Question Can't Boot into windows normally. Have to use safe mode.

[aarono123]

My girlfriend's laptop loads to the window's User Sign in when she puts in her pass, the screen loads to a blank dark screen. It's not entirely black, so it's on. It sounds like an issue with Windows. However, I just don't know. Help?

Update: I think it's a virus, I booted into safe mode and it works perfectly. When signed in normally, the screen is dark and only task manager can pop up. In Safe mode, everything comes up. We try running Win Defender but nothing happens when run any type of scan. Not full, custom, or Win Defender offline. Odd

 

[aarono123]

My girlfriend's laptop loads to the window's User Sign in when she puts in her pass, the screen loads to a blank dark screen. It's not entirely black, so it's on. It sounds like an issue with Windows. However, I just don't know. Help?

Update: I think it's a virus, I booted into safe mode and it works perfectly. When signed in normally, the screen is dark and only task manager can pop up. In Safe mode, everything comes up. We try running Win Defender but nothing happens when try to run any type of scan. Not full, custom, or Win Defender offline. Odd

 

[aarono123]

My girlfriend's laptop loads to the window's User Sign in when she puts in her pass, the screen loads to a blank dark screen. It's not entirely black, so it's on. It sounds like an issue with Windows. However, I just don't know. The task manager is the only thing that can pop up and the mouse. We can boot into safe mode, and everything is working perfectly, but we can't run windows defender scans. Not full, custom, quick, or win defender offline.

 

[cherry blossoms]

Since you have access to task manager and the mouse,
Check this and see what happens:

1. Use the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keyboard shortcut to open Task Manager.
2. Click the Processes tab.
3. Right-click the Windows Explorer service, and select the Restart option

If the above steps didn't work, you can stop and restart the process again using these steps:

1. Use the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keyboard shortcut to open Task Manager.
2. Click the Processes tab.
3. Right-click the Windows Explorer service, and select the End task option (if available).
4. Click the File menu.
5. Select the Run new task option.
6. Type the following command and click the OK button.
   explorer.exe

 

[aarono123]

Since you have access to task manager and the mouse,
Check this and see what happens:

1. Use the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keyboard shortcut to open Task Manager.
2. Click the Processes tab.
3. Right-click the Windows Explorer service, and select the Restart option

If the above steps didn't work, you can stop and restart the process again using these steps:

1. Use the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keyboard shortcut to open Task Manager.
2. Click the Processes tab.
3. Right-click the Windows Explorer service, and select the End task option (if available).
4. Click the File menu.
5. Select the Run new task option.
6. Type the following command and click the OK button.
   explorer.exe

[/QUOTE[/
Funny enough, it works fine when it boots and that sometimes it doesn't. I still want to prevent it, I just don't know what it is.

 

[cherry blossoms]

This behavior can happen for a number of reasons.

Yes, a virus or malware messing with your profile loading is a possible reason, but there are others.
A good virus and malware scan is in order.

Step 1. Backup any important data on the drive. One of the reasons this can happen is problems reading the profile. This can be a software reason, a damaged profile, or a drive starting to fail.

2. Check the S.M.A.R.T. data on the drive for your drive health. This is not 100%, as I have seen completely failed drives with good S.M.A.R.T. data. CrystalDiskInfo is an easy way to look at the data. There are other ways of course.

CrystalDiskInfo

About CrystalDiskInfo A HDD/SSD utility software which supports a part of USB, Intel RAID and NVMe. Aoi Edition Standard Edition Shizuku Edition Kurei Kei Edition Download System Requirements OS Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019/2022 Architecture x86/x64/ARM64...

crystalmark.info

3. If the inability to get to the desktop is very recent, you can try reverting to a restore point before the problem started happening. Backup data before doing so.

4. You can try creating a new profile and seeing if the same behavior happens on that profile.

5. You can try scanning for corrupt system files if you believe that is the problem. Since you can reach the desktop SOMETIMES , this doesn't sound like the problem, but for completeness included here
In Win10/8
Open a cmd prompt with administrator privleges and enter the commands:
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
sfc /scannow

let each command run and finish. This may take awhile

6. You can try a clean boot, and use that to track down what program is causing the issue, if a clean boot fixes the issue. Add programs back one at a time until you find the possible culprit. Test several times to make sure it IS the culprit.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows