Computer boots then hangs on black screen with mouse.

[Parsnip]

Hello,
My computer is booting up to a black desktop screen where nothing shows up...it boots fine in safe mode though. Im guessing its some kind of driver issue? Its been working fine until today and then everything slowed and it eventually froze completely. Upon reboot, the black screen appeared.

 

[g-unit1111]

It would help to know what make / model your primary boot drive is - is it an SSD or HD? I used to get this problem a lot on my SSD until I fixed the firmware issues I was having with it.

 

[Parsnip]

2x black caviar 500gb HDDs. SSDs are too expensive atm for my taste XD

 

[g-unit1111]

2x black caviar 500gb HDDs. SSDs are too expensive atm for my taste XD

It's still probably a driver issue - try reinstalling your Windows drivers or updating your firmware from WD's main website. When I got this screen Windows was mainly saying that the primary HD drivers were missing and that's how I was able to fix it.

 

[Parsnip]

How would I go about doing this without reformating?

 

[Skippy27]

First thing I would do is go into safe mode and then run msconfig and disable all Startup items. If that resolves it, start enabling them 2 or 3 at a time until you find the one causing the issue.

If that doesnt fix it, I would then start disabling non-MS services in msconfig 3 at a time until you find the one causing it.

 

[g-unit1111]

How would I go about doing this without reformating?

If you get a firmware update from WD's website it probably comes in .exe form so you can just launch that and it will update everything automatically.

If not - there's two things you can try.

1. Go into Windows Explorer in safe mode.
2. Right click "my computer".
3. Click on "Manage".
4. In disk management mode, right click the primary disk and click on "properties".
5. In the properties dialog click tab "Tools" then "Check drive for errors". That should launch a tool that will find the defective driver and replace it.

Alternately try this:

1. Go into Windows Explorer in safe mode w/ LAN enabled.
2. Right click C drive
3. Select properties
4. Click on "update driver". It should find the driver and reinstall it.

 

[Parsnip]

Working on trying each of those steps...quick update : normalsafemode works fine but networking safemode does not..idk if that narrows down some of the options.

EDIT: good news! Msconfig worked, now i need to figuure out what service is causing the issue. Ill report back if I find it.

 

[Parsnip]

It appears it was a corrupt program or sonething that has been known to do that on occasion with my antivirus. Thanks for your help with msconfig!!!

 

[g-unit1111]

It appears it was a corrupt program or sonething that has been known to do that on occasion with my antivirus. Thanks for your help with msconfig!!!

Yeah some anti virus programs will screw up start-up procedures (Norton is horrible in this area, as is McAfee).