better, it was my first AOI cooler ha. So I boxed up the cooler, sent it back to Amazon, and ordered an NZXT x62.

2 hours after I shipped the Corsair cooler back, I stumbled upon a blog that was posted RIGHT on Corsair's site about how to use my cooler with Threadripper, and how to remove the installed bracket....

So when I placed the NZXT order, Saturday delivery was an option as long as I ordered it within 50 minuets.Well, idk what happened because I ordered it right away, but it's not coming until Monday now....

Needless to say, the new motherboard and Threadripper parts arfe in the corner of my studio room taunting me ha,

 

[mcnumpty23]

sometimes its just the fastest option to do a clean re-install

Indeed. Back up and running with almost all my stuff installed.... just to tear this whole thing down again on Monday when the rest of my Threadripper build gets here ha. Life of a tech geek

lol yeah been there done that

enjoy your threadripper its great to see amd back after so many years and putting a bit of hurt on intel

I am hoping to enjoy it Monday if all my stuff gets here ha. And it is great to see AMD back at it again, I agree!

nothing quite like waiting for the courier to arrive with a lot of new goodies

shame i recently just got a 7700k that threadripper keeps calling my name lol

Well... the killer of this situation is, I didn't really have to wait. I had everything I needed yesterday. 3 weeks ago before I even thought about buying threadripper, I decided to order a Corsair h115i AIO cooler for my current Intel 6800k. When i decided on Threadripper, AMD's site said my cooler was fine to use with it, and Threadripper included a bracket for mounting it.

Well, this Corsair unit was my first liquid cooler, so I didn't know much about them. When i got my threadripper board out and installed the CPU, I could not see how my cooler was going to mount to it because it had a bracket on the pump already. I called Corsair and told them what I was doing, and none of them could tell me anything because they had no real details on threadripper yet. What they failed to tell me was, the bracket on the cooler was removable so I could use the included AMD one to mount on threadripper. I didn't know any better, it was my first AOI cooler ha. So I boxed up the cooler, sent it back to Amazon, and ordered an NZXT x62.

2 hours after I shipped the Corsair cooler back, I stumbled upon a blog that was posted RIGHT on Corsair's site about how to use my cooler with Threadripper, and how to remove the installed bracket....

So when I placed the NZXT order, Saturday delivery was an option as long as I ordered it within 50 minuets.Well, idk what happened because I ordered it right away, but it's not coming until Monday now....

Needless to say, the new motherboard and Threadripper parts arfe in the corner of my studio room taunting me ha,

nothing worse than being a part short of completing the build and having to wait

only thing with the new bracket for AIO

yes it makes existing ones fit the threadripper socket

but the block is still the same size so wont totally cover a threadripper

how much of an impact that has on cooling though i am not totally sure

and what i also find intriguing is that threadripper is only half filled so to speak

2 of the dies on there are just blank silicon

makes me wonder if a 32 core/64 thread threadripper is a possibilty in the future

 

[liberty610]

sometimes its just the fastest option to do a clean re-install

Indeed. Back up and running with almost all my stuff installed.... just to tear this whole thing down again on Monday when the rest of my Threadripper build gets here ha. Life of a tech geek

lol yeah been there done that

enjoy your threadripper its great to see amd back after so many years and putting a bit of hurt on intel

I am hoping to enjoy it Monday if all my stuff gets here ha. And it is great to see AMD back at it again, I agree!

nothing quite like waiting for the courier to arrive with a lot of new goodies

shame i recently just got a 7700k that threadripper keeps calling my name lol

Well... the killer of this situation is, I didn't really have to wait. I had everything I needed yesterday. 3 weeks ago before I even thought about buying threadripper, I decided to order a Corsair h115i AIO cooler for my current Intel 6800k. When i decided on Threadripper, AMD's site said my cooler was fine to use with it, and Threadripper included a bracket for mounting it.

Well, this Corsair unit was my first liquid cooler, so I didn't know much about them. When i got my threadripper board out and installed the CPU, I could not see how my cooler was going to mount to it because it had a bracket on the pump already. I called Corsair and told them what I was doing, and none of them could tell me anything because they had no real details on threadripper yet. What they failed to tell me was, the bracket on the cooler was removable so I could use the included AMD one to mount on threadripper. I didn't know any better, it was my first AOI cooler ha. So I boxed up the cooler, sent it back to Amazon, and ordered an NZXT x62.

2 hours after I shipped the Corsair cooler back, I stumbled upon a blog that was posted RIGHT on Corsair's site about how to use my cooler with Threadripper, and how to remove the installed bracket....

So when I placed the NZXT order, Saturday delivery was an option as long as I ordered it within 50 minuets.Well, idk what happened because I ordered it right away, but it's not coming until Monday now....

Needless to say, the new motherboard and Threadripper parts arfe in the corner of my studio room taunting me ha,

nothing worse than being a part short of completing the build and having to wait

only thing with the new bracket for AIO

yes it makes existing ones fit the threadripper socket

but the block is still the same size so wont totally cover a threadripper

how much of an impact that has on cooling though i am not totally sure

and what i also find intriguing is that threadripper is only half filled so to speak

2 of the dies on there are just blank silicon

makes me wonder if a 32 core/64 thread threadripper is a possibilty in the future

I wondered the same thing myself, and that was actually brought up a couple times on some of the tech youtube places.I am sure a full TR4 block cooler will be best, and there are some of those coming, but a lot of bench tests popping up online show that the current AIO coolers do a decent job of cooling it. I actually found an entire video about 25 minuets long from Gamer Nexus where the guy Steve who runs the channel made a Plexiglas rendition ordeal and showed different ways to apply paste, and how it might spread ect. Then he he actually applied a cooler and showed how all the paste spread after booting it up. Pretty interesting stuff.